It’s that time of year again – a cliché saying but not such a cliché event.
I love Christmas. Both the secular spectacle, family gathering, and gift giving, and the religious, awe-inspiring tribute to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. I enjoy the decorating, the outdoor lights around houses, the festive songs, and the air of expectation and goodwill. – with or without snow
To beat the rush, I shop early – well before thanksgiving – but I do my gift wrapping in December. I pick, sign, and mail Christmas cards to friends, family, business associates that my husband and I won’t get to visit over the holiday. I decorate our living room mantle with lights, tinsel, stockings, and festive knick-knacks.
We light the Christmassy mantle every morning. Enjoy it throughout the day.
I like to attend Christmas Eve service at our church, but these last few years our daughter and son-in-law have been hosting a family Christmas party at their home. We go there, have a nice potluck, with my son-in-law’s family, and share in a grab-bag gift exchange.
Simple traditions. One, I’m sure, lots of families enjoy during this holiday season.
This year, I also created a tradition at my house.
Cookie Decorating.
I invited my 3 granddaughters over to my house. On the day of the event, I set up the dining room table with all the tools we need for decorating cookies – various colored & shaped sprinkles, beads, icing. I had festive aprons for all of us to wear.
Since two of my granddaughters are under the age of 4, I settled on pre-baked shortbread cookies of assorted holiday shapes – stockings, trees, stars and Santa heads.
When my son-in-law delivered the girls, I set them to work, decorating the Christmas cookies. We had five small gift boxes to fill. My oldest granddaughter, Sophia, did an excellent job decorating her cookies. The icing tubes were a bit tough to squeeze so I helped with the icing trim, and we used cake frosting for the main coat.
The younger girls, Bella and Mia, were excited, enthralled by the shapes and colors of the tiny sprinkles and beads. They weren’t so good at decorating cookies. They had trouble spreading their sprinkles around the cookies. They ate more beads than they used.
But we had fun.
The enthusiasm of the little ones lasted 42 minutes – then they got bored.
They played with the Peppa Pig playsets I keep at my house. Sophia finished decorating most of the remaining cookies. She filled 4 of the 5 boxes. Then she wanted to bake.
We decided to make peanut butter Hershey kiss cookies. I had packets of Pillsbury peanut butter ready-dough and plenty of Hershey kisses. It was Sophia’s first-time baking. She loved it.
Her sisters got excited again. They loved placing Hershey kisses on the fresh-baked cookies.
Such fun!
Even more fun was attending the preschool Christmas pageant featuring my younger granddaughter, Mia and Bella. That was a hoot! Watched them sing and dance to short Christmas songs – including a holiday version of the Baby Shark son!
I hope the Christmas season is as joyous as mine!
Merry Christmas to you all!
God Bless.
