Merry Christmas to... Us?

Remember the neighbor's flowers that were delivered to us? Well, we have found ourselves in another sticky situation. Last Saturday Brian had to work and I didn't, so he left and I started doing something. After a couple minutes I heard him come in again, and he stuck his head in and said, "Someone left Christmas presents on the porch...for the Hurtado's. I brought them in." He left again and I went out to look at the presents. One was a popcorn tin, the kind with butter, cheese, and caramel. It had a note on it that said, "To Carlos and Vicenta. God Bless. Love Jane." Carlos and Vicenta were the owners before us. That wasn't too big of a deal because I know those popcorn tins are pretty inexpensive. It is the other present that I'm wondering about. It is a gift bag with about 15 of those big fat peppermint sticks, a Christmas book, and a little bag of jacks. The note on that bag said, "For the Saturday 7 pm coro (choir). Love, Jane." Now, I don't know when these were delivered, but this was Saturday already. We don't have any idea who Jane is. We don't have any forwarding address or telephone for the Hurtados. The only thing we have is a keychain from the mechanic where Carlos Hurtado said he was working. And I have doubts about whether he would still be working there anyway. We keep waiting for note or something that says, "We need our peppermint sticks back." If we don't hear anything soon, we'll be the proud owners of many peppermint sticks.

Christmas Stories

At the Christmas First Presidency Devotional, President Monson spoke on how he reads three things every Christmas: The Christmas story from the New Testament, A Christmas Carol by Dickens, and The Mansion by van Dyke. I remember President Monson talking about this at some devotional at BYU a few years ago also. Since I got my Kindle Fire (thanks Nu Skin) I found both The Mansion and A Christmas Carol available for free, and I decided I would read them since I never had before. They were both great Christmas reads, and it made me miss the big box of Christmas books we always had growing up. I've read a lot of those stories, but there is one that has been my favorite, "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry. That's my one story that I have to read every Christmas. For everyone's reading pleasure I included a link here.

http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/Gift_of_the_Magi.html

Ideas please!

For the first (and probably only) time in my life I was told I need to gain weight. I'm not wasting away, but Janet and I do weigh the same now. So, this is where I need some help. I want everyone's ideas on either your favorite high calorie meals, snacks and desserts, or any ideas on how to calorie pack. Comment away, please.