"Tomorrow is Christmas, It's Practically Here!"

We have several traditions we like to follow every year in the few days leading up to Christmas. One of them involves reading Christmas stories every night during the month, another involves watching the movies in our Christmas collection. One that we have done every year since the year we were married is to make sugar cookies, cut them with cookie cutters and decorate them. This year Tamara spent the day of the 23rd with us, and she got roped into the mayhem.

Here are a few of the resulting cookie designs. (Mine!) 

After we bake and decorate them, everyone gets to pick a favorite to put on the Santa plate. The rest get eaten over the next few days.

Our Christmas Eve traditions have remained fairly constant. After supper, we gather to read the Christmas Story out of the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, and 3rd Nephi. Then we say a family prayer, hang our stockings, put out the Santa plate and then coerce the kids into bed. Then we climb into bed ourselves to await the arrival of morning. We usually hear the kids scurrying back and forth most of the night, keeping each other awake, until we decide to put them out of their misery, usually about 6:30 am.

Today has been pretty typical of our Christmas Eve days. We finished wrapping presents, slid them under the tree,

remade our bed, put away the clean clothes and fixed pizza rolls for lunch. The kids have spent the afternoon watching "Muppet Christmas Carol" and the afternoon is waning. Soon we'll be finishing dinner and starting into our evening rituals.

"Happy Christmas to All, and to all a Good Night!"

"Soon it will be Christmas Day"

I've had an interesting week, capped by a wonderful anniversary day celebration yesterday with my sweetheart.  We've been married 22 years now, on the way to eternity, and it's been a fun ride.

We are inching ever closer to Christmas, and were able to finish our shopping yesterday. It's so nice to have crossed the last things off the list. We've gotten a few wrapped gifts under the tree, and there will be some more. Scott arrived in the wee hours of this morning, and Tamara will be arriving Monday morning. Jessie and Todd are driving to Colorado next week to spend Christmas with his family. It will be good when we are all where we need to be. I'm praying for safe travels for all.

The Christmas cards have been trickling in from loved ones, and while I love reading all of the messages, I really appreciated the one from Mom and Dad. They are serving a mission in the Idaho Falls Temple Visitor's Center, and are enjoying their time of service. Mom's message in their card was an eloquent reminder that it is the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, which we celebrate and remember at this holy season. So I add my testimony to hers..."For unto us a Child is Born, unto us a Son is given..."

Addicted

I have a confession to make. I don't enjoy cooking. I cook whenever I HAVE to so that my family doesn't starve. I can follow a recipe and turn out a good result. I don't live in my kitchen and putter and invent new recipes. I have discovered, though, that I am addicted to cookbooks and recipes. I love to pore over cookbooks, they catch my eye in the store check-outs and on store shelves. When I'm sitting in doctors' waiting rooms, I'll peruse the mags for fun, new recipes, and copy them out if I have time.

My biggest weakness, lately, is Taste of Home cookbooks. I discovered them about a year and a half ago when we were at Sam's Club one day. There was a display of books and among them was a cookbook entitled "Simple and Delicious" by Taste of Home. It had a 12 week plan of menus with the shopping list organized by week. I was enthralled. I'd been cooking the same recipes for the 20 years of my marriage, and had hit a wall. I didn't want to prepare the same dishes from the same recipes. Summer break was staring me in the face and I snatched up that cookbook and began making out my grocery lists. Not all of the recipes were do-overs, but there were enough in the book to keep me motivated for the entire summer. It was wonderful! I was hooked, and began scouring the stores for more of their cookbooks.

I have about 6 of them, now. When I see a recipe in one of the books that I want to try, I put a sticky note on the page. My cookbooks are bristling with sticky notes. Again, not every recipe catches my eye or appeals to my tastebuds, but our range has been expanded. The most wonderful thing about these cookbooks is the pictures. Full color photos of nearly every recipe. When I described my experience to Jennifer, she laughed and called it gastro-porn. She's right. I'm reading them for the pictures.

This is my cookbook shelf.

I also follow a blog titled Our Best Bites. (There's a link to it, right there on the right of the screen.) It's written by two young Mormon girls and I love the way they think. I've tried several of their recipes, and I'm hooked. They have fun recipes, helpful hints and lots of good pictures. (Wink, wink)

Several years ago I had also collected and combined recipes from my mom and my siblings and compiled a Hillman Clan cookbook.

This was a Chrismas gift for family members that year. In the interim, my cookbook had become tattered, spilled, spoiled and nearly ruined, so 3 years ago I reprinted it and put it into a binder with sheet protectors. I've since given copies of the new version to my kids as they've left home. The beauty of the binder format is that it's expandable. There is also a pocket in the front where I can stick new recipes as I find them. My current project is to sort through the odd recipes in the pocket and organize, type out and print them to fit into the sheet protectors in my family cookbook. It's a project I had planned to do while I recuperate from surgery. It'll take a while, but I'm enjoying it. I'm also getting hungry...

I've also discovered that cooking is a lot more fun when you have, in addition to a good recipe, the tools, knives and equipment to make food prep easier. I invested in a nice set of knives early this spring, and a couple more tools and appliances like a rice steamer, several sizes of crock pots, and assorted other items. Now, while I still might not LOVE to cook, it's becoming more enjoyable for me. I don't have to ask the dreaded "What sounds good for dinner" question. By the way, tonight is "Chicken a la King" from the "Busy Family Cookbook" page 95.

Star Light, Star Bright

This is the tree in a better picture. For years I've loved red lights on the tree, but to do the Nativity Tree, I just wanted white lights, to simulate starlight.

Pretty thing, isn't it?

'Tis the Season to Be Joyful

It is a sad fact that Christmas Tree pictures do not turn out well in the daylight. I don't know why I bother, but here we are.

We put our tree up Saturday afternoon. It is the Nativity tree with some of the ornaments I made last month, as well as the ones I collected last year. Do these look familiar?



The tree makes my heart happy.

Here is the completed Joy with the matching star I made last year.

It's snowing/sleeting/raining outside, but warm enough to melt a lot of the snow that fell last week while the kids were trying to get home.

I'm still working on Christmas Cards, but made good progress last week, so I should have them ready to mail next Monday.

Happy December!

I'm working on Christmas cards today. Because I still make some by hand, I have to get an early start, but this wasn't as early as I wanted it to be. They are going at a good clip, though. I have all the major parts cut and trimmed, and can probably start the assembly tomorrow. There are still small parts that I have to punch out of cardstock, but that won't take too much time. My prototype looks pretty good, which makes me feel better.

I put out a little bit of Christmas decor this afternoon, and can put out more when my sweetie brings the boxes in from the garage after work. Current song on the IPod: "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year". That pretty much wraps it up right there.