The Makings of a Moeller Family Christmas

The Moeller Family has slowly been making some Christmas Cheer this December, but we are waiting for the older kids to start arriving on Sunday for the real Christmas parties to begin. 

1. We decorated outside with LED white Christmas lights.  We had to buy new ones, due to our basement flooding last summer. I still might do something with garland and red velvet bows outside before the older kids get here on Sunday.   I am going for the neighborhood award for "Best Tasteful Minimalistic Decorations."  LED Lights do use 98% less electricity. - Do we get some points for that?
2. Bob is making me a little homemade wooden manger with baby Jesus to go atop a bale of hay (leftover from our Thanksgiving pumpkin/squash display).  It will also have a spot light on it.    
3. I love our gazebo behind our home during every season, but best of all at Christmas.  A wreath on the door of the gazebo, Christmas lights inside like a warming house for skating...  (all true except for the skating part, but it looks like a blizzard is blowing in as I am writing this.) 
4. My Christmas wreath is worthy of the front door spot.  It was one of the centerpieces on each table last December at Zach and Amy (Papritz) Attaran's wedding reception.  It's stunning metal wiring with beautiful small turquoise berries and gold berries like from a Christmas forest.  Happy Anniversary Zach and Amy.  We are celebrating your Anniversary here!
5. My block Christmas Party is looking more like a New Year's Open House Block Party; at least the neighbors know a party is coming up.  We have wonderful new neighbors next door, so we are anxious to introduce them to the others on our block.  We live on a block end-cap, so there are only four homes.
6. We did some December pre-holiday painting (using only colors from Panera) in several rooms to make it so we did not have to have the lights off and the candles on at all times.  ha ha
7. We miss our grandson, Benjamin in the U.K., every day but especially now around Christmas.  So, we set out a basket of red and green toys pretending like he is here.                                                        
8. We have switched all radio channels to WMBI, now playing only Christmas music.  
9. Our younger two daughters at home went to sing some Christmas Carols at a Christian nursing home with their youth group. Even though it was an alzheimer's ward, some of the ladies really cheered up while the kids were singing and reading Christmas Scripture verses.  (I was one of the van drivers. :)
10. There's been a few mall trips for the little girls to window shop and drop hints to me.   
    
11. Megan collected from friends for a couple of hurting friends this week for Christmas gifts.  So sweet and sensitive. 
12. We are going to make my Christmas Salad this weekend.  Click here for recipe   
13. We made 48 lbs. (yes 48 pounds, not 48 pieces) of Chocolate fudge for most of our friends and donors to our For Better For Worse For Keeps Ministries and mailed across the nation. We sent to over 100 donors and received almost as many thank-yous notes for the fudge. What is Christmas without fudge?  Cheryl's fudge recipe.  I add the marshmallows, chocolate chips, and vanilla in at the very end.  I don't boil the marshmallows.                                                                          
14. We have been listening to the Christmas Story The Birth of a King audio click here.
15. Christmas Day our whole family is going to help cook, clean, set tables, help, chat...a group of friends are bringing soldiers from the Naval Base.  The soldiers will be at a nearby Christian school and church from 9:00 Am to 7:00 Pm.  They are U.S. Navy Basic Trainees and are going to be treated like royalty, including a welcome by lots of people and a band playing a Sousa March.  Our son, 1st Lt. Moeller, will be there in his U.S. Army Officer Uniform.                      
16. Because our daughter, Chef Megan, is one of six chefs for the military outreach dinner on Christmas Day, she is going to make our Christmas Day dinner on Christmas Eve with the help of her younger sister, Sous Chef MacKenzie.                                                                                                     Meg and Mackenzie Christmas 1999
17. We are thankful that 1st Lt. Moeller is not going to Afgan with the U.S. Army.  What more could we want for Christmas?
18. We are thankful for the best gift of all - Baby Jesus.