Christmas 2008

Christmas is for children. But it is for grownups too. Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts.
--Lenora Mattingly Weber

I'm not ready for it to be Christmas. I don't mean I still have shopping or wrapping or anything like that, I mean I don't want it to be Christmas yet. I want another week to enjoy it all some more. What with Thanksgiving being so late and the ice storm and snow we've had, there just didn't seem to be enough time to really enjoy the season. I'm not ready for the commercials to be over or the Christmas shows or the Christmas movies to stop running. The radio station will return to it's usual line up and the stores will throw all their Christmas stuff into big bargain bins.

No, I'm not ready for it to be Christmas, but here it is. So, I'll enjoy these last couple of days to the fullest, literally and figuratively considering the dinner I'm planning.

I also didn't post as much as I wanted to this season. So, here are some photos to illustrate what's been going on this festive season.

Decorated for Christmas. We got a bigger tree last year, so I bought more ornaments at the after-Christmas sales last year. I got frustrated while decorating, thinking it looked awful, then I turned on the lights. Oh, it was so pretty. It's amazing how prettier it looks with lights on.




Christmas baking--I love this part of the season. I didn't do as much as I usually do. But it still kept me busy.



I baked for Al's office, making the usual Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies and Chocolate Chip Snowballs





I also made the easiest candy ever. Here's the recipe: Melt a 12-oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chips, stir in 1 cup of peanut butter, stir in a cup or so of dry roasted, salted peanuts. Spoon into mini muffin cups, then put in to refrigerator until cool and solid. I put them in muffin tins, but you don't really have to.



The craftroom exploded with presents, packaging, and wrapping.



Made my first Gingerbread House. I used a kit to make it easier on myself. Next year, I'm doing my own thing. I might even make it while everyone is here for Thanksgiving so they can join in the fun.





Took Christmas photos of Cosette. Some might call it torture, but we gave her the treats we were holding in front of her to make her stay.





Until she just couldn't take it any more.



Knitted presents--neckwarmers, the cutest hat ever, and an afghan for the in-laws.







Had our first snow, but it started out as mostly ice. It's still around since our temperatures haven't risen much above 10 degrees.



Cosette looked out the frosted storm door.



Enjoyed a glass of Samual Smith's Winter Warmer Christmas Ale



And enjoyed a Christmas Brunch with friends.



It was a pretty full holiday season!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Antici............pation

For Christmas is tradition time-- Traditions that recall
The precious memories down the years,
The sameness of them all.--Helen Lowrie Marshall

Recently, I attended a United Methodist Women’s Christmas brunch at our church. I felt a little silly going since I haven’t been exactly enthralled with our church lately, but that’s my problem, and I’ll try to figure it out some day. Like every good Southern woman, I’ll think about that tomorrow.

So, I braved the single digit temperatures, 30 miles per hour wind gusts, blowing snow and low visibility to go to this brunch. I told Al was going to be brave this winter and not let fear of driving on snowy roads stop me from keeping appointments and commitments. Stupid pride. Al said, “We bought the Element so you could get around in the snow.” Yes, the Element can get around in the snow, but I never actually said I would get around in the snow.

But I digress (again), so I got there and it was very nice. I had said I would greet people as they came in and I would talk about a Christmas tradition, following the theme of the brunch. Despite having blocked out a lot of my growing up years, I do have fond Christmas memories, and the tradition I decided to talk about was our Christmas Chains.

When Mom and Dad split up, Mom spent a lot of energy making Christmas special, so we wouldn’t think too much about how different it was going to be. Mom incorporated many traditions into each Christmas: painting ornaments, driving around to see the Christmas lights, singing Christmas carols, reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, and relenting (to my whining) to keep putting our gifts out after we had gone to sleep because it was just more magical that way. But her brilliance came with the Christmas Chain.

Like most kids, we drove her crazy with “how many days ‘til Christmas” questions. We didn’t have advent calendars, but we had construction paper, scissors and tape. So, she had us each make a chain, each link representing a day until Christmas. Then, each night Jay and I would tear off a link, and we would be a day closer to Christmas. The chains had their place of prominence, taped to a wall, and it was so exciting to see them getting shorter. This may have been the beginning of my love of anticipation and my inevitable crash with post-event depression.

I get all giddy just thinking of tearing each of those links off. I think we started that tradition before Dad left, but we carried it on for a long time. Even when I knew exactly how many days it was until Christmas, I enjoyed counting those links. Of course, Jay and I were so competitive and we fought over every thing, so we had to tear those links off at the exact same time because it was unfair if someone tore one off before the other. Therefore, it was quite a ceremony to tear off those links.

Now my days until Christmas are counted by how many shipping days are left until it will cost a fortune to get it there overnight. Or how late can I get those Christmas cards out and still get them delivered before Christmas. It’s a whole new kind of anticipation.

As a visual reference for my story to the ladies at the brunch, I made a chain. I didn’t even realize I was doing it, but I made a chain with 6 links, exactly how many days it was until Christmas. Every time I look at it, I get that same sense of excitement, that same feeling of anticipation I got as a kid.

I’ve been tearing a link off each night.