Merry CHRISTmas!

To one and all, a very Merry Christmas! May the Savior Whose birth we celebrate be honored and glorified in all that we say and do today and every day.

These are a Few of my Favorite Things

Years ago, my parents started a collection of Christmas ornaments for me. Here are some of my favorites, including some of those from all those years ago that my parents gave me.

Along the way, you will see Santa Clauses made of unique items including a corn cob, a lightbulb and an okra pod. That last one is one of my all-time favorites because it came from a teacher that I worked with following a discussion about the fact that I absolutely detest okra. My grandmother was the worst okra cook in the world, and I just hated it. Even though I understand in theory that other people cook it very well, I've never wanted it again.

There are also two ceramic ornaments that I painted myself - the mailbox and another Santa.

Three little elves trying to climb to another limb are favorites as well as the Santa who is jumping for joy (one of those given to me by my parents, the other is the little kitten coming out of the stocking). The little dog was my party favor from my second grade class Christmas party.

There is also a glass nativity that I nearly always put on the tree first.

Enjoy your trip around my Christmas tree.

The Christmas Spirit

A week ago I was struggling mightily with a distinct lack of Christmas spirit. But this week has been much better. Maybe because most of the big "chores" associated with the holidays have been completed. That's a big help.

I also completed all of the pages I had in my power layout. When I have another free day, I'll do another one and that will be enough to finish both of those albums. That's exciting.

My husband's family will be here tomorrow for a Christmas breakfast and gift exchange. There will be moments of enjoyment and moments of stress, but overall, it will be fun.

Meanwhile, the high will be near 80 degrees today, and by Sunday, we'll be back in the 20s.

My husband's company had their Christmas party last night. It was a sedate group, I can assure you. We had a gift exchange with little stealing going on, though I lost my good gift and ended up with a true elephant, but it was still fun. In addition, for the first time ever, the party was held south of Dallas and it took us only 20 minutes or so to get home. Usually, we're looking at 45 minutes or more, so that was wonderful.

Our son arrived home late night before last braving dense fog at the end. Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with him and our daughter. We had lunch at a favorite restaurant, then did a little shopping, indulged in a smoothie treat and headed to a nice health food store for a couple of goodies there. They went out to eat while we were at the party and when we came home, they were watching "Fred Claus" and we sat down and watched the end of the movie with them. It wasn't bad.

And blessing of blessings, I got to sleep late this morning. More cookie baking on the agenda today, and then making a couple of breakfast casseroles to bake in the morning. It will be another good day.

Oh, and today Doug's cousin's son will have surgery on his face following the accident at the beginning of the month. Please pray for him when you think about him.

I hope the Christmas spirit fills you today and it's a great day as you head into the celebration of our Savior's birth.

You Need a Little Dairy in your Life!

I baked three batches of cookies yesterday. Dairy-free margarine makes cookie dough behave badly and so, it was a challenge. Still, I finally succeeded and it was a great feeling of accomplishment. Then I assembled 30 of the pages I had ready in my power layout and just might get the other 60 done today. That's the goal, anyway. Meanwhile, I made eggnog this morning. If you've never had homemade eggnog, you should try this. It takes awhile, but I grab a counter stool and a good book and read while I'm stirring over the stove. With a cup of coffee, too, the time speeds past and isn't the least bit unpleasant. In case you don't have one, here's the recipe:

Eggnog

3 cups mlik
1 cup half & half
2 eggs, separated
About 1/2 cup sugar, divided use
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup whipping cream

In a pot over low to medium heat, combine the milk and half & half and scald. Beat 1/3 cup sugar into egg yolks. Add salt; slowly stir into scalded milk mixture. Cook in double-boiler over hot, not boiling water until mixture coats the spoon (about 30 minutes), stirring constantly. Cool. Add vanilla. Beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually add 3 Tbls. sugar, beating until soft peaks form. Add meringue to custard mixture and mix thoroughly. Chill 3 or 4 hours.

Whip the whipping cream. Fold 1 1/2 tsp. sugar into whipped cream. Stir into the eggnog and serve.

We prefer our eggnog without alcohol, but I'm sure it would work with it. This is lighter than store brands of eggnog and delightful in small servings.

Hints: Scald = mlik is steaming and tiny bubbles gather at the edges of the pot.
It always takes at least 30 minutes for the mixture to coat the back of the spoon, but it is very obvious when it does.
I have a pitcher with a paddle in it and it makes it really easy to give the eggnog a quick "stir" before serving.

What's Going On?

Not much. I hosted my last scrapbooking event this weekend. It was a bittersweet experience marking the end of seven years of being a scrapbooking consultant. We had a good time, but it's time to move on to whatever God has in store for me.

I have only baked a couple of batches of Christmas cookies so far because my son is coming home for Christmas and wants to help with those. However, he is delayed by weather, so I will probably do a batch or two today. I finished cropping 1100 photos for two albums I'm making for my daughter and a friend and laid out 45 pages for each, about half the photos. I hope to put those pages together tomorrow.

It is cold and the roads are icy today. On Sunday, the high was about 65. Yesterday, the high was 30. This is Texas, folks. We don't know what's going on. By the end of the week, we're supposed to be back in the 60s with another arctic blast due in on Sunday when the temperature will drop back to the 30s. My guess is, others are experiencing the same kinds of things, but it isn't fun.

Time to get things rolling in the kitchen. Hope you are staying warm and safe and enjoying the holiday spirit.

Quick Update

The young accident victim is progressing, but he has a very long road ahead of him. My daughter went to the hospital and saw him yesterday. He was awake and told her he had something he'd needed to do at work today and part of what was needed was in his car, so he'd made his father go get it out of the car yesterday so someone else could fill in for him. If you've never had to do that, let me tell you from the standpoint of a parent, it is hard to see the car that your child almost died in.

I continue to be amazed at the blessing that protected him from a head injury in all of this. There is no doubt he has months of physical rehabilitation ahead of him, but we are grateful that he has a clear mind. It could be worse. And we could be attending a funeral today. But by the grace of God, we would be.

So celebrate life today. And as Christmas nears, I encourage you to celebrate the Birth of our Savior. Happy Saturday!

This Week's Event

On Wednesday afternoon, my husband's cousin's 19-year-old son was in an horrific car accident. It seems he may have lost control of his car and he was traveling too fast, according to witnesses and his car hit the median and flipped over the guard wire stretched between the east and westbound sides of the highway. He was ejected, which probably saved his life, but his car went on into oncoming traffic and hit one vehicle head-on and that caused a chain reaction involving another car and a semi. Two drivers were taken to hospitals by ambulance. My husband's cousin's son was taken by helicopter to the main trauma unit in our area in critical condition.

During the night, he had surgery to set his broken arm and broken leg. Yesterday, he was in surgery for about six hours to fuse a crushed vertebra. His face is so swollen and bruised that a complete evaluation cannot be completed yet, but it is the belief of the doctors that he has broken all of his facial bones (there are 12 of those), yet miraculously, it appears he has no head injuries. He was conscious in the helicopter, but has been sedated since then.

Obviously, God has a plan for this young man. We don't know what it is except that the immediate future includes up to six months of rehabilitation. I suppose that will give him a lot of time to contemplate where he is going with his life. He's a nice guy. He's responsible and self-supporting, at least he was. His parents will be moving him back home from his apartment in the next few days because he will not be able to work for such a long time.

Your prayers for this young man and his family are greatly appreciated. God bless you and keep you safe.

Christmas Laughs

Christmas is a beautiful and amazing time of year, but it is easy to be overwhelmed trying to do so many things. So while you are shopping, wrapping, decorating, baking, and all the other things that keep us busy and even frazzled, here's a video just for laughs. A friend of ours did this for my husband and me. Hope you enjoy it.



Many of us have made adjustments this year due to the economic crisis. If you catch yourself feeling badly about that, remember that our Savior was born in the most meager of circumstances because the town of Bethlehem was overrun with tourists and even though I'm sure Joseph had the money with him to pay for a room there, none were available. Still, that was the greatest gift of all. It's not about money. It's about heart. So let your heart be light. Bake a batch of cookies for a friend instead of spending a lot more money on a gift and give those with heart. Your friend will appreciate it, and we'll be closer than ever to the Spirit that IS Christmas.

What a Week!

We had a good time in Branson visiting with our son and other friends there. We went to Silver Dollar City on Wednesday and enjoyed rides and shows and a magnificent train ride just as it got dark. All-in-all, a perfect kind of day.





We were a little mean to the shyest person in our group - introducing him to a ride operator and telling her it was his birthday (it wasn't). But he was a good sport about it.





My son had to work on Thanksgiving Day, but dinner was ready after he got off and it was good. We relaxed for a little while and then headed to the Haygoods show. A bunch of us met up before the show:



The show was fun and the Christmas section my favorite of all I've seen in person and on videos.



We saw The Hughes Brothers on Friday. They were excellent also and seeing all of their kids on stage was fun. That's one big family. I lost my cell phone while there, but my hubby went back and it was still in the seat. I'm blessed to still have a phone!!

We went to a friend's house that evening. We did a live "radio broadcast" but didn't record it because though we had a lot of fun, it wasn't very professional. Ha! But we had a good time. Good food, amazing dart game, and lots of laughs.

We took my son's car to have some work done on it for him on Saturday while our daughter hung out with a friend. That evening, the kids and I joined some of our friends for a Pierce Arrow concert. It was good. We got home and my son played with my husband's new Nintendo DS for a little while. We got our packing done and got ready for the trip home.

It was snowing in a wonderful way when we left. No sheet of ice under the snow. Wow! That was fun. The trip was slow and tedious at times due to traffic tie-ups, but we made it safely. Back to the grind today for all of us, but we had a great time