Christmas With the Schools part 1

New Year's Day is a big day around here. Christmas is not. A lot of decorations get put up in time for the new year, but Christmas is not a holiday here. Sure you'll see Christmas trees, decorations, Santa Claus, and hear Christmas music, but outside of Santa Claus and presents not much is known here. The students may know that the real story behind the holiday is the birth of Jesus, but there isn't much more than that.

We look forward to sharing with the teachers and students every year. We get opportunities throughout the year to share our faith...don't ever think that we're not busy doing that, but Christmas gives us special opportunities because people are interested in the holiday even though they don't celebrate it.

Our first item of business to get done was the gift baskets for the teachers. We always have fun getting these done for the teachers although I get the same complaint every year...my cookies are too sweet. You can tell from the pictures I kept the cookies pretty simple this year with sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and a few decorated gingerbread men. There weren't any cookies that I call super sweet, but yet everyone says they're really sweet. Next year they may be getting muffins. :D

We usually throw in some fruit if they're getting a basket. Fruit seems to be quite expensive at this season, but it's something I know all of the teachers will enjoy.

Even though I bake countless numbers of recipes to give away, I really enjoy doing it. Rusty and Pawn do a great job helping me with the presentation. I've never been one to focus on presentation although I have tried to adopt the Thai culture of beautiful food presentation. It just hasn't hit me yet, but maybe if I keep noticing what they do around here, I'll finally get a creative bone in my body. I grew up believing that it's the taste that counts; here it's the taste and the presentation. :)