Christmas baking

Why is it that so many traditions surround food? At least for our family that's the case.

This year it has been super duper neat to bake with Princess. She is fantastic at rolling out dough. I am tickled that she enjoys being in the kitchen with me.

As something new this year my dad also wanted a baking night with me and my siblings, so we pooled our resources and worked on treat plates. It was really cool.

Still on my to-do list? Figure out my mom's peanut butter fudge...

Mixing the sugar cookie dough

real gingerbread men

snickerdoodles

decorated cookies

chocolate oat squares

dear 'ol Dad

Merry Christmas, Africa

My baby brother Matt, on a mission in Mozambique



Dear Africa,

I have never visited you; most likely never will. All I know about you is from National Geographic and letters from a missionary.

A few months ago we sent you something very special, our precious Elder Brown. Anyone who knows him knows he prepared his whole life to be there with you. He didn't choose the location but he was preparing nonetheless. He is the most dedicated, intelligent hard-working and selfless man for the job, period.

So far you have taken good care of him. As he appraoches his 6 month mark (1/4 of the way) this week I know that you have started to show him some of your character, your African soul. He loves you already.

I know many of your inhabitants are poor, very poor. Not even in circumstances I could imagine, probably.

It makes me sad to hear that someone there took my mother's heart when they intercepted and signed for the specially chosen, lovingly packed, securely FedEx shipped and insured Christmas package.

Yes, there were a couple hundred dollar's worth of things my baby brother needed or wanted. But there were tangible expressions and also words from a mother at home who knows no other way to transport Christmas a world over. She sent it early, she sent it as suggested, and still her son is without a gift from home. Her last bird is out of the nest and she is sad and lonely this December.

I hope that whomever needed the protein supplements, makeshift Christmas tree, peanut butter, church books, camera memory cards and much more can use them. Maybe they will even share them this Christmas. I wonder if they will read the special Christmas message from Mom? Or The Book of Mormon?

So, dear Africa, we have left our hearts wide open and have given you the very best we had, via plane and post. Our brother is in your keeping. Please treat him well. I hope you can feel the influence of good this holiday season throughout your many beautiful countries.

And maybe that Christmas package will change the life of its recipient, if not the intended one. Change it for the better and leave the world, and Africa, a better place. After all, it's what my brother is wearing out the soles of his shoes for every. waking. minute.

Merry Christmas!

Love,
our family

Thank my mom

Mom got me hooked.

I am loving applesauce with vanilla yogurt. It's a great treat!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Signs of the season:

Fantastic oranges

Cold temps and SOO MUCH snow

Tons of time for reading Christmas books

Watching Christmas shows as a family

And reminders of what we believe in.

Interviews with diety

Just clearing out my inbox and found this quote I had saved.

"I fear that many of us rush about from day to day taking for granted the holy scriptures. We scramble to honor appointments with physicians, lawyers, and businessmen. Yet we think nothing of postponing interviews with Deity—postponing scripture study.

"Little wonder we develop anemic souls and lose our direction in living. How much better it would be if we planned and held sacred fifteen or twenty minutes a day for reading the scriptures. Such interviews with Deity would help us recognize his voice and enable us to receive guidance in all of our affairs."

--Carlos E. Asay, "Look to God and Live," Ensign, Nov. 1978, 52

Red Pinecone Ornament

Originally posted December 18, 2007

I want to tell you a story. It's a story of Christmas hope.

When my mom was a girl, their prized Christmas decoration was a red pinecone ornament. It was so well-loved over the years that the red had actually turned sort of brown. Every year, just as some families place the tree topper on very last, the Riley family hung the red pinecone on the tree as the final touch.

When my mom was very young, they went to a movie as a family and they came home to discover their house had suffered a devastating fire in their absence. It was destroyed. The only item my mother remembers salvaging was their special pinecone, now a miraculous symbol of hope and love and renewal.

My grandmother died over a decade ago and when she died she willed the ornament to her youngest daughter, my mom's little sister. My mom has been wondering the whereabouts of it recently and had hoped it was being taken care of. She wanted the story surrounding it to be preserved.

That aunt of mine in Pennsylvania contacted my mom to tell her that someone recently cut the lock on her storage unit and stole most of her belongings, including all her Christmas decorations. How devastating a loss! But then she told my mom...somehow, that little pinecone must have fallen out of its box because it was left behind. Of no value to the burgler, one would never know the significance of that Christmas symbol to the Rileys.

On Sunday we had a special Family Home Evening with my parents. My mom told us this amazing story and presented each of us with our own red pinecone for our trees. It is my new favorite ornament, and I have a LOT of nostalgia on my tree.

I wanted to pass this along to any of you who read my blog so that you may know that you are known by our Heavenly Father. He is aware of you and the happenings in your life, just as he notices each sparrow's fall. Christmas is a reminder of that love and care. I hope you have a merry one.

On the list for Tuesday the 8th:

*be grateful I don't need to really go out and battle the storm at all
*upload the family photo to Inkleys
*put away laundry
*make sugar cookie dough
*finish my book, Every Last Cuckoo
*upload Bugs' Christmas performance from tonight
*find the dust pan that the kids lost
*contact new sisters on my VT list
*round up more items to donate
*watch Charlie Brown Christmas on ABC
*update Project 365
*plan the rest of the week's meals
*get ready to cheer on Strider as he gets his semester's final work in tomorrow night!

In search of the perfect tree

We got it set up late Friday night.

And Saturday morning it snowed. Just like a Christmas card.

Advent calendar

Do your kids like reading "like the librarian does"? My kids do, especially Princess. She is nothing if not a book lover and "reads" them aloud to us constantly. Here she is reading to her audience (me).



Anyway, I promised Andrea I would show my simple Christmas countdown for the kids. I have done this for several years now, although there are TONS of cuter and yummier versions out there.



I make 24 paper strips and we sit down with our calendar and lots of input from the kiddos. We place Christmas adventures on certain days and number them as we staple it all into a chain.

Then the kids get to fight take turns pulling off the link each day to see what we are doing. And for the littlest ones it helps them to "see" how many days are left. So they can STOP ASKING ME if Christmas is tomorrow.

Yes, sometimes it's just as simple as reading a story together. Other ones are driving to see various light displays, seeing the lights on Temple Square downtown, making cookies, delivering neighbor gifts, etc. So flexible for your family plus you get to hear what traditions mean a lot to them and which ones don't.

Isn't life grand?

I had high hopes. I had dreams for being so clean and organized and having a home that screamed "Look how festive and merry we are!"

But of course motherhood gets in the way and my little ones had other plans.







This sums up my week. Too much take-out and a lot of Motrin.

Of course now the baby gets practically all her teeth at once and has the diaper rash of the decade. Of course now the 4 year old is having trouble, uh, staying dry at night when I really need her to. Of course two other kids are losing teeth (the tooth fairy has a terrible record around here).

Add parent teacher conferences with all 5 kids and no spouse, ear aches, scouts, hubby in frantic finals mode, the family pictures not ordered yet and the lights not up yet and the leaky washer and - - -

Yeah. The house plan ain't gettin' done.



Thanks for your encouragement for my grand plan earlier this week. The laundry room I posted? That's as far as I got. I think the dishes got done before bedtime one day so far this week. And I washed laundry, but you better be ready for a hunt because nothing is back in dressers yet.

But this is reality. And I can do it, one day at a time. It's been a tough week but I have enjoyed the time to connect to the kids and teach and serve my family till it hurts. It makes me love them more because I've invested all the energy I can muster. Hey, I did do an advent calendar for December. And we even fed the ducks yesterday in the bitter cold. Mom points?


We might even hunt for a tree tomorrow. That will bring in the spirit of the holidays even if every cobweb isn't gone and Legos are on the floor.

Right?

Transformations

Holy cow. I need to keep reminding myself that these are all pics of the same house. So pretty!

Check out Older and Wisor

'Tis the season

So, it's really December 1st. Really? I guess it's what the calendar is telling me.

Strider is in the really intense part of the semester, with major projects due. He is officially done on Dec 9. So should I whine about being a college widow? Or maybe could I spend my time more wisely?

I decided to take a room a day and work on deep cleaning and preparing for Christmas - not with just decorations - so we can feel the spirit of the season more easily. I need to create the environment I want. It won't just *happen*. My house is not in the shape I would like it to be. Some of that is the kids and the challenges of keeping sane while living in close quarters. But a lot of it is me too.

I will be methodically going through each area and sprucing up. I know by the time I get done that the first part will be crummy again, but hopefully the surface pick-up will be easier when the real cleaning has been finished.

Maybe I'm delusional, but I figure 8 rooms in 8 days will work out perfectly. We will see.

Today I did the laundry room. I get so much satisfaction out of doing the laundry when the room is clean!