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Grandkid Time

Well. Christmas at the Edgar household was a huge success! AND, it's cold, people! I couldn'tbe happier...

AND, it just gets better, my bonus daughter and her family are coming in today! Which means my grandkids will be here for a few days! Yay! I'm very excited to see them, and Charlotte is even more excited. So, it's going to be a fun rest of the week.

On Friday night all of our kids will get together here and exchange gifts and share a meal, then Saturday night is ALL of Robert's family's night up at Warren. There are close to 60 of us when we all get together. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. But fun. And pretty crazy...

So, I'm going to take a short break from "Sherra's Take" and see you all back here on Monday, December 31. I hope your holiday week is fun and relaxing. Mine will be fun, not sure about the relaxing!

Merry Christmas

Last year after Thanksgiving, I bought a little Fisher Price Nativity Set for the grandkids to play with. Peyton was 4 and the girls were 2. Charlotte, who lives about 5 minutes from us and is at our house a lot, was so excited. She was immediately taken with the Baby Jesus. She carried Him around with her all through the house. I knew right away it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship between the two of them.

This year, while I was taking decorations down, I came across the set and put it out on the table. The next time Charlotte came over, she played and played with the set. When it was time to pick up toys, I noticed that the Baby Jesus wasn’t with the rest of the pieces.

So, I asked Charlotte, “Where is Baby Jesus?” She looked at me, then at the nativity set, then back at me and said, “He’s gone.” I said, “What do you mean He’s ‘gone?’ “He’s just gone,” she said. “Well, we need to find Him!" I said, "You can’t have a nativity set without the Baby Jesus. He’s the most important part!”

We looked for a while. No Baby Jesus. I kept looking over the next few days: under the couch, in the toy closet, in the dryer, (yes, I’ve found toys in the dryer following visits from the grandkids.) Still, no Baby Jesus. So, our Fisher Price nativity set has been missing its main character this entire Christmas season. Hmm.

When I look around me, I realize that my grandkids’ toy nativity set is not the only place Jesus seems to be missing from. Many of our nation’s leaders don’t seem to have a place for him while they strive to guide us. Jesus is clearly missing from our country’s schools and the effects of his absence are painfully obvious.

Jesus appears to be missing from many of our homes today as well. More and more families don’t seem to look for him in their everyday lives or even in times of trouble.

Sadly, Jesus is even missing in some of our churches today. We’ve become more interested in finding the right program or some magic formula than the Savior of the world. Even at Christmas, Jesus seems to be gone. Just gone.

The thing is, just like our nativity set, Christmas without Jesus just isn’t right. It has no purpose, no real meaning. It’s like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without the peanut butter. Or a cheeseburger without the cheese. Something’s just wrong without Him.

See, Jesus should be the main attraction, not only at Christmas, but every day of your life. He's the protagonist, the headliner, the hero. What I’m trying to say is, without Jesus Christ in the great, big middle of your life, what’s the point?

So, today, celebrate and spend time with loved ones, open beautifully wrapped packages of the most wished for surprises, and eat way more than you eat any other time of the year. But more than anything I hope that if you don’t know where Jesus is in your life, look for Him. He’s right there, waiting for you to discover Him. If you’ve already found Him, just like Charlotte, take Him with you wherever you go and hold Him close. Because just like the nativity set, your life is just not gonna be right without Him.

O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!
O come ye, o come ye, to Bethlehem!
Come and behold Him, born the King of angels
O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

"Seriously, We Don't Even WANT the Bacon!"

CHRISTMAS EVE GIFT!!!! What, your family doesn't play the "CHRISTMAS EVE GIFT!" game? That's a shame. You're missing out on an extra present. You have to be the first person to say "CHRISTMAS EVE GIFT!" to someone, then they have to go out and buy you an extra gift. It's a favorite between my brother and I. We never agree on who wins.

My weekend was great! Friday we had a very successful Christmas candy and sweets baking day over at Mom's. My brother didn't help much. What else is new?

Then we watched 2 movies with my sister-in-law, Alexandrea. It was fun and relaxing.

Then on Saturday, I got my nails done, then Mom and I had lunch and did a little shopping. It was a wonderful day. We talked and talked until our tongues were worn out. We solved every problem we could think of, and wondered why we weren't in charge of the world. Our last stop of the day: "The Walmart." *sigh...and everything had been going so well...

Of course half of the population of Lumberton was in Walmart. OK. That might be a slight exaggeration. But, there were a lot of people. As mom and I got our separate shopping carts and forumlated our strategy to meet by the turkeys, I thought to myself, "It's 3 days til Christmas, I'm finally over my virus, I'm out in the hustle and bustle, my shopping is all but done, I'm going to be the nicest person in this store. I'm going to give-way to everyone I meet, smile, and say 'Merry Christmas.'"

And I did. Right up until the point that we got in line to check out. It was 5:40pm when we got in line. I know the exact time because I was picking up Charlotte at around 6, so I texted my daughter-in-law to tell her we were in line. No way we'd be late. Read on...

There were 2 people in line in front of us. Because Mom and I both (unfortunately) are frequent Walmart customers, we basically know who the best checkers are. One of our favorites is this older lady, very sweet and very quick. Except for today.

Some elderly lady was checking out. Bless her heart. I can't even begin to tell you what all the problems were. The ones I could hear included something about gift cards not activating correctly, something wasn't priced correctly, she couldn't remember her debit pin, winds were blowing from the south instead of the north, WHO KNOWS. But, it was taking forever...and I could feel my Christmas spirit beginning to wane...

The poor checker called a manager over at least twice. Mom and I were giving each other "that look." Then, I managed to comment on how the "poor checkers" were working so hard, blah blah blah, loud enough for those around me to hear, namely the couple behind me where the man looked like he might begin throwing his wife's eggs at people at any moment. Onward...

After about 20 minutes, yes 20 minutes, the elderly lady finally left, apologizing over her shoulder to all of us, along with the checker. Mom and I gave our best Christmas smiles and nods.

The lady in front of me went fairly quickly, and I felt encouraged. When it was my turn, I calmly told the checker just to breathe, everything was fine, ("You have to work til 11:00pm? Oh, my word! You're doing such a good job...") Mom was smiling and nodding...which is what she does when she can't hear what people are saying, but that's fine because the checker doesn't know this about Mom...

I was done in about 5 minutes. Time for Mom. The first issue she had was that the gift cards she was trying to buy wouldn't activate correctly either. So now the checker, our new BFF, was trying to explain it to Mom, who can't hear, and apologizing about, oh, 25 times. Finally, after I'm trying to snatch the stupid gift cards out of her hand, and saying, "It's fine. We'll go somewhere else. No, we don't need to go to Customer Service. It's fine, really it's fine," she moves on. To the bacon...

The bacon wasn't priced. See, the bacon wasn't priced. It.Wasn't.Priced. I was standing off to the end of the conveyor belt when I saw the clerk's hand was moving toward the button to turn on the flashing light for a manager. It was like it was in slow motion. I moved toward her, shaking my head violently, when Mom realized what she was doing and started to lunge toward her as well. But, alas, we were too late. On goes the flashing "8" light for our register. Mom looked at me as if she'd been kicked in the stomach, then looked at the man behind her in line, who is now eating some of the groceries from his basket. She then turned to the checker, began waving her arms crazily in the air, saying, "I don't even WANT the bacon. Really, I don't. I don't want it. I don't need it, do I?" turning to me for support.

I agreed and thought, "Well played, Mom. Now, we're out of here." But...no...

The clerk says, "Oh, no it's really no trouble. It'll only take a few minutes..."

...to walk to the BACK of the store, wading through the throngs of people, to find bacon that IS priced, when "we don't even WANT it in the first place." Thanks, from the bottom of my heart...so long, Christmas spirit.

Needless to say, Mom's checking out took another 20 minutes, for a grand standing-in-line-total of 45 minutes. And we were late picking up Charlotte after all. All because of the bacon. That we didn't even WANT.

Fa-la-la-la-la,la-la-la-la. Love ya, Christmas!

Fun Friday: Christmas Baking Edition

So. You will all be happy to know that I have crossed back over to the land of the living. There were a few moments of transition yesterday, due to a SPLITTING headache, where I truly thought of just "running towards the light," but after a migraine pill and a few tablespoons of soup, I decided to stay. After all, it is Christmas.

I've spent the morning so far today and most of last night helping Robert and Riley get ready to leave with my dad for a weekend of hunting. Robert actually just drove off to get my dad, then pick Riley up from his very last mid-term. The only thing I can add is that, with my limited diet today, it's such a shame that I couldn't have had a glass of wine.

But, on the brighter side of things, it's only 4 days left til Christmas and I have the WHOLE WEEKEND to myself!!! HEY, HEY!!! I'm going to begin my celebration today by doing Christmas baking with my mom and my brother. And my brother's dogs.

We are going to make Christmas cookies and candy. I'm actually going to try 2 new recipes this year: Orange Capuccino fudge and Shortbread cookies. Then we'll probably make regular fudge and divinity, a family tradition. I haven't been able to do this with Paul in years, but we're doing it later this year, so it's worked out perfect. It should be loads of fun, very messy, and with yummy results. I'll take pictures, don't worry.

So, today's recipe is the Divinity I mentioned earlier. It's my grandma, MY MeMe's, recipe, and it's THE BEST. EVER. Everyone who eats it says so and they can't ALL be wrong. Here's my Meme's tip: you have to make it on a day that is low in humidity, with no rain. I don't know about your part of the world, but that can be a challenge around here. But, because God loves me and I've been sick, it's in the upper 30's here today and sunny. Thanks, God, I love Ya!

Have a great weekend, get your shopping done, you're almost out of time. Oh, yeah! My dad fixed my lights again! Love, love him!

Divinity

Ingredients:

5 C sugar
1 C light corn syrup
1 C water
2 egg whites, room temperature
smidge of salt
2 C chopped nuts, we use walnuts
1/4 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Combine sugar, corn syrup and water in 3 qt. pan. Bring to a boil on high, stirring. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and continue boiling until temperature is around 238-240 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. Place egg whites in large mixing bowl. Beat until foamy, then add salt. Beat until peaks form.
3. Once syrup combo has reached 240 degrees on candy thermometer, slowly pour it into beaten egg whites. Beat until mixture holds its shape and loses gloss (about 20-25 minutes by hand. This is the hard part, by the way.)
4. Fold in chopped nuts and vanilla.
5. Drop onto aluminum foil in spoonfuls. May have to "set" for a while.

I Will Survive

OK, I'm sure you all are dying to hear an update on my health...or lack of it.

I made it to the doctor yesterday, barely. My mother drove me, thank God. I felt horrible and was trying hard not to cry like a 5-year-old in the waiting room. They did a flu test that came back negative and pronounced me with a "nasty stomach virus that's been going around." Hmm. OK. How did I catch said stomach virus, you ask? I have no idea...

So, here are my goals for today:

1. To drink and possibly EAT something that stays where it's supposed to. Enough said on that.

2. Medicate myself until my head stops feeling like it has an arrow stuck in it.

3. Only lay on the couch in intervals. My back and ribs feel like I've been trapped for days under a huge rock.

4. Work on my writing project - I still have deadlines.

There. I'm already tired just reading all that. And, let me tell you - those are some pretty lofty goals for someone who has almost morphed into part of the couch.

Here's hoping for a better day!

SO Sick

Well, friends...I think I have the flu. Yep. The flu. I feel like I've been hit by the proverbial "mack truck."

I'm going to the doctor at 11:15 today to find. I'll keep you posted.

This was NOT on my Christmas list...