Bandits

So Christmas day has came and went with the usual love and laughter. The kids got several of the things that they had asked for. It was good. Mr O got a skateboard with all the gear to go with it, Peaches received a beginners cook kit (apron, bowl, spatula, brownie mix), Grandma and Grandpa got a couple things that they had asked for, and Handsome got a new drill. Mr O hasn't been brave enough to stand on the skateboard yet, but he sits or kneels and travels all over the back patio that way. Skate park here we come! Peaches has loved cooking for quite some time, so the gift of the cooking set was exactly right for her. She and I will be doing a lot more team cooking I can tell, especially since we have matching aprons now. Grandma and Grandpa's faces lit up over every gift. The excitement and joy over the things that they received was so cool to see! Handsome's drill was a success, he even found an excuse to use it on Christmas day! I was definitely very very lucky. The gifts that I received are very special to me. A little cocoa single-serving mixer (use it all the time) and a new lens for my camera. Oh my word! Awsomeness! The coolest thing about unwrapping those gifts was watching the faces of those who gave them. It was so much fun! Watching the look of surprise, wonder, and joy spread over a person's face as they opened a gift was fun to watch. It's true: it really is so much more fun to give then it is to receive. When you give, you get to see all those different emotions, see how much that person is going to like what you gave them. The joy of each new gift. Even though we all received gifts that we will enjoy for a long time to come. Christmas wasn't about that. Christmas would have been just as enjoyable without all those presents. Christmas was fun because we were with people that we love. People who love us. And we were together. That is why Christmas was so much fun. The love, laughter, and sharing a home for a few days. Love: the true Spirit of Christmas. We are truly blessed.

Hearts and Hearing

So our cloudy Christmas has come and gone. Bringing with it the cheer and peace and happiness that it always does. The Grands came and spent the weekend, jolly as always. Santa brought all kinds of goodies for the stockings and there were lots of presents from lots of people under the tree. The beauty in Christmas wasn't in the gifts or the stockings. It was in the eyes and faces of those that I loved. Watching as we opened gifts from each other. The giver and receiver both excited over the item. The kids were especially cute. They love to give, and it was so fun to watch their faces as we opened the gifts from them. It didn't matter what was inside those packages. What mattered was that my beautiful children were enjoying giving those things away more than receiving their own gifts. And that is what the season is about: the gift of Love.

If I Could Bottle it and Save it for a Million Years, I Would

For the first time, we were able to share our own family tradition with our children's grandparents on Handsome's side. I baked all the gingerbread off two days in advance, constructed the day before, and on the big day they were ready to go. Several different kinds of houses; cottage, A-frame, chalet, split level, and a castle. Mr O claimed the castle, Peaches claimed the bird house, and the rest of us had a hard choice to make. Which house? Hmmmmm... Grandma went with an A-frame, Grandpa chose a cottage, Handsome went with the chalet, and I had three choices left. I finally decided on the cottage. I mixed up the frosting and we all went to work. The sugar and laughter flowed freely and in no time at all the kids were hyper. I think they were eating more candy then they were putting on their houses. Peaches was into the random placement of miscellaneous candy. Mr O actually did patterns and some symmetry this year. The moat is on the roof of the castle rather than around the outer wall, but it looks cool. Grandma did some beautiful roof tiling and multi colored windows. Grandpa did roof tiles as well, finishing off with a couple of green M&M bushes in the front yard. Handsome with his slightly obsessive side had to do all white roof tiles with white frosting dots in between, adding a wreath above the door for the final touch. I did a lace roof and a candy cane door. When we were all finished we took pictures and headed the kids off to bed. Oh what fun!

Houses of Ginger and Glue

The first Christmas memory that I have is of my mother baking gingerbread. The smell permeating the house. Spicy, warm, overwhelming. The wonderful smell of gingerbread. My mother would bake dozens of houses each year so that each of us 7 girls could have 2 or 3 friends over to decorate houses. We lived out in the middle of nowhere. 150+ acre wheat farm between Walla Walla and Waitsburg. To get to our house you had to negotiate a two mile long gravel road with sharp turns and steep hills. If we got more than about a foot of snow, we were stuck at home. We sacrificed those school days for snow days more than willingly. Swapping our books for sleds and heading outdoors. We'd stay out until our hands were ice. Tromping inside, kicking off our boots, to be welcomed by Mom with a steaming mug of home-made cocoa (seriously the best cocoa on the face of the earth). As the days melted into one another with the onset of winter. The nights getting colder and longer, it was time for us to invite those special friends. The ones that would come to our gingerbread party. As soon as school let out for Christmas break there was a notable rise in the excitement around our house. Mother would get out the Kitchen-aid and the stained copy of the gingerbread recipe. Batch after batch would be mixed, refrigerated, rolled, cut, and baked. The smell was overpowering. After the first couple batches were baked you could begin to smell the gingerbread as far away as the barn. Oh it was wonderful! That smell could get us to come inside when nothing else could. Mom always made extra too, so that we could snitch cookies instead of parts of houses. The day after they were baked came the construction. This was the slightly tricky part. The "glue" that held the houses together was made from egg whites and powdered sugar, and it set fast. With four hands working though, the houses went up pretty fast. A dozen houses probably took around an hour to construct, so long as they all stayed together. The baking and construction had to take place at least a day before the decorating, so that the gingerbread had a chance to dry a little bit. Moist gingerbread tastes wonderful, but doesn't hold up well. So once the houses were a day old, then it was Party Time! Our friends would arrive and we would go crazy. Candy in bowls being sampled as well as added to houses. Multiple colors of frosting, also sampled, became the glue with which the candy was held onto the houses. The talking and laughing, decorating and stickiness, lasted for a while. Then when everyone had pronounced their house done, Mom would take a picture. We'd then bundle up and giggle our way outside. Taking our sugar high to the sledding hill behind the barn. We'd sled until parents started coming to pick up friends and houses. The day only truly ended though, after we'd had our first bites of our house. MmmmHmmm. That gingerbread was good.

Jingle Jangle

So every year of our marriage (seven years) I have done my best to surprise my husband with whatever I purchased for him for Christmas. Every year I have failed with the surprise. Mostly it's been my own fault; ordering online and using his account instead of mine, getting it too early and giving hints, etc. This year I was so sure that it would be a surprise. I held off the decision of what to get until the last minute so I couldn't drop hints. I did use his account, but told him so he wouldn't check. But then, I had to screw up. I had it sent to the wrong address. A place that we haven't lived for a year. So Handsome was wonderful and spent 2 hours on the phone getting it worked out so that it would come here instead of there. I guess that is what I get for trying to surprise that man. I just need to quit trying I guess. Perhaps next year I'll order his gift through a friend...

Tacky Glue

Christmas crafts are so much fun. Sparkling colors, sugar, and stickiness. The joy that is felt by all as the item is put together. Peaches made several ornaments in the last couple days. Her love for anything artsy really came out in her creations. The way that she painstakingly sqeezed the glue bottle for just the right amount of glue. Pressing the chosen decoration into the drop of glue. Repeating the process until it was done. I know that these peices of preschool art are not neat, tidy, or very symetrical. But she made them with love and joy. She made them for us all to enjoy. And so we will.

The Music Won't Stop

So, as I'm sure you all have noticed, I haven't blogged in a bit. Sorry for neglecting you, but I had life to attend to. Two school parties. Mr O sang his heart out for his and was a true gentalman at the following "tea," getting me a plate and goodies before getting his own. Peaches was cute for cuteness sake at her party. Although Kris Kringle still causes all kinds of shyness overload for her. Kris was determined to give her a candy cane though, and eventually caught her on the couch and talked to her from 3 feet away, putting the candycane on the arm of the couch between them. What a goofy kid. She made a couple of cute little crafty things, and then we came home with both kids way way sugar high. Then it was into concert mode. I had three concerts to attend. The first was playing handbells with my sister. We had a lot of fun, playing four pieces, and really wowing the audiance with our last piece "Joy to the World" where we literally juggle the bells to get them played. Fun! Then it was on to the one concert that had me the most worried. The one where I was in charge of the singing groups, directing them. There was a youth group, a smaller group of young ladies, and then an adult choir. It went off without a hitch, and I came home and slept off the adrenaline. After the nap it was time to go to the last concert. I was singing in a larger (about 50) choir. Oh it was beautiful! I love singing with people who love to sing! It was very very enjoyable for everyone. And now that the concert rush is over, it is time for gingerbread houses, present wrapping, and visits from loved ones. Yay for the Christmas season!