A Little Myrrh Will Do You

Better Homes and Gardens healthy Christmas countdown task today offers a wonderful holiday-related remedy for those who suffer with cold sores. Use the ancient herb myrrh.

Buy a small bottle of myrrh tincture (check your local health food store) and dab a bit of the liquid directly to your cold sore with a cotton swab. Apply 3 to 10 times a day until the cold sore disappears.

I looked up Myrrh at Wikipedia. “Myrrh was one of the gifts of the Magi to the infant Jesus according to Matthew 2:11. Mary would have used it to aide in postpartum healing.”


photo by Dub Scroggin

Apparently, myrrh is one of the most effective of all known disinfectants—something I didn’t know. Although I don’t have any cold sores, I do love the idea of using something that was available during Mary’s time.

Here is the embroidery project I worked on during my Christmas Crafting Party last Saturday. I wanted just a simple redwork tea towel that I could do while sharing stories with my friends.


photo by Dub Scroggin

The tree design is from a set of holiday patterns generously posted on the Turkey Feathers blog in 2005.

Dust Off A Lawn Chair

It’s cold outside and we stay inside our nice warm houses but it’s important to get outside for some fresh air, too. Better Homes and Gardens urges us to stay connected to nature all year round.

The countdown task today is to dust the snow off your lawn chairs (not that we have snow on our chairs down here in the valley but I’ll dust them off anyway) and just sit, watching the wildlife playing here and there.

photo by Dub Scroggin

Last night my husband and I prepared orange slices for the birds for our nature outing today.

photo by Dub Scroggin

Each year we “decorate” the trees outside for the birds that visit and grace us with their songs. It’s our Christmas gift to them.

We made a trip up into the Santa Catalina Mountains to find snow last weekend as they had a huge snowfall. Snow is a big novelty for folks living in Tucson and lots of people drove up to play in it. A lovely mother and daughter team built this handsome snowman.

photo by Dub Scroggin

One of the poor snowman’s charcoal briquette eyeballs and a button kept popping out so I fixed him.

photo by Dub Scroggin

Here he is all happy again. I added the wreath since we had it with us to take Christmas photos to use for our cards next year.

Later as we were heading back down the mountain, we saw the snowman family driving a pickup truck with their snowman standing proudly in the back. What a cheerful thing to see!

Scent for Company

Today I’m borrowing my husband’s computer to write my post. My laptop has decided to misbehave and I cannot get to my email right now. I’ve put in a call to have a repair person come fix it so please bear with me.

In the meantime, here is today’s countdown task. It somewhat echoes that of my Dec. 6 post. However, Better Homes and Gardens offers this recipe for quickly making your house smell holiday scrumptious.

Add a tablespoon of cinnamon, bay leaves, sage leaves, rosemary, and lavender to 2 cups of water. Simmer on low heat in an old pan. Be careful not to let it boil dry.

This started me thinking about other simple little scent adventures. If you're giving a book as a Christmas gift, you could add a bookmark to which you've added a drop of essential oil in a blend like lavender and tangerine, or even just plain orange for kids. Source: Aroma Thyme.

The following picture has absolutely nothing to do with today’s theme; I just want to share it with you.

This is a set of carolers my beloved mother-in-law made years ago and gave to us a few years ago. This set is made of clay using molds she created herself—she’s brilliant with things like this. I have it set up in my china cabinet—it doesn’t normally sit about with Christmas tree fabric as a backdrop.

Celebrate the Quirky

Today’s healthy Christmas countdown project is to celebrate quirky things. You’re supposed to write down the silly holiday slip-ups and learn to laugh about them.

I’m making little notes on slips of paper and inserting them into a glass Christmas ornament. We’ve not had many mishaps but they were doozies when they happened and best left unexplored on my blog.

I think a Harry Potter scarf qualifies as quirky, too, although it isn’t a mishap sort of thing.

One of our daughters is enthralled with all things Harry Potter. She wanted the Gryffindor scarf as worn by Hogwarts students in the Prisoner of Azkaban movie. So I knitted her one with burgundy and gold wool.



I tried to make it as true to the movie as possible so I used the pattern found here. The scarf is 7-inches wide by 70-inches long and knit as a tube on 12” US 7 Addis.

Two embroidered Gryffindor patches found on eBay work perfectly for a nice touch of detail—one sewn on each end. My husband made the fringe (he always has a role in our Christmas gift making).

Imitate Saint Nick

The countdown task today is to do something that inspires a Saint Nick-type good ol’ belly laugh to remind us of the joy of the season. Better Homes and Gardens suggests the following movies:

• A Christmas Story


• Olive, the Other Reindeer


• The Santa Clause


• Home Alone

While these would work, we’re opting for playing a board game tonight that I made some time back called Widdershins, a Celtic-style backgammon game.

This was posted on my Flickr account before my blogging days. I made the game board by transferring the pattern to a piece of wood and then used a wood-burning tool to make the design.



The game pieces are flat little glass stones and the dice came from a game store. A leather drawstring pouch holds the pieces and I created the instruction booklet on my computer.

Here’s the source link.

My family is big on board games. To go with today’s theme, I’ll share a very special Christmas gift for one of my children. Truly, no one in my family reads my blog so I can post anything I want without worry.



This is a full-sized cross-stitched Monopoly game that I started and my mother finished before she died. I had it professionally framed so you can easily play on it but hang it on the wall as art when not in use.



I bought the project leaflet in 1984 and started the project that same year but life intervened so Mom took over the rest of the project, doing 98 percent of it.

My siblings and I carefully collected together all of Dad and Mom’s wonderful handcrafted projects when they died. We are slowly gaining the emotional strength to do something with them. The Monopoly project is one of those.



An Internet search yielded the official history and rules which I printed and bound on my spiral-binding machine. I found Monopoly-themed fabric on eBay and made a simple drawstring bag.

The Monopoly cookie tin is another eBay find and holds everything except the board itself. On the back of the frame, I’ve attached the story of this gift’s creation.

My mom would love this!

Examine Your Sole

Today’s healthy countdown tidbit is caring for your poor aching feet. I bet you’ve been running around trying to get your Christmas preparations done and your feet hurt.

Better Homes and Gardens suggests the following. Sit down and wrap a towel around one foot. Grasping both towel ends, pull your toes towards you and hold for about 15 seconds before releasing. Then switch to do this with your other foot. Continue until you feel better.



This morning I’m taking care of my feet by trying a new herbal recipe I found—Peppermint Foot Soak.



You can find the recipe here.

While I’m pampering my feet this morning, I’ll use the time to address our Christmas cards for going out in today’s mail.



The 15th of December is my traditional date each year for doing this. This year we are using a photo my husband took of snowy woods in Hemau, Germany for our card. Inside I’ve printed Robert Frost’s poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.



Tonight I’m hosting a little Christmas Crafting Night for a few friends. It will be so much fun sharing what project each person is making and just taking time to relax for an evening. I wish you could join us.

Light Your Fire

Better Homes and Garden's healthy Christmas countdown item for December 14 is to put a candle on a table nearby at arm’s length and gaze into the glow. Slow your breathing and let all stressful thoughts gently disappear. Simply relax.

I tried this and it works—you just have to sit quietly and focus on the flame.



I think this would also work if you have a fireplace and I’m going to try that, too.

There’s another idea perfect for tonight that you can enjoy—nature’s very own lights display in the form of the annual Geminid meteor shower, one of the best meteor showers of the year.

The following picture shows the Leonid meteor shower, not the Geminids, but it gives you a good idea of the possibilities in the sky. I love the whole idea of possibilities—the word itself is so full of promise.



I have to wake my husband in a little while as we’re going outside to view this wonder. Hot chocolate is at the ready and I’m dropping in some of my homemade marshmallows (I’m so tickled about the marshmallows). Tucson nights are down in the 30s right now so we’ll snuggle under quilts to keep warm as I unfortunately have pneumonia.

As many as 120 to 180 meteors per hour are expected to streak across the sky so we’ll stretch out on our pool chaise lounges to avoid straining our necks as we watch.

For tips on how best to view the Geminids display, here is a link to the Smithsonian’s newsletter.

Want to hear how an actual Geminid meteor echo sounds? NASA has a very short recording you can listen to, click here. In a funny bit of synchronicity, it was also recorded on a Dec. 14th but in 1998.

If you want to see some awesome photos of the Aurora Borealis taken recently, visit Hoganfe’s excellent blog and see her gorgeous photos of the most amazing light show on planet Earth.

Bandage Brigade Update



The fire of generosity has truly been lit by many of you wonderful folks. To this moment, 26 wonderful souls have joined the Bandage Brigade. I’ve made an alphabetical list of participants in the right-hand column with links where applicable. Thank you so much to all of you!

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please read this post. You are welcome to join us in this effort to “Give Unto Others.”