I am still counting the gifts I see around me, but I missed posting last week. Hopefully, it was because I was fully engaged in enjoying His gifts.
We had a lovely Christmas, surrounded by family and friends, celebrating the One Gift that makes all the others possible. Here are some of those:
21. Energy to make just one more trip to the grocery store for more eggs, or mushrooms, or sugar, or batteries...
22. Grandma Marie's and my "secret recipe" soup for Christmas Eve eve
23. My mom arriving on Christmas Eve with tables, chairs, extra decorations, meatballs, cheese, and deviled eggs, and cookies
24. Children singing in the choir, the littles trying so hard (mostly)to be still in all the excitement.
25. The look on our children's faces as they sit in the candlelight, captivated, as the pastor tells The Story.
26. Friends, family, and laughter in every corner of this home.
27. The blessing of celebrating my birthday, too, while we all gather to celebrate His.
28. Butter Cake on Christmas morning.
29. Working with my in-laws, husband, and father (and occsionally the boys) to complete a 1000-oiece dinosaur puzzle that I puchased for the 5 year-old (!)
30. A white Chirstmas IN GEORGIA y'all!
31. When all is quiet and dark in the house, except for the crackling of the fire and the glow of the Christmas tree, and I can sit in wonder and awe that He came here.
32. Christmas day with all the busyness over and nothing left but stillness and joy (and cookies, lots of cookies).
To share your Christmas gifts, or peek at what others have received, visit A Holy Experience.
I am not crafty, but I love the idea of homemade gifts at Christmas, so I turn (naturally) to cooking instead. Cookies are generally my favorite type of baked good, and Chirstmas cookies are my favorite of all.
I remember as a little girl, spending Christmas at my grandma's house in northwestern Ohio; she and everyone who came would stack tins of their homebaked specialties on the washer and dryer on the "back porch". The chill of the unheated room kept the cookies fresh, but it certainly didn't keep me out of the tins. I loved the variety and the either delicate beauty or homey slopiness of each one.
Now we have our own tins, and they are filled with the cookie selections of the year. Well, what's left of them (and it's plenty!). This year, as in past, I spent several weeks fitting in as much baking as I could. By December 18th, they were finished, and we plated them and wrapped them for our annual "cookie hand-out".
I tend to get bored with making the same cookies every year, so I choose about 7 or 8 from our traditional options. These years rotation included:
- Peppermint Mocha Cookies (my mom makes these for me)
- Oatmeal Refrigerator Cookies
- Pumpkin Fudge
- Almond Stars
- Cream Cheese Spritz Trees
- Jam Thumbprints
- Chewy Gingerbread Men
- Almond Butter Truffles (Buckeyes using Barney Butter instead of PB)
It takes quite a bit of time to bake in abundance, but I just can't think of a better way to say "I love you" or "Thank you for your friendship" (or in the case of the local volunteer firefighters -"thanks for keeping my house from burning down and blowing out all of the smoke when I left the chicken on the stove and left the house last January") than a tray of cookies. Perhaps granola could say it instead?
