Christmas Baking

Today I decided to start some Christmas baking. I have waited as long as possible because seeing I am coming home to Spooner for Christmas, I will be bring my kids favorite Christmas cookies with me. And if I started too early I would be too tempted to snitch so it was for my own good that I put it off as long as possible.

Here is one of my kids all time favorite. I got this recipe when my daughter Alyssa was in pre-school (she is now 20). Everyone had to bring in their favorite recipe that year and the teacher put together a holiday favorites baking book for us all (I still have the cute little book). This was one of the recipes someone submitted. I whipped some up that year and they were an immediate hit with my whole family!!! They have been a Christmas tradition every since.


Krispy Krunch:

1 12 oz bag of butterscotch chips
6 Tablespoons of peanut butter (you can use crunchy peanut butter if you want nuts in them)
6 cups of cornflakes cereal

Melt butterscotch chips and peanut butter together
add to the mixture 6 cups of cornflakes, stir until cornflakes are coated but not crushed

Pour onto wax paper or tinfoil and let them set up in a cool place
after they are set up, break them into bite size piece and ENJOY

Another one of our Christmas traditions are Russian Tea Cakes. This is Nanna's recipe and every time I make them I think of her. She was a wonderful woman who we all LOVE with all our hearts....we miss you Nanna!!!!!

Russian Tea Cakes:

Cream together
1 cup butter
4 Tablespoons powdered sugar

Add to creamed mixture
2 cups flour plus 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon ice water
2 cups pecans
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Roll dough into bite size balls, arrange on a cookie sheet
bake at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes

roll balls in powdered sugar immediately after taking them out of the oven

I took a few pictures of some of my favorite Christmas ornaments. They are all pictures ornaments of when my kids were in school. Every year while they were in grade school, they would make ornaments for me for Christmas. I loved them then and every year when I bring them out it brings back wonderful memories of yesteryears.

My Son Kasey Margraf Kronlund , who is now 29 years old

My son Kasey and my daughter Kara

My daughter Kara Sheilda Kronlund Britenfeld, who is now 25 years old

My daughter Alyssa Rhonda Kronlund, who is now 20 years old

My 3 blessings all grown up

Thank you Jesus for my beautiful children. They have given me so much joy and I will forever be thankful that you allowed me to be their mom. In Jesus name I pray.....Amem

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and build lots of memories together with your family. One thing I have learned that life is always changing, you just have to go with it and enjoy the jorney. Love you, Rhonda

A Christmas Tradition...The Ladies Tea at Church

I was blessed to be able to go home to Spooner for a couple days this week and I enjoyed it so much. Every year at our church, we have a ladies Christmas tea. I have traditionally went for many years and enjoy it every time. It is a beautiful time to reflect and remember in a quite and festive atmosphere the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This year my daughter Kara, her best friend from high school Leah, her mom (who is my best friend) Rox and I all went together. It was a night of treats, fellowship and testimonies. We have so much to thank God for this Chirstmas season. God BLESSED us all by sparing Leah's life.

Leah was in terrible car accident a couple of months ago and it was touch and go for a couple weeks. She was in a coma and they didn't know if she would make it and if she did pull through if she would have permenant brain damage. But GOD, in HIS mercy protected her!!!!! And she is recovering day by day. Leah has an awesome gift of drawing people in. You can talk to her for a minute and before you know it, she makes you feel loved and special. I KNOW with out a doubt that God has an awesome PLAN for Leah's life.

Leah and Kara....friends forever

Sarah, Leah, and Kara

Rox and I

Shirley and I....Shirley is a special soul that is so innocent and precious. She is always happy and gets excited about everything.

I enjoyed spending time with Kara and seeing all my friends and family. I am looking forward to coming home again for Christmas next week!!!!!

Merry Christmas and God Bless, Rhonda

Merry Christmas From Our House to Yours

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

My Mom, my 2 daughters, my husband and I wish you all a Blessed Christmas, just click on the play button and enjoy our little Christmas dance...God Bless.....Rhonda

Whatcha Workin on Wednesday

Whatcha working on Wednesday.....Well, when I first tried to think about what I was working on, I didn't think I had much to report on, but as I starting really looking at all the irons I have in the fire, I was pretty shocked and surprised at all the projects I have going on.

I sold out of these skating mice at the craft show a couple weekends ago, so I took a few special orders for them. So here they are "the skating mice" work in progress. If you would like to see what the mice look like finished, there are pictures of them finished on my past posts.

I also took orders for 2 of these prairie stitch dresses also, I finished them up today

"Mirror Mirror on the wall, I'm my Mother after all"......I love this saying because it is so truth!!!!!! Sometimes I can't believe how much I am turning into my Mother. Even the stuff she does that bugs me I find myself doing...WHAT'S UP WITH THAT!!!!!!! All kidding aside, I love my Mom with all my heart, she is a wonderful woman and I am proud to be turning into her gracefully :)

This prairie dress is going on ebay tomorrow. I have a few more dresses started so I hope to get them finished and on ebay too. My sellers name is goingretta if anyone is interested.

This is also soooooooooo true!!!!! what would we do without our family

I made this stitch pic a few months ago, it is one of my absolute favorites!!!!! I thought I better get it framed so I can add it to my Christmas decos this year. I found this vintage frame at an antique sale this past summer...I love it!!!!

GOD WITH US, how amazing!!!!! When you think about Jesus coming to earth as a baby and living among us as a human (yet still being God) and then while he hung on the cross, he could have called 10 thousand angels to set himself free from the cross but instead, he chose to stay on the cross to save US and set US free from OUR sins INSTEAD, WOW...that is truly an AMAZING LOVE!!!! Thank you Jesus!!!!!!!

Here are some Christmas stockings I made using vintage linens

All different sizes of stockings~~work in progress

I was also trying to get the Christmas tree up today but found that the lights didn't work so that meant that I had to run in town. So off I went to buy the new lights but....... I am going to finish decorating the tree tomorrow. I will post pictures of the tree then so..................stay tuned.

That's about it for today. I hope you all had a BLESSED and productive day!!!!!

God BLESS you all.......Rhonda

A Prayer for America

• 2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV

  If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

I read one of my favorite blogs the other day and she had this prayer by Billy Graham posted. It was read by his daughter on the CBS Morning Show on Thanksgiving Day this year.

The Prayer:

“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.Search us, oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen.

This prayers gets to the heart of the lie our society has bought into. Satan has tried to numb us to God's Truth, he has twisted and spun things so far and so sneakily that we find ourselves wondering how it happened. Let's become prayer warriors and stand in the gap for this country and our society. I believe that God has not fallen off his thrown....He is STILL in control and HIS WILL will be done.

God's Blessing to you all......Rhonda

Whatcha Workin on Wednesday

Today is the day to try and catch up on all my housework that has been piling up while I have been busy working on my primitives for the craft shows. I really don't mind cleaning house.....I love it when my house is clean and organized. I am also hoping either today or tomorrow to get some of my primitives listed on ebay. So if anyone is interested in my door dolls or any of my primitive items, my sellers name is goingretta. You can look at past posts from the craft shows to see pictures, I will be listing a variety of these items.

I have been on a cooking frenzie lately which my husband has enjoyed. But if I keep it up by the holidays, I am going to be a two-ton-Tessie. I have been watching The Food Network lately and been getting inspired. My husband and I are going to cook together Saturday night, we would much rather cook together at home then go out for dinner. I enjoy being in the kitchen with him, he is such a good helper. We are going to make Shrimp Scampi with Linguini. Here the link to the recipe if any of you wound like to try it, it's delicious. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/shrimp-scampi-with-linguini-recipe2/index.html So we have a date Saturday night and I am looking forward to it.


Thinking about cooking together reminds me of our beautiful kitchen we had. Brent and I had so much fun cooking together and spending time together there. We sold our house this past April and moved here to Rapids. We miss our beautiful house but someday we will build again. Brent likes his job here in Wisconsin Rapids as a Cranberry Marsh Manager, he loves growing cranberries and is good at it. So one step at a time, in God's time we will have that beautiful kitchen again.

Here is a picture of the living room just off the kitchen...as you can tell I am kinda missing my house today. I will get over it, it's just a stage and with the holidays coming it makes me a bit homesick.

Here's our tree from last year at the house...I LOVE a big tree.

Brent, I and our grandson Noah

I will leave you with a few Goodwill and Thrift store treasures I found yesterday.

I am wanting to try some new jello salad mold recipes this Christmas so I found 2 different size molds for 25 cent's each at the Thrift Store..I was thrilled. I found this white metal towel rack shelf for the bathroom at the Goodwill for $3.99 (a hanging project for Brent this Saturday). And I LOVE hobnail Fenton milk glass. I found this beauty at the Thrift Store for $5.99. Brent thinks the hobnail is ugly but he appreciates that I like it and just laughs. And then I found this little Christmas tree candle holder for $1.99. Seeing that most of my Christmas decos are in storage, I am trying to get a few inexpensive items to put around the house this year.


One of my first Christmas decorations for the year, I love poinsettias. I am hoping to get the tree up this week along with some other festive decos.

Have a GREAT and PRODUCTIVE day..... God Bless you all.....Rhonda

Blessed and Thankful

Thanksgiving Dinner

Brent and I had a wonderful weekend in Spooner. It was so nice to spend time with family and friends. Travis and Kara made us a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. It was their first time cooking a turkey so I had to get a picture. It is so nice when your kids can make you Thanksgiving dinner....life is good :)

Kara and Trav with their first Thanksgiving turkey

Kara and Trav's first Thanksgiving table

My husband Brent relaxing before dinner

Kara and Travis are such great hosts to us when we come home to Spooner. They are such a cute couple and make a great team together. I am so proud of them both and am so thankful that Kara found such an awesome husband.

Early Christmas

We had an early Christmas with Noah and Carson. they are getting so big and are very busy boys. They are such blessings in my life.

Our 2 grandsons....Noah and Carson opening gifts....I love their cute little chubby hands...they are so precious

Kara and Travis

My 3 kids...Kara, Alyssa, and Kasey...I am a BLESSED Mom

Craft Show

We had another successful craft show on Saturday. It was so nice to see everyone and spend time with my sister. We are looking forward to next year already, it's a lot of work but so worth it.

My sister and I ready for business

Our booth at the Methodist Church Craft Sale

My sister and Alyssa. Alyssa stopped by to see us, she is a very busy girl always on the move, she doesn't ever want to miss a thing!!!!!!

It seemed like the 4 days we were home flew by. I always enjoy coming home to Spooner and seeing familiar faces and sites.

I love and miss you all.....have a BLESSED day!!!! Rhonda