12th Day of Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we wanted to thank our “Secret Elves” somehow so we made brownies with peppermint extract and ground candy-cane in them and set them on the porch with a note thanking them.  Their kind gifts they brought everyday really made our first Christmas away from family much more enjoyable as well as fun since we had something to look forward to each night.  That afternoon they left us our final gifts with the note:

“On the Twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Twelve drummers drumming!…”

This story will spread the true Christmas spirit.  Remember the Christ every time that you hear it!

A Star for the Tree..

The book “The Little Drummer Boy”

They also finished off giving us the rest of the figurines for the nativity as well as the book that the nativity came in.  I am so grateful that they shared their creativity and gifts with us!  This was a Christmas we won’t forget!

11th Day of Christmas

Here’s what was sitting on our porch on the Eve of Christmas Eve:

“On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me Eleven pipers piping…”

Pipers are scarce so we brought you their kilt, we cut and we tied and we made it a quilt.

It’s a lap blanket…perfect for watching movies as a family with! 

10th Day of Christmas

This movie is what graced our doorstep for the 10th day of Christmas along with the note:

“On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Ten lords a-leaping…”

This beautiful ballet is a holiday treat.  Watch these Ladies and Lords as they leap on their feet!

This movie was an interesting surprise.. I didn’t even know there was a Barbie Nutcracker movie (proves I didn’t have a girl yet…).  This actually is now one of Christian’s favorite movies because he loves the prince-nutcracker-solider idea!  Who knew when I let him watch this movie that he’d start dressing up in a cape with his Bermuda shorts and winter boots on waving a sword around…

 

9th Day of Christmas

This 12 days of Christmas gift was the most surprising:   

“On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Nine ladies dancing…”

Pop yourself so corn, sit by the fire.  Watch ladies snowman dancing!  You’ll never tire!

 

I had never seen this show before but it was one of Jared’s childhood favorites.  We watched it as a family for family time.  The only thing was that Christian cried at the end.  I guess all good things have to come to an end.

7th Day of Christmas

We received a bag with a note on it and a this book in side.  The note reads:

“On the Seventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Seven swans a –swimming…”

 

We hope you like The Trumpet of the Swan, It’s a book about love and courage; it won’t lead you wrong!

What a great idea!  This is one of our families favorite books.  It’s a little silly but it is the first chapter book that Christian had the patience to listen to and we read it while I was sick in bed in the first few months of pregnancy with Vivian.  It is a great gift!

6th Day of Christmas

“On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Six geese a-laying…”

 

We couldn’t find geese, but their eggs might do.  Open each carefully to find something new!

Each egg had a mini ornament in them and it came with a little tree to decorate.

     

We let Christian put it in his room... so fun!

5th Day of Christmas

“on the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me Five golden rings…”

 

Here are five rings—they taste rather good. They’re not very healthy, but enjoy them.  You should!

 

The 5th day of Christmas we got five golden…

 

 

Doughnuts!

 

I am so amazed by their creativity!  Who would have thought up that?

Practical gift for a guy…

So I’ve made my husband something that I think he will really be pleased with…a car organizer.  He goes crazy when things get unorganized and since we’re going to have two kids soon I figured our car may start being more chaotic so this is one of the gifts I’m giving him for Christmas this year.  I took a picture so that he’d figure out what it is!  I hope he likes it!

3rd Day of Christmas

So we got visited again by our “Secret Friend” who is giving us the twelve days of Christmas.  This one made me even more suspicious as to who it might be.  You see, in October we had a Pumpkin Recipe Night for Relief Society and half of the treats had walnuts and/or milk (at least that saved my ever-widening figure from even further girth) so I kept turning down offers of delicious pumpkin offerings because of the ill effects both ingredients cause me and when I cheat I’m so so so sorry for it sooner and later.  Anyway, so I can have pecans which seems weird when they look so similar to walnuts but they really don’t bother me.  Remember those pecan turtles we got on the second day of Christmas?

Well, for the third day this is the note we received,

"On the third day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Three French hens"

 

"There is no "French" in this Little Red Hen,

Just enjoy this book and bread with your friends."

 

There was the book “The Little Red Hen” and since you can’t tell from the picture, a darling bread pan with banana bread mix attached to the bottom.  There also was a bowl of warm totally melt-in-your-mouth rolls that Jared and Christian consumed before I could take a picture (I was lucky to get one roll).  It’s amazing to me that a 29-year-old guy and a 3-year-old boy can be such coconspirators when it comes to finishing good food quickly!

The banana bread makes me wonder if it is a certain darling single girl in my ward who I was telling this story to about how Jared and Christian think they are chefs because they love to add “secret ingredients” to whatever they bake when I’m gone.  I was saying how they recently made banana bread that after they put half the batter in the pan, they filled the whole thing up with chocolate chips and then put more batter on top…let’s just say that part one of the batter didn’t adhere really well to part two of the batter and so when you sliced the bread it broke in half width-wise so the presentation wasn’t gorgeous though they both went crazy over it and ate most of it up fast. I personally think banana bread is sweet enough and I like it unadulterated from chocolate chips… at least they’ll cook!  It’s really funny what they make sometimes.

So anyway, having a box of banana bread is really making me suspicious that it’s her.  She is super creative and  teaches early morning seminary so she really likes to have fun so doing something like this seems up her ally…

The figurine included was of the donkey.  The picture’s a little blurry…blame the camera because I retook this shot a few times.

    

This speculation thing is just way too much fun and I am so touched!

Technorati Tags: twelve days of christmas,gifts,christmas

Santa Lucia Day

14On Sunday we celebrated Santa Lucia Day.  It is a Swedish Holiday that celebrates St. Lucy who helped hide early Christian’s in the catacombs of Rome and was eventually burned at the stake for her convictions.  It is said that while she was hiding people in the catacombs that when she would bring them food she made a wreath of candles to put on top of her head to see so that she could have her hands free to carry trays of food for the people.

 

 

 

The Swedish tradition is to have the oldest daughter have a wreath of candles on her head and serve breakfast to the family.  Because we don’t have an oldest daughter capable of such things (yet) we just stayed up Saturday night and made Swedish saffron buns.  They were really delicious, but I can’t believe how much saffron costs!

 

To me this holiday symbolizes the need to keep your testimony burning bright so that you are able to serve others who made need your help—even if it is not the popular thing to do and you may be ridiculed for your convictions it will truly make a difference to others and it is when we are serving others that we are really serving God.

Cute Santa Cookie Idea

At the Stake Christmas Concert they had the cutest Santa cookies there so I thought I’d take a picture for future reference.  Christian was crazy about these cookies (he loves all things Santa).

They look really easy to make…all you’d need is white frosting, red sprinkles, a marshmallow, coconut, a red hot and two chocolate chips!

sea-shell bracelet

This year in our Christmas drawing, my son picked my cousin, who is a teenager’s name.  I was really excited to give to a girl so that I could give her something fun that is homemade!

Here’s what I came up with!  I really hope she likes it.  It’s understated though fun especially with all of the colors from these beautiful natural shells.

2nd Day of Christmas

Well we were visited again by our secret friends who are giving us the twelve days of Christmas.  This time the note said:

 “On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me Two turtle doves…”

“Last night was pears, this night is “Doves” Share these together with those whom you love.”

   

Attached was a card with a dove on it and yummy turtles which we really enjoyed.  These were made with pecans so it makes me wonder if this person knows that I can have pecans and that I’m allergic to walnuts…. it could be someone who sat by me during one Relief Society Night who felt bad for me because I couldn’t have some of the treats because they contained walnuts.  That would narrow it down!  We’ll just have to see if they give me anything with lactose…

Also included was this darling lamb figurine.  Forgive my dusty shelf….

This is so sweet of whoever is doing this for us….I hope to do something similar someday so that’s why I’m putting it in my blog… so I remember what they did and have some ideas!

Technorati Tags: twelve days of christmas,christmas,gifts

The 1st Day of Christmas

Technorati Tags: twelve days of christmas,christmas,gifts,presents

As we were trying to put Christian down for a nap after Church, we found a note on our porch that reads:

“The Twelve Days of Christmas are coming to you!  Each day on your porch there will be something new.  A gift that relates to the song of “Twelve Days,” And a part of the Christmas story—of Christ whom we praise.  To serve you it gives us such joyous delight, Please enjoy this Christmas spirit each night!”

“On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me A partridge in a pear tree.”

“Relax, have some fun, let go of your cares.  Snack on these pears while you try to find “pairs”.

There was a basket full of pears with a book of The Twelve Days of Christmas,

and a game of Old Maid.

There also was a figurine from a nativity included

I am so shocked that someone has been so sweet and decided to bring us the Twelve Days of Christmas this year!  I have never been the recipient of the Twelve days of Christmas and I am really surprised that someone would choose to be so generous to us and do such a thing for our family.  We really hardly know anyone in our ward so I’m really wondering who in the world/ward it could be!  Jared and I keep speculating on who it can be…  Whoever it is, they’ve really touched my heart.