Day 46 of 4: Christmas Surprise Part 1 (12/21/12)

Day 46 of 4 more years:

Christmas surprises! Fun or not so fun? It depends for sure. Here is a story of my Christmas surprise, part one. Yesterday I talked of giving gifts and the best gift I ever gave. This is about the best earthly gift I ever got, part one. Receiving gifts is about surprises. You know, the anticipation of unwrapping the unexpected. 

My most unexpected gift began in April of 1979, when Scott and I learned we were having our third baby. Surprise! The due date was the big surprise. You ladies know the drill, the doctor pulls out a little paper circle which he turns around until he comes up with the magical due date… "Mrs. Sargent, so happy for you. You will have a Christmas baby!" What? "That just won't work out, Doctor, you see, I love Christmas and I'm too busy to have a baby then!" Seriously?
Well, I am a planner, and decided it would just have to be entirely planned out, done ahead, and I could fix this. I proceeded to do just that. Bought gifts early! Wrapped them, decorated the house, the tree, put up lights, planned, wrote cards, and Christmas was entirely done by December 1st. I even volunteered for the Thanksgiving parties at the girls' school just in case I couldn't make the Christmas ones. Hooray! Thought I would just sit back and enjoy the remaining four weeks. But I got very bored. Very bored.

So, I decided to learn to make candy. Started with divinity, which was too hard to do and not that great. Tried fudge, but everyone can make fudge…well, if you use marshmallow cream, anyway. How about pralines? The whole family loves them and my mother in law made wonderful ones. So that is what I did. Every day or so, Scott and the girls got to taste a new recipe. Some crunchy, some sticky, some chewy, none really bad, but then…. the perfect recipe, the divine recipe…. Creamy Buttermilk Pralines! I have only known maybe 5 people in my life who don't love this recipe. It uses 4 cups of pecans (a lot), cooks easily (ha) and is divine! Truly divine. Since 1979, I have made hundreds of batches of these wonderful candies. I have people who like me just to get a batch at Christmas! People who want to work for me to get some! And neighbors who bring in my paper, mow both our sides of the yard and bring in my recyclable bins without asking… just to get the yearly treat! Seriously, I quit making them for my friends years ago and just gave them the recipe. Many have become accomplished at praline making, and make them for their families. And my daughters have carried on the tradition… both are great at making them. Jill had to switch to angel cookies because of Andrew's allergy to pecans, but she can still make them in her sleep and gobbles them up when she is over here. They are that good! I mean it! I hope I turned a surprise into a way to bless others, or at least put some weight on them! And I became very popular!

Point here, I believe God does surprise us at Christmas and all year long. And we know all His surprises have blessings wrapped up in them. I hope I am not trivializing the surprise of a baby's birth by comparing it to my frantic worry over Christmas. I do know He wants us to use our time wisely. Did I? I do know that I found great satisfaction in making something to give to others that is almost always welcome. And tomorrow I will tell the rest of the story. And how my respect for Mary was never greater than in 1979!

Forgive my light heart this morning!

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests!" Luke 2:14

Pray:

Father, may we be joyful in the surprise we have at Christmas, and look for your blessings in all of them! Amen