Peppermint Stick Pie

Good Tuesday morning!

The Gallery Pics this morning are from Roxie's basketball game last night. We WON! It was our first win, and it shows on everyone's face. Everyone played their best, and it was so fun to see the team finally come together. Loved it!

CONTEST! CONTEST! CONTEST! The Contest winners celebrating my 300th post of A Simple Life will be awarded their very own Mystery Bag Party. That's right! We had such a good time in October, I have decided to have another Mystery Bag Party in January... and the six women who will accompany me on this "journey" will be selected from the women who enter the contest.

Just leave your name under my Comment Section, on Facebook or my e-mail with the word "CONTEST" beside it, and I will put your name in the bowl. I will draw SIX NAMES December 18... the day of my 300th post. You have less than two weeks to enter. It will be a very fun party! I've also changed things a little from the first party, so it will be an unique event. I'll be reminding you once a week or so until December 18, so go ahead and get your name in today! A good time will be had by all who win!

CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY IN DECEMBER - I'm not finished yet! There are more ideas each and every day... ideas that will not break the bank!

DAY 6

9. Purchase two or three poinsettias at Wal-Mart. Bake a batch of your favorite muffins. (If you have children helping you, let them do most of the work and use a mix.) Pick two or three neighbors, elderly or otherwise, and deliver a poinsettia and a few muffins for their breakfast the next morning. Be sure the kids go with you when you deliver these gifts. Elderly people sometimes cut down on decorating, so a pretty poinsettia is festive and not hard to put away after the holidays.

TOPIC OF THE WEEK - MARY

This may come as a shock to you, but I always think of Mary at Christmas... a lot. When Austin celebrated his first Christmas, I just kept thinking about Mary and how much she loved her newborn son... just like I loved Austin. I think one of the hardest things for me to do as an adult is to separate the "story" from "this actually happened." It isn't JUST a story.

Mary was incredibly young when she found out she was expecting... from an angel... during a time in history when she could have been stoned to death for not being married yet. Can you imagine how horribly difficult it must have been to tell family and friends she was with child, and how it had happened? Did she have friends who were supportive? Did she have several family members close to her who were loyal and stood by her unconditionally?

What about Joseph? Before she spoke to him, was she terrified he would walk away from her? Could she be certain he would believe what the angel had told him in a dream?

Amazing. She was truly amazing... and she wasn't much older than Roxie is now. It's hard to wrap your head around, isn't it?

I was 29 when I found out I was expecting Austin. I had been married almost three years. My pregnancy was "socially acceptable." Friends and family were happy for me, gave me gifts, advice and encouragement. And as excited and thrilled as I was, it was still slightly terrifying thinking about the birth process. Would I have enough pain meds? (Enough for a 450-pound, 6'6" mother-to-be? My "exaggerating" to anesthesiologists to insure enough pain meds were being administered began early on in my "career.") Would I get to the hospital in time in my comfortable, fast car?

Now back to little Mary... who sat on the back of a donkey during her eighth month of pregnancy for hours and days on end. Mary, who gave birth in a dirty, smelly, animal-filled barn with no pain medication, no clean sheets, no soft bed, no doctor, no nurse, no ice chips.

Little Mary, who fell totally, completely, unabashedly in love with that tiny, little baby Joseph placed in her arms that night.

It's not just a story... It really, truly happened. And when I think of what Christmas has become (which I totally LOVE and enjoy, by the way), it does make me want to make sure my kids understand the difference between a really good story... and the very true events which took place in the town of Bethlehem those many years ago.

Tomorrow, I want to focus on Mr. Joseph for a bit. Not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill dad.

Peppermint-Stick Pie

I know. This is NOT cooking OR baking OR complicated OR expensive. But it IS delicious. Melia gave me this recipe the other night for The Boy because he likes peppermint.

You will need:

3 pints (1 1/2 quarts) peppermint ice cream
1 chocolate-flavored crumb pie shell
1 12-ounce jar fudge ice cream topping
Coarsely crushed candy cane

1. In a chilled bowl, stir ice cream until softened.

2. Spoon ice cream into pie shell, spreading evenly. Return to freezer for at least 4 hours.

3. To serve, warm the fudge topping in the microwave oven according to directions on the jar. Let pie stand at room temperature for 5 minutes before slicing. Serve with warmed topping.

4. If desired, sprinkle with crushed candies.

It's pretty, too. (Next week, I'll have a 14+ ingredient recipe which will require you to knead, puree', tenderize with a mallet, and/or spend two or more hours in the kitchen... I promise.)

Have a fun Tuesday. Crank up the Christmas music... or if it is starting to get on your nerves, shut it off! Be an encouragement to someone today. This was our message Sunday. In a nutshell, the three points on HOW to be an encouragement are as follows:

1. Be generous.
2. Be supportive.
3. Be loyal.

If you look at all three of those directives, the only one left out is to "Be selfless." Don't let a day go by without trying to be an encouragement (big or small) to another person. (It's kind of what we're supposed to do!)

Tomorrow we'll have Wednesday Wisdom, a Seasonal Tradition, more inexpensive things to do every day in December, and a little more on our Topic of the Week.

Take care, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting Belinda