Merry Christmas! 

~Jenn

(click on the graphic for more information)

It's Weightloss Wednesday again, and this week I'm simply chuckling.  Two days before Christmas and I'm to step on the scale?  lol  I don't think so.  Fudge, cookies, buckeyes, flavored holiday coffee creamers, pumpkin bread and muffins, homemade white bread, comfort cooking and more abound in my home, and with it the feeling of contentment, joy, and love.  Kill all that with a number?  Not me.  I'm content to work on little things - parking at the back of the parking lot and walking in, trying to drink all my water in a day, adding a serving of fruit or veggies to my day, etc.  And just being Aware:  aware of what goes in my mouth, how much, and when to say when.  January will come soon enough, and with it all the harsh realities of getting fit.  I'm content to stay in my own reality for the next week or so, thank you very much. Ü

I turned 50 years old on December 18th.  It was just another day.  It didn't bother me.  I don't why certain birthdays make people have a mental breakdown.  A number is  just a number.

We didn't do anything special.  Darrell went to work.  I went to work.  Came home and picked up my potluck dish and Tony and went to my work's meeting/potluck/party.  We had a nice time.

I was presented with the biggest achievement award that you can get from my employers.  I won the Guiding Principles Award.  It is only given to one recipent a year.  The 2009 recipent was me.  I was very surprised and honored.

Yesterday was Cookie Day in our home - a first.  Usually we make goodies all through the holiday season, but never sugar cookies (don't care for them; don't pelt me with sprinkles, they're just too sweet) and never as a special day.  Considering that I am a new aunt twice over this year, however, I decided to just throw all common sense to the wind and invited the niece (14) and both nephews (5 and 5 months) over for the day to make cookies with my boys (15 and 11).  It was a surprisingly smooth day (I'm thinking my guardian angels worked overtime, and you would too if you knew the 5-year-old, LOL).

Here are some photos of our day.  All told, the kids rolled, cut, and baked three jumbo chubs of sugar cookie dough.

I'm thinking there had to be 11-12 dozen sugar cookies, easily.  About half got decorated, because a lot of people prefer them un-iced (me, for one, if I'm going to eat any. Hey, I'm a woman - did you think I'd let my distaste of them stop me from eating a COOKIE??).  The five-year-old did great - his attention span for the cutting out of the cookies lasted between 45 minutes to an hour.  He moved on to coloring for a bit...

... then pulled out the B word.  That word is Not Allowed in our home, so it didn't go well for him.  He's here often enough to know that you don't even think the word BORED in my presence.  He got a reminder and a warning, then went off to play with the cars and car rug for awhile.  He must have looked like he was having too much fun, because my niece decided she needed a break and got down and played with him for a bit.  The baby and I went upstairs to vist bloggyland for a few minutes, and she must have gone back to making the cookies, because the next thing I heard was this:

"A___, your neighbor's car alarm is going off.... weee-oooo-weeee-oooo.... A____, now all of your neighbor's cars and your cars are going off... WEEEE-OOOO-WEEE-OOOO-WEEE-OOOO..."

And what did I hear from the kitchen?

A perfectly timed chorus of "Shut Up, B_____!!!"

Okay, sure, shut up isn't normally allowed, but in this case a) it was funny, and b) it was warranted.  They saved me from yelling down the stairs to quiet up a bit.

Shortly after this, a 5-year-old blond head popped up around the corner of my desk, and this is what I was confronted with:

"Aunt Shaymie, I'm bored."

Delivered with a self-satisfied grin.

And received with a time-out on the couch in the library, followed by a Talk.

After that was resolved, the Star Wars guys came out, the cookies were all finally baked, lunch was served, a break was was taken in which the baby became a battering tool against Jigger, who fell back dramatically with loud sound effects to the belly laugh of the 5-month-old....

... and then the decorating commenced.

Yep, I used store-bought cookie dough, store bought icing (hate the stuff), store bought everything I could.  It's amazing the corners you willingly cut when a) you want the day to run as smoothly as possible, and b) you really don't care for the final product no matter how it's made, lol.

The baby and I spent lots of time cuddling - who wouldn't have??

Even after all that cuddling, at the end of the day I still felt like this, but in a good way:

The kids had a ball and went home tired and with oodles of cookies.  That alone is a Christmas present to their parents, I'm thinking.  And now, I'll leave you with Piper's favorite cookie - his Scottish bagpiper.  Yep, he made bagpipes, too, but those got eaten rather quickly.  And in case you're wondering which cookie cutter he manipulated for the pipes, it was the camel.  I'll let you picture that in your heads, lol.

Here are some little known (or maybe unknown) facts that are not paid much attention to (I didn't just write this up on my own - I was looking on the internet and such, I can't not take all the credit on having these ideas ).

How Christmas got started:  It did not start out with Jesus being born in the manger or Santa Claus giving gifts.  It was actually a pagan holiday of worshiping the sun!

Gift Giving:  We may say we're following what the wise men did or after God's Gift to us - but we're giving them to each other - not to Jesus.


The Christmas Tree: Jeremiah 10:2-5 "Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.  For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.  They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.  They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must not go.  Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good."  I also read that the wreath was used to decorate the buildings for worship.

 

Then, I and most people just think that they're making it into a Christian holiday now, so it's ok.  But check out a few more verses..  Matthew 15:9 "In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."  Mark 7:9 "Full well lye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.


The Candy Cane Legend


Look at the Candy Cane
What do you see?
Stripes that are red
Like the blood shed for me
White is for my Savior
Who's sinless and pure!
"J" is for Jesus, My Lord, that's for sure!
Turn it around
And a staff you will see
Jesus my shepherd
Was born for Me!

(Finally, something Christmas started as Christian!!) 

Well, with all that startling news (and only two days until Christmas ), how shall we end this?  Well, I read something in a magazine that was talking on the same thing, that I sort of liked.  It went something like this...  If you feel that you should not do Christmas, then don't.  But don't treat badly the ones that do.

Well, have a very Merry Christmas!!  We're planning to have family over at our house both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but there is also supposed to be a big snow storm starting tomorrow night, I sure hope that doesn't affect to many things!!! 

God Bless, Amber