The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas: Day Nineteen

Hand Made

First, I need to make an addendum to Day Seventeen:  we finally got a tree!  This was a few days later than usual, but since our tree stays up until January 6th (twelfth night or Epiphany), and since we use a live tree (although that may change after this year!), I don't like to get them too early.  

On to Day Nineteen..

Day Nineteen was baking day.  I made English Muffins and Amish Friendship Bread for gifts.

English Muffins rising...

 

When you triple the recipe you have to make it in the big stock pot!

But it makes this plus another six pans.

While I was cooking, this was going on behind the couch!  Marvelous Mark was getting the tree all lit up for us.  

Sometimes when he gets pre-occupied with doing Christmas tree lights, I have to remind him of this:

Marvelous Mark loves to put on a "humbug show", but I know it is just show!

So now we are lit, and some of the gifts are finished.  What's next?!

The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas: Day Eighteen

The Fourth Sunday In Advent

Okay, yes, it is getting away from me a little bit!  Is it really just one more week until Christmas?!

What a blessing to have a day of rest each week.  When I remember to take time to rest.  When I don't, I wake up on Monday morning and wonder what in the world is my problem that I did not take time to rest on Sunday?!  

We had an especially good Sunday this week.  A restful, quiet morning and time to spend mentally and spiritually getting ready for the coming week.  I'm still working through the Bible to find those names and titles.  We got to spend the afternoon with my sister and her children and grandchildren.  The grandchildren told me all about the wedding they had been in the day before and all the things they had been doing since Day Nine.  It was fun to light the advent candles with our extended family.

We finished the day with our regular worship at The Church at Brook Hills.  We are so thankful to have this family to worship with and this pastor to lead us in worship.   Once again, we are working through the Gospel of Matthew and the sermons are available here.

It's getting closer!  Are you ready?

The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas: Day Seventeen

More Music, Please!

Day Seventeen was a great day!  I was invited to a recital that a friend of mine was performing in.  This was my friend who went with me to the Nutcracker; she is a VERY talented young lady.  She performed Silent Night and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on the piano (first portion of the first movement).  It was so much fun to get to be there with her for this.  All the students were decked out in their Christmas finery and lots of carols were played.  Kudos to Scrollworks!  

The rest of the day was devoted to shopping.  That may seem like an excessive amount of time, but it takes me hours to prepare and shop!  You see, I have started.....couponing.  Yup, that's me.  The lady you hate to see in the line in front of you?  Sigh.  

I got most of my Christmas groceries taken care of.  Now I just have to get the cooking done.  Our Christmas Dinner menu will be Standing Rib Roast, Yorkshire Pudding, and assorted vegetables.

What are your family traditions for Christmas dinner?

The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas: Day Sixteen

Party!

Day Sixteen brought an unexpected party.  It seems I am now a full-fledged volunteer with our local library!  This library is wonderful; it has all the benefits of a small-town library with all the advantages of being connected to the larger county system.  I will write more about that another time but for now, let's focus on the Christmas party  inventory time.  

I had not expected an invitation to this gathering; I didn't even know it was happening until the day before.  My favorite librarian called me Thursday afternoon and asked if I couldn't come and celebrate inventory with them.  So Friday morning I got up, baked a pan of brownies, and off I went.  We had a wonderful lunch, got acquainted with some terrific people who love to read almost as much as I do, had a little sing-along, and heard the annual poem written by the children's librarian.  Small towns are nice, aren't they?  Two of the volunteers are local pastors and no one was uncomfortable with the prayers that were offered during our time together.  I had some great conversations with a couple of the volunteers about why we celebrate Christmas.  

I suppose that after the first of the year I am going to have to be a little busier at the library!

And yes, there WAS some inventory work done.  Some.  ;>

The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas: Day Fifteen

Errands and Questions

Day Fifteen brought a need to run errands.  I had several places to go that day; the cleaners, the library, the garden center (a small independent business, not the big mega-center you might be thinking of).  It was interesting that after spending day Thirteen thinking about budget and shopping, on day Fifteen the question I was asked each place I went was the inevitable, "Are you done with your shopping yet?  Are you ready for Christmas?".  

I had the opportunity, each time this question was asked, to talk about how I am preparing for the coming celebration of the birth of Jesus, and His pending return to take His people home.  This looked a little different with each conversation.  God was faithful to give me the words I needed for each conversation.  

I also had time that day to sit down and make "THE LIST"!  I'm an incurable list-maker and flounder when I don't have one.  That afternoon I took some time to sit and think about the folks I know and love, and start planning some gifts of love to share with them.

Remember the gift of Love that we have all received.  Remember in the busy-ness of the next week to take time to share what you have been given.  Remember that God put people in your path on purpose; He has given you something that can help them!  Take time to demonstrate your concern for the people who are trying so desperately to fill the hole in their heart.  Demonstrate your love for your fellow-believers who are struggling in their jobs at the store and have to deal with unpleasant people every day.  Have compassion for the people around you.  Remember that you often have the biggest influence on the people whom you don't even realize are watching you!

The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas: Day Fourteen

Ballet and a Movie

Day Fourteen was a very big and wonderful day.  Being the mother of a son I never had a girl to do the "girly" stuff with.  I love the ballet and decided that since I was deprived of ballet lessons myself, I would let my daughter dance for me.  Oh well!  This year I found a good friend who agreed that she would love to go with me to see the Nutcracker as long as we could take her mother and grandmother with us.  I was able to get tickets for the four of us at the school rate to the school matinee for the performance by the Alabama Ballet Company.  These folks are amazing!  The dancing, the choreography, the sets, the costumes, the theater (Samford University's Wright Center); everything was better than I had hoped for.  I found out after the fact that there are about nine different troupes in our area who perform this each year.  Alabama Ballet is the more "professional" company and they live up to this reputation.  My friend, her mother and grandmother all seemed to have a wonderful time.  I know I did!  The audience ranged from kindergarten children to a lovely lady sitting behind us who is almost 90!

That evening my sister and I finally got to go to the Alabama Theater for one of their Christmas movies.  We have been trying to do this since Christmas 2008 and each year something else happened to keep us from going.  She was very wise this year; she did not give me a ton of notice so we just did it on the spur of the moment (for me that means only 3 days notice ;>).  I had never seen the Alabama Theater before.  Oh my!!  What a gorgeous, intriguing place.  I would love to have a day (a week, perhaps?) to explore all the nooks and crannies there!  In case you are not from this area, they have one of the few remaining Wurlitzer Movie Organs left in the world.  It has a jack and comes up out of the orchestra pit when it is being played and is lowered back out of the way during the show.  There is a lot of wonderful history associated with the theater and the organ.  

So Day Fourteen was all about new traditions and making memories!

The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas: Day Thirteen

Catching Up: Budgeting and Shopping

Let's get a little caught up here, since I am a little behind!

Day thirteen.  By this point I had heard "How is your Christmas shopping going?" so many times that I was beginning to become a little intimidated and second-guess my determination to make this a (mostly) home-made Christmas.  So I sat down and did some budget work.  Hmm.  Not a ton of extra cash to throw around this year.  So the next step was to talk to my local ebay guru and learn the basics of how to do some ebay selling.  These wound up a bit better than I had hoped.  Now what to do?

Stay tuned for: list-making (the phrase that makes the gentlemen in my home cower in fear!)

The other part of Day Thirteen was to permit Mr. Marvelous to go into the spare refrigerator and get the first fruitcake that I had made a couple of weeks ago and have his first slice.  No fruitcake jokes please; I know them all (I even wrote some of them!)  But really, MY fruitcakes are better than most.  In spite of what my niece Anne would tell you.  Really.

Here's my funny fruitcake story.  My mother in law had a looooong tradition of making these for her family every year.  Soon after I joined the family my father in law was diagnosed with Type II diabetes.  Now with two diabetics in the family, my poor mother in law HAD to find a recipe that diabetics could eat.  So she did.  It was OK, but the normal kind was better (and please keep your, "That's-not-saying-much" comments to yourselves!).  Several years after she died, my husband started mentioning that he really missed his Christmas fruitcake.  So I began my search.  I had a lot of her old recipes and I looked through those, but the only thing I could find was the "Light Fruitcake" recipe.  Assuming this was the one she had made for the family diabetics, I kept searching, and kept coming up with nothing.  Finally, a couple of years after beginning this "fruitless" search, I looked at the "Light" Fruitcake recipe again and suddenly realized that it was not "Lite" fruitcake (calorie-wise) but "Light" Fruitcake, as opposed to "Dark" Fruitcake.  Duh!  I have successfully made this every year since, and Mr. Marvelous is happy.  If you are interested let me know and I will be happy to post the recipe.

The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas: Day Twelve

Getting Crafty

We live on a 3.5 acre wooded lot.  I think I have mentioned this before.

  

This fall we discovered that the woods are full of wild grape vines.  In September/October this was great, because it meant having a pint or so of scuppernongs, even though our vines were not mature!

But now that it is December, I have suddenly discovered a whole 'nother use for these fast-growing vines: WREATHS!!

First I went out and collected grape vines.  Not as easy as you might think if you have only done this at Michael's, JoAnne's, or Hobby Lobby.  Grape vines are tough.  Grape vines are strong.  Grape vines wrap themselves around any available tree/shrub/whatever and CLING FOR DEAR LIFE!  So when you go out to gather you might need:

1.  Hedge trimmers

2.  An axe

3.  A step-stool or ladder

4.  A tall man (I am so blessed to have two of those in my house!)

So after you collect the grape vines, put the tools away, and make a pan of brownies to appease the tall man/men, you can start shaping them into wreaths.

I have to confess here that when I did these two, I did not really know what I was doing (I know, you are shocked...at least try to pretend that you are).  I used black electrical tape to hold them together.  Since then, I have discovered a wonderful little corner of Hobby Lobby where they have this:

It is wonderful stuff.

Next, I went into my stash basket and rejoiced that I can not make myself throw "stuff" away because I found this scrap of fabric:

It is not a tie, just an odd piece from a skirt I made a couple of years ago.  I tore strips that were about 3/4 inch wide by about 6-8 inches long.  I did not cut them, I tore them.

Then I began the process of tying them on to the wreath.  If you are going on a car trip to Demopolis, Alabama with your sister to visit the daughter-of-your-heart and your "grandchildren", take everything with you and you will make remarkable progress!  Then when you become desperate for something to blog about, pull it out and finish the last 10-20 minutes worth of work that needs to be done to call it finished.  

Finally, take all the little scraps that are too small to tie onto the wreath and put them in the clear glass ornaments that you bought when you were at Hobby Lobby.

Decide who you want to give a wreath to.  Then go make more grapevine wreaths (using the wire and florist tape instead of black electrical tape) and tie more of those left-over bits from your stash pile.  Suddenly your stash pile has a lovely purpose!

I'm thinking about doing some of these for an Etsy shop.  What do you think?

What are you making for Christmas this year??

The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas: Day Eleven

Third Sunday in Advent...

...And a sick husband.  Today we are thankful for antibiotics, strong cough syrup, and a pre-scheduled Monday holiday!  

Our day centered around rest and this link.

God's peace to your homes! 

The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas: Day Ten

Day Ten: Rest!

Do you remember the plans for Day Nine?  How my generous sister and daughter-of-my-heart were planning to share the four children with me?  They did, and we had a wonderful time!  We went to Chick Fil A, where we could meet one of their uncles and their cousin.  We ate.  We played.  Auntie 'Ginia got in the humongous van (the one she had never driven before that scared her silly), drove to Nana's house, and played.  And watched Thomas the Tank Engine.  And read books.  And pretended to take a nap (!).  And played.  And begged to go play with the Westies in the back yard.  And played.  And begged to go play with the Westies.  And waited for Nana.  And yelled "SURPRISE!!!!" to Nana when she came home.  And played.  And begged to go play with the Westies.  And went out with the Westies.  And got scared REAL BAD by the Westies.  And played.  And had supper.  And the baby fell asleep IN the big pot she was playing with.  No kidding.  Head down in the pot asleep.  And played.  And explained why we did not need to go to bed yet.  And went to bed because NANA said so (Yay, Nana!!).  And had a story.  And sang some songs.  And prayed.  And asked for water.  And giggled.  And played.  And got in trouble with Nana.  And giggled.  And played.  And watched Nana turn out the hall light because she said if we did not settle down she would (YAY NANA!!).  And wore Auntie 'Ginia plumb, slap OUT.

So Auntie 'Ginia went home and went to bed and SLEPT.  And Saturday Auntie 'Ginia did not do very much of anything, even blogging.  

And that is all that happened on Day Ten after Day Nine.  

Except that it all made Auntie 'Ginia VERY, VERY HAPPY!!

The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas: Day Nine

Family!!

Today is a wonderful day.  Today I am spending the day with my nephew's four children.  I claim these children as my own grand-children (and their mother as the daughter of my heart).  Last September, they all moved far away to the land of Utah to plant a church (talk about a challenge!).  This year, they have been able to come back to Alabama for a visit and are staying through Christmas, dividing their time between the two sets of parents.  Today I get to spend the day with the children.  Tonight my sister and I will take them to the Walk Through Nativity at Briarwood Church .  It promises to be a cold, fun evening.  I have my camera right here beside me; hopefully I will remember to take it so I can post pictures tomorrow.  What a blessing to get to spend time with four of my favorite people.  

Let's see; dress up materials ready, train videos ready, games ready, books ready, arms ready for hugs....Should be a great day!

The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas: Day Eight

Christmas Movies

Do you have any must-see Christmas movies?

We have a few at our home.  The other day I watched the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol.  I love that version, even though I'm sure many people would consider other versions to be better.  One of my favorite parts of the movie is the music.  I found out that the song that keeps running through the movie was written specifically for the movie ~ I always thought that it was a period piece!   The only place I can find the lyrics are on this forum here; scroll down and you will find all the verses which are worth reading. 

from CBD

I always enjoy the animated classics (these will make you laugh); A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Rudolph.  And when I talk about that second one, I am NOT talking about the newer version.  

Marvelous Mark, who will tell you that he is not that crazy about movies, has to see The Christmas Story once during the month of December.  Then through the month of January he refers to the neighbor's dogs as Bumpus Dogs.

While I have never seen A Miracle On 34th Street from start to finish, I do enjoy It's A Wonderful Life.

A couple of years ago a friend sent us The Nativity Story for Christmas.  That has certainly been a good addition to our list of must-sees!

What are your faves?