Christmas Around the House

Here’s just a few of the scenes from around our house at Christmas time.

The holiday table is set for Christmas Eve dinner.  Even the cats cannot wait for Christmas.

Piles of packages and cheerful reminders.

Magic key left on the front door for Santa’s arrival and creatures barely stirring with sleepiness.

Stockings hung with care even if not by a chimney.

Santa’s empty cookie plate and cup along with the key left nearby indicates to the children that Santa did indeed stop by to leave them some Christmas surprises and enjoyed a little treat himself.  Music left open on the piano reminds us of the fun we had singing carols together after a crisp, serene walk on Christmas Eve.

Tiny candy canes bundled in a cute little package left on the tree was a fun surprise and made nice utensils for stirring homemade hot chocolate.  So many sweet, tiny ornaments remind us of people, places and experiences that we love and we feel just a little bit closer to those we are missing.

Spooky enjoyed his view of the squirrels in the warmth of the kitchen on holiday mats placed on the table “just for him”.  And my children love to see this little holiday house every year all lit up with a votive candle as they partake of special meals prepared for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  My Aunt sent me a lovely Christmas doily that she hand made in my favorite colors.  It just happens to go perfectly with this little house which doesn’t always get to sit on a table cloth anymore since those tend to get dirtied up quickly by children and dangerously pulled with five kitties running around. 

And those were some of the holiday scenes from around my house.

Festival of Lights

Each year we take a trip, usually quite a chilly trip, to the Festival of Lights at our zoo.  Our family has enjoyed doing this together for as many years as we’ve been around now.  And by the way, even if my camera was a good camera it wouldn’t do the scenery any justice.  It takes months to put the lights up for this annual event.

Fun music and lights at the duck pond.

We did not take a train ride this year though Nathan really wanted to.  But we did see Santa.

The kids got to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what they were hoping for.  I remember that Lindsay wanted some warm pajamas, Nathan wanted candy canes, Kaitlyn wanted a castle and Tristan wanted a Lego set and some sweat pants.  Haley was too old to feel the desire to talk to Santa.

The kids found some turtle shells to play around before we went to the outdoor MadCap Puppet show and found a treat to share that left us licking sticky powdered sugar fingers.

We found the Nativity and also Santa’s reindeer who were resting for their big ride in just three days time.

Nathan was thrilled to find a gingerbread man walking around.  Then we warmed up writing letters to Santa indoors.

Letter writers.

Haley helped Kaitlyn with any spelling questions for her note.  Nathan just colored Santa a picture.

And then the letters were mailed.

Lindsay was not expecting the picture.

And as we were preparing to leave we ran into Frosty which may just have been even more exciting to Nathan than meeting Santa himself! 

Christmas Trees and Christmas Treats

December is always a very busy month full of anticipation and excitement in the midst of all the holiday cooking, parties and regular activities that must be kept up with. 

We began the month attending an adults only party… safe to say the best and most fun party we’ve attended as a married couple.  Here is a sample of the dessert I made to bring.  I added some Christmas sprinkles to my holiday fudge recipe this year to make it a little more festive looking.  We left a dish of it for the kids to have while we were gone and we brought some to friends afterward.

We decorated the tree and I have lots of kitty decorations but I often found myself with a rather LARGE kitty in the tree as well.  As soon as we put the tree up Sandy knew it was just for her and, in spite of her “age”, being three years old did NOT stop this kittenish behavior. 

Sandy also found a mouse in the tree and even after the tree was well decorated she wouldn’t leave this poor little mouse alone.  Silly!  How does she know?

Sandy was showing her devilish side… the angel on the tree top sat watching it all.

Somehow Sandy stayed on the nice list and still found herself with a gift on Christmas morning.

On to more of the treats.  After the house was decorated we found time and ingredients to make lots and lots of goodies.  Goodies for teachers, goodies for class parties, goodies for friends, goodies for caroling, goodies for Santa, goodies for holiday dinners, and goodies for ourselves.  The scale says that it was too many goodies but it was sure fun for the month.  Nathan helped me roll peanut butter balls one morning.

Then we dipped the peanut butter balls into chocolate to make “buckeyes”.  It’s an Ohio thing and I finally found an easy recipe that is also delicious.  This may be one of the things I like best about Ohio.  I thought about sending some through the mail but in the end decided they might not survive too well. 

A goodie showed up in the mail one day for  me though, all the way from Oregon.  These were so good; a combination of Oreo and Thin Mints rolled into one.  I savored every single one over the course of several weeks (of which I was proud) and didn’t share a single one (of which I am not proud)… but I didn’t eat them in front of anyone else either.  Plus my husband doesn’t like mint chocolate so he wouldn’t have cared anyway.  Finding these beautiful towels and box of cookies in a mailed box of hand-me-downs for my daughter from her Aunt sure made my day.

By the time Christmas rolled around I had a little bit left of a whole lot of baking.  This works as Christmas Eve Dinner’s dessert after we FIRST pull out a few cookies to leave for Santa.  There is more holiday fudge, Candy Bar Cookies, East End Bars in red and green, Butter Cookie Swirls, and Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies.  I try to have everyone pick one cookie that they really want to make or have made each year.  If possible I try to have them help me make them too but as more of them are in school now and with more homework it is getting harder to have that time with them.

Can you spot the cat in the tree on the left?  Sometimes she’d take a nap up in the branches.  Merry little kitty.