Christmas Is. . . (Part 2)

Christmas is Christ and setting up the Nativity.

 (This year's nativity set up -- for those who haven't seen the new wall color in my living room -- you get the idea in these pictures.

(Below: the set up a couple of years ago)

I love when Jackson sets it up.  He gets it.  There really would be breathing room only, and everyone would probably be crowded around the Son of God. 

Christmas is Homemade Treats

Pictured above are the turtles I made last year.  My grandma made these every year while I was growing up, and they are my favorites.  I didn't make any this year.  My other favorite treats include white chocolate pretzels (or anything else smothered in white chocolate) and sugar cookies.  My mom makes peanut butter cups, chocolate covered cherry candies, coconut balls, Rice Krispie Balls, Mexican Wedding cake cookies, and oodles more. 

Christmas is Counting Down
 This is the calendar I found at Target a few years back. In normal years, it's filled with scriptures and candy each day.  This year, I'm lame.  There's nothing.  Both boys, however, did have the traditional chocolate countdown calendars.  Jackson made a chain as well with some friends last month.   Jackson has already informed me that there are only 367 days until Christmas 2013. . .

 Christmas is Family
 We love having Christmas at our house, but when we don't have family come to visit, we are terribly lonely.  So, this year, we are going to fix that and make sure we see our family.  Jackson's counting down to that, too.

Below is pictured my Sister-in-law holding Cole and my niece (not her daughter) last year in November.

Cookie Christmas Tree

 A couple of years ago, my mom gave me a Christmas Cookie Tree Kit (by Wilton).  This year I finally decided to make one.

To make a cookie tree, you need a large cut-out cookie recipe that you love such as a gingerbread or sugar cookie recipe and a frosting. (My recipe uses 5 cups of flour to give you an idea of how large I mean.) I chose to make my all-time favorite sugar cookie recipe.  It's one from my high school Home-Ec teacher.  They taste better than the Lofthouse cookies, in my opinion.  The secret is sour cream.

I chose my grandma's ornamental frosting.  It's 1 egg white, 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar, and 1 cup powdered sugar.  I made two batches of frosting, but I really only needed one.

I cut two cookies from each cookie cutter size.  I used my grandma's ornamental icing that I use for Gingerbread men.   I piped white around each of the stars.

I filled the stars with green frosting and then put red hots on each of the tips.

I took the picture below so you could see a difference in the frosting after I adjusted it. I added some corn syrup to make the frosting a little thinner, shinier and smoother.   The cookie on the right was the frosting without the adjustment.  I liked the character the "before" frosting added, but I also like the smoother finish.

After the frosting dried, I began building the tree.  I stabilized the bottom cookie by putting some frosting on the tray so the cookie wouldn't move.  As you stack the cookies, be sure to place a large dab of frosting on the middle of the cookie before placing the next one on.  Alternate the stars, so they look like branches.

Instead of using both of the smallest cookies as branches, I used one as the star topper.  Since I forgot to set aside some frosting to dye yellow, I used the sprinkles that I had.  I stuck a toothpick in the bottom of the cookie and put it through the middle of my tree.
 

As a sugar-cookie lover, this tree looks so delectable.  My husband complimented it when he got home from work.  I'm still deciding who is going to get the tree.  I think I'd like to start a new tradition that we give a sugar cookie tree once a year to someone that we think really needs a lift or that we want to thank for a special reason.  We'll see.  :) 

Christmas Is. . .(Part one)

This year it took me a little longer to get into the Christmas season.  Perhaps it was because our water heater died the day after Thanksgiving causing a flood and postponing Christmas festivities for a couple of weeks until we replaced the carpet in our house.  Perhaps it was the sudden business I delved into for Parent Council (the PTO group for Jackson's school) right before the holidays.  Either way, the "bug" bit me a little late this year.

Matt and I have been married for 12 years, and yet I still feel that we're still deciding what Christmas traditions we are going to carry on year after year.  Sometimes it's difficult for me to let go of my childhood traditions, and other times, I find I'm trying too hard to start new ones.  This year I started really thinking about what Christmas is to me.

In no particular order, other than the way they come to me as I compose this post, here is my list.

1.  Christmas is snow.  

 

 There just has to be snow to be a real Christmas for me.  This year it finally looks like it's going to be a White Christmas, which makes my heart leap with joy. 

2.  Christmas is decorating Gingerbread Men, Women, Children, Trees, etc.

I've done posts before about our decorating festivities, but it just isn't Christmas until we paint cookies.  I use a different recipe than my grandmother did for the cookies, but I use her frosting recipe.  As a girl, we hung them on the tree and waited to eat them until after Christmas (no, it's not gross, they're like ginger snaps).  We take our decorating seriously.  It's always so much fun.  The thing is, though, I feel like we always need a crowd because that's how it was when I was young.  The entire family gathered around our table (how 10 of us did it, I don't know) and decorated our hearts out.  Jackson doesn't care for the decorating part, he just loves the candy. 

3.  Christmas is Christmas lights. 

This means we drive around looking at lights, and we hang lights on our house.  We were late getting our lights up again this year, but we have them!  Jackson was the director -- told Matt where to put lights, and Matt was the assistant.  Just as in real life, the director burned out faster than the assistant did.  As a girl, we drove around Panaca looking at all the lights, and now Matt and I take the boys around town and to the neighboring cities to look at lights.

4.  Christmas is singing Christmas carols.  

When I was little, we'd gather around the piano as my mother played the carols, and we sang.  We sang primary songs, hymns, and the traditional carols.   I love to play Christmas music, and so I start playing on Thanksgiving Day, if not sooner.  At our house, we sing carols on Christmas Eve.  I'm excited because this year, Jackson can play at least two different Christmas songs for us!



So, I think I'm going to post more later.  This post is now getting lengthy, and I have so much more to share, but I'll continue it more as they come to me.  

Pumpkin Carving: October 26, 2011

 Before:  Yes, of course, he's bored.  He's not doing anything yet. 

Oh, now he's doing something. . . he said I had to take a picture of him picking his nose.  Yup, he's seven!

Jackson wanted to help cut open the pumpkin, but his mean father wouldn't let him go near the large slicing knife.  A grateful mom and ten-still-attached fingers thank you, Daddy.

He was willing to try to scoop out the goop, but only with a spoon.  Since he was doing it three seeds at a time, Mommy took over.

 I love the picture below because you can see the face he originally drew and then crossed out because I told him that it was too small.  In the picture he's cutting out one of the eyes.

The finished Jack-O-Lanterns:  Daddy's on the left, Jackson's on the right. 

If you look carefully on Jackson's pumpkin on the left side of his face, you'll notice a strange small glowing spot.  That was from the other "smile" that Jackson drew and sliced.  He didn't cut out a "puzzle piece," but he cut the smile.  I love how it made it look like his pumpkin had a scar on its face.

Again, Jackson's favorite part of the carving was taking out the "puzzle pieces" and putting them back in again.  I had to remind him that he had to leave them out when we put the candle in, otherwise we wouldn't be able to see the face.

Oh, and Cole slept through the whole event this year.  

It's Quiet for a Reason

There's a reason I haven't posted for a week on this blog.  It's been quite an emotional few days, and one day perhaps I will share some more of what I've learned and experienced this week.  I guess I could say that the theme for my life right now is "There is a Reason for Everything."  In my life, I'm discovering some reasons and some whys to questions from five years ago, and it's really tough because it means that my past suffering is helping someone else who is suffering now.  My heart breaks for the dear ones who are facing emotional tsunamis and heart-wrenching pain.

For now, just know that we are still alive and kicking but leaning very close to our family right now.  Sometimes when things are so close to our hearts, it's too hard to share them for fear of making them less sacred to us.

Memorial Day Weekend 2011

My parents came to visit again this year, and it was so good to see them.  It was a much-needed break for them, and I enjoyed the night my mom and I stayed up talking and giggling.  They even got to hear me give a talk in church, which, believe it or not, made me more nervous that they were there. 

Mom got to attend Jackson's school, too, and he kept her busy doing a lot of "homework," which was actually A LOT of drawing. 

The best part of their "school day" was when they came out to the living room for P.E., and he told my mom, "Okay, now do this," and he demonstrated a push-up.  My mom, who is long past doing push-ups laughed and said, "Uh, I'm not doing that."


On Sunday, we visited the cemetery and took pictures. 

That blue item you see in Jackson's hand is what Grandma bought for him -- a telescope!  He was so excited he got to pick something out. 

He really wanted to take a picture of all of us since we were all taking turns taking pictures.  He took the picture of the flowers, too.

What's that, Jack? Oh, Lantern!

Pumpkin Carving Time

Before even buying our pumpkins, Jackson spoke about how you open it, take out the seeds, and then put the light in the pumpkins, so I thought he was geared up for gutting the gourd. . .yeah. . .






Will he stick his hand in there?

Mommy offers another solution; at least he tried.

Finally, he asked for help scraping it out.  I didn't mind.  Over all, I would say this year's Carving was successful!

Matt only looked because I told him to look.

Look, Michelle, we got an albino pumpkin, just like you suggested; of course, Jackson had to have the white one.

Jackson stated he needed his glasses to protect his eyes while carving; thus, why he has glasses on in this picture but not in the previous ones.  (Safety first in our house.)

Drawn by Jackson himself and carved with Daddy's help.

I spent the day cleaning the house (didn't do my hair), and Jackson wanted to take a picture. . .yeah, not my most beautiful moment.

Jackson really enjoyed putting the cut pieces back in the pumpkin.

From left to right: Matt's, Jackson's, LeMira's

 You have to admit that the white one sure glows the best and the coolest!

Memorial Day 2010

This is the reason I love to visit the cemetery on Memorial Day! I wish every day looked as cheerful as this day. There is just a special spirit there every year.

Easter 2010

Easter this year was pretty low-key for us. On Saturday afternoon, we colored eggs,

and then after the snow finally melted (by about 4 p.m.), we did an Easter egg hunt for Jackson in our backyard. I don't worry about what I put inside the eggs because he's more excited to find them and to count them. We actually told him how many there were (15) so he could keep track. With a little help and a few hints, he found all of the eggs that Daddy hid.Ken, Aimee, and Annie came for dinner that evening. Ken and Matt went to the Priesthood Session of General Conference, and Aimee and I visited. You know, the best thing about having so many brothers is that I get to meet and enjoy six wonderful, amazing women that put up with my brothers, and that are some of my greatest friends. I sure love them all!

On Easter morning, Jackson found the basket (yes, you read that right - we get a family Easter basket) that the Easter bunny left. Jackson was sad the bunny didn't stick around for breakfast; but he didn't complain what was left behind (candy, a bubble blower, and a new set of scriptures for him).
After our traditional ham dinner after we watched all the sessions of General Conference, we visited the cemetery, sang a primary song for Clarissa, and thanked the Lord for the gift of Resurrection. I do not fear death. I only fear the pain that comes from the loss of death, but I do not fear Death - especially when I have a special girl that will be waiting for me to go home.

Christmas Afternoon

After relaxing, watching Jackson play with his toys, putting in a movie or two, calling family on the phone and on the computer, we ate our Christmas dinner together.

I was amazed that we only had one casualty, a poor stemware glass that didn't dodge Robert's elbow fast enough.
Oh, well, at least the glass didn't get in the food, right?

It was an easy dinner as I planned much in advance and use a lot of ready-to-eat food. Still, it was yummy.

(Kristin, Robert, Jackson, LeMira, Matt)

Following dinner, Matt, Jackson, and I took our trip to the cemetery to do one last special Christmas tradition.

It was cold, and so we didn't last long, but Jackson still wanted to share his microwave with Sissy for a few minutes.


I, of course, shed a few "Missing My Daughter" tears, then thought of the grand celebration in heaven, and smiled. She was probably enjoying Christmas, too.

Thanks, Robert and Kristin, for coming and enjoying Christmas with us.