Christmas Tour 2006

Marg and Kailina are hosting a Christmas Tour and bloggers signed up to share Holiday treats, memories or just some fun.



Recipe

First I will share a recipe that has been locked in a vault for years. I call them Maid Marians but apparently they are actually called Maid of Honors (HA!! I have searched for a recipe with this name and what comes up is sooo not the recipe I'm looking for). My Mom's best friend makes them for me every Christmas but last year my Mom claimed she had never tried them and wanted to know why I was getting special treatment.

I was not happy.

Needless to say another addict was born and I was forced to split my take with my mom. Curses!

This year, I plan to try and make them myself - the few times I have tried I have over cooked them and when they are over cooked you can play hockey with them. Hopefully I can figure this recipe out but since I'm sure there are many excellent bakers out there here is the recipe.

Maid Marians (aka Maid of Honors aka Whatever Name You Wish to Call Them)

1/2 Cup Butter or Margarine
1 1/2 Cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
1 Can (14oz) of Sweetened Condensed Milk (Carnation makes one as does Eagle)
2 Cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (or any variation of chip you would prefer)
1 Cup Flaked Coconut
1 Cup chopped Walnuts (or another nut you would like - I'm thinking pecans)

Directions:

Preheat Oven to 350 *F

Melt butter in a 13 x 9" baking pan in oven, remove from oven (or melt with microwave). Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over the butter, stir well and then press into the bottom of the pan. In a small bowl stir condensed milk, coconut, chocolate chips and nuts together and then pour over the graham cracker crumbs.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes (remember don't over do them) and then remove from oven, let cool and then cut into squares. In all honesty, keep the squares to a smaller size than normal - these bars are very rich!

My best friend's mom doesn't put the nuts in and puts very little chocolate on them so I think you can move ingredients in and out as you like but I am going to try and bake these ones up as they are my absolute favourite bite-size morsel of food during Christmas!

A Game

The Secret Santa Swap which is better known as the White Elephant Gift Exchange:

Our family only discovered this little game about 5 years ago. We still do Christmas as usual but now each person buys an extra gift valued at 35 dollars. This gift needs to be universal in it's appeal and thus, no candles, girlie things or drills or manly things AND it should be something you want. The gifts have no tags and are dropped in one area and for the most part you try to hide the gift you have brought.

On Christmas Eve our family does the Secret Santa Swap - basically you put every ones name in a hat and then you pick one person to pick out a name. The first person goes to the pile and picks a gift to open up - they have to show everyone. This person then picks a person's name from the hat and that person has one of two options. 1. Take the present that has already been opened and thus the first person has to open another gift or 2. Pick a gift to open.

Now, because it gets confusing let's skip down to the last person. They can open the last gift under the tree or steal anybody elses gift. If they chose to steal then the person they stole from makes a choice - steal or open the last gift. The one rule is that once a gift has been stolen it cannot be stolen again until another gift has been opened. The game is over when someone chooses to open the last gift.

My family has been known to swap after the stealing is over because I'm a people pleaser and I live to make others happy. Not only that but you may not end up with the gift you brought and sometimes that sucks. Bah-hum-bug!

A friend of mine did a Secret Santa Swap where each person had to bring the worst thing they had received as a gift. Apparently this can be hilarious but I would not suggest doing this with family.

Santa Presents

It has been interesting to read how others celebrate Christmas and for years I thought Santa visited everyone the exact same way. Our Santa came on Christmas Eve and was used as 'you better go to bed and go to sleep or Santa won't come' tool and it was effective! As children we were never allowed to open any gifts before the actual day. Not one!

Christmas morning would arrive more than likely at the crack of dawn (the only day of the year that us kids ever got up that early) and we would have to go and wake all the parents. We had to wait on the stair landing for all the adults to brush their teeth and such and we would be just brimming with eagerness to get to the tree.

See, our Santa doesn't wrap his gifts. They are all out ready and waiting for the kids to run down and start playing. There was a mirror at the bottom of the stairs that reflected a part of the living room where the tree and gifts were. As the parents got ready one of the braver children would peek around the bend and try and see through the mirror what was there. These are my favourite memories of my Gram's house and I hope they will always remain with me.

Nowadays we have no young ones in the family so we are usually able to stay in bed until at least a normal 9am and well, Santa doesn't come for the adults. (It wasn't until I married Bob that I discovered that Santa will come and bring wrapped trinkets for the stockings if your an adult.) This may be shocking to people but we start opening gifts at about 9am and can still be opening presents well into the afternoon! Bob and I had one year where we finally decided that we just couldn't open any more presents and left the rest for the next day. Course the ooohing and aaaahhhing take some time and then there are the coffee breaks for the addicts but after hours of opening presents you really just want a nap!

This year is the first year Bob and I will host Christmas and we're both excited and nervous. We brought up the fact that Santa visits our house and leaves gifts in stockings and I was surprised at how happy some of the adults were about this - my dad is being a grinch so I'm sure Santa will bring him a piece of coal. Also, we're doing a Pajama Christmas where every one gets to stay in their PJ's for the whole day - even during dinner which is usually a dress up affair. I thought my family would rebel but everyone has taken to this with such relish that special PJs are being bought and there is a rumour that my mother (who said there was no way in hell she was wearing jammas) has bought herself a silk pair to wear on Christmas Day.

That there my friends, is our Christmas miracle!

Cindy Christmas (those who are new can skip this if they wish)

Now those who come here might know that Christmas Day is like my Everest. Ever since I can remember I have had panic attacks worrying about Christmas dinner (what if I can't eat?) and yes, it's my own kind of crazy. So Christmas Day was quite the emotional roller coaster as a kid. Hey, Santa was coming (woohoo!) but then WHAM it's followed by a fancy dinner that the women slaved over all day and apparently you had to make sure you didn't 'spoil' your appetite (*gag* boohiss).

Not knowing how the body worked I used to stop eating days before Christmas (people didn't really notice before what you were and weren't eating), usually at the four day mark you would start to get the spins and stuff, but I believed that if I didn't eat I would be able to eat Christmas dinner no problem. Ugh.

I have yet to out grow this anxiety and I'm 36. At least I now know more about biology and that starving yourself turns your metabolism off so you are rarely hungry. I'll post a pic of me as a teenager one of these days - 5' 7" about 120lbs.

With all that, I think God just has a great time with me. Why? Because one of my favourite times of the year is Christmas Eve. Once again, it's before the actual day so there isn't a feast so no one cares what you are doing, the shops are closed and the presents are wrapped and you are just with your family.

That's it.

Every thing is done, the tree is up and lit and the presents look perfect (even when they aren't wrapped that nice), you are sitting and enjoying each other and there is an energy of possibilities. I usually hate to go to bed on Christmas Eve because I have to wait 364 days again for that weird special feeling that somehow survived all those many panic attacks.

So there you have it, one of my favourite days followed by one of my most terrifying.

Tell me God doesn't have a sense of humour.

The platypus and now me ;)