The Winter Solstice called for a cozy candlelit dinner to brighten the longest night of the year. I fished around in the garden debris/compost pile and reclaimed one of the Christmas tree clippings for our centerpiece.
Journal excerpts:
Christmas Eve Eve bike ride up to the freshly painted Superman Tower!
Monday, December 21, 2020
I just watched Borrowed Hearts and it made me laugh just as much as it does every year. It was also just as sweet as it is every year. A true classic Christmas movie.
It was WARM today: it got up to 60 degrees and sunny! I don't know what to do with warm December weather! This morning, Jeff and I went to the chiropractor, aka our friend the World's Best Chad. (We have a mug with Chad's face and "World's Best Chad written on it, hard won spoils from last year's white elephant gift exchange.) Chad not only put my ankle back in place, he also taught Jeff how to do it! And then he gave Jeff a major lumbar CRACK. Jeff says his back is feeling way better now.
This afternoon I went to Costco and WinCo, where it was crowded and crazy. I got a LOT of food. For dinner, we lit candles and had leftover Cajun shrimp by candlelight. Honestly, I outdid myself with this batch of Cajun shrimp. Jay called the leftover sauce in his bowl "the lake of fire and brimstone," but Jeff and I thought it was the perfect balance of spice and flavor. Slap Ya Mama brand Cajun Seasoning for the win! It was cozy to have a candlelit dinner on the longest night of the year.
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
I had a nice gradual start to the day, with breakfast, then yoga, after which I suddenly decided to vacuum the house. After all of that, I finally went on my bike ride, which was a fun 15 miler up to the Superman tower south of town. Moderate trespassing involved. It was sunny and warm (45 degrees) and I listened to Kamala Harris's book, The Truths We Hold, while I rode. She is so inspiring! Seriously, when she talked about redemption and the belief that even those who have been convicted of crimes not only CAN change for the better, but also deserve the opportunity to change, I had all of the feels. What a joyful hopeful perspective!
Jeff made spinach mushroom eggs for dinner, which kind of splatted and dribbled down the side of the stove when he flipped them. It got everywhere, and some of the egg crusted onto the stove burner and smelled up the kitchen. We were laughing and wiping up runny egg together while Karen Carpenter Christmas music played in the background. It was a fleeting imperfectly perfect domestic moment that was somehow made memorable because we were united in battle against a comically goopy oozy massive pan of eggs. The eggs still turned out great, a testament to Jeff's egg-cooking-prowess. If eggs are the #1 ingredient, Jeff is the master.
We sang Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains for our nightly family carol tonight, and I kind of butchered the piano part. Jeff sang valiantly anyways, haha.
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
I didn't write in my journal that night, but Jay had his Aaronic priesthood interview in preparation to become a deacon in January! He came out of the interview excited about being in the young men's program. His class at church has 12 kids turning 12 next year (at least 9 of them are boys), so he has a bunch of buddies that he'll get to hang out with at weekly Wednesday night activities.
It's always a Christmas miracle when my chocolate chip pound cake turns out all perfect and pretty.
Candlelight kids.
A sunny view of Sunnyside.
Amber lost another tooth on December 22nd. She is running low on top teeth!
The girls found where I hid the makeup kit that Grama Leslie gave Amber for her birthday. Eyeshadow war painting commenced.
"Take a picture of me by myself, Mommy."
Opening the first gifts of Christmas on December 23rd: from the Gibbons cousins.
Thursday, December 24, 2020
10:56pm. Christmas Eve!! The stockings are stuffed and the presents are wrapped! This year we did 3 gifts for each kid from the parents and each sibling gives a gift to the other two, equaling out to 5 gifts from within our family for each person to open. Plus stockings. Jeff had kids open one of their gifts tonight so we could play Mario Kart with their new controllers. And by "we," I mean they. I sat in the room while Jeff played Mario Kart with the kids, haha. I am always so glad it's only a 4 player game!
Anyways, our second gift to the kids is desk chairs, which Jeff assembled tonight long after the kids' bedtime. So that left one gift from us parents for each kid to open on Christmas... Until I realized that my stocking stuffers were too big for all of them to fit in the stockings! I ended up wrapping another 2 little gifts per kid because they didn't fit in the stockings, haha. That plus gifts from Dan and Leslie, Mom and Dad, and Sam adds up to quite a crowded Christmas tree! Merry magical Christmas-- it always ends up feeling so extravagant, which is also kind of fun since we are not very extravagant people in general.
This morning, after watching some of Jeff's favorite 1980s cartoon Christmas specials, we did a family Jingle Bell 5k. Rose and Amber biked; Jeff, Jay, and I ran. It was 28 degrees and sunny. Amber required a LOT of boosts where Jeff or I pushed her from behind to get her bike rolling again. I couldn't tell if she actually needed the help or if she was just enjoying it, haha. Jeff was pretty sure she was just having fun being pushed. That's our Amby, the opportunist.
We watched Elf after lunch--another family favorite. Then at 2pm it was time for our Brown family nativity program over Zoom with my extended side of the family, which was a fun mix of kids in costume, my Dad reading scriptures, and singing. It lasted about 20 minutes. We opened the gift from the Broadbent cousins while on video call with them afterwards.
After that it was kitchen time! The girls opened 4 pomegranates and removed the seeds while I candied pecans and Jay rolled and baked another batch of snow top cookies. Jeff mixed up a batch of peanut butter cookies. Rose took over stirring the pecans and I made cranberry muffins. Amber was a champion pomegranate seeds remover! She really got into it! We had pomegranate seeds and juice sprayed and scattered all over the kitchen from her enthusiastic squeezing and gouging.
While we worked, we jammed to the Carpenters Christmas album--my oldest favorite-- and then The Rend Collective Irish Christmas music-- our newest fave. (their renditions of Christmas in Killarney and Ding Dong Merrily on High are so fun!) It was a busy chaotic messy family kitchen time, after which the kids had a bit of screen time and I read a book while the muffins baked. Then it was Christmas Eve dinnertime: tamales that Jeff picked up from Garcia's yesterday, our fancy pear pomegranate pecan salad, and cranberry muffins. By candlelight. With an actual tablecloth.
Then since we already acted out the nativity earlier via Brown fam Zoom, we watched The Christ Child video and played Mario Kart until bedtime/quiet time, which was later than the usual 7pm because CHRISTMAS. The girls begged Jay to let them have a sleepover with him in his room, but he refused. So they built a fort under Rose's loft bed and when I peeked in at 10:45pm, they were sound asleep, head to head on the floor. It was so sweet.
Meanwhile, before that sweet late night scene, Jeff and I retired to our room to watch a show while the kids settled down. At 9:30pm, Jeff and I began prepping the Christmas scene. He built the three desk chairs while I stuffed stockings and wrapped the last few items. It was a team effort that took an entire hour. We were tired but needing to wind down after that, so here I am. Journaling. Next up: I'll finish reading another 99 cent kindle Regency Christmas romance. I got 4 on sale this week. They are darling, clean, holiday fluff.
Merry Christmas! I still don't completely feel that sparkly Christmas-y feeling, but it'll be fun tomorrow and it's kind of nice not caring overmuch. I care, but I'm not jittery about it. It's a nice soft place to be.
[end journal entries]
Family Jingle Bell 5k!
Cemetery Road--our favorite.
Brown Family Nativity Program Zoom call. It was weird, special, and fun all at once.
Pomegranate explosion! I had to wipe down the counter, walls, cabinets, and floor after this activity. It was awesome delegating this pesky task to my daughters, so they could be involved and occupied for a long time.
A view of some of the post-pomegranate carnage.
Rose entered full-big-sister-mode, cheerfully instructing Amber on how to load the dishwasher. They worked happily on the dishes together for a solid 15 or 20 minutes. The Christmas spirit manifests in unexpected ways.
Jay: expounding. Jeff: rolling peanut butter cookies.
I was there too.
Traditional Christmas Eve cranberry muffins!
That high-maintenance pear pomegranate candied pecan salad with homemade red wine vinaigrette dressing. Not pictured: the feta cheese that went on top.
Christmas Eve dinner! Tamales (our own tradition), cranberry muffins (my childhood tradition), and fancy salad because it felt like a good idea.
Jeff had the kids open a gift halfway through dinner. It was new Nintendo controllers, and the reason Jeff wanted them opened was because they needed to be charged so they could be used to play Mario Kart all together after dinner. It always feels so fun to be the parent making decisions like "hey, let's open a present right now."
All ready to go!
Christmas is LIGHT.
The girls' fort.
Be still, my heart.
One of my more genius ideas: figuring that food would make the wait more bearable, I built a cereal box barrier in the hallway to remind the kids not to cross the line until the time was right on Christmas morning. The sign says "STOP. Have a snack while you're waiting for Jingle Bells! Merry Christmas!" When the kids were younger, I used to build a barrier out of cardboard bricks to act as an alarm system in case a toddler wandered out to the Christmas tree too early. The brick blockade became a tradition. The kids wanted us to build another brick barrier this year, but I decided to change it up.
1 comment:
You guys are FUN! What great traditions!
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