"Panic" stations!

   

With only a few days to go, it is reassessing everything you have bought or made for gifts and for the table.  Is it enough, have you covered everybody, have you forgotten anything?

Today I am making mini quiches for everyone's breakfast Christmas morning and fudge and mini Christmas puddings, (plus possibly a couple of other items, it will depend on how smoothly everything goes.)  Tomorrow I am finalising shopping and also babysitting whilst my son & daughter in law finish their shopping for their household.  Tuesday I wish to stay home all day, cook all my meat, make my trifles, tidy up all that is not covered by Christmas and rest if I can before the onslaught of Christmas Day.  As much as I LOVE Christmas, I find it totally exhausting and look forward to relaxing on Boxing Day, snacking on leftovers and watching the Boxing Day test from Melbourne.  Go Australia!!!

The week after Christmas I will focus on using Christmas leftovers and preparing for 2014.  I am also going to slacken off for  few days and will be back in force from January 6, 2014. 
Through all the stress, keep smiling over the next days, turn the TV off and Put some carols on the CD player, crank up the volume, encourage the children to help you with the household chores and sing, sing, sing.  You will not notice the time flying by and all will be happy.  

This weeks  Christmas Planning:  is :    Cranberry Nut Stuffing

My recipe for this week is an easy one as we will all be busy most days.  It is : (Slow cooker) Day 165: Chow Mein Casserole
There is also a great recipe for Holiday Pinwheels
Also, if you go to the link below you will have a very pleasant surprise: Christmas ideas   I hope you enjoy these recipes.


Crafts & Children's Activities
The crafts for this week are two that I found for use when driving distances with children.  That is why it will be on both Crafts & Children's Activities.

1.    Story Wheel:   

2.  Doodle Drawing game:

Lastly, my Quote of the Week: is an oldie but a goodie.  Have a read and read it to your children please.  Remember, there are also Christmas Quotes every day till Christmas.

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:1897

"Dear Editor--I am 8 years old. 
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. 
Papa says, 'If you see it in The Sun, it's so.' 
Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?" 
Virginia O'Hanlon, 
115 West Ninety-fifth Street

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no child-like faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Merry Christmas every one and be safe all!