Use Your Words - Village Advent Calendar

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once, and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words are:

cardboard ~ roses ~ hunted ~ sap ~ beholden ~ soda

                     

They were submitted by: Climaxed  - Thank you, Jenniy!

Previously on The Miller family:

I had a mysterious meeting with Joël who asked for my help on how to propose - actually he asked for a friend, and Max told me about one of his friends' Mom who had a laughing fit at his innocent question about her hobbies.

I created a glossary on all the featured characters for you to keep track, check it out.

"Hey, are you OK, I've been trying to get ahold of you - call me back when you have a chance!"

Caroline left me a message. Or three.

When I finally call her back I apologize and this is what I tell her:

Stop and smell the roses is so last summer - these days it's all about stopping and smelling the gingerbread!  And I was doing a pretty great job at it, too. Until recently. 

Things got super busy. 

Like every other year I committed to decorating a window for our village's "walk-in advent calendar". 

Once you're beholden to be doing something, there is no way out, and decoration items and fairy lights need to be hunted, and food and beverages have to be purchased and / or prepared.

In previous years we had a Winter Olympis' theme.

2014 the internet inspired me to make my very own cardboard desktop fireplace.

Two years ago it was a snowy landscape with trees and deer.

So this year frankly I didn't have it in me to go to great lengths, so I had a large NY City 6th Avenue poster printed, we hung some stars, and a dear FB friend donated her fake Christmas tree. I wrapped some empty cardboard boxes as gifts, and we were done!

The main attraction was our fire-eating friend anyway. He didn't technically eat the fire, he just used it to make "fire tongs punch", it was a big hit if for nothing else than the entertainment! 

The kids had soda because that's what you do at Christmas time: Share a Coke!

I shared some Prosecco because I just learned the other day that we're supposed to save water!

How about you? What have you been saving or sharing to make the world a better place? 

Before you leave, please go and check out my blogger friends' posts:    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

               

Baking In A Tornado
On the Border 
The Bergham Chronicles
The Blogging 911
Cognitive Script  
Climaxed 
Part-time Working Hockey Mom 

     

PS: Did you notice, one word is missing...

Here you go, Some Canada trivia - brought to you by Cookie, our dear Elf on the Shelf:

• It takes about 40 litres of sap to make one litre of maple syrup.
• A tree takes about 40 years before it's big enough to tap.
• Only three of 13 species of maple trees native to Canada are used for syrup: sugar maple, black maple and red maple.