Update to earlier Post

I have found out that the Southern Christian Home has received many generous donations this year and while they wont turn down a donation, they arent really in need at this time.

The Missouri Baptist Childrens Home is going to be where my focus goes...they have a centralized location at MBCH, Campus Store,11300 St. Charles Rock Road, Bridgeton, MO 63044 which distributes items statewide to all the locations as needed.  Current needs are baby educational toys from birth-2 yrs old. Baby clothes premie- size 2- both male and female. Baby personal care items- baby wash, lotion etc. baby nail clippers- baby socks- diapers all sizes- hand held games for older teens- womens plus size clothing- mens white T- shirts-all sizes.  They also have a Christmas wishlist up on their website http://www.mbch.org/Common/ChristmasNeeds.asp .  They do crisis pregnancy as well as a majority of kids being 11-18 years old.  FYI...Carters and Osh Kosh have free shipping today, not sure about tomorrow, but I'm sure you can find something to send if you wish from somewhere.

Let me know if you need additional info, I have aquired all the information I think we need to make this possible, and I'd love to see great turnout on this.

A Christmas Challenge

Emily woke up in the middle of the night last night and it took a while to get her back to sleep, so I had some time to think.  I thought of our Christmas program we did many years ago...I dont remember the name of it, but the gist was there was a church Christmas party and the kids all drew names to get another child a gift and one little girl was in an orphanage and only had one toy, a little lamb her father had given her many years before that she held to as her best friend, but because she didnt have anything else to give she gave away the little lamb and in the end the other kids all learned the meaning of Christmas and that it is defintiely the thought in a gift.  I could still sing some of the songs from that musical, we had fun doing it, although I never have figured out why we were lip syncing instead of just saying our parts, but regardless it was fun.  Well, that thought led to a thought of all the kids in orphanages this Christmas that aren't simply part of a play, they dont have anything or anyone.  And I held my daughter wishing we could do something to make this Christmas a little brighter for them.  I'm not rich, I simply don't have the funds to create a magical Christmas for lots of kids, but I can spend a little and make one child's Christmas a little better...the question is, Can you?  If all of us chip in, that magical feeling of Christmas that lights up the eyes of children, might reach to these children that need a bright spot.  How are we going to do this since Christmas is next week you ask?  Ok, so I am a little behind (only had the thought at 330 am) and we are actually too late for some places requested donations, but maybe they could still make them work for Christmas (this is a new idea but wanted to throw it out to you as soon as possible)  Tomorrow just happens to be free shipping day (never knew this existed but heard it on the radio monday) and supposedly over 1000 online retailers will be offering free shipping to arrive by Christmas.  To see what stores are participating, check out http://www.freeshippingday.com/  some may still have a minimum purchase but many are free on any purchase.  So tomorrow, go online, make a purchase and have it sent to a children's home.  It doesnt have to be expensive.  I am working on getting information from the two places that came to mind early this morning....the Missouri Baptist Children's Home (homes throughout Missouri0, and the Southern Christian Home located in Morrilton, AR.  So what I'm thinking is send a gift to one of these places.  Even if they dont make it in time for Christmas, they always need things.  My target is the one that the church I grew up in always used, the Missouri Baptist Children's Home Hutchens Campus located at 603 North Main, Mt. Vernon, Missouri  65712.  As far as I can tell you can either donate to the main office in Brighton and they distribute statewide or you can donate to the individual locations, which since we are short on time might be the best way.  Most of the kids are 11-18 there, and at Mt. Vernon there are 42 kids.  With a little help, can we give every child there a gift?  That takes 41 people to help me.  http://www.mbch.org/Common/ChristmasNeeds.asp if you need an idea of what to send.  I know you have all been inundated with donation requests this time of year, and time is precious, so this is totally a personal thing if you want to help, I just feel as though God placed this idea in my head and the means to make it reality, so with 10 minutes and $10, I'm going to help a child this Christmas.  If you feel like joining me, you can post this idea on Facebook, Twitter or any of those other sites.  Or for those of you living locally to Mt. Vernon, if you have a few minutes, go by and help them out this Christmas.  Just an idea.  And at the very least every single person reading this can pray for those kids this Christmas.

Nativity

I hadnt thought of what I would say for today when I was talking to Mom earlier.  It seems as though her nativity scene has had better days  and it is in need of some tender loving care...like a glass box where it can't be touched or something of the sort.  Anyway, she was having a discussion with Dad about what has happened to it and he said, "Didn't someone fall on it once?"  Mom admitted, yes in fact, she had fallen on it, many years ago whenever we were little.  She was trying to teach us how to stand on our heads.   I dont remember that but thought it was funny so I thought I'd share. 

Classics

Do you remember when there were only 4 tv channels and people actually sat down as a family to watch the chosen evening programs?  Ok, so do you remember tv in the early 80s?  I wasnt much older than Emily whenever I remember watching the holiday cartoons...you know the evening when Garfield's Christmas, Snoopy Christmas and the Grinch were all on the same evening and if you didnt watch it that one night, you missed it altogether for the year.  Well, when Emily was watching the Grinch last night, (ok so really it was just on the tv and she was playing, but it was at least something I wasnt worried about her repeating!)  I remembered those cartoon nights.  Before it started I would go to my bedroom and get all my stuffed animals that corresponded to the show.  So with Garfield and Odie and snoopy and any others needed for teh night I would watch cartoons.  And getting them all situated with me before they began was my biggest concern for the night.  Wouldnt that be nice again??

Armadillo Eggs

Ok, so I know I said we dont have many traditions, but well, since then, several things have been pointed out to me. Like the fact that I always want armadillo eggs for Christmas. Often they make me cry. But they are very very yummy. It all started one year mom had a computer program with recipes on it. A very simple program and she found this recipe for armadillo eggs...jalapeno peppers stuffed with monterey jack cheese, covered in sausage and shake and bake. That year she'd grown peppers very successfully in the garden and had tons in the freezer. So she and I set out to make these (turned into Dad and Tara even having to help) for Christmas. Lesson #1: Rubber gloves if you are gutting and stuffing jalapenos. If you don't you'll spend Christmas eve up all night, not over anticipation for Santa, but because you can't sleep due to the BURNING! Ok, so it took about 4 hours to make these, thinking might not want to do it again and then I tasted them. They were good. So then until the last two years Mom and I made them, coming up with many easier ways to do things. Then I have abandoned her and she's had to do them herself. But I do love a good armadillo egg, making my mouth water just typing this. And if you feel like getting some younger gullible members of your family, you can always say they are fried mice.

So here's the recipe (from my memory...mom you may want to comment)

You will need some nice jalapeno peppers, monterey jack cheese (shredded), breakfast sausage (get the good stuff it works better), bisquick, egg, pork shake n bake.

First, gut the jalapenos, ,take the membrane and seeds out...the more you leave in, the hotter they will be. You want to leave the stem on them and slice down one side and get the guts out that way.

Next, roll up shredded cheese, until it is roughly the shape of the inside of the jalapeno and stuff it in the slit.

Next, in a food processor mix sausage and bisquik until it is well, patty making consistency. DIvide the mixture into balls, roughly tennis ball size. Place the ball between two sheets of wax paper and roll into a pancake. Wrap the pancake shape around your jalapeno, sealing off the opening where you gutted and filled, leaving only the stem sticking out.

Next beat some eggs. dip the covered pepper in egg and then roll in shake n bake.

Place on a cookie sheet and bake until the sausage is browned and it looks done (30 minutes?)

Enjoy....but have water handy. I've had some so mild that you could just eat them and not have any feelings of heat and then i've had others that have literally made me cry (but yet I dont think i've ever thrown one away:)

2005 Silver Dollar City

In 2005 we all got season passes to Silver Dollar City and so we went regularly and tried to go at least once during every festival, including Christmas. I had to go back to Arkansas immediately after we left SDC the night we went for Christmas, but Blaine rode there with me. We were talking about Christmas and I asked him if he knew if was Jesus's birthday. And he said, "Yeah, do we celebrate it the whole month because Jesus is really special?" And we went on to talk about how Santa helps us celebrate Jesus and it was great to see the innocence of children that it wasnt complicated with the commercialism, it was all just because Jesus was special that he wants us to have such a great and long Christmas. Blaine, age 4, playing in the toy store.

Cameron, 1 1/2. The poor child was so bundled up he couldnt hardlly move.

Pretty Christmas lights at SDC

Playing with the trains.

Sitting on Santa. One of them wasnt too excited about it.

The other was very excited.

1989

It was cold in 1989. Not just a little bit cold, it was very cold. I remember getting very excited Christmas morning when I unwrapped a nice warm pair of camo coveralls to wear while waiting for the bus. ANd that is the year when the creek froze. Now, in some parts of the country, that isn't all that amazing in and of itself, but in the southwest corner of Missouri, it just doesnt happen very often. Ponds will freeze, sometimes even enough to walk out on them, but not for the entire winter or anything, but the creek, a moving body of water, rarely freezes, but in 1989 Crane Creek froze over. I remember going to Granny's and getting Daddy's ice skates and going down and skating on the creek. (I had to wear my shoes the ice skates were way to big but daddy wore them). How is it that slipping and sliding on the creek can be so much fun, but whenever it is someplace we have to go, we despise it? I think that may also have been the winter whenever we had to tie a rope to the tree to get between the house and the garage because of the ice. And possibly even the year mom took the garbage out. Ok, Mom has taken the garbage out frequently, probably almost every day, but there was one memorable time. There was ice. She took it out and had gone slightly down the hill and when she tried to come back she just kept slipping further and further down the hill, until she decided she wasnt going to make it up and just went down the hill to the road and to the driveway. (thus making it to the top of the hill) The trick was stopping on her way back down at the house....which she did manage. I suppose helping her would have been the nice thing to do, instead of standing in the house laughing, but you can't change the past, and it was funny:)

I have been writing Christmas memories this month, but we aren't living in the past. The ten or twenty minutes I spend writing is about all I think about it. We are having a wonderful Christmas season and I finally got around to putting a few pictures on the computer of the past couple weeks.

Emily decorating her tree.

She loves putting baby Jesus in the stable, however Mary has ran off and the animals tend to live on top instead of inside but that is ok. Whenever she sees the nativity anywhere she says, "baby Jesus". Its adorable.

I asked her to pose and she did, just not terribly close to me and with a messy toybox in the background!

Dress up is one of her favorite games, especially hats!

I'd been brushing her hair and it was actually somewhat straight on top.

They spent most of the time waiting for the bus running around the pole in the garage (look how clean the garage is....Neal spent all weekend cleaning it last weekend and it looks great!)

She still sometimes uses the baby swing, but she is about to be too big and she loves teh big kid swing too.