DECEMBER 20th

DECEMBER 20th

• Thought/story: Since the new year is fast approaching, I thought you might
enjoy "Last Year's Resolve Died Before Holidays" By Wendy Gardner, from
the Post Register.

• Scripture: Matt. 14: 15-21
Event: Fishes and loaves
Jesus Christ performed miracles

• Recipe: Huge M&M cookie (this is good for parties because you can decorate it just like you would a cake with "Happy Birthday" or whatever)
Ingredients: 1 cup sm baking M&Ms, about 1/3 creal M&Ms, 1 1/2 C all purpose flour,
1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 c butter or marg, soft, 1/3 c gran sugar, 1/3 c packed brown sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add
egg and vanilla, beat well. Add flour, soda & salt. Stir in baking M&Ms. Place
dough in center of round baking stone or round cookie sheet. Roll out dough until it's about an inch away from the edge of their pan. Bake for 16 min or until light golden brown. Cool completely. Carefully loosen completely from stone. Decorate with
frosting if you want to.

• Tradition: More Tradition Ideas from Other Families
"We save one tape and on this same tape every year at Christmastime we videotape our
boys side by side while they tell us what they would like for Christmas. It's a
wonderfully compact way to see how they have grown through the years and hear about
all the toys that were popular that year." (K. T. Hom, San Jose, CA)

• Small gift idea: Gardening gift box - If you have a friend who loves to garden in the spring and summer and is now going into withdrawals due to all the snow on the
ground, a gardening gift pack might be a perfect gift to give her something to look
forward to during these long winter months. You could include seed packets, small
gardening tools, gloves, labels for her vegetable garden, maybe even a small indoor
plant. A perfect container would be a watering can to put it all together in with a big bow on top. No gift wrap needed!

 
• REDUCING CHRISTMAS STRESS - Lower Your Standards
Maybe your idea of tree decorating is to nestle each ornament in its own six-inch-square swatch of uninhabited greenery. Perhaps you fold over the end of the wrapping paper as precisely as a parachute packer and use tape like it's $10 an inch. Quit being so picky.

Kathy McKinless's daughter Jackie, 11, can't fold wrapping-paper corners as crisply as her parents can. But that's okay. "The homemade look is great," says her mom, because the true goal is her daughter's participation - not perfection.
(From Parenting)


LAST YEAR'S RESOLVE DIED BEFORE HOLIDAYS

I don't know what exactly it is about this time of year that causes people to act like there's no tomorrow, but I've got a theory.

When one year is about to end and another is about to begin, reality hits. The reality is that all those good intentions for 2009 resolutions have not been accomplished and finishing them before the year ends just aint gonna happen.

Take for instance those pounds you were going to lose. Your motto was: "I'll look like a dream before it's spring." You signed up for Weight Watchers and bought the latest exercise equipment. Your purchased an annoying alarm clock so you could get up at 5:30 a.m. and begin your day with Special K. You carefully counted fat grams and traded in your whole milk for skim.

That was Jan. 3.
Now that it is Dec. 20, things have changed. Sometime in March, you beat your alarm clock to death with a can of Slim Fast. You have secretly been having McDonald's deliver sausage egg biscuits to your door, you sent Weight Watchers a sympathy card, your Thigh Master is now residing at the Salvation Army and your motto has changed
to "Stay Alive."

The same is true for all those good intentions like cleaning every closet, cupboard and drawer of your hOuse. You distinctly remember writing in down in the values and goals section of your Franklin Planner, but you haven't been able to Find your planner for the last six months.

You intended to get rid of the tie-died shirts and polyester leisure suits, but you decided they might come back into style. You intended to go through that drawer with warrantees for all your kitchen appliances, but you've had to replace the appliances by now.

You intended to clean out that box with all the family photos. of summer vacations since 1980 and file them in a photo album, but you became depressed over seeing yourself in a pair of shorts.

So now that you have stepped out of denial and observed reality, your find yourself in that "no mans's land" week that therapists refer to as post-traumatic stress disorder. In other words, it's too late to make up for past sins, and it's too early to start new resolutions, so all rules are null and void for the week.

That's why you see people who are writing checks and not subtracting the amount, people who are eating fudge for breakfast regardless of their sugar count, people who are chopping up their Nordic Track and using it for firewood,
and people whose VISA cards are now as smooth as a hotel key.

Remember last January when you promised yourself you were actually go to send Christmas cards before Valentine's Day? Remember when you said you would be on time for work? How about those nasty habits like pretending you were not home when your relatives came to visit? Do you recall making an effort to change?

This is the week to put aside all guilt.

You can order a new planner, you can start a new die or plan a new budget - next year. Never mind that you have had the same five New Year's resolutions for the last 16 years. You get another chance!

Life is good. Fa-La-La-La-La, La-La-La-La.