This & That

Around Here This Week

Around here this week there was a flurry of activity as we got ready for not only the holiday, but also for the arrival of more family.

We will be headed to the cabin for some post-Christmas revelry. Blog posting this coming week will probably be non-existent as we spend time with the kids and grandkids. 

My DIL texted me this picture of James with the message, "What's that, Mom? We get to see Gramma and Grampa in less than a week?!" They will arrive Monday and make their way to the cabin as well and with their arrival, all of my children, except for my daughter, and all my grandchildren will be in the same place at the same time. It's a very rare occurance these days, so I'm grateful that it will happen.

We had a great Christmas, topped off by a phone call from this girl.

When my older boys went on their missions they got to call, but with new-fangled technology I actually get to see her face when we talk, which is really amazing. 

Merry Christmas!

From my family to yours!

Presents

I get to talk to my daughter today, and if I'm really lucky everything will work with Google chat and I will get to see her face. I am really looking forward to this and as a missionary mom, this is one of those really great presents. 

Christmas Eve

 

 I hope your holiday is spent with the people you love most.

Holiday Finery

When we ventured out to church this Sunday, Isaac...and the rest of his family were looking really festive.

And very merry.

It was really great to have Marc and Bryce sing with me in the choir for the Christmas programs both at church and at the care center, and Rachelle sat in on my church girl lesson. That little bow tie? Pretty darn cute!

 

This Boy...

This boy and his family came to visit for Christmas! It's pretty fun having them all here.

He's cautiously met Ollie. They are warming up to each other. I'm thinking it's only a matter of time before Isaac ventures closer, but right now he's just fine getting acquainted from a distance.

Spritz Cookies

One of the required Christmas cookies at our house, these are buttery, bite-sized cookies. Fair warning, though, if you're going to make these you will need one of these bad boys:

This is a cookie press and it is what makes the fancy shapes for the cookies. 

It has a collection of different shaped plates that go on the bottom of the tube.

Once you've put some dough in the tube here, you put one of the plates on the bottom of the press and push it through. One trick I've learned is to slightly twist the tube as you lift up to do the next cookie. It helps separate the dough from the tube. Once you get the hang of it, the process goes really quickly.

 Spritz Cookies

• 1 cup softened butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla or almond flavoring
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups flour

Cream together butter, sugar, egg and flavoring. Stir in flour and salt until well-combined. Dough can now be divided and tinted, if desired. Force dough through a cookie press onto ungreased baking sheets. Decorate with sugar or candies as desired. (I only sprinkle them with colored sugar, because I have zero talent for anything more involved than that.) Bake at 350° for 8-14 minutes until light gold around the edges. Remove from baking sheets to a rack to cool. These freeze well. Makes 6-8 dozen small cookies, depending on the size of the plates you use.

Around Here This Week

Around here this week there has been some baking going on. 

The cookies are pretty well done.

So is the caramel, which means the small box of baking stuff is headed out to my daughter.

There have also been some fairly large church programs. Last Sunday was the Evening in Excellence for the teenage girls.

 We had them do a live nativity for their parents, which was very nice. We had a young family in the ward portray Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus. Their older 2 children were shepherds and sat so cute with the girls. Their other little boy was adorable dressed up as a donkey and he had the best time rolling around on the stage while the girls were singing. It was cute...and just a little funny...and reminded me of my boys when they were this age, a LOT. 

There were beautiful decorations and nativities set all around as well. I have no vision for this, but I'm a good worker bee when someone tells me what to do.

We also had the whole youth group here at the house for hot chocolate after they did some caroling to older people in our congregation. I made an executive decision to have the hot chocolate in the garage because you might remember that I had the carpets cleaned last week. Uh-huh. I told you my timing was way off. 12 year old boys and cups of hot chocolate on my newly-cleaned carpets? Mm....I'm thinking the garage was a better choice for my peace of mind. And I totally forgot to take any pictures while I was doling out 5 gallons of hot chocolate.

A Confession

I always try to get a picture like this sometime during the Christmas season.

There's nothing quite like tree lights shining in the dark to bring on the holiday atmosphere, because I have a confession to make. As my children have grown and left home, venturing out into the big, long-distance world, in all honesty, Christmas has lost some of its sparkle for me. I don't necessarily think it's a function of distance per se. I think it's a function of my stage of life. 

When I was a young mom, Christmas was about remembering the birth of the Savior, which we did, but it was also about making the season magical for my kids, and my husband and I worked hard at that aspect of it, too. There were stories, and activities, and concerts, and traditions. There were secrets, and wrapping, and whispers and lots of music. When I was a middling mom those things seemed to intensify for a while and then, gradually, they have disappeared. I will say this only once and then move the pity party on down the road. I can't tell you how much I miss my daughter. I am so proud of her and what she's doing, but Christmas was something we always did together so I'm really feeling her absence.

I've discovered this year that I'm not alone in this feeling. I've talked to several of my friends of similar age and stage, and we all seem to have this concensus about it. I realize that life isn't something that never changes and always stays the same. My children now have the responsibility and the joy of creating their own traditions and customs for their own families, and I really want them to, because that's part of the fun of raising kids...seeing how they look forward to those special things year after year.  

I guess when I was in the process of doing it, I didn't stop to think about how much I would miss it when it stopped. We used to sit a lot of nights in December and read a story by the light of the Christmas tree, so I'm taking some time to sit by the light of the tree and remember how nice that was, because Christmas tree lights always sparkle.

The Boys

The moms of the 3 grandboys born this year have texted me some cute pictures of the boys this week. 

Emmett finds his thumb occasionally and seems to enjoy it quite a bit. When this boy's daddy Face Timed me this week, Caroline was so excited, "We're going to come to your house in 3 minutes!" They also showed me their "gingerbread" (graham cracker) houses. Fun stuff.

James has changed even from when he was here just a bit ago. He's giving much more purposeful grins. 

And this boy will be coming to see Gramma on Saturday. We're pretty excited. When Isaac's daddy Face Timed me earlier this week, I could see that my tree, and the presents under it may be under attack starting Saturday afternoon. That will definitely bring back a lot of memories. I have a whole series of photos of my eldest son as a 15 month old walking around and around the tree before snatching off one of the ornaments. We've tried to put all the breakables up very, very high this year.

In the meantime, he had the chance to sit on Santa's lap. No crying or screaming, just this very...intent look. Who is coming to your house for Christmas?