On the Ninth Day of Christmas

     Today I'm zipping through.  I've just finished preparing many, many gifts.  As I have not been able to stop long enough to take pictures, I will give you a hint as to what those gifts are.  Tomorrow, I will post pictures and share more information with you about how you, too, can have as much fun as my good husband and I have been having.  With gifts!  Tsk, tsk.

     Okay, here's your hint:  this lumpy, bumpy, dirty...

     Have you guessed what we've been doing?  Well, hurry on back over here tomorrow and find out, then.  I so look forward to seeing you.  Until then, keep a hug on.

The Sixth Day of Christmas

     As promised, tonight we'll do something for the boys.  Just as little girls love dolls, so do little boys have certain things that come naturally to them, as well.  Of course, they collect treasures; rocks, sticks and shiny objects to be turned into something more interesting later on.  But what I have witnessed in my grandies, most especially the boys, is their love for leaping from tall buildings in a single bound.  The tall building may only be the kitchen stool, but where the imagination goes, I like to encourage it.  Therefore, it wasn't too much of a stretch for me to come up with the perfect gift for a little boy.


     Do you sew?  Do you sew well or, just enough to get by?  The nice thing about this gift is you don't have to be an assistant to Martha Stewart in order to make a child happy.  Depending on the size of the child, scrounge around for a piece of material.  Medium-size children would probably use about a yard square or thereabouts.  Solid colors are perfect, but don't discount the ability of a child to overcome all kinds of obstacles with the help of their imaginations.


     Now, hem all four sides of the material and at one end, leave the ends open for a string to run through.  If you have a hand machine for creating snaps, that's even better.  Next, simply run a string or a long strip of material through the opening and its all ready.  A cape.  Add imagination and one more child takes to the air.


     And from me... keep a hug on.

On the Second Day of Christmas

     A poem for the first day of Christmas was my natural path.  As one who has often thought in rhyme, poetry has given me many opportunities to share my love with others.  And just as peotry can speak from the heart, so can stories bring messages of love.

     Be sure to give your computer the full benefit of letting you create something nice.  For the cost of a little bit of time, some ink and a few sheets of paper, you can write a story for a child in your life that will bring many hours of delight.  By learning to make tables or graphs on your computer, you can divide normal-size sheets of paper into large or small sections and type either a very long story or a very short one for that special child or children in your life.  Color, cut, paste or sew the sections together or, go with the color provided by your printer and you have the makings of a personalized gift.  Add some stickers and you're all set to be a child's hero.  And did I mention that cardstock makes a great book cover, along with colored pages for the inserts?

     You write a story just because

     You want to show how much you love.
     With that in mind, you will agree,
     A story on day two, must be.

     Join me tomorrow for another labor of love with limited funds.  We still have a couple of weeks before that jolly old elf appears.  That should give us plenty of time to make gifts for everyone on the list, right?

On The First Day of Christmas

     I was thinking about the song The Twelve Days of Christmas and I began wondering how a person would survive as a gift-giver under such stress.  I don't know about you, but my purse strings would be gravely  strained by having to come up with enough ideas for multiple Christmas gifts.  In fact, with the economy being what it is, my purse already gives off only a very faint sound of Jing, instead of Jingle. 


     Fortunately, as a child, I took this song to heart.  I thought there was some kind of unwritten law that said I had to be prepared in case the need for a dozen gifts should ever arise.  Naturally, my economic situation was pretty much the same then as it has always been, so I very wisely created a full dozen gifts that could comfortably be given without causing undue pain to the pocketbook.  :-)  Now, don't you just think I was such a clever child?


     In case you wish to actually give gifts for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas, I will post one idea each day until Christms Eve.  There are more than twelve days until Christmas, so this should help you to have different ideas for different people on your list.  After all, you wouldn't want to give the same gifts to everyone, now, would you?


     With that in mind, here is the first gift: 

A poem is where you'll want to start

To give a gift that's from the heart.

     I do hope that this will help with the love you show this year and many years to come.  See you tomorrow?

The Twelve Days of Christmas

     On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... seven swans a swimming.  Have you ever thought about the meaning of that song?  Do you know when the seventh day of Christmas is?  According to legend, the seventh day of Christmas falls on January 1st.  Here's how it works:  the first day of Christmas begins on the evening of Christmas day and continues through until the 26th.  Day two is the 27th and so on. 


     Epiphany, or the 6th of January, is the twelvth day of Christmas.  That is, unless you go by the Eastern Orthodox Calendar, in which case, gifts are given on January 7th and Epiphany, or Theophany, is observed on January 19th.  Its actually very interesting the way it works out, but far more complicated than I could ever begin to explain.  If you'd like to read up on it yourself, go to this link and you may be quite surprised at what you learn.


     So the next time you hear the The Twelve Days of Christmas playing, consider how much history is actually involved.  For myself, I always thought that the Twelve Days of Christmas started either December 1st or twelve days before Christmas Day.  How 'bout you?