It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Holiday Baking

I've begun my holiday baking again for this year.  (Look out, Mom, I'm bringing some with me!)  So far, I've made chocolate no-bakes, chocolate fudge, 7 layer bars (hubby loved these--I'll post the recipe soon), and a tweaked chocolate cookie to which I added peppermint extract and subbed M&Ms for the prescribed chocolate chips.  Not a bad experiment!  I still plan to make chocolate-covered pretzels and peanut blossoms, then give them all away.  I remember when I was young, my mother would spend days baking all sorts of delicious Christmas cookies, because she and the other neighborhood women would all exchange cookies.  No one seems to do that anymore.  Everyone is diet-crazed and acts like Christmas cookies are a disease on a plate.  It makes me sad, because it was such a neat tradition, and an excuse to get together and visit with others around the holidays.  Wow, seems like those days are looong gone.  I think I'm getting more nostalgic as time goes by.  Does this mean I'm an old woman already in an early 30s body??

Beautiful Snow

It seems as though winter has finally arrived here in Ohio.  As I type, snow is falling softly and silently outside of our office window.  It's beautiful, and so peaceful.  We have had small amounts and dustings of snow all week.  I feel like I live inside of a snow globe!  There is something about the purity and silence of the snow that is so attractive.  A snow-covered farm landscape or cozy home seems like the perfect setting to me...the snow covers the dead brown grass and bare trees with a striking contrast of dark and light and seems to make everything clean.  How I long to live in the middle of the woods, in the middle of winter!  There would be nothing more peaceful and perfect as being curled up in front of a blazing fireplace with a quilt and my husband and watching the snow fall outside.  To me, that would be heaven!

Christmastime 

Can you believe that Christmas is two weeks from Saturday??  Where has the time gone?  I love this season, but it seems to go by so fast anymore.  We are done with our shopping for this year, except for one more gift to purchase.  It's nice to have that done, because now I can sit back and relax.  I am not one for crowds anyway, so I try to get Christmas shopping out of the way early so that I'm not fighting crowds at the stores.  This year I finished later than usual.  I did a decent amount of shopping online too, which is something I don't do very often.  I just found some really good ideas/prices online this year.  Now we are free to enjoy the holidays, which includes a few Christmas parties coming up.  Should be a fun time, especially with the snow that is being forecast for this weekend!

This time of year is the best time, in my opinion.  However, it's easy to lose sight of the real reason that we celebrate this time of year.  When we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, we celebrate the real gift that God gave the world, and the ability to spend eternity with Him if we choose to do so.  So when the snow falls, and the presents are opened, I hope that everyone remembers the Gift that was given to wash away all of our sins and make us pure and worthy of a relationship with God: "...though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." (Isaiah 1:18)  Praise the Lord for the incredible gift He has given!  I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas season, and that you carry it in your heart all year long!