12 Days of Christmas

This year we were looking again for ways to serve another family. We wanted someone who might be having a hard time to feel Christ's love at Christmas time. We wanted to teach our kids to do good for others instead of focusing so much on what they wanted and what gifts they would get. We chose to do the Twelve Days of Christmas for a family in our neighborhood. We knew their situation and knew things were hard. A lot going on with parents that were feeling a lot of stress. They have kids our kid's ages and needed to feel loved and needed the excitement of Christmas.

I am sharing this post only because we were able to find some great suggestions on what to give each day of the twelve days. I want to post it in case anyone else is looking for ideas in the future and so that I can refer back to what we did.

 It was so much fun. The kids loved helping to get the gifts ready and were thrilled to run them up to the door. It was so funny to watch them knock and run as fast as their little legs would go down the driveway, through the snow and jump into the van to drive away. It was a big deal.

1. Partridge In A Pear Tree - On the First Day of Christmas, your true friends give to you Pears From A Pear Tree.

2. Two Turtle Doves - On the Second Day of Christmas, your true friends give to you Two Bars of Dove Soap. (and a bag of Dove Chocolates)

3. Three French Hens - On the Third Day of Christmas, your true friends give to you A French Bread and A Hen. (a french bread loaf and a rotisserie chicken)

4. Four Calling Birds - On the Fourth Day of Christmas, your true friends give to you Four Calling Birds (four bird shaped chocolates)

5. Five Golden Rings - On the Fifth Day of Christmas, your true friends give to you Five Golden Rings (I was supposed to get five donuts, I opted for five plain bagels instead so that they could have a breakfast instead of another treat).

6. Six Geese a-Laying - On the Sixth Day of Christmas, your true friends give to you Six Eggs from the Geese a-Laying. (eggs in a basket including stuff to make omelets like cheese, peppers, mushrooms, salsa, etc.)

7. Seven Swans a-Swimming - On the Seventh Day of Christmas, your true friends give to you Seven Swans a-Swimming Puzzle. (I was looking for a Swan Lake CD or the Barbie Swan Lake book)

8. Eight Maids a-Milking - On the eighth day of Christmas, your true friends give to you Milk from the Eight Maids a-Milking. (I searched everywhere for eight small milk chugs, but ended up just delivering a gallon of milk)

9. Nine Ladies Dancing - On the ninth day of Christmas, your true friends give to you Nine Lady Finger Cookies (We gave Lady Finger cookies only after looking a lot for a children's Nutcracker book. It worked.)

10. Ten Lords a-Leaping - On the ninth day of Christmas, your true friends give to you Ten Frogs a-Leaping. (A bag full of gummy candy frogs and a soap that looked like a green frog.)

11. Eleven Pipers Piping - On the eleventh day of Christmas, your true friends give to you Eleven Packets of Piping Hot Chocolate (Next year we will prepare earlier and do a Christmas CD of bagpipes or bubble pipes and bubble solution).

12. Twelve Drummers Drumming - On the twelfth day of Christmas, your true friends give to you Twelve Drummers Drumsticks.

We finished on Christmas Eve and are still not sure if they figured out who it was or not.