A FAMILY CHRISTMAS

A baby gives a family a new way of looking at things. 

Not necessarily 'new', but an opportunity to look at old things through fresh eyes.  Not to mention all the little chirping, happy noises and big baby smiles for any and all reasons.  What fun.

Our married kids came down the afternoon of the 24th for REINDEER GAMES.  They planned to spend the night with us and go home Christmas afternoon/evening.  They ended up staying until Sabbath afternoon.

In the last years - since we lost mom and dad Ludke - we've stayed home most years.  Once we went out east with Deb's family, but mostly we're forging ahead with developing family traditions of our own.  Not the same, but ... they are ours!  I feel that family traditions are vital to weaving our story together and keeping us connected.

Friday morning we awoke to little baby noises and puppy dogs.  Such life filled the house!  No big plans for breakfast - just a bowl of granola for whoever wanted.  Nick stayed sleeping and sleeping.  Finally it was Jaimee's nap time (and he was still sleeping!).  Eventually the two youngest ones were awake at the same time - and we began opening gifts.

Naturally everyone had anticipated Jaimee's excitement at her first holiday!  Oops!  She was almost more interested in the tree, the ornaments, the lights, etc.  ANYTHING we didn't really want her to investigate, she needed to investigate!  *lol* 

Usually we start our time by reading the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible.  Rhiannon had a children's version of the story (I think she got it when we were at women's retreat), so we all listened while 'mommy' read to us.  Jaimee was mildly interested (for her typical 2 or 3 second attention span!).  Yet, it is an important part of what we do and I was proud of my daughter for including this in her planning for us all.  Randy prayed and we started opening gifts.

I was given a nice camera (and case) which I am already enjoying.  Not sure everyone else is enjoying ME enjoying it!  (I took lots of pictures at church today!)  I also got a very super cool scrapbook carrying case - so when I go to our monthly stamping events I can have everything in ONE container.  Whoo hoo!  Well, maybe TWO containers because there was a littler one that matches. 

We had too small boots, sweaters, slacks, games, pictures, etc.  And little girlie girl ... we had to do her opening in shifts.  Ryan was excited about the cool bath toy that the Smudas had sent for Jaimee - he likes to give Jaimee her bath.  They'll have fun!

I love my family so much, sorely miss the ones I married all those years ago, but it helped having lots of family around Thursday night and Friday (and unexpectedly on Sabbath too!).  It was wonderful. 

The weekend has a bittersweet ending, as we will go up to Iowa City in the morning and help our married kids load a truck to take to Nebraska with them.  They are headed out there and except for a few trips back to get this and that and finish cleaning out the house -- they are done living up there in Coralville (for now anyway).  I'll miss the idea of being close enough that I could run over there if I wanted.  I know 5 months isn't that long, but yet there is a tiny girl changing so rapidly -- HOWEVER, I do know that it is important for their little family to be together.  Daddy Ryan loves his little girl, and she loves him.  Mommy Rhiannon and Daddy Ryan need to make a life together for her.  I'm sad, but I am okay with it.  (Of course I pray they'll eventually locate in our area, but ... for now I'm just looking forward 5 months.)

The next thing on my horizon, besides climbing out of bed on time on Monday (it's HARD after being able to sleep in a few days in a row!), is getting ready for our New Year's Eve party here on ... NYE!  Hey!  If you don't have anything planned - COME ON OVER.  I'm not providing snacks (everyone needs to bring something to share - and soft drinks if they want them).  I will have two or three tables set up for games, or people can visit, or ... ??  WHATEVER!  The church family is invited to come - but anyone can join us.  I WANT TO PLAY GAMES!!!  We'll start at 7 p.m. (or so) and go til midnight (or so!).

As always - we love to hear from you too!
V

REINDEER GAMES

I love silly.  It makes me happy.  It makes me smile.  I love when people are silly with me.  And so it was for REINDEER GAMES on Christmas Eve. 

We got together at our house for some hot cheesy potato soup, some scrumptious vegetable soup, some cornbread muffins, and a variety of sweet treats.  We ate, we played a couple of reindeer games, ate some more, did a 'reindeer duty' or two, and ended up playing FARKLE and TABOO. 

REINDEER RAP had people barking Jingle Bells, acting out Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, hanging Christmas bulbs using a straw and their teeth.  REINDEER RELAY brought out the most laughter and noise as the reindeer relay teams blew up balloons to help create their team captain a suitable set of antlers.  In REINDEER SCRAMBLE everyone got to roll dice to get a prize.  Poor Rhiannon never got a pair of anything in all of her turns rolling. 

Her luck changed when we went to play FARKLE.  Wynter's luck was the one that ran out - she FARKLED and FARKLED and FARKLED before she finally got on the board.  TABOO, a favorite of Rhiannon and me, challenged our brains as we tried to describe words without using the obvious words to do it!  (I needed to sit on my hands more -- I used them way too much!)

The last reindeer went home about 12:30 a.m. or so.  It was fun. At least I had fun. I think others had a 'little bit' fun too!

(Ryan's birthday is on Christmas Eve day -- so Randy got some 'fun' silly string to celebrate with! That stuff is pretty messy! Thank goodness for vacuum cleaners!)

Hope you have some happy holiday memories too!
V

FLOUR AND SUGAR AND BUTTER - oh my! - FLOUR AND SUGAR AND BUTTER - oh my!

Who knew that these three little ingredients rolled, cut and baked (for 20 long minutes) could be so yummy? And I haven't even frosted them yet.

According to my Cousin Kathy (from California) - this is Gr'ma Hinkhouse's Danish Cut Out Cookie recipe. I did have one problem with it I'm sure Kathy has never encountered. That being that my kitchen counter was cool enough that I had to occasionally work the dough (like play dough) to warm it up enough to make it roll out! (its winter in the mid-west you know!)

GRANDMA'S DANISH CUT OUT COOKIES

Mix 2 cups salted butter

with
1 1/4 cups sugar (granulated)

with
5 cups flour

(HINT: Be sure to put in FIVE cups of flour, not 6. Otherwise you have to get your husband or someone smarter than you, to figure out how much more salted butter and sugar to put in to make it work!)

Cream all ingredients together, roll out to 1/4" and cut into shapes. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 20-25 minutes (I missed this part and started my Danish Cut Out Cookies WAY TOO LATE in the afternoon!), in 300 degree oven, til lightly golden brown.

(NOTE: After rolling and baking and all that jazz ... I found that rolling them out and cutting into a festive "SQUARE" shape works great. Later to make baking time less, I found that by making TRIANGLES out of the squares you could fit even more cookies ALL OVER the cookie sheet. This reduces baking time, and they actually taste just as good as the Christmas shapes!)

FROSTING:

1 box of powdered sugar (I still need to figure out how a box of powdered sugar figures when you buy it in a bag ... maybe tomorrow!)

Dash of salt (that's the 'reindeer' part ... on DASHer ... )

Little pour of vegetable oil for shine

Thin with milk to stiff consistency

Few drops of Almond Flavor

DECORATING (this is KATHY's description, not mine - because mine are all going to be probably white!)

Frost and sprinkle ... I don't know if you have Michael's there (the craft store) but I usually get a 5 container grouping of sprinkles ... red/white raw sugar, red, green and white little balls, red, white stars and wreaths ... for more sweetness ... or use colored sugars mixed by hand ... yellow for stars, blue for bells, green for trees, etc.

And for final kicks (I loved this you guys, thank you for sending the card and your current picture! - I hope you don't mind me sharing it with everyone!) -- this is Randy's youngest sister Stephanie and Steve!

BIG BAKING DAY -

There is a reason some of us live in town. And that, for me, is because I can't remember everything at the store when I go there and have to make multiple trips.

Today for instance - I went to the store THREE times. So I could do baking.

And bake I did.

Tuesday is our work's 'treat day' -- they are encouraging us to bring stuff for breakfast, or at least before lunch type foods. SO I decided to drag out Jill and Mary's granola recipes -- combined them, added a few twists of my own and now have lots of granola to take to work.

Then I made chocolate chip cookies. My special recipe with the cornstarch -- they are (to me) the BEST chocolate chip cookies EVER.

Then I made PRIDE OF IOWA cookies because Rhiannon loves them. I haven't made them in a really long time. So there is going to be LOTS of those for her (and others!).

Last, I made Gr'ma Hinkhouse's cut out cookies. My cousin Kathy said to me last week "remember ..." and I didn't remember. So she sent me the recipe. I was pretty tired out - but it looked easy. And it wasn't so hard EXCEPT instead of 10 or 12 minutes of baking those puppies require TWENTY minutes of baking. OUCH! That put a crimp in my plan to finish things up pretty quickly.

On one of my trips in and out of the house to the store -- I ended up taking a spill on the ice right outside our garage door. I knew it was icy, but a small skiff of snow had come down and covered it. Out of site out of mind they say -- and I crashed down on my backside and my left hand. That is what is smarting the most now. Plus I'm sort of stiff, but that might be just standing on my feet ALL DAY.

We were saddened to learn that Ryan's Uncle Roger died this afternoon about 1:30 p.m. I feel so sad for our boy. I know Uncle Roger was special in his life and that he will feel a great sense of loss for a long time.

I'm going to bed -- it's about time for the whole weekly process to start over. UGH! *tee hee*