Wrapping Up Christmas

I'm still getting accustomed to it being just the 5 of us at Christmas time. I'm used to lots of people, lots of activity and lots of food. Well, the food we had. Like I said, I'm used to there being lots of people, so I still bake for lots of people. Other than that, Christmas is pretty much like I remember it from childhood: opening stockings in our jammies...looking for our Christmas orange, even though we have no intention of eating it.




Then it's on to Christmas breakfast, and the previously mentioned copious amounts of baked items. This year, we decided to read the Christmas story before we opened any presents from under the tree. Even though we talked about it all during December (and all year round) Everett and I wanted to remind the kids that Christmas isn't about just getting presents. Still, Christmas does bring presents, and we had a great time seeing each other open and enjoy them.



After all the other presents were opened, Daddy and Braden used Braden's new walkie-talkies to radio an urgent message to Trevor. "Trevor, come out to the garage!"

The New Girl

Introducing my adorable little niece. As was proper for her first Christmas, she was showered with attention and thoroughly cuddled and held by every visiting relative. Her cousins also seemed to think she was okay. She didn't try to take any of their toys, and there was still enough love to go around. Isn't it amazing how love multiplies like that?





What a cutie, huh? Vi, we loved meeting you and can't wait to see you again!

O National Christmas Tree

The National Christmas Tree has been on the Ellipse for 31 years. For almost that long, I've been going to see it every year (well, I've missed a couple since I moved away- but not by choice). It's a wonderful tradition that we had growing up to drive downtown and meet my dad (coming from work) at the Yule Log. Then we would walk around to find the Minnesota state tree and the Maryland state tree. We'd visit the live reindeer and the creche. All in the glow on the biggest Christmas tree I've ever (to this day) seen. Then when we were too cold to stay any longer, we'd go get pizza. This year we shared that tradition with the next generation. We found the Arizona, Michigan and Virginia state trees. They watched the trains going round and round the base of the National Christmas Tree. We listened to a choir sing Christmas carols while they looked, in wonder, at the biggest Christmas tree they've ever seen.

The Year of the Big Boy

Toy, that is. This was the year of the big boy toy. It's a whole new section of the toy department when you have all kids over 3 years. The really good part about that is that each child thinks he got double since he can play with all his new toys and his brother's. All the presents were open by 11am, so we had plenty of day left to enjoy them all. Trevor spent a couple of the afternoon hours putting together a LEGO trashtruck. A few helps from Mom, but mostly he followed the directions all by himself.
It was also the year of the outdoor toy, since we have limited indoor space. Living in AZ has it's perks. It was a little windy, but you just can't grumble at a sunny, 70 degree Christmas Day.

Seriously. Is this the coolest toy or what? A competitive racetrack. Sometimes they have to drag Mom & Dad away from it.

Trevor has declared that now he is ready to learn how to make some things for real. Sounds great to me! I could use a Sous Chef!

Busy, Busy, Busy

We've been managing to keep very busy this week. Ev has been off work all week, so he has been able to do all these fun Christmas activities with us for the first time. We took an idea from my friend, Kelli, and did some edible "gingerbread" houses. Ironically, by the time they were done making their houses, they were so full of candy eaten during the process, they were full. Go figure. We also had some structural support issues, so next time we'll need a good architect to consult.

I've been photographing everything in sight. Practice makes perfect. It also makes the whole process slower when you stop to photograph everything. Just ask my husband and kids.

The nice part is that we've had time to rush around and get all our work done. Now we can slow down and enjoy ourselves. It's so encouraging to watch the boys as they listen and learn about Christmas. We've been doing an avent calendar all month, as well as an advent storybook. Tonight we will attend our church's Christmas Eve service, and the boys will come in the service with us. I am enjoying passing on old traditions and starting new ones. We will miss being near all our family and friends this Christmas. We hope that you are all having a wonderful holiday! We pray that you will remember the reason that we celebrate this Christmas- the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

"While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Luke 2:6-7

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Tragedy Averted

As I was gathering my recipes to make a list for the commissary run, I realized I had a serious problem. I could not find my recipe for Poteca. Poteca is a yeast roll that my mom has been making for Christmas morning for as long as I can remember. Strangely, I never liked it as a child, but I have grown to love it. Christmas breakfast would not feel complete without it. I made a panicked phone call to my mom, who is visiting my sister for Christmas, asking her where the Poteca recipe should be found. She assured me that it was in the Betty Crocker cookbook. Well, I searched all through my 1950 and 1973 copies and it was nowhere to be found. My sister's Betty Crocker didn't include it either. Fortunately, my other sister has a Betty Crocker cookbook identical to my mom's. She was kind enough to scan the recipe so that I can continue the Poteca tradition. I thought I would pass it along. It's not difficult, and the mellow flavor of the walnuts, combined with that slightly tangy lemon flavor is so perfect. The filling keeps the yeast dough so moist. Mmmmm! My mouth is watering already! So, here it is, compliments of my sister and Betty Crocker, circa 1963. Don't you just love those groovy line drawings??

Christmas Came Early

I just had to share a couple of the pics I snapped this morning with my brand new Nikon DSLR!! I'm so excited- let me just say I am loving it!! And I don't even know what I'm doing yet! It arrived late last night (the poor UPS guy was still out making deliveries at 8pm), and I dutifully tried to sit down and read my owner's manual. That was hard to do when all I really wanted was to play around with it. I can tell there is going to be a steep learning curve to get the very best out of it, but I also think it's going to be difficult to make it take a bad picture. So, here are the first images from my Nikon D90. I hemmed and hawed and finally decided on this lense. I'm sure I will need more in the very near future, but this one was recommended as a good starter. Merry Christmas to me!

Christmas Cookies Galore

The boys and I finally got to make our first batch of Christmas cookies this year. We baked them yesterday, and did the fun work of decorating this morning. I say we, but all I did was spread the frosting. The boys did all the rest. They did such a good job! This sugar cookie recipe is from my Grandma "D." How special to make my Grandma's recipe in the mixing bowls that used to be hers. I love nesting mixing bowls- they're so, so domestic. These bowls, in particular are extra special to me, and I always use them for extra special baking. I don't suppose anyone else has "special occasion mixing bowls."

The boys had so much fun getting messy with the colored sugar. You should have seen them covered in flour from the baking part, but those pics didn't turn out. Anyways, they both took their job of making pretty cookies very seriously, and did a really super job!

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

For the past week or so, I've been sequestered in my house. Not by weather or quarantine. I've been working on those super top-secret Christmas presents. I guess I can remove them from my crafting queue, now, because they are all finished and on their way. I really enjoyed hand-crafting some of the Christmas presents this year. I haven't given homemade presents in several years. The first year Ev and I were married I made almost all the presents because that was all we could afford. I remember feeling slightly self-conscious about it at the time, because it was out of necessity. This time, though, it was by choice. And I hope that the recipients will enjoy each gift as much as I enjoyed making them. The boys and I made two separate trips to the post office. I could not possibly have carried everything in one trip. (The photo is from just trip #2) As it was, the boys each carried a package, and we relied on friendly passers-by to help us with the door. Recession? What recession? I expect the United State Postal Service will be making a generous profit this year. Maybe next year we'll send gift cards.

Christmas Books

Hello, my name is Meghan, and I am a book-aholic. I love books. I can't get enough of them. I love the way they look, the way they smell, and the way I feel when I am reading them. One of my favorite things about Christmas has always been the chance to get the Christmas story books down out of storage. There is something extra exciting about a story that you only read in December. Recently, I was at the book store and they had a large display of "holiday" books in the children's section. I spent a long time looking through them, and of all the books that looked good from the outside, only one turned out to be worth buying. My criteria for buying a book is very simple: Will we want to read this book over and over? If not, we can just as well get it from the library. Granted, we owned several of the books in the display. But they were such a minority, I wondered if people knew which books were really worth reading. So I thought I would save everyone some time this Christmas. When you head to the book store (or the library) to get a Christmas book for a child, be sure to look for these!

The Advent Storybook: 24 Stories to Share Before Christmas by Antonie Schneider

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

Santa Mouse by Michael Brown

The Sweet Smell of Christmas: With 6 Scratch and Sniff Scents Inside by Patricia Scarry

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry

Bear Stays Up For Christmas by Karma Wilson

What Star is This? by Joseph Slate

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Cranberry Christmas by Wende Devlin

Do you have some favorites? We'd love to hear about them!

Memories

The boys and I decorated our Christmas tree last night. You'll notice that the tree is still angel-less. We went ahead with the tree-trimming, but we are saving the angel for Daddy when he comes back from his trip. There was Christmas music playing in the background as they scrambled to pick out the ornaments they wanted to hang first. As I hung some of my childhood ornaments, I thought of my Grandma who used to buy ornaments for each grandchild at Christmastime. (This is a tradition that I asked my mom to continue with my children) Usually the ornaments were identical or very similar, so our family's Christmas tree would have many sets of four ornaments. It's so fun, now, to hang each one and think about all those years of decorating our tree as a family. Somehow, my homemade ornaments always seemed to end up at the back of the tree...you ornament movers know who you are! But that's what memories are made of. I hope that we are making special memories that my children will cherish when they are grown.

Trevor's Angels

I remember very specifically the year that my mom got involved in the Angel Tree ministry of Prison Fellowship. It was in the early years of the Angel Tree project, and she was the coordinator for her women's bible study. Back in those days, we hand delivered the presents to each family. What a powerful experience for a child to be able to see the people who are reached through this ministry of love. We decided that this year, Trevor was definitely old enough to take an active role in this ministry to help children less fortunate. It has been difficult for him to gain perspective when he is so blessed by presents in past Christmases. Trevor chose the angels from the tree, as I read to him whether it was a boy or a girl and the age and what the child had requested. He finally decided on 6 and 8 year old boys. He was very excited when I told him we would go to the toy store to choose toys for the two other little boys. We walked through the store, and his eyes got big as he saw so many things that "the other little boys would like to have." I don't think he even once asked for aything for himself; he was on a mission. He put the presents into the gift bags all by himself, and filled the tops with festive tissue paper. Today, we will deliver the presents to our church. I hope that as we reinforce this with other ministries and service opportunities throughout the year, we will begin to foster in our children a heart that seeks to serve God by serving others.

Jesus says in Matthew 18:5 “Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me."

Christmastime is Here, Happiness and Cheer

"I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy. I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel."

"Charlie Brown, you're the only person I know who could take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem."
from Charlie Brown's Christmas


Charlie Brown's Christmas has always been one of my favorite Christmas movies. I can't say that I have ever before identified with Charlie Brown. But that opening scene of the movie was like it was taken straight from my thoughts this year. Ev told me the other day that if I wasn't happy right now, I'd never be happy. He meant it sort of tongue-in-cheek, but as usual, those comments always have some truth to them. We have a beautiful home to live in, balmy weather, our family is together for Christmas this year, which is a blessing we haven't always had in years past. So why do I feel like such a scrooge?

As it turns out, it's not the chilly weather, or the smell of freshly cut Christmas trees that creates a cheerful Christmas atmosphere. It's not having beautiful decorations or twinkle lights. Maybe you know this already, but bear with me, I'm still learning. I thought I could go through the motions, and that I could absorb holiday cheer from the outside, in. But it's just the opposite, isn't it? Real joy comes from within. And not just from someplace deep inside of us, but from God, who places it there. I believe that God gives the gift of joy freely, when we ask and are obedient to his will and commands. God will give us joy when we serve him, and when we worship him with our praise. Nehemiah 8:10 says, Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."


Luke 2:8-14
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multidude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!"

Selah