Almost Christmas

And in the true spirit of the Holiday...

I just finished another box of Dark Chocolate covered Jo Jo's

Hallelujah

A multicultural Christmas

I have a very multicultural congregation at church, which I love.  We have people from all over the globe who come together to worship on Sunday.  Our services are translated into other languages for those who are not yet quite fluent in English, although many in the the congregation are multi-lingual.  And of course the congregation is made up of all different age groups.

The geniuses who planned our Christmas service this year brought this beautiful part of our congregation out and used it as an integral part of the program...it was so wonderful!  We had songs and carols by the congregation, by the choir, by the children, and by the youth.  

We had special musical numbers in other languages.

And intermixed with the lovely songs were scriptures telling the story of the birth of Christ.

But each scripture was read or recited in a different language, the native tongue of one of the members of our congregation.  Here are the languages in the order that they were spoken:

English

Portuguese

Cambodian

Twi

Marshallese

Spanish

German

Mandarin

Italian

~a truly inspirational morning~

Holiday Adorableness

I saw this super cute idea on bettycrocker.com and I just couldn't resist it.  I thought it was sooooo fun.

So, I made these cupcake poppers for my "fake Christmas Eve" celebration yesterday.

If you go there to see the recipe or their version, the answer is, yes, theirs are cuter. 

 But, hey, it was my first try.

There is no actual use for the bottoms of the cupcakes in this recipe, you just cut off the tops. But I wasn't quite hungry enough to eat all of the bottoms so I went ahead and frosted them.

Cute.  and yummy too.

What were my guests reactions you ask?

Keeping in mind that I only invite my closest friends to fake Christmas Eve...

"they look like hamburgers"

"its supposed to be Christmas not Easter"

"the little cupcakes are cuter than the hamburger thingies"

"do they taste good?"

Oy.  Good thing I love these people.

In the end, after I harassed them for badmouthing my attempt at cuteness

they tried them and pronounced them delicious.

My holiday nemesis

A friend of mine introduced me to Trader Joe's Jojo's a couple of years ago.  They are simply mint Oreo type cookies...no big deal, right?

But they were yummy so I went to get some.  I love mint and chocolate together.

But, to my everlasting dismay I discovered that  Trader Joe's makes a Dark Chocolate covered version of this holiday delight.  Let me introduce you:

Yes, indeed.  A mint Oreo dipped in dark chocolate and then sprinkled with crushed candy canes! It is holiday bliss in a package.

The package has a woefully small amount of cookies in it and costs more than the bigger package of non-dipped cookies.  But can I resist them?

Oh no.  I cannot.

I buy them for gifts because I feel that if I have been corrupted, I should at least do the same to others.

But then if I don't give them away immediately I tend to break into them and, well, you can guess what happens.

I've heard other people saying that they are very sweet or very rich and they can only eat one.  

Wimps!

I'm afraid I have no such issues.  I can down an entire package without even realizing it! I tell myself that I won't have any more because, lets face it, the jeans are already too tight. But they are so gosh darn good.

The one good (sad) thing is that Trader Joe's usually runs out of them sometime before Christmas and they are a holiday item so once they are gone, they are gone for the year.

I may have to stash a box so I can have a little farewell party in January.  

Who am I kidding?  I could never wait that long!

Thanks to www.candyblog.net for the awesome pictures (although I don't quite agree with the rating of 8/10) *smile*

A Good Christmas Deed

I got to perform a good deed in the spirit of Christmas today.

I drove up to a store and when I parked there was a cart in my parking space.  As I went to move it out of the way, I noticed a purse sitting in the cart.  I could just imagine how that person would soon be feeling when they realized that they had left their purse somewhere (but where?).

I felt a little weird opening someone else's purse but I did and looked for an ID or cell phone or something to contact the person.  I found an ID but no phone number and even when I called information they did not have a phone number!  Bummer.

So I went into the store that the cart came from.  I got a manager person (the place was packed...it was kind of a pain trying to find someone).  I told her that I'd found the purse in one of their carts and that I didn't want to keep rifling through the purse but maybe she could help me figure out how to contact the person.

As we were standing there someone called the store asking if their purse had been turned in!  Yay!

I was so glad that they were able to say "yes, we have it right here".  I'm sure that person was super relieved!
What a bad time of year to lose your purse and be afraid that someone is stealing your money and credit cards etc.

I'm sure many people would have turned in the purse...I don't think there are that many dishonest folks around really.  But I was glad it was me who found the purse and made sure it got back to the owner.

I felt really good and happy the rest of the day.

Nice.

Makin' me happy

Here are a few things makin' me happy right now:

Happiness #1:

These two empty walls

This is the wall at the bottom of the stairs going into my (recently flooded) basement.  It used to have a super ugly and overflowing bookshelf. Now it is empty.  It makes me happy to see it empty and not all cluttery.

This is the wall just around the corner from the stairs in the basement.  It used to have 2 ugly filing cabinets.  Now it is empty.  It makes me happy to see it empty.

I might eventually put a cute bench or something on that first wall but probably not anytime soon.  For now I'm enjoying the lack of anything where there used to be too much!

Happiness #2:

My newest Nativity

Isn't it cool?

I got in while I was in Utah this summer and I went shopping at Swiss Days with Annette.

It's brass and heavy and I really like it.

Happiness #3:

I set up my German Nativity Carousel.  I never did last year.  It's fun and cute and reminds me that my hubby loves me because he looked all over during a business trip to find me a cool navity from Germany.

Happiness #4:

My not-so-sneaky husband

The UPS guy delivered a box to our house the other day and it said all over the side what it was...a new computer monitor.  I had mentioned wanting one.  Hmmmm, Christmas is coming.  Wonder who that is for?

I called hubby, who was out of town:

"So, if you want to be sneaky and don't want me to know what I'm getting for Christmas, you might think about having the gifts shipped to another address or something."

"What?  Why?"

"Well, a box was delivered and it says what it is right on the side"

"aaaauugh" (or something like that)

I asked if I could have it right now since I already knew what it was and he said no. Bah Humbug.

But a few days later when his office felt messy and too full (including my big box) he asked if I wanted to set up my new monitor. 

Heck yes!

So we did.

And it makes me quite happy.

(ignore all the ugly cords)

If

I do my "100 things" every year and I always feel the need to say that it is just a snapshot of that moment because I do it over a day or two...not gradually over the year.  There are probably things that I am extremely grateful for in April, for example, that I don't even remember when I make my list in November.  If someone were to remind me I'm sure I would say, "Oh yeah, I am really thankful for that!"

If I had done my 100 things list only a couple of days later this year it would have been very different.

It would have included things like:

My Dad

Modern medicine

Good doctors and nurses

Cardiac meds

Brothers who are willing to drop everything and help out

Long distance friends who, even when you haven't even spoken for over a year, will do whatever they have to do to help when called.

Hospitals close by

I speak to my Dad on occasion.  He really isn't one to talk on the phone much so it's mostly the "here's your mom" kind of a conversation.  But I always enjoy talking to him.

This week when I called, just hearing his voice was enough to make me cry.  Funny isn't it?  How an event can alter your perception just so.  Make you more grateful.  More loving.

I love you Dad.  (And mom!)

I'm glad you are ok.

Quote of the day

I'm really enjoying the letters home from my missionary son, Ryan.  He writes exactly the way he talks...and he has literally no filter so he says whatever comes into his head.  It's hilarious!  Sometimes I read it and think, "should he have told me that, really?"  But overall, his letters are just enjoyable as all getout.

Here is one of my favorite quotes from this week:

But the other day I was trying to remember what home was like cause it feels like that was a different life you know? And I had some totally nastalgic (nustalgic/ nostalgic/ nostolgic/ whatever) memories of like just laying down in my amazing blanket and just falling asleep.... and then waking up to find out I was driving and almost crashed again haha.

Oh yes, that's my Ryan.