Christmas Cookies and Early Presents

 This year is the first year that we will be celebrating Christmas some where other than our home.  We are traveling to be with family out east so all of our traditions have been scrambled.  My mother found a wonderful solution, Let's celebrate christmas a week early.  And that's exactly what we did.

We had our whole Christmas celebration this past Sunday and it was wonderful!  The only downside is that we had to get up early this morning and go to school.  But that was a small price to pay for traditions.  We started with Christmas dinner,

                                                   with the ham

                                                   and the corn

                                                   and mashed potatoes

and everything else.

Then we went to the living room where my momma wonderfully decorated this tree

I know, I know, it's a fake tree but what's the use of getting a real tree if we aren't going to be here to enjoy it?

After dinner, we continued with the traditions and decorated sugar cut-outs!

These are a couple of the cookies we made.  Can you tell which ones my family made and which ones  I made?  They were good sports about it though.

The Best Kind of Christmas Present

Whew!




I have been so busy with Cupcakes for Cancer!  It is an organization I founded in order to raise money for the local Cancer Care Center in my area.  We sold cupcakes at lunches for $1 each.  We are finally done and  I am proud to report that we raised $133!  My parents were kind enough to match whatever I made (I doubt that they thought we would raise so much from high-schoolers).  When I brought the money to our Key Club adviser here at the high school, she saw the $266 and decided to donate the remaining $34 to make it an even $300!!

We made several different kinds of cupcakes and we kept the money in this cute blender.

I am so happy that it was such a success and I immediately e-mailed Lakeland hospital about donating the money and they set up a time and a place at the new Cancer Care Center in our area.  This morning, I got to visit the new center and take a mini tour of the facilities.  It was so beautiful!!  And they printed up a giant check for me to hand to the president of the facility and we even got to take a couple pictures! It was such a great experience and I am so thankful for everything I have and that I had the unique opportunity to give such a huge and appreciated gift back to my community.