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see below ok nancy m Monica Bolin wrote: > Me and my Martha Stewart ways will have to change! For years I have made > homemade candy at least 10 different kinds of hand dipped chocolates and > other types of candy, three kinds of cookies and up to 12 pies at > Christmas. > Then all the typical decorations (she would be proud) and the properly > wrapped presents that have a theme, i.e. the bow or decoration matches > the > theme of the wrapping (an angel on the angel wrap, etc.) The 8-foot tree > with all the trimmings from my 30 year old's kindergarten reindeer to > my 11 > year old's cub scout ornament. All of the painstakingly handmade > ornaments > that I have made each year are added to the tree. But the hand strung > popcorn is not. many have their tree decorated and just cover it for the next year. no joke. > > This year I find I can not stand long enough to dip the chocolates, > and they > are not without mistakes due to the shaking. The hand decorated Christmas > cookies with 7 different frostings, all different colors and flavors, sit > partially decorated in a tin until I can get to them, again, when I am > relatively able to do it without much shaking. The packages sit in the > closet, waiting for the finishing touches, the bows, the tags and all. (I > hope I don't forget who they are for when I can get to them again!) pencil name on wrap, so when u get back to it u will know who the pkg. is for. tag it over the pencil name . > The > lights are partially up, and not at all finished, the nativity set is > still > in the box, but the manger is out-empty and beckoning. > I have only so much energy and good hours to use! How will I ever finish > before Christmas comes? Well, I must decide which things are not > necessary, > not important, or not needed. Already the children are complaining that > Christmas isn't like it used to be, with so many "shortcuts"! What am I > going to do? since u asked... chuckle. tell ur kids to help or to finish what u started. age approp. of course. make the cookies over a 4 month period. make bar type cookies. refrigerate the frozen cookies a few days before giving. 1 kids make the dough 2 month bake dough. kids and u flatten the dough into the pan 3 spread filling and bake. kids and u taste the filling :) 4 thaw and cut u sound like u worked so hard and i can't imagine ur kids not helping. just remember the way ur kids do 'it' may not be the same as u. accept it. u will look back and smile. my son helped and took care of me since elementary school. he is now in med school. so did my husband. i can't wait until xmas dinner. all from scratch! even the gravy. in 2 years i will miss that. he will be a 3rd yr. . these next 2 years are sacred and will be very special. i am very excited and happy about it. i read ur posting to my husband and he said i was 'missing something'. i reread what i typed. he said 'no. ur still missing it.' i asked 'what?' he said the following....... 'in order for traditions to carry on , the kids have to do them. how are they going to learn them if they don't do or help out?' That is something no mom or dad could for ur kids except u two. u sound like a great mom! however, when u can't do all of 'it' u will still be a great mom. nancy > > Monica > P.S. Thanks, Dee, for the insight! I had just written this to send to you > all, as I'm sure you have all been at this point. I am still getting > used to > the idea. > > > > > > > > > > >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: >> mailto:[log in to unmask] >> In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: > mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn