Just Before Christmas Favorites

Merry Christmas! There is just enough time before the big day to join with Susanne at Living to the Tell the Story and other blogging friends for Friday's Fave Five.

College Credit - Josh took the CLEP test (College Level Examination Program) yesterday to see if he could get college credit for all that Spanish knowledge he gained during the past two years on his mission in Mexico. He ended up getting 6 hours credit - which is the equivalent of two semesters of Spanish classes! Outstanding job Josh. We are proud of you. You saved yourself (and your parents) a lot of time and money! Good job.

Stress Management - The school district I work for is trying to get all of its employees to "Take Steps for Wellness" and is offering an incentive program that is connected to our health insurance and Health Savings Account. I don't really like the idea of being "bribed" to be healthy, but I do like to participate. Charly and I both did the walking competition where we tracked the distance we walked every day since October 3. I have walked 486.5 miles since the competition began. In December, the emphasis was on stress management and we were asked to keep a calendar of what we did every day to relieve stress, and then submit it. This is my stress relief calendar. As you can see, reading and walking are my main stress relievers, but then I already knew that before keeping track. I am glad to have an employer that supports healthy lifestyles and will continue to participate in these kinds of activities.

Cold-Eeze - This stuff actually works - at least for me. Last Monday afternoon and evening, I started to feel really sick. It started with a scratchy throat then developed into a tight chest, stuffed up head and body aches. By the time I went to bed, early I might add, I was really feeling rough. I wished I could and take the next day sleep in and relax, but there was one more day of finals, so it was up early and off to school. I took some of this Cold-Eeze when I woke up in the morning and then throughout the day every 2-4 hours as the directions say. I really could feel my symptoms actually lessen as the day went on. The cold never really developed, the symptoms went away and I expect to be enjoying Christmas Eve and Christmas Day without feeling sick with a bad cold, as a feared I might be.

Gifts wrapped - the last of the gifts I had ordered from Amazon came yesterday so everything for Charly and Josh is now wrapped and under the tree. I even managed to purchase, wrap and mail birthday gifts for two little grand daughters who have birthdays shortly after Christmas

Christmas music -part of enjoying Christmas, for me, is enjoying Christmas music. In primary last Sunday, the children got to be part of an impromptu bell choir. They really enjoyed it, and the music they created was pretty good.

Special ornament - all of the Primary teachers got one of these engraved wooded Christmas ornaments last week. I love this quote that is on the back of the ornament, "As we emulate His perfect example, our hands can become His hands, our eyes His eyes, our heart, His heart."

This is a very special ornament that will be part of our Christmas for a long time to come.

Amazing sunrises - we have had some beautiful sunrises lately. I love this orange and purple sky.

I snapped this picture before school from the parking lot on the last day of finals last week. It was absolutely gorgeous. The cloudy skies that made this sunrise so pretty have also made this an overcast and rainy week here in the Valley of the Sun, but that is fine with me. I love the cool temperatures and sometimes wet winters here in Arizona, but the hot summers, not so much.

Holiday flowers - a family from our church congregation brought these by the other night. It was a unique Christmas remembrance that is still brightening our home.

Christmas baking - I don't enjoy baking, but I always end up making several batches of cookies during the holidays, mostly to share with friends and people from church. These are the Creme de Menthe cookies I made the other day. They were pretty darn good. No secret or special recipe - just took a chocolate chip cookies recipe and added Creme de Menthe chips instead of the usual chocolate.

Books sold - we are continuing to purge our belongings a bit at a time, anticipating an eventual move out of Arizona. Charly bought this set of books for $6 at Goodwill some years back, and sold them to a book collector this morning for $30! That is a pretty good return on investment. He also recently sold a large box of Sci-Fi books to another collector in Texas, so we end up with a little spare cash and fewer possessions to eventually move.

Christmas reading - this little book is excellent. It is a prequel to Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol . Usually, I am not a fan of prequels and sequels to books, especially when they are written by authors other than the original. I have had this book a couple of years, and for some reason, this year, it called to me, so I decided to read it. I loved it! Author R. William Bennett does justice to Dickens' original story and writing style, while adding the heart rending background on Jacob T. Marley explaining why he was the way he was and what happened to his spirit after Ebenezer Scrooge had his ghostly Christmas Eve and change of heart. If you like A Christmas Carol, you will probably like this book too.

As Christmas comes this year, let us not get so caught up with the busyness of having a "perfect" holiday that we forget the true meaning of Christmas - Jesus Christ and how He came to light the world and take away our darkness. Remember that the best gifts of Christmas are gifts of love that honor Him and are given with our hearts.