Christmas without Cookies

• Years past I have made cookies for Christmas; up to 20 different ones. This year I made 1 batch of cookies and only cooked one pan of them, I left the rest in Idaho for my son-in-law to cook. (I actually made another batch to take to a party; so it didn't count.)
• Years past I have put up to 30 strands of lights on my Christmas tree; this year no lights and no tree!
• Years past I have tried to make a new ornament for the year; not this year.
• Years past I have hung lights on the house; this year we plugged in the star that has been hanging in front of the kitchen window since last Christmas.
• Years past I have overfilled to extreme the kids large stockings. This year I forgot their stockings and bought some socks at WalMart and filled them....and lets just say I could have put more in them.
• Years past I have decked the halls quite literally with Christmas; this year just 3 surfaces had any Christmas decorations.
• Years past I have made many batches of candy. This year 1 batch of fudge, 1 English toffee that went in the trash (it tasted terrible!), 1 pecan brittle and 1 batch of orange candy (half of which got lost and so never made it to Denver.) and 2 batches of this terrible candy.:)
• Years past I've baked a couple kinds of fruit cake(at least my favorite lemon one) this year none; I didn't even have a single slice!
• Years past I have played Christmas Carols endlessly; this year just a few times. I played Pandora radio 'classic Christmas' but it would go off and not play all day. :(

I'm here to tell you I still enjoyed Christmas, I still felt the spirit of giving and spent time remembering the Savior. Even though I hope next Christmas is closer to my norm; that I manage to clone myself and do customer quilts AND my baking and decorating but I doubt that will happen.. I'll probably only do that much again when I have car loads of grandkids coming to visit.