Just call me the Grinch

It is just too early for all this Christmas. I’m not ready. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t
want to put up decorations and I don’t want to keep my one year old out of the decorations.
Why do they start it up earlier every year? Do you remember how exciting it was when FM 100
started their 100 hours of Christmas? Yes, just 100 hours. Not 100 days. I woke up with a
candy hang over the day after Halloween to Christmas music and it made me sick. Do you
remember when Black Friday started on Friday? I do. I remember. Maybe 36 is getting really
old.

My boys could have gigantic Christmas lists. I’m a scary mom. I squash their lists regularly. I
want to hear what they want, but I don’t think they should want every Star Wars Lego set ever
sold. They seriously think that Santa has unlimited funds! At some point I asked them if they
had ever been let down by Santa. I don’t suggest asking this question. Well, yes! “Don’t you
remember mom? I didn’t get the exact Lego set I asked for the day before Christmas last year.”
Or “I wanted this (whatever, I don’t remember), but I got it from Grandma, not Santa.” So I tell
them now that they just have to trust Santa and be happy with getting something. Then I bring
up How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Those little Whos still celebrated without a Christmas crumb!


My sweet 7 year old loves to decorate and change the house. He can see all the trees in the
windows and lights on the roof. He talked Chris into putting up the outside lights. Good idea to
do it before it snows and he can’t get on the roof. Bad idea that we have to turn them on already.
Frosty is tied to the porch with a bungee cord. The wind kept ripping him off the porch last year
so I took matters into my own hands.


I’m not always this ornery. The lack of sleep (baby still gets up in the night) and constant hide
and seek is getting to me. I think Christmas was easier with a fussy 2 month old than a wild one
year old. Ellie moves everything around. I think the Tree is going to be a nightmare this year.
The boys were very mild babies. Steven tried to pull the lights off and I used twisty ties to keep
them on. I don’t think Isaac touched the tree. I can’t let the boys down. They need a tree!
But they won’t get one until December 10th.

Merry Music

This week I have been thinking about which songs I want to teach in primary.  Last year we got to the last 2 weeks and only knew a few Christmas Songs.  I spent a lot of time on Where Love Is after the program.  Last year we learned the first verse to Stars Were Gleaming.  It is a fun song with lots of rhyming words and pictures I could draw on the board.  We tried it today and Yay!  The kids remembered most of it.  Today we learned Once Within A Lowly Stable.  I have a terrible habit of leaving for church with only a small idea of how I want to do singing time.  Somehow the spirit still guides me and primary turns out okay. 

This song talks about a stable, sheep and oxen, loving mother, baby, manger, Mary Mother, and Baby Fair.  So I pulled those words from the song and wrote them on some 1/2 index cards.  At the library I found two pictures of the Nativity and I lightly taped the words - with numbers on the other side - to the pictures.  I had the primary listen while I sang the song and asked them to tell me the word behind each number.  I sang it until all the words were showing, then had them sing with me a few more times while we took all the words off.

Junior primary understood right away what I wanted and made the connection between the picture and where I had the cards taped.  Good for them!  One song down, two or three to go.  Next week I want to do Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus. For the opening song this month we are singing The Shepherd's Carol and for an activity song we are doing one verse a week of Have a Very Merry Christmas!

Cream Puffs

This is one of my favorite deserts.  My mom let me make them all the time as a teenager.  This is from a great cookbook called Hilton Family Cookbook of the Century.  It actually has a menu for the entire year.  I should try following it sometime to eliminate the question "What's for Dinner?" 

Cream Puffs:

1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1/4 t. salt
1 cup flour (they say sifted, but I never do)
4 large eggs

In a sauce pan, heat water, butter and salt to a boil.  Reduce heat and stir in flour with wooden spoon until mixture forms a ball.  Remove from heat.  Put dough in mixer (I just use my hand mixer in the same saucepan) and add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.  Drop onto a greased baking sheet (by teaspoon or tablespoon depending on the size you want) and bake at 400 for 10 minutes.  Lower heat to 350 and bake for 25 minutes.  Puffs are ready when double in size and golden brown.  Slit top and fill with filling.

I like to fill mine with vanilla pudding blended with 1 cup whipping cream whipped and sweetened.

Some day I want to try them with chicken salad or something savory.  If you want to make eclairs use a pastry bag with a big tip to put them on the baking sheet and then cover with chocolate frosting.  Enjoy!

Primary Singing Time

I have been our ward's Primary Chorister for one and a half years now.  I love my church calling.  I get to sing, and laugh, and play games while the rest of you look up scriptures and listen to lessons.  I have found so many cute blogs by primary choristers who share their brilliant ideas with the cyber world.  Some of them have saved me at 11 pm on a Saturday night.  So I want to share some of my Singing Time philosophy on my blog.

• First: I keep it simple.  Simple props and games.  I use things that I normally have in my house.  I use the chalkboard almost every Sunday.  Most of the time if Junior primary loves something the Senior primary will love it to.  I am often surprised at how fast Junior primary will catch on, even if I think an idea is too challenging or if they have to read.  I rarely change things for the 2 different groups.  My favorite way to teach a song is to draw pictures on the board that represent the words or phrases of the song.  Each time they sing it I take something off.  By the time everything is erased everyone knows the song.

• Second: FUN.  If it isn't fun I get a little scary.  I like to have the children sing in different voices, or pick songs in different ways.  I like to move and call on as many kids as possible.  My favorite trusty tool is a set of crazy cubes that our pianist made and let me use.  They are a styrophome blocks covered in fabric with little see through windows.  I put little cards in the windows for my selections that week.  I have one for the song and one for the way to sing the song.  The only drawback to this is you can't always choose appropriate ways to sing the songs.  Hillbilly did not go over very well with some of our teachers. 

• Third: Repeat.  We sing many of the same songs for the entire month.  I want my primary to learn as many songs from the songbook as possible, not just the ones suggested for the program or the standards everyone knows.  We do the same opening/reverence song, article of faith, and activity song every Sunday for a month.  By the end of the month the kids know new songs.  My primary president suggested this idea for the reverence song and I loved it so much I expanded it to several songs.  Fast Sunday is the hardest with this idea because it involves me singing and the kids listening to learn 3 new songs.

If I have something turn out well in the future I will post it.  I learned so much as a new chorister reading about what other people do.