It is officially one week from Christmas and I'm feeling nostalgic and a little bit homesick. The holidays are a very special time for me. I LOVE CHRISTMAS! It is not about the actual Christmas day; which is obviously awesome (I mean I got engaged on Christmas morning after all!) but for me it's the season. It's the anticipation and traditions and festive activities leading up to Christmas. I suppose it is my parents fault. I personally think we had the hands down most fantastic holiday season experience. My mother is a little Christmas crazy herself and I suppose that is where I get my love for it at. I couldn't wait for her special Christmas time dishes to be pulled out. She has a setting for 12 atleast (but I'm pretty sure more!) plus every piece of serving ware imaginable; how I love those dishes with the Christmas tree and the little train that went around at the bottom. She had this Santa that I actually believe was made to be a piggy bank...hes old and made of porcelain and I think she once said it came from home interiors, but I love it! Perhaps the best was her nativity which still makes it appearance every year; I remember her getting certain pieces when I was younger. It is gorgeous. larger than a traditional nativity and the pieces are painted beautifully. Today she also displays a nutcracker collection that takes up an entire book shelf. Many years ago we got rid of a piano the once small collection sat on top of it during the holidays and our only thought was where are the nutcrackers going to go at Christmas?
Now my father; his lights were amazing. We had this deck with lattice wood underneath so he would hang those big old C9 bulbs in giant X patterns on the bottom then twinkle icicle lights from the actual seating of the deck. My first Christmas being married we went to buy lights and I insisted on the C9 lights because it was what my dad had always used, after half of them braking against the house that one season and spending a fortune to replace individual bulbs I gave in and let Jerrod buy smaller outdoor lights. The icing on the lights; our old plastic blown light up Santa and his reindeer which still make an appearance every Christmas.
We had so many ornaments we had 2 trees, one real one for the living room which was always bought too big and always needed to have the top cut off to fit in the room and tied to our deck door to prevent it from falling ( do I have to tell you how we had to figure out to tie it up!?). Our artificial tree appeared in the dining room which was great because who doesn't want to look at a beautiful tree while eating dinner plus every homemade ornament from when they were in pre school.
There was a little pond in front of our house that we would spend days skating on. We would spend all day out on that miniature rink and at night my dad would bring down the portable work flood light for us. Today that pond has grown over but my memories are still there (side note-my cats are actually buried right next to it).
Christmas time meant baking. My mother would make what seemed to be 100s of sugar cookies with every sprinkle you could think of and atleast 6 different colors of frosting. The 3 of us kids would sit down and decorate until you get to the point where you stop caring about doing details and you are just throwing on green frosting onto any cookie just to get them all done. Peanut butter balls were always a must, my mom made tons of these as well to give out as Christmas gifts. Leftover balls always got put in a bowl in the fridge but they never lasted too long....they were so amazing.
Ginger bread houses were something my sister and I did together. Yes they were a pre made house and yes that made it awesome because they were ready to go with minimal prep and cleanup work.
Perhaps one of my all time favorite traditions would be getting in the car and driving to town in the evening with the Christmas music playing. We would grab a hot chocolate and ride around some of the bigger neighborhoods and look at all of the beautiful lights and displays. You know what makes this all super awesome, is that when I go home it all still happens. Every thing (minus the skating and PB balls) but every thing else is still carried on when we are able ot make it home for the holidays.
The magic my parents brought into our lives on Christmas morning was phenomenal. I was left believing; really truly believing much later than most kids. The details of a type writer typed tag with our names on special gorgeous Santa paper, stockings over flowing onto the floor. Everything was just always perfect and magical, and just because we are older now there is still that same magic all these years later. If you wake up at my parents house on Christmas morning you better believe cookies and milk had been drank and nibbled on, and yes he has left you a special gift. As much as you can say thank you in the moment of something, I only hope my parents realize what they did for me and my siblings and how much I truly am thankful; so in a way I guess this is a thank you to them for the magic of Christmas, for the memories that will never be forgotten and for giving me traditions to carry on with my children.
My house currently smells like ginger bread (can anyone really complain about that?) I gave in last night and spent 2 hours baking homemade pieces for ginger bread houses. Jerrod made me do it our first year married as his family tradition is making the houses from scratch (nod to aunt lou and aunt peggy for making enough for like 20 people!) and they assemble them all together the saturday after thanksgiving. I have proceeded to make them every year except last year and felt guilty yesterday so busted them out. Not quite stale enough yet to build, hopefully by tomorrow. Anyways; building traditions and memories of the holidays regardless if snow is on the ground or not with my little munchkins is all I can hope to accomplish. Id say if when they get older and can look back and love the holidays for what we did together and remember the love poured out for them then I did a good job. Now im going to throw my thongs (flip flops) on head out in this 99 degree heat to grab dinner at the store. Happy memory making and merry Christmas to everyone everywhere!
Heres what you need for Trafton family ginger bread
5 1/2-6 C flour
1 TSP baking soda
1 TSP salt
2 TSP ground cinnamon
2 TSP powdered ginger
1 TSP ground nutmeg
1 TSP ground cloves
1 C shortening
1 C sugar
1 1/4 C molasses
2 beaten eggs
1.Mix flour, baking soda, salt, spices
2.melt shortening; not too hot. add sugar, molasses and eggs in that order. add 4 cups dry mix
3.knead in remaining dry mix. make it firm and add extrra flour if needed.
4.roll out to 1/4'' thick
bake at 375 10-12 minuites and makes ~40 cookies or 2 houses ( i use wilton house piece cutters)
No comments:
Post a Comment