Fay McKay's 12 Daze is funny. But just yesterday, someone sent me a 12 Daze "biker version" - biker as in Harley-Davidson that is. I have the biker website, but I am not going to link it here because...I like Fay's version better (after all, it's about drinking!). Naw...I just can't get used to the idea of the t-shirt that was the biker's 2nd-day gift. I don't care if the slang (on the shirt) means no disrespect to any lady - I just don't talk like that to (or about) any lady, and I won't encourage it either.

When our kids were at home, we celebrated the 12 days of Christmas. We did do gifts, although only the one given on 12th Night/Epiphany/Feast of the Three Kings was a big one. The others were small, sometimes shared (such as a family movie), and for years they involved a treasure hunt each day to find them. They loved the treasure hunts so much that it didn't matter if the treasure was nothing more than a colorful pen or a candy bar. We kept up our tree and lights through Jan. 6th (even got a nastygram from the HOA in one neighborhood for not taking down the outside decorations fast enough.) At least once, but more often on the 26th and again on the 2nd, we had "backwards day" for which we ate pizza for breakfast and french toast for supper and stayed in our pajamas all day. Since we homeschooled, we scheduled a break from Christmas Eve until Jan. 7th. Our kids were into Legos, K'Nex, Puzz3D, and all sorts of building toys, so we spent a lot of our time working together to assemble new sets. We also watched the movies (VHS back then) they received, as well as old favorites. We took turns choosing the menu for each day so that everyone had favorite foods (even when that meant PBJs for supper.) On Epiphany, we enjoyed our first King Cake of the season (which runs until Mardi Gras.) Whoever got the "baby" (we used a plastic baby hidden from the bottom, but some people use a large nut) was the King (or Queen) of the Feast. These days, we're not together for most of the 12 days of Christmas (if at all.) I order King Cakes for each of us from a bakery in New Orleans that delivers them on (or the day before) Epiphany, but that's all we do now.

lol :)

Errata: I neglected to add the authors in the first entry....and they deserve the "credit " !! 1st day : A Partridge in the Au Pair's tree by Susan Donovan 2nd day : Snow White Turtledoves by Julliet Bressan 3rd day: Chicken On The Road by Laura Schmitt 4th day: Crows: Encounters with Wise Guys by Candace Savage ( who knew colly birds were actually black birds, crows, ravens ) 5th day: Gold Rings of Revenge by Lilian Peake 6th day: Geese A'Slaying by Donna Andrews 7th day: The Swan Gondola by Timothy Schaffer 8th day: Maids of Misfortune by M. Louisa Locke 9th day: When the Drummers Were Women by Layne Redmond 10th day: Piper At The Gate by Mary Stanton 11th day:Fat Boy and the Dancing Ladies By Michael Holman 12th day: Inigo Jones and The Ten Lords A'Leaping by Debra Hyde