Christmas Carol Countdown 2014: 11 Days to Go!

Our Family in 1987
Left to Right: Noel Heart, Quilting Nonnie, TGS with
bunny, Sam, Nancy Drew & Bambi the dog in front

We had a great time in our young family during the 12 Days of Christmas. Each year we would choose a family to “host” for the 12 days. Most times we’d choose a family that had some type of need: a young single mother with 2 children, a Mom with 2 teenagers that had very little money…

For the 12 Days, we would put together our “offering,” pile into our car and drive to the neighborhood of the family. I would choose a good place to park where we couldn’t be seen from their front door. The kids were always the ones who went and “doorbell ditched” our offering. They would race back to the car, jump in the car as I pulled away.

Each year it varied what we decided to do for each day, but there were a few that showed up each year. We loved the Jello Slurp & Pop the Balloon games we played at home.

One time we made 12-day candles to burn a little every day. Was that ever fun! We had to figure out how to make them: a ruler with pins taped to it that was used to mark the days for us. How to mark the candle. It was a challenge, but we got it done. And we never did it again!

Another year as an outside activity, my daughters talked to the moms of little children in our ward (a church congregation). They offered to answer letters to Santa from any child whose parent brought it to them. The girls had such fun writing back personalized letters from “Santa!”

Our last year of doing 12 Days we decided to choose a totally different type of family. We chose this family because the mom was the Young Women’s (a program for girls from 12-18) adviser to each of our daughters. The interesting part was that this family had two pre-teens and two teenage sons. With our enthusiasm bubbling, we started ditching our packages on their doorstep. To our chagrin, those tricky teenage boys set up a video camera in a room that pointed to the porch. They caught our kids “red-handed!” It was the only year we got caught.

Today’s Christmas Carol is a song for children: The Cat and the Mouse Carol. It is sung by David Archuleta with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I hadn’t heard this carol before, but it is sweet.






Merry Christmas…only 11 days to go. It’s time to make your list and check it twice.

Remember to stop by every day and enjoy the Christmas Carol Countdown 2014. You can always click on the button on the upper right sidebar.