Christmas Magic

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

Norman Vincent Peale

It was the one of those Decembers when you don't feel like celebrating.  Life was not going according to plan.  I couldn't get myself to decorate.

One day, I walked in the house to Christmas decorations everywhere.  Every room was decorated, and there were no Christmas storage boxes anywhere.  The tree was aglow, my precious decorations hanging from the branches.  Who did this?

It was magic.  The Christmas spirit came in the form of my nieces, and decorated my house.  I wept, knowing that my nieces loved me so much that they wanted to share the joy of Christmas with me in a way that touched deep inside my heart.  (They even took the boxes back to storage - so my house was nice and neat.)

If you are close to someone who isn't in the holiday spirit, bring some of the spirit to them.  You can decorate a miniature tree, bring them a wreath or a small nativity, ...  I know that when this was done for me, it was one of the kindest presents I ever received.  I love you, girls!

Recipe

This is one of my all time favorite cookies!
Toffee Bars

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg yolk
1 cup flour
6 (1.05 oz. each) milk chocolate bars
2/3 cup crushed nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and egg yolk. Add flour gradually, stirring until well blended. Spread dough in slightly greased 15.5" x 10.5" x 1" jelly roll pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until medium brown. After removing from oven, lay chocolate bars on top. Spread when melted. Sprinkle with nuts. Cool, and cut into bars.

Money Savings

Do you have a color printer?  An inexpensive and easy gift is to make note cards.  If you have a publishing or greeting card software, it's super easy to make note cards.  If you have word processing software, it's a little more difficult - the software's help will guide you.  Just search for greeting cards.  If you can't find it under help, Google the name of your software and then "greeting cards" in quotes.  Someone out there would have created a greeting card using your software.

You can choose one design, or you can print out several different kinds with similar designs.  For example, I'll print four of three different kinds of wild flowers note cards.  If the card will only be folded once, I use cardstock so that the colors don't bleed through.  if folded twice, I will use regular paper.  I usually print 10-12 cards and I include envelopes that are the same size as the card.  You can find the all you need at an office store.  Check out OfficeMax's Holiday Deals!  To make the gift more personalized, create return address labels with a small graphic that matches the graphic on your note card.

Then, take the cards and envelopes, wrap them together with raffia or ribbon, place them in a box or bag, and I'm sure they will be a much appreciated gift, because you made it from your heart!

Here is an example of a note card I made using Microsoft Publisher.  The graphic came from Microsoft ClipArt (savory).