The Countdown Continues...

Hello Friends! Well, I'm a little behind again. As we get closer to Christmas I will be getting busier and busier, but I will try my best to keep up with my posts! (For the seven or eight of you who actually read them, lol)  So, without further ado...

Day 59 - Try something new. Anything. Want to taste a new flavor? Try a color you always thought would be too daring! Pick a new route for your evening walk. What does this have to do with Christmas? I'm so glad you asked!  Most people have traditions at Christmas, which is good, but sometimes we feel like we can't alter those traditions without the sky falling or something. We need to push ourselves to expand our world and look at things differently once in a while. Take...oh...Christmas trees for example. (You knew that was coming.) Most people are content with having the same artificial tree they had last year, or strapping that cut tree to the top of the car and having it in their house for a while.  I'm certainly not knocking tradition, but how about we think about something new?  Try a living tree!  At least think about it. Check out livingchristmas.com and just think about it. A little note: our new and improved site should be up and running on Nov. 1! So you can just mull it over in your head until then. I love mulling, don't you?

...or you can do a tree dance like Mr. Tree!

Day 58 - Make up your own elf dance! Have fun! Blow off a little steam, or if you don't have any steam, just get some exercise in a fun way. Get some photos of yourself and go to  http://www.elfyourself.com/. Be silly, because this is the time of year to do it. 


Day 57 - If you haven't done it yet, it's not too late to do a little purging. Go through a few drawers, the closet, the garage, wherever things have collected. Take stuff you don't need to your favorite charity like AmVets, or Goodwill. You will be helping yourself have a less cluttered existance, and help others at the same time. Win-Win.

Day 56 - Make sure you have some Halloween candy for Thursday night. If you haven't done it yet, you are lagging! I just got mine yesterday, who am I to talk? I am a little more in tune to Christmas though, so that's my excuse, and I'm stickin' to it. 

A Bedtime Story

Day 72 - Start your holiday reading. If you are anything like me, you have about as much free time as a stick bug has muscles. This time of year however, I always seem to be a little more optimistic than usual (or maybe just crazier), and I start thinking that maybe I can read a whole book. It just so happens that I have a big collection of Christmas stories too. Go figure, right? No, they are not all children's books. Okay, you're right, most of them are, but I digress.
 
So...I'm not saying it has to be a Christmas book, or story. Any old reading material will do. The point is to make sure to make time for yourself. Shut out the world for a little while, and go to a new one through words, and your imagination. You remember having an imagination, don't you? Oh, and if you're sitting there thinking: "Books? Who reads books anymore? I guess I can get something on my tablet..." then don't even talk to me, you're making me feel OLD.
 

 

 

 

Merry Merry!!

 
 Care'n Presents
 
 
Photo: www.greatnewbooks.org (Check out the site: recommendations on "great books"!)

Sometimes I Need a Few Practice Shots

Day 75 - I know it will sound suspicious if I say that I need to practice making cookies and candy but the truth is, it's not as easy as it looks. Have you ever noticed that the cookies and other baked goods always look so beautiful in magazines and advertisements. Do your cookies ever come out like that? (If they do, I don't want to know.) Mine don't. They aren't ugly usually, but they aren't, by any means, perfect little uniform sized or shaped, and inevitably a batch or two gets burned or dropped on the floor. This being said, if I want to try out something new to give as a gift, it's not a good idea for me to wait until I actually want to give them away.
 

Case in point:  I got this really cool mold to make candy Christmas trees. Think about it, what better treat would a Living Christmas elf want to make?  The tree part is made with green colored white chocolate and then I add a big pretzel stick as the trunk. So I decided to make some this morning to take to The Workshop for a meeting we were having. First, the chocolate didn't really melt very well, then the pretzels broke, then I spilled coffee on a couple of them. They ended up lumpy, and I broke a few more "trunks" off getting them out of the fridge. Memo to me: these will have to be made well in advance, with back up pretzels on the side. The finished product wasn't too bad, although I had to trim off the excess chocolate that spread on the outside of the mold and a few of the "branches" broke off. On the upside, no one complains about having to eat the rejects. For that matter, no one complains if they aren't perfect either. Heck, unless they taste horrible (another good argument for practice) no one cares what they look like at all for the most part.

So have fun practicing your baking, and candy and treat making. Share the mistakes.  And even if the final batch isn't perfect, don't sweat it. It's a gift that comes from your kitchen and from your heart, and that will make it all the better.





What they are supposed to look like (Wilton)



And these are mine  :)

Merry Merry!!

Care'n Presents

Is 7 Your Lucky Number? How About 77?

Let's cut to the chase. Who has time for chit chat? Okay, who am I kidding? Without chit chat, what kind of elf would I be?  Typing, on the other hand, takes time, so on that note, I better get to it. 

Day 77 - Today, I'm going to start on 
my gift list. Every year I promise myself I'm going to do my Christmas shopping early, and every year I'm out on the week before Christmas, running around like every other crazy person who is trying to do it at the last minute. You'd think I'd know better. What if Scotty Claus waited until the last minute to deliver trees? Perish the thought!! 

So...item on my list:  start another list. I may not finish it today, but this way hopefully I won't forget anyone. There are so many people that I want to somehow at least say "Thank you" to.  If I wait until the last minute, those people are the first to be crossed off for lack of time. Not this year, by golly.  

You know how they say it's the thought that counts? I believe that. I also believe that gifts should come from the heart. I wouldn't want someone to give me something out of obligation, or guilt or something silly like that. My favorite gift is one that comes out of the blue from someone who says "I saw this and I just had to get it! It made me think of you." Those are my favorite gifts to give too. I can't always find those types of things for everyone, but when all else fails, nobody seems disappointed when I give them cookies...baked with love. So like I said: I better get to it!


Merry Merry!

Care'n Presents

A Little Catching Up to Do

Okay, so I'm already behind in my 100 days of things to do before Christmas. It isn't that I haven't thought about it, but it's been a busy week!! On Thursday, Lauren Peace (my fellow elf) and I participated in an event at the Oprah Winfrey Network. How cool is that? Seriously! Earlier in the week I was trying to get ready, making sure we had all of our Christmassy stuff ready to bring with us. This is one of my typical elf duties here at the Workshop. I get stuff together, I go, I smile and I talk about The Living Christmas Company, AND, I get to meet lots of fun and interesting people in the process. I love being an elf.

But back to the list....

Day 99 - Give someone you love a BIG hug!! (easy, right?)

Day 98 - Decide what kind of cookies to make this year. I know, not everyone makes cookies, but if you do, this is important right? Usually I make Gingerbread Trees, but I was considering Short-bread pinwheels this year, what do you think? Maybe I should stick to Trees, considering all....

Day 97 - Check out the eco-friendly wrapping paper at livingchristmas.com. We have some really groovy styles and patterns! It's never too early to think about gift giving. Think about it! On the off chance that you actually do get your shopping done early (if you are like me every year you promise yourself that you will...) you'll want to wrap those fabulous gifts!!

Day 96 - Meet someone new!! I can say I actually did that when I went to the OWN event! I met LOTS of really nice, wonderful people!

Day 95 - Think of some random person that you haven't talked to for a really long time and send them a message, or call them, or write them a letter or e-mail just to say that you are thinking of them. This is something I try to do...at least once a week. It can make someone's day. Believe me, it's always worth it. A few minutes can mean so much.


Now I'm caught up. I'll try and be better, but you know what they say...an elf's work is never done. Actually...I'm okay with that.


Merry Merry!

Care'n Presents

A New Tradition

One of the things we hear a lot at The Living Christmas Company is "...but our family tradition is to go and pick out a tree together!" or "we go to this special location in the mountains and we can cut our own tree, we do it every year!"
I think traditions are great! They keep cultures alive and meaningful. Sometimes, however, I think we can adjust our traditions, and make them our own. For example:
         Joe and Betty always bought a cut tree for Christmas. They'd pack up the kids, go down to the nearest lot and together pick out the best, most beautiful tree ever. It was their tradition. They'd bring it home, put lights and decorations on it, and for a while it was the centerpiece of their everyday lives. It would be so beautiful, that each time they'd walk past it, they'd smile. There was a feeling of holiday warmth.  When Christmas was over and things started to settle down a bit, they'd take off the lights and ornaments and drag it out to the curb to be picked up.  That's just how it went, and that was fine, and yet...the tree always looked a little sad lying there on the street. The color seemed drained out, it no longer sparkled with twinkling lights, and the needles had started falling off. (In fact, Betty would be sweeping up needles for weeks.)
          The next year, Joe and Betty went online and found http://livingchristmas.com/. It was a little bit more expensive, but on the upside, there was no strapping the tree to the roof of the car or trying to squeeze it into one of those tree stands with the water pan.  Scotty Claus's elves delivered the tree and set it up right where they wanted it. Although it was different from the trees that were at the lot, it was still full and beautiful. Joe and Betty winked at each other, knowing they had the only one of it's kind on the block. They put lights and decorations on it and for a while it was the centerpiece of their everyday lives. It was so beautiful that each time they'd walk past it, they'd smile. There was not only that feeling of holiday warmth, but of life. When Christmas was over, instead of dragging it out to the street (trailing needles galore), the elves came back to pick it up and take it to Scotty's Christmas Tree Forest. But wait! Joe and Betty liked that tree so much, they asked if they could have it again next year. After all, it was alive, right? It would in all likeliness still be alive the next year right?
         Scotty Claus curled his mustache, and told them "As a matter of fact, you can have this exact same tree next year." He explained that if they just signed up to "adopt" their tree (and they had to make sure they did sign up), that he could have it bar-coded and identified as Joe and Betty's family tree. They could even name their new Christmas-time member of the family. They named her "Gladys", as in "Glad Tidings" or "Glad to have you here."
          This year Gladys came home again. Scotty and the elves took care of her all year; she weathered the weather, and was still standing tall. Instead of packing the kids in the car and going to a lot, their new tradition is to have a little family party when Gladys comes back for the holidays, sort of a "Welcome Home/Merry Christmas/Let's Get the Season Started" party. The kids look forward to seeing Gladys again, almost like she's a present in herself...and she is in a way.
          Whatever your tradition is, hopefully it is filled with warmth and life. Enjoy your Christmas with friends, family and whomever (or whatever) you consider family (including pets, trees, furniture...).


Merry Christmas,
Stay Merry!

Care'n Presents

Do you have a story about your Living Christmas tree? E-mail me at carenpresents@livingchristmas.com.