On the First Day of Christmas

So are all of you full swing into the season? We are! I am excited today to be able to say that I am finally "feeling it". A lot of that has to do with something that happened last night. Well, first I started cooking for the fellowship we had after the children's program at church last night. It was designated a finger food fellowship and usually those make me happy because I just buy some chips and cookies and viola! Well except for the time I made a key lime pie at another church and totally got in trouble because it was not technically finger food and they wouldn't serve it. But that's a whole other story. :)

Anyway, after doing the post on our Christmas traditions and realizing that I have been pretty terrible in the past about baking and creating favorites for my family to look forward to every year I got motivated. I pulled out my arsenal of cookbooks, dusted them off and set to scavenging for recipes destined to become annual must haves. Yesterday I made a mandarin orange slice cake, Tex Mex dip, tea cookies, chocolate fudge cookies (cookies from scratch y'all!) and my crowning achievement- mushroom puffs. I am in love. I don't know if any of my family members actually ate any of that appetizer last night or if they will like it, but if they don't I will totally make it for myself and I will totally eat every last bite of it by myself! Sauteed mushrooms mixed with green onions and cream cheese spread on crescent rolls. Yum. One day I'm going to make a cook book of all crescent roll recipes. I could live off of them. They are not very Atkins friendly, but thankfully my scale is broken and currently says I weigh 80 pounds. I'm keeping that scale through the holidays. :)

We had lots of fun watching the kids sing Christmas songs in their Christmas pj's. Sooo cute! I must share a step of progress in my silly little life. My kids pajamas didn't match. And they weren't red and green. There, the truth is out. I know, only I would have such weird issues that my children have matching or at least coordinating RED AND GREEN pajamas. What can I say? I'm just weird. But on this last rainy, very cold Saturday and a trip to Wal-Mart for all things baking, I then shuttled around several different stores on a very time and money limited journey for matching pj's. Didn't happen. Just couldn't find any. I got Kate the cutest red footed pj's from Dirt Cheap for $2.00! But, couldn't find any for my big kids. As I got soaking wet running into the last store it occurred to me that perhaps I had a problem. My kids had just gotten 2 new pair of pj's each, but I was out in the rain because those pj's weren't red and green. God had a little intervention with me and I headed home feeling set free and okay with the fact that Eli would be wearing Buzz Lightyear instead of Rudolf. What a relief! :)

Friday night is what really set the tone for getting me in the spirit. At one point we had five kids in this house. I was pretty sure I would be singing Hannah Montana songs in my sleep for a week, but the good news was that the extra kiddos entertained my kiddos and I started wrapping presents. I set up shop in my kitchen on the bar and got to work. Does wrapping presents make anybody else feel like they are going to lose their religion? Well, I like wrapping presents, they just never look as pretty as I envision. On this night I was wrapping presents for my two sisters and their families. They are living in Italy and Georgia and I have really got to get those boxes shipped! I also HAD to wrap my nephew's present before I lost Kate to a fit of hysterics that only a forbidden toy could cause. I did my wrapping and even felt pretty satisfied with my bow making. Then, I realized I did not have any name tags. That was because I wanted some fancy looking tags I had seen but couldn't find. Well, this situation called for some creativity which is always bad when I'm involved. :)

As I was looking at Luke's wrapped present it came to me. I grabbed a catalog laying on the counter and cut out the different letters to spell his name. Looks totally like a ransom note. For some reason I decided it worked. So, I did that for everybody's and had the best time digging through magazines and old cards to find the perfect letters. Holidays making me delirious? Very possible. I showed them to Josh and he did the obligatory nod and smile. Bless his soul. I pitched my name tag solution by assuring him we wouldn't even have to put who it was from because honestly, who else would make name tags that look like ransom notes???? If I do decide to add who it is from I am considering "The Fidler 5", "The Fids", "The Crazy Aunt you will avoid telling people about" or my favorite, "Christmas greeting from your friendly neighborhood serial killer". What do you think? :)

Well, as if all of that baking and wrapping weren't enough to get me going, I have to tell you about something that we started last night. I really debated telling for two reasons. One, I don't want the secret to get out. Can you keep a secret? And two, I DO NOT want you to think that I am trying to brag about anything we are doing. It is just so much fun and it is the thing I am most excited about this year. I am only sharing it in case you might want to do it in the future. I meant to tell you about it early enough that you could do it this year but I just couldn't get it together. Imagine that...

For a few years now Karen has been telling me about this thing her family has done at Christmas called "The 12 Days of Christmas". You choose a family that you want to bless and then for 12 days leading up to Christmas Eve or Day you leave anonymous gifts for that person or family. I've been wanting to do it for a while and would always forget about it until it was too late to start. This year, I just knew I had to do it. We had a lady pull up in our driveway and when I went out to greet her she told me she had lost her dog and was wanting to know if we had seen it. Unfortunately we hadn't, but as we talked she introduced herself and I immediately recognized her name. I had heard her name mentioned in prayer requests and in the news. Just months ago she lost her son in Afghanistan. I can't even imagine how difficult this Christmas will be for her and I just thought maybe it would add a little bit of fun to a Christmas that I'm sure will be very lacking this year. Again, I only share this in case God might lead you to a person or family that you feel would benefit from some extra fun and attention at Christmas.

So, last night was the first night. Since it was the first day you just do one gift. And you just get little $1-$3 stuff. It's more about the thought than how much you spend. I got her a snowman mug, wrapped it and put a note that says, "On the first day of Christmas Santa gave to me, a snowman mug perfect for hot tea." Yes, my poetry book will be available next Spring. :) I also put her name and that it was from Santa so the mailman would not think it was for him. Yes, I know it is illegal to put stuff in people's mailboxes. I'm such a rebel.... Each day you come up with the number of gifts to match that day. I still need to get something for today and tomorrow, but I hit up the dollar rack at Target and got 4 magnetic clips, 5 cookie cutters, 7 santa chocolates, and a pack of 12 ornaments. Stuff like that. Each day you do the poems and then on the last day you do a long poem with your last name hidden in the poem to see if the person can figure it out. I haven't gotten that far, but if you're interested let me know and I will send you what I come up with or send you Karen's that she sent me.

This will probably bless me more than her. It's already made my Christmas. I felt like a teenager last night dropping off the gift. I will probably have to wait until later to go because there were still lights on when I went last night. I was just so tired after my day of church and baking and fellowshipping that I couldn't bear the thought of going back out again. Anyway, I didn't pull up close enough to the mailbox and I had to open the door. I'm sure they probably heard my door slam and me take off like a wild woman. Reminded me so much of nights out vandalizing people's yards and cars. Only with toilet paper of course. Okay, and maybe some shaving cream every now and then. :) I've always stunk at it. Subtle is not my word. Oh well. I can't wait to get the gift today and come up with my cheesy little poem.

I hope you are enjoying the season. And if this is a Christmas that holds more dread and sadness then joy, I pray that God will bless you during this time. And I pray that if I'm part of your holiday you will not live in fear of serial killers or strange noises in the night. It's just me. :)