Change for Christmas

Christmas was different for us this time around. This past year has brought some significant changes for our little family and that led to a very quiet Christmas day. Matthew was celebrating in Arkansas and since we enjoyed having Daniel and Tawni with us for Thanksgiving, they were with Tawni’s family last night and today. So, this morning, it was just Nathan, Malia, Kevin and me. We slept in just a bit and got breakfast started before we explored what was in the stockings or opened any presents. That was definitely different. And with only four of us on hand, Malia requested standard French toast for breakfast instead of the overnight versions we have done in past. We were able to cook enough slices on the griddle for all of us to eat at the same time which was a bit tricky when feeding six people and needing an allergen free version as well. So, while the past several years have been calmer due to having older children, things were extra quiet today. 

Having said that, we did still have fun. Malia’s gifts this year are largely experience gifts, so she didn’t have much to open. But she was fine with that since one of those gifts was the Benson Boone concert in October and the other is tickets to see Hades Town when the Broadway touring company is here in March. She was/is ridiculously excited about both of these events.

Nathan received a variety of small things with his big gift being the gift of food. For the past several years, we have purchased a quarter cow from Cory, Kevin’s brother. Cory buys a cow, feeds it through the year, and then sends it to the butcher each fall. When Kevin called to ask about cow this year, Cory asked if we wanted half a cow instead of a quarter. Half a cow is far more than we can eat with just three of us at home, but we talked about it and thought that Daniel and Nathan might be interested in having a bunch of really good beef as a Christmas present. They concurred, so a bunch of Cory cow (that’s what we call it around here to differentiate from the run of the mill beef we get at the store) and a small chest freezer for Daniel and Tawni (with the agreement that Nathan could keep some of his cow there as well) were their gifts for this year.

However, 140 pounds of beef is extremely difficult to wrap and put under the tree, so I went looking for a small toy cow of some sort so they would have something to open. What I found were small plush cows that moo and walk around when you push a button on their backs. I added in some Styrofoam meat trays leftover from Halloween raw meat Rice Krispy treats a few years ago, some saran wrap, a personalized Cory Cow nutrition sticker, and used grocery bags as wrapping. I thought it would be funny and was pleased when it made Nathan laugh. His first reaction was to take a video of the walking, mooing cow and send it to the fam in the Facebook Messenger app that we use to communicate with Matthew. However, that would have spoiled the fun for Daniel and Tawni who are scheduled to be here on Saturday, so once he knew they would also be the recipients of an identical package, he quickly deleted the message before they had a chance to see it. Matthew watched it before it was deleted though, so he got to see the barnyard antics. And Daniel didn’t see the video but knows there is something entertaining waiting for them. 

I got a fabulous bread cookbook from Nathan, one I’m excited to get into to learn some additional tips and tricks for breadmaking. And Kevin got me an authentic widow’s mite. Let me give a bit of explanation about that one. Malia has been really into coin collecting over the past few years. It is something that is interesting to her and a shared interest with Matthew which is fun for both of them. There is a coin shop that Kevin has been taking her to on occasion, which Malia loves, and I’m assuming the widow’s mite was purchased on one of their trips. It was meaningful because over the past several years, the number of things I’ve missed or been unable to do as a result of the headaches has risen significantly. And often it leaves me feeling like I’m failing in pretty much every aspect of my life. That widow’s mite, which is tiny, much smaller than I had imagined, was a reminder that I’m doing what I can. I’m giving what I can when I can. And the Lord knows exactly what I’m dealing with and accepts my offering, no matter how small it may be. So, it was a little something that was completely unexpected, but such a good reminder for me.

As for Kev, I have a gift for him, but it hasn’t arrived yet. It is due to get here sometime around my birthday…

With only four of us at home, not as many physical presents to open, and no small children bouncing around like maniacs or deeply focused on their new toys, we knew that we would have a good amount of free time this afternoon. Factor in some busy schedules, and it seemed like this afternoon would be a good time to decorate gingerbread. This year’s creation was a gingerbread train with each of us assembling and decorating one car. Nathan claimed the engine, Malia selected the caboose, and Kevin and I took the two middle cars. We had fewer ginger-dead type occurrences this year with Malia’s car being the only one with casualties. One of her gingerbread people was falling out of the car and the other was being run over. But the rest of our cars were G-rated. 😂

With almost all the nieces and nephews teenaged or older, last night’s Christmas Eve festivities were more mellow as well. We did dim sum for dinner at my parents’ house again to try to ease things for my mom. She still felt like she needed to be up and about prepping all kinds of things, but we tried to take care of it all. We had no plans for a program or anything, but my mom did want to sing some Christmas carols. However, I don’t know if that actually happened or not. We knew Matthew would be calling today, but he unexpectedly called last night as well. His mission president told them all to call home and that they could talk to their grandparents on occasion, so his timing was perfect. He talked to my parents for a few minutes and got to say hi to the cousins. Even Sam said hi to him, which is fantastic as Sam is usually pretty reticent in situations like this. And since we had already finished eating dinner and Matthew had the go-ahead to talk to grandparents, we booked it down the hill to Kevin’s parents’ house so he could talk to them as well. Before we took off though, Esther had a Christmas present for me with identical ones for my other sisters. She gave us a “Sisters” Christmas tree ornaments. As in the “Sisters” musical number from my favorite Christmas movie, “White Christmas.” The same song that I use a snippet of as my text tone for my sisters. It made me laugh out loud. It was perfect!

We got to talk to Matthew again today, which was nice because it meant that Daniel and Tawni jumped onto the video call as well. Matthew spent part of the day with some members and had the opportunity to play some board games, which was great. He appreciated the few presents we sent him and was wearing his microwaveable Snoopy stuffed animal as we spoke. I was able to find some chocolate candy bars that are safe for him and he likes those as well. He did say that the deck of playing cards Malia sent were the ugliest thing he had ever seen, but since they were the Benson Boone cards that feature a picture of his abs on the backs, it is a totally valid opinion. 😂

Tawni’s family decimated the bowl of Chinese pretzels they took, so apparently, they were a hit. And Daniel got to experience the mayhem that was Christmas with her extended family. They don’t open presents one at a time like we do, it’s a free for all with what Tawni describes as a mountain of wrapping paper in the middle of the room. And apparently, she was impressed enough with our Thanksgiving turkey to have a go at the brined, trussed, and herb roasted version for their Christmas dinner. The turkey cooked faster than expected and dinner ended up being later than expected so she reported that it ended up a little dry, but she also said that she got positive feedback from family members concerning the fabulous flavor.

This year has really been a transition year for us. This is the first year that we’ve had to share kids with in-laws and that is going to take some getting used to. With Daniel and Nathan both on track to graduate in the spring, things have the potential to change even more over the next year depending on where the work takes them. Both of them are applying for jobs all over, not just here in Utah, so no one knows where they will end up as of yet. Having my children be elsewhere has been a bit of an emotional adjustment and I know that it will take some time to wrap my head, and my heart, around it. But I also know that they are doing exactly what they should be doing. As parents, we spend years and years teaching our children to be capable, independent adults and now that they are, I’m not going to get all offended by that fact. I am going to miss the years when their focus and home were here, but it’s absolutely right that over time, their focus should shift as they establish their own homes and families. But it is all a bit bittersweet for my mama heart. Things will never be the same and while I know that change is inevitable and the changes we’ve had this year are good ones, I still have my sad moments.

But I also know there is still joy to be found, even in the changes. I have seen that as my kids have met challenges head on and been strengthened by them, becoming stronger and better people as they do so. I’ve seen that as they have accepted and fulfilled new callings with enthusiasm, becoming a little more Christlike in the process. I’ve seen that as all my children gain knowledge and skills and look forward with hope and optimism to what their lives may hold in the future. I’ve seen that as Tawni has become a part of our family, weaving her way into our lives and our hearts and making Daniel a better person. And I know I will see the joy in ways yet unknown in the days to come. 

Boy, Did I Mess Up My Kids

It was gingerbread day at our house and apparently my dabbling in gingerdead men a few years back has totally messed up my kids. I take full responsibility there. I had no idea it would become such a tradition around here. And to be honest, I will probably bear the blame for messing up generations of young ones yet to come. Nevertheless, we always have a jolly time on gingerbread day. 😉

So here they are in order of least to most disturbing:

Nathan created a benign hobbit hole from middle earth, round green door and everything. You can almost see Bilbo coming up the path.

Daniel's sleigh is running down some Christmas trees. It started off as more of a traditional scene, but when the tree refused to stand up, Daniel shifted gears and Santa’s sleigh, sans driver, went off road.

Malia made a giant holding a ginger boy who just had his head ripped off, loads of blood and everything. She also created a monster house that while happy to see her, was a bit on the creepy side. And then she took her exhausted teenager body to the couch and took a nap rather than making her house stand up. 

My abominable snow monster chasing some innocent gingerfolk was modeled after the monster in the classic stop motion version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I even had Rudolph and a snowman but including them would have resulted in a very cramped front yard, so they were cut prior to the final version. 

And last but not least, Matthew's Vlad the Impaler replica. His was another scene that morphed into something just a little bit creepier than where he started. Originally the half man was hanging out of the mouth of a giant, but the giant refused to stand up, so Matthew ate him. I guess that is an example of life imitating art! 

I’m a good mom, I swear. Just don’t judge us based on our gingerbread. 😂🤪🤣

Simply Sweet (And a Little Bit Gruesome)

As previously mentioned, I’m simplifying this year which means instead of gingerbread houses or giant gingerbread, I stuck with the ubiquitous normal sized gingerbread man…and woman, of course. I baked them a couple weeks ago, made the frosting earlier this week, and just pulled everything out of the freezer/fridge in time for it all to be at the optimal temperature for decorating. That definitely helped make the whole process smoother. I assumed that decorating these typical cookies would yield fairly typical results. However, I should know my offspring better than that. 

One of Matthew’s cookies had giant eyes. And when I say giant, I mean his neck should not be able to hold up his head with his gargantuan orbs. Another of his cookies had serious surgery where his legs were amputated and became ears. That little guy was meant to be the little cat from the Halloween Google doodle game. Upon discovering my inability to decorate a gingerbread man that looked normal (although I created normal looking girls just fine), Matthew attempted to make several normal boys. He came close to normal, with one who was wearing eyeballs for shoes and another who was either a clown with the typical red nose or cookie screaming for its life. So close, but not quite normal.

Nathan’s efforts yielded a man with giant eyes growing on his belly, an old man cookie with a big beard and some serious eyebrows, and an unfortunate fellow who had lost his head…and was holding it in his head. Blood included of course. The old man, while not traditional, was pretty normal looking so I have to give Nathan points for not being completely messed up.

Malia is another story. Not one of her cookies can wear the moniker of normal. These are definitely not standard gingerbread people. One of hers was missing an arm, which I’m fairly certain was just an excuse to sample the cookies ahead of schedule. Another was holding her own foot and had a peg leg in its place. A third had a giant case of pink eye which was unfortunate since he also happened to be a cyclops. Yet another was obviously all hopped up on candy canes and had two different size eyes as a result. And another must have gone through the mixer because it came out assembled all wrong, so wrong in fact, that it was quickly dubbed “The Blob.” 

{sigh} I know this is all my fault. I’m the one who introduced them to gingerdead men after all. Be warned that exposure to said gingerdead men at an early age has some serious developmental side effects. 😜 Having said that, it also means cookie decorating day is never dull at our house!

And now, let’s talk about my cookies for a minute. Several of these cookies were destined to be gifted to my sister Esther, so I was trying to come up with a few normal ones. As mentioned previously, I created normal looking gingerbread girls with no problem. But for some reason, my gingerbread boys came out just a little bit…wrong. One of them ended up looking like he was in the middle of a fascinating drug trip. Another seemed to be screaming for his life. It was not intentional, but they just looked weird. (Nathan said that sounded about right-normal girls and no normal boys. Cookies imitate life. 😂) That was where Matthew’s attempts at a normal boy came into play. In the end, we all voted on which cookies should be bequeathed to Esther and she ended up with one very cute girl and a boy who was holding his bleeding head in his hand. I hope she is entertained. 😉

I love this time with my kids in the kitchen. As noted on my Christmas tree cookie day, having time to make the cookies cute in no way outshines the opportunity to have many tiny fingers covered in flour join me in the kitchen. And I’m so glad that even though my kids are all growing up, they still enjoy spending time with dear old Mom making some sweet…and sometimes gory…memories.

(Post) Yuletide Delights-Part VII AKA: Kung Fu Baking

As I mentioned yesterday, our schedule in December has been increasingly hectic. Despite that, my kiddos all have Christmas activities and traditions that they want to be on hand for. In our attempts to juggle school, work, band, church, and family activities, we decided that our annual gingerbread day was going to occur after Christmas so that we could actually enjoy it rather than feeling like we were just cramming in one more obligation. Today is Christmas (observed), so I guess that technically we did gingerbread on Christmas!

When I asked everyone if they had a preferred gingerbread theme (big houses, mini houses, giant gingerbread, etc.), most of my kids were noncommittal. But Nathan really wanted to make ninja-bread men, so we broke out the piping bags and created an army of tasty non-pacifists. We all had fun designing our little fighters, but Nathan went above and beyond and made his cookies fight each other. I think it was hilarious!

We also enjoyed a little taste of Texas today and made Texas style sausage kolaches. We all liked them as they were very tasty, but Nathan was the happiest of all. It put a little “yeehaw” back in his step!

Festive Food-Parts III and IV

Today was a two-fer in terms of fun food. With a limited number of days remaining until Christmas, so many fun ideas to create, and only so many days that all my kids are here, sneaking in a couple fun foods seemed like a good way to go.

After the grand time we had fashioning our gingerbread village last Christmas, we all knew gingerbread in some form or another needed to be on the schedule of festivities again this year. I polled the kids and rather than do miniature houses again, we decided to go big and make giant gingerbread men. My goal was to make them as big as conveniently possible, so I sized up a template to print on an 8.5”x11” sheet of paper. The kids used a knife to cut around their templates, the boys all using a traditional gingerbread man shape and Malia going rogue to turn her gingerbread girl into a dragon girl. The boys and I all thought it looked just like Batgirl, but Malia was adamant that it was a dragon. Both men and dragon girl expanded a bit as they baked, and they turned out pretty gargantuan. I’m really glad I didn’t try to make two on a single cookie sheet. We would have ended up with some crazy conjoined gingerbread.

As in all things, all four of my children created very different gingerbread men people beings. Daniel’s man ended up looking like an ‘80’s punk rocker with multicolored spiked hair. Nathan’s looked an awful lot like Oscar the Grouch with a bit of extra bit of color in his hair. Matthew’s was wearing a rockin’ Christmas suit. And Malia’s did not end up looking like Batgirl. It became a man-eating dragon wearing a pearl necklace and star earrings. I’m so proud that my only daughter has such refined tastes. Of course, she did soften the slaughter by adding a timeless piece of jewelry. And to be completely honest, the whole ginger-dead men thing was all my fault. 😂

At the conclusion of the decorating, Daniel decided that the houses had been more fun, but the giant gingerbread men were still fun. I think it would be great to combine the two-a village of tiny houses terrorized by a giant gingerbread man. (I think there have been side effects associated with raising three boys. Twenty years ago, I don’t think I would have considered having a gingerbread village meet a grisly end a funny idea, but I’ve had to make some mental adjustments to keep up with my boys. 😜)

Once the explosion of buttercream, candy and sprinkles was cleaned up, we moved on to our second course of fun food for the day. My kids ask about five million times a day what we are having for dinner, and today I just told them they would have to wait and see. When that is my response, they all know something fun is on the horizon. Nathan even changed some plans for this evening so he would be here for dinner. He realized what I was creating when he saw me breaking the pretzels, but the rest of the kids were otherwise occupied and didn’t figure it out until the moment of final assembly. Sloppy joes with a few additions became a tasty bevy of Santa’s helpers. Yes, they did look more like dogs than reindeer, but a little imagination solved that problem. After our cadre of reindeer was completed, my crew hunkered down and ate every last antler. Seriously, I thought there would be some leftovers. I was wrong.

As for my kitchen, it is jam packed full of Christmas goodness. These are the moments when I wish I had just a bit more counter space. I’m so grateful my crew is willing to clean up when my creativity explodes all over the place. I have definitely made a lot of dirty dishes over the course of the past two days and there are more to come. But my clan will all be well fed time and time again over the course of the week and they know it, so they don’t usually complain too much. 😉

Creating a Village Out of a Mountain

Today was gingerbread day and to completely honest, I was ridiculously excited. I think the kids were all excited as well. Even the “big boys” were anxious to get going. One of the things that has prevented me from committing to real gingerbread houses in the past is the fact that royal icing is not Matthew friendly. It’s that whole egg thing. And while buttercream is much tastier, it doesn’t have the holding power of royal icing. But I was determined to at least try to make a stable cookie house, so I searched Pinterest and found several egg-free varieties of royal icing. I selected one and figured if it didn’t work, we could fall back on the less stable buttercream and at least have an entertaining time attempting to make our houses stand. And if they fell down, we could just attribute it to a Christmas earthquake. And no matter what they looked like, they would taste good.

I have a weakness for cute sprinkles and candy eyes because they mesh well with my love of fun food, so we had a bunch of different options to work with. We also purchased several kinds of candy to use as décor and had some buttercream on hand just in case. Once I set the kids loose, the creativity (and the icing) began to flow. And guess what? The egg-less royal icing worked great! It set up hard, but not so hard you would crack a tooth attempting to eat it, which just happens to be one of my pet peeves about normal royal icing. I want my caloric delights to taste as amazing as they look. I mean, isn’t that the point of dessert? To taste good?

We had a wonderful time assembling our creations. And we made a lovely mess. And once we were done, the photoshoot started. During and after the decorating process, I took the requisite blogworthy pictures of each child with their creations, but Daniel went all out while I was cleaning up. We dug out a white sheet for a backdrop, Nathan helped him hold it up, and he went to town. There were pictures of every house from every angle. There were closeups and long shots. There were shots highlighting the wreaths, the Christmas trees, and the candy cane gardens. There were even a few shots of Lego Harry Potter and Lego Cho Chang taking a stroll through the snowy neighborhood. In short, he had a fantastic time making a pictorial record of our day’s work.

I loved today. It was amazingly fun. And being with my most important people in the world made it even better. We’ve all had a rough year but taking time for some whimsy and letting ourselves find joy in the simple things was yet another tender mercy. There is good to be found all around us. And even in an abnormal time, there is normalcy in gingerbread, frosting, and family.