Preparing for Christmas eve (project)

   It was a little more than a month left before Christmas filled in everyone's home. That's exactly the time Kamilė, Ignė and I came up with a brilliant project idea. The inspiration came from the same upcoming celebrations. I do not remember the initial idea as we polished it out as much as possible and ended up with the perfect combination of activities in a form of Christmas eve. It seemed there's no better way to share our love and kindness than to visit the ones mostly deprived of those things - orphans.
   As I already mentioned, it all started way before the day of materialization. First of all, half of the job was to plan our activities to fit into a limited amount of time and work on full effectiveness. After setting our goals we had to start implementing them. Of course, in the first instance it was important to find a foster home willing to welcome our project. Ignė was the one responsible for contacting with orphanages. Unfortunately, it took a week for us to finally attain a positive response from one of five organizations Ignė called. Despite that we were relieved to know our project will have an opportunity to be accomplished. Overcoming the first challenge was not the end of our struggles. There were much more to come.
   The biggest hill we had to climb over was surprise gifts for the kids. We wanted to make something special and quite personal to express our genuine effort and good aims. After some time scrolling through millions of craft ideas one of them finally grabbed our attention. It was the combination of pretzels and some chocolate made into sweets externally similar to reindeers. There was no doubt we were gonna make it. Unfortunately, it all went the wrong direction. Here's a comparison of the original recipe and our attempt on it:

 Let's admit, it looked awful even horrifying, like a little monsters. We were forced to change plans and find a new idea. The problem was that we didn't have any required materials. Fortunately, Kamilė's dad was kind enough to quickly ride to the store and get marshmallows and candy canes for our new plan. In the end, our team divided the responsibilities - one was sticking the canes through fluffy sweets, the other was dipping them in chocolate and the last in crushed candy canes. To be honest, it was not as easy as it might seem because the candy canes were so fragile that I broke at least five of... Despite that, they turned out pretty appealing. Of course, it was necessary to present them in Christmassy way and that's into what we have put the most effort. Kamilė and I made cute little reindeer cards with a short but warming wish and Ignė was the chief in wrapping and arranging everything together.

   The next step of preparation was the research of Lithuanian Christmas customs. At first, I thought this activity would be the most boring part of the project, however, it was more than interesting to get to know how my ancestors celebrated this event. I actually came to the realization how many valuable traditions are lost nowadays! This fact excited me even more to present the not so boring theory to kids of modern world. Also, Kamilė and I successfully collaborated and picked the most interesting spellings which I myself was keen to try.
   Almost forgot to mention the main activity of the upcoming eve we had to practice ahead as well. It was the traditional baking called "kūčiukai". Ignė, as a true chef, made a test-batch of these and they turned out amazing at first shot! Now, fully prepared for the important day, all it was left to wait. And learn the text appointed to me, of course.