12 Days of Christmas: Day 4 Christmas Cooking

One of the ways I (sort of) survive Christmas Madness is to have a cook & freeze ahead day.  Today was that day.  I guess I should say “yesterday” was that day, because I was so busy cooking and freezing that I never got around to the blog.

Here we have cheese grits (a Christmas day  must-have); 2 pie crusts for Fruit Salad pie (another Christmas day must-have; cupcakes for Jane’s “pink flower birthday cake” because bless her heart, her birthday is in the middle of all of this madness;  Brown Betties for the band-dessert-bar which I’m chairing tomorrow night (because bless my heart, the band concert is in the middle of all this madness); 2 Breakfast Sausage casseroles for Christmas breakfast; and sugar cookies.

The sugar cookies are just rolled out refrigerator dough from the grocery store.  But we make up our own signature peppermint frosting and my kids just LOVE this tradition!  They actually cut most of these out themselves.

Must run– Day 5 is already upon us!  Fa-la-la.  I’ve got to go and put our teacher’s gifts in the kid’s backpacks since we’re pulling the kids out of school early this year for Christmas travels.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day 3 Matching Gifts

I’m definitely done with my Christmas shopping!  My last gift was a calligraphy set purchased last week for the Angel Tree child we bought for this year.  I had so much fun shopping for him–  we picked a 16-year-old boy who wanted a St. Louis Rams football jersey, a pair of jeans, a calligraphy set and some charcoals and a sketchpad.  It seems most people pick the little toddlers to buy for and so I always gravitate to the teenagers.  How hard would it be to be a teenager living at the Baptist Children’s Home?  At Christmastime?

And so, I’m done with the shopping, but I’m only half way done with the wrapping.  It’s taking me a little longer this year because I’m using raffia in lieu of Christmas bows and it’s taking more time than anticipated to tie this stuff on each present.  For one thing, you have to have a bow-partner to hold their finger on the knot.  Clearly, I didn’t think of the time issues involved with using raffia.

And why even do this?  Because one of the slightly obsessive things about me is that I like all the presents to match.  Who am I kidding?  I like everything to match.   I know–  it’s a little OCD, but how many little OCD things does a mother of five get to enjoy?

Not.  Many.

 

Doesn’t that look so… matchy-match??  I love matchy-matchy!  Except with furniture.  Then I like eclectic.

I always buy my paper when it’s on sale after Christmas–  I just pick ten matching rolls and I’m good to go.  One year I got it for 10 cents a roll!  You can use all sorts of cute, cheap  things for bows.  One time I used tulle that I had left over from a ladies’ church event.  Another year I used brown paper (paper sacks turned over) to wrap the gifts and then I stamped green Christmas trees all over the paper and tied them up with string.  (Like the Sound of Music.  “Brown paper packages tied up with string…”)  Cute. Cute.

I know it’s a little extra effort–  but my kids have grown to look forward to what I’m going to do each year with the wrapping and I figure it’s just one of little Christmas traditions/memories that they’ll  look back upon with fond feelings.

Or they could just all grow up and need therapy because their mother always insisted that the presents matched.  Either way, I’m OK with it.

 

12 Days of Christmas: Day 2 Eighteen years of TRUE LOVE ALWAYS

December 15, 1990. 

Happy Anniversary, Babe.

 

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day 1 Poinsettias

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me… 

 

THE PLANT I LOVE TO HATE

 

Every year around the first week of Christmas, a sweet older family in our church has a Poinsettia delivered to our home.  It always arrives around December 5th or 6th and I have grown to look forward to greeting the Flower Delivery Lady each year with great anticipation.  The only problem is…  Poinsettias are not for the blackthumbs of this world faint of heart.  The first year I received one, it was a total surprise and I was just tickled to death.  ”What?  For us?  How nice!”  

And then I did with it what I do with all gifts of flowers–  I placed it on my entry table and watched it die in 3 days flat.  

Three days.  I’m no green thumb.

“Bummer!”  I thought.  ”It would have been nice for that plant to have lasted a little longer.”

The next year when the doorbell rang and I saw the flower lady standing on my front porch again, bearing Poinsettia, I thought, “Aha-  this must be a tradition!  The Ramsey family (not their real name) must always send a Poinsettia to the pastor’s family during the first week of December.  I get a do-over!”

Determined to make this one live a little longer, I decided to really go the second mile and, you know, WATER IT.

I think it made it four or five days.  I was really bummed this time.  ”Rats!  I even made an effort and everything.”  I quickly went to the Internet and looked up “care of Poinsettias”  and quickly realized what probably many of you already know and that is that you can actually OVERWATER a Poinsettia.  They only need 1-2 oz of water a day.  

Oh.

Year three:  Totally wilted by day four.  ”WHAT AM I DOING WRONG???”  I did some more Internet research and discovered that a Poinsettia should never be allowed to sit in water.  ”That’s funny,” I thought.  ”The flower shop always delivers those plants with a pretty aluminum wrapper and there is always water pooled up at the bottom.  I should have known that it was the FLOWERSHOP’S fault!”  This flower had become my yearly challenge and I was determined to beat it.  I studied up some more, made notes on the computer and waited for December 2005.

Year four:  ”Ding.  Dong.”  I cheerfully greeted and thanked the flower lady again and then I promptly took the flower my nemesis to the kitchen sink to cut a slit in the bottom of the foil.  After I found a saucer to set it on, I placed it in the sunniest place in our house (Poinsettias require a lot of sun and a nice consistent temperature, in case you didn’t know) and then I started the daily regimen of watering my precious Christmas gift with 1.5 oz of water per day.  And guess what?

It lived!  Glory be–  I had conquered the Poinsettia!

And so now I pride myself on being able to enjoy my December gift well into the month of January.  I could probably even nurse the little bugger into the spring and plant it like some websites suggest.

But I don’t really care that much.  I just wanted to win.

Cutest Little Christmas Gifts

I’ve been so busy getting ready for Christmas, I haven’t been blogging…  My PLAN is to have SOMETHING for each of the 12 days of Christmas.  (As in, the 12 days BEFORE Christmas.)  We’ll see.  You know how plans and life with five kids are.

Or maybe you don’t know.

But anyway–  I wanted to show you the cutest tea wallets that my sister made and is selling.  They would make the sweetest little gifts for your kid’s teachers and such.  Oh, and by the way, if you go to church with me, please don’t tell Myrlene about these, because I just bought one for her.  You know how much she loves hot tea.  

So–  go check them out.  Cute. As. A. Button.

Thanksgiving 2008 in Photos

“Chief Jane” the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  A happy preschool chief indeed.

The Thanksgiving Table.  A wonderful meal surrounded by a wonderful family.

 

Grandaddy’s Birthday was the next day.  

Have you ever seen a happier Grandaddy with 10 of his 13 grands?

Oops–  here’s grand #13.  Somehow baby Ava got left out of the birthday picture.

Every year on the way back from Arkansas, we say “We ought to stop and take Jane’s picture underneath the Jane, Missouri sign.”  This year we did it!

We knew that Thanksgiving was really over when we woke up to this

the morning after we returned from our trip!  The Christmas season was

christened with a snowy wonderland.

It’s Official: We’re Too Far North

Sweet cornbread is not cornbread.  There.  I said  it.  If you like sugar in your cornbread, then just say, “I like cake.”  Just say, “I’m a yankee.”  Just don’t say “This is cornbread.”

We’ve lived up here in rural Missouri for nearly seven years now and we love our town.  It’s “Mayberry-like.”  One stop-light.  Two banks.  One grocery store.  You get the picture.

Now, I’m not criticizing our grocery store.  The truth is, I love that little store.  I can get in and out in less than ten minutes and I never have more than one person in front of me in the checkout line.  Good friends of ours own it and I well understand that they cannot carry every brand of every item.  It’s a small store.  They have to mainly sell what the majority will buy in order to make a profit and I would certainly never begrudge anyone a profit.  So, I don’t hold it against them that they don’t sell the Kraft Garlic Cheese Roll for when I need to make cheese grits at Christmastime.   I get a little testy, but  I don’t get too upset when I can’t buy Coco Lopez to make my homemade Coconut Cake (also at Christmastime.)  No–  I understand that these are sort of speciality items of the southern ilk and that I’ll just have to go to the big bad Wal-Mart to get them.

However, I don’t really think of Martha White’s Self Rising Cornmeal as a speciality item.  I think of Martha as more of a staple.  You know–  you send your husband to the store for a jug of milk, a loaf of bread, a pack of Dentyne and a sack of Martha White?  Right?  But, no, apparently, my small-town-grocery-store-owning-friends have figured out that no one else in our town sees it quite the same way and they don’t carry Martha.  Sniff.  Sniff.  But I’m an understanding person.  Like I said, we are a very small (northern) town and I would never begrudge friends a profit.  The Wal-Mart twenty-five miles away carries Martha and so I just stock up on the stuff when I make my monthly trip.

So yesterday when Spencer and I were driving home from the Big City, Spencer said, “I sure could go for some of your Cajun beans and rice.”  I told him to stop at Wal-Mart and we’d get my pictures developed and buy some Martha White.  When we got there I headed back to the photo lab and I sent Spencer to the baking aisle.  When we met up, he said, “They don’t have it.”  

“What do you mean they don’t have it?”

He said, “I MEAN, there’s only those Jiffy cake mix things and some Aunt Jemimah’s but it’s not self rising and it’s not white, it’s yellow and then they also have that same Quaker brand stuff that they have back at the grocery store at home.”

I marched over to the baking aisle myself.  This couldn’t be right.  Had Wal-Mart gone over to the Dark Side?  There have to be enough Southerners true Americans in the area to justify selling Martha White at WAL-MART.  

Right?

I guess not.  And  so it’s simple.  We cannot eat Cajun beans and rice until we travel to Arkansas at Christmastime when I can buy out the Wal-Mart down there of all their Martha White.  I figure if I buy four bags of the stuff, it will last us until springtime.

That is, if we can make it that long.

We Have a Winner!

In the middle of decorating the tree, finishing up my Christmas shopping on-line and getting my oldest daughter ready to travel to state band auditions…

We have a winner!

Thank-you to everyone who commented on the book review!  Carolyn Sharkas was our winner and Grace will be sending her an autographed copy of Secrets About Boys (That Shouldn’t be Secret!)

I have good intentions of posting a few pictures of Thanksgiving travels, our ornament tradition and our first snow fall!!!  Hopefully tomorrow…  But for now, I need to round up the kids who are already hanging up their stockings on the mantel and wishing that I was done with the tree garlands already.  🙂

Thanks again everyone!

Pastor Appreciation

I promise to write a more substantial post about what I appreciate about my pastor.  But I wanted to get this up this weekend before Abraham’s offer runs out.

I’m out of town for Thanksgiving right now, so I’ll have to keep this short.

I’ll just say this: (in addition to all of the things I said about him two weeks ago)  I love how much Spencer loves Jesus and His Word and How this love drives everything He does.  I’ve been sitting under his preaching for eighteen years and I am still challenged, encouraged, exhorted and comforted by his preaching and his ministry.

And I’m pretty crazy about him too.  🙂  I hope he wins the tickets!! 🙂

Works for Me Wednesday: A Book Review and a Giveaway!

THIS IS A GIVEAWAY FOR A FREE (autographed!!) COPY OF THE BOOK:  Secrets about Guys that Shouldn’t be Secret by Grace Dove.   If you’re a member of my church, you might remember that last February I spoke at our ladies’ soup and salad supper and the topic of my talk was READING.  The last point of my message was to encourage you to give away good literature to people!   Giving away good books to people whom I love REALLY WORKS FOR ME and I am so excited to tell you about this one.

Let me just say upfront, if you’re the mother of a teenage daughter or a Sunday School teacher of teenage girls, or you just know a teenage girl–  RUN (don’t walk) to your nearest Christian bookstore and buy Secrets about Guys That Shouldn’t Be Secret by Grace Dove today.

I can’t tell you often I see girls in the mall or even girls at church and I just want to run up to them and say, “Oh, I”m so sorry Darlin’, your shirt doesn’t seem to fit! Here’s a bigger one– you can have it!  Cover up!  Quick!  Before someone sees you!” Of course, I would be laughed out of town if I did such things, but still!  It’s my inner, urge!

Immodest clothing for girls and even more– immodest behavior has become such a social norm, that no one even thinks of it as abnomal. In fact, the problem is so endemic, that I have a hard time as a pastor’s wife and a high school girl’s Sunday School teacher trying to even communicate what I’m getting at when I talk about behavior that is “appropriate” and “inappropriate” for Christian girls.

But help is here.

Grace Dove, in her book Secrets about Guys that Shouldn’t be Secret, has figured out how to communicate with girls in a clear, fun, and easy to read way. Written in the much loved “Top 10” magazine format, the book contains twelve issues that are so important for our Christian girls to learn about but she calls the issues “secrets about guys” which makes them all very intriguing for a teenager to read.

First, she covers modesty and includes a fun poll in which 86% of guys surveyed said that “girls wear tops that are too revealing.”  In the process, Grace shows that her theology is rock solid as she subtly weaves in her Biblical reasoning for all of the “secrets.” Under the point of modesty, she talks about modest dressing being “a sign that we are under God’s authority.”

Don’t beat yourself up if you are discovering that your views on modesty don’t match God’s. Even Adam and Eve didn’t get it right the first time. After they sinned, they sewed leaves together to cover themselves. (Genesis 3:7) God didn’t see that as adequate because He provided different coverings for them. (Genesis 3:21) God knew something about the signficance of being properly clothed that Adam and Eve didn’t understand. Now that we have the Bible though, we don’t have to make the same mistake.

My favorite chapter in the book is about guys “liking a little mystery.” “Guys love a challenge,” she says. “Guys are by nature conquereors.”  These are universal truths that most girls just don’t understand.  If girls realized how beautiful mystery is, I really believe many would work a little harder to cultivate it.   She says “Like unwrapped gifts under a Christmas tree, many girls have no secrets, no surprises, no suspense.” If you (as a mother) have ever thought “I don’t want my girls telephoning boys” but then you couldn’t figure out how to explain your thoughts to your daughter, Grace Dove does that for you here. She talks about mystery in behavior, mystery in conversation and mystery in modest dress. And again– her writing style is so teenage girl friendly– your daughter won’t feel “preached to” as she reads it.  She will feel that she is getting sage and savvy advice from someone who has “been there.”

In a day when many girls think that low rider blue jeans, tatoos and nose rings are pretty, Grace talks about what true beauty is.   She mentions  that  one’s walk with the Lord, a humble heart and a pleasant expression are three things that often get overlooked when a girl is working on her appearance.  And–  I LOVED THIS–  she talks about how appealing feminine dress is to guys and challenged the girls to wear a skirt once in a while.  She clearly wants girls to embrace their God-given femininity AND ENJOY IT!  What a fresh and much needed message that our girls need to hear today.

The last chapter was about  guys noticing homemaking skill.  My husband read this chapter  and he completely agreed with everything written.  (And he reminded me that he can still remember that I mended a shirt of his during our college days and that he didn’t wash the shirt for days afterward because he loved the smell of the Downy that I used when I also washed and pressed it for him.)
He concurred with Grace and said it would surprise young women to know how much guys notice a girl who seems to love children and the home.  Apparently, when it comes to marriage material– guys take notice of these things!   And of course, Grace makes the topic so fun by even including a killer Chocolate Chip cookie recipe.

I’m so tempted to go through the book for you line by line and share all twelve of the secrets– but I’m just not going to do it!  I really want you to buy the book and give copies to all of the teenage girls in your life.  (I’m planning on buying a copy for every girl in my Sunday School class!  And NO, I don’t get any sort of kickback from this review–  I just REALLY believe in the message of this book!)   There are many books on Christian dating out on the market, but very few books on the subject of becoming the kind of girl you need to be to attract the right kind of guy.  Whether you are a girl of 13 or 23, this book offers practical wisdom that you need for life.

To learn more about Grace Dove, check out her blog and her personal website!  And to buy the book, just go here!

To be included in the book give away, just leave a comment saying something like “I believe in this message and would love to win the book!”   or you could even write, “I’m not sure what I think about this way of thinking and would love to learn more.  Put my name in for the drawing!”  Whatever.  Just leave a comment!  🙂  And don’t forget to leave a working email address!  I’ll close comments for the giveaway on December 3rd

Happy Thanksgiving y’all!   And for lots of other “Works for me Wednesday” tips from other mothers and wives, go to Shannon’s site at Rocks in My Dryer!