Christmas Baking

Katherine requested a longer Christmas break this year so she could fully enjoy all of the experiences to delight her ISFP self. One of the things she asked for? Make Christmas cookies with friends.

They began by making truffles while the sugar cookie dough chilled. Simple, yet delicious. And then they began the laborious process of cutting out the sugar cookies. My mama received this recipe from our sweet neighbor across the street from the house where I grew up. It's the recipe that tastes like home and needs no icing.

 Mama's Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

 2 tsp vanilla

 1 cup oil

5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Cream oil, butter, and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients. Fold into creamed mixture. Cover and refrigerate. For cut out cookies, roll out about 1 cup of dough at a time between two sheets of wax paper. Roll to 1/8"-1/4" inch thick. Thinner =crispier. Bake at 350 degrees for 5-8 minutes or until cookies just begin to brown on edges.

My mom included a note on her handwritten card: "This recipe is from Mrs. Brady [our neighbor from across the street]. One time when I served them to Grandma and Grandpa, Grandpa said his mama (Grandma Nettie) used to make them thicker and call them tea biscuits. You can do them like peanut butter cookies and rolled them in sugar and flatten them to get tea biscuits. I like them thin best.

Road Trip

We took a quick family road trip the weekend before Christmas. My cousin Luke rode along with us. Since he's always ready for a coffee stop, he fits right in :)

We enjoyed spending some sweet time with my nephew,

and we found a nearby trail for a chilly morning walk.

I began reading a new book, Radical Compassion, by Tara Brach.

 Katherine and Elijah got lots of snuggles as they read the Christmas picture books we brought along. One can never have too many books, even on a road trip!

Pearl of Great Price

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:46

One of the Advent tags we added when we returned to America was from Matthew 13, one of the parables Jesus told about the pearl of great price. Wearing the pearls throughout the year reminds us to invest in eternity. 

One year, Benjamin received mother-of-pearl cufflinks. Katherine requested this ring from Etsy for her pearl reminder this year, and our daughter-in-law Hannah requested this one.

I wear this necklace almost daily since I got it two years ago. But we give these "glittering toys of earth" to point us to the real treasure, Jesus.

The Pearl of Great Price

by Anne Steele

Ye glittering toys of earth adieu,
A nobler choice be mine;
A real prize attracts my view,
A treasure all divine.

Be gone, unworthy of my cares,
Ye specious baits of sense;
Ineflimable worth appears,
The pearl of price immense.

Jesus, to multitudes unknown,
O name divinely sweet!
Jesus, in thee, in thee alone,
Wealth, honor, pleasure meet.

Caramel Corn

When I was growing up, I remember my mom making huge vats of caramel corn to give away in gallon glass pickle jars she procured from the seafood restaurant where she worked weekends. As the oldest of six kids, our family needed a large amount of teachers' gifts for school and piano lessons and church children's choir. Caramel corn was the inexpensive answer to that dilemma.

Now I've picked up that mantle. Our family loves to make (and eat) caramel corn. It's so easy to whip together! My financial resources are limited, but I have the currency of time to give. The gift of availability once again.

Caramel Corn

from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook

(aka the red and white cookbook I received as a wedding present from my kindergarten teacher)

8 cups popped popcorn (about 1/3 to 1/2 cup unpopped)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup butter

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Remove all unpopped kernels from popped corn. Place popcorn in a greased 17x12x2 inch baking pan. Keep popcorn warm in a 300 F degree oven while making caramel mixture. Butter the sides of a heavy 1 1/2 quart saucepan. In the saucepan combine brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup. Cook and stir over medium heat to boiling. Clip the candy thermometer to the side of the pan. Cook and stir over medium heat to 255 degrees, hard ball stage (about 4 minutes).

Remove the saucepan from heat. Stir in the baking soda and vanilla; pour over popcorn. (If desired, you can add 1 1/2 cups of nuts before baking.) Stir gently to coat. Bake for 15 minutes, then stir. Bake 5 minutes more. Transfer the popcorn mixture to a large piece of foil; cool completely. Break into clusters. Store tightly covered. 

Christmas Puzzles

“The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be.” Jer. 17:9-10

We finished last year's Christmas puzzle quickly, so when Katherine opened the Advent tag for this year's puzzle, we were so ready to begin piecing together a new one!

I know many people who use their credit cards to earn frequent flyer miles or hotel points, but we use ours to garner Barnes and Noble gift cards! Those cards pay for our coffee and calendar dates throughout the year often provide Christmas treats and birthday presents, too.

This year's puzzle, "A Book Lover's Christmas", included a poster with quotes from each of the books represented in the illustration. We may have to add these books to our list of favorites!

 

White Christmas

Not THAT kind of white Christmas, at least not here in Arkansas. But we did enjoy the 70th anniversary of the movie White Christmas when it released on the big screen. Most of us in the theater were singing along!

 

Advent Sweet Sabbath

When Jesus entered the world, everything changed, and whether we are aware, saint and sinner alike can't help but change our lights, sounds, taste, touch, and smells in order to make sense of it all. Christmas is a season of senses through which the world is begging for meaning.

~Matt Rawle, "The Redemption of Scrooge"

 I love how the sun shines warm in the southern windows of our house this time of year. And I'm very aware that living in America gives us a vast surplus of options for "lights, sounds, taste, touch, and smells". But I also love the ability to take our God-given senses and quietly use them to share His story through small things like Christmas caroling or sharing goodies to delight the taste buds or driving around to admire the Christmas lights and to reflect on the fact that Jesus is the Light of the world. 

Sometimes, we get to be on the receiving end. One of my cello students gave me this luminous cobalt mug for Christmas, and drinking a homemade mocha from this beauty is the perfect reason to sit down for a few minutes and soak up the stillness.

Peppermint Bark

Since Katherine is our youngest child, and we don't have any grandkids yet, we like to borrow preschoolers as often as possible. 

When our Advent tag revealed the day's activity with candy canes and almond bark, I had already talked to one of my favorite families and made plans to cook together.

Friday Favorite Five Advent Edition

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence."  Matthew 23:25

This is one of my favorite Advent tags. A few years ago, we started making an annual mug with pictures of "Meat Cheato" (that's "Team Choate" scrambled and first showed up in magnetic letters on our fridge in the village). These mugs help me review God's faithfulness to us, and there are always so many events throughout the year that I want to remember. The other fun thing about this particular tag is the special drinks that we buy to fill our mugs only at this time of year.

1) This on-the-go French press was a treat for my hubby. I loved the brilliant color and will probably borrow this travel mug frequently.

2) Land O'Lakes hot chocolate packets. Usually, we make our own hot chocolate mix, but during Advent and Christmas, we have a lot of visitors, and these delicious packets are crowd pleasers. Especially the caramel flavor :)

3) Peppermint Bark herbal tea. All this needs is a little bit of local honey!

4) Rozark Hills Coffee. A little coffee roastery in the same town where I pick up our raw milk. Makes it easy to support local businesses and get great coffee beans at the same time. We tried Frosty's Favorite and Jingle Bell Java for Advent, but usually I just get two pounds of the French roast.

5) The last favorite thing that shows up with this Advent tag is spray whipped cream. Somehow it just makes our hot drinks feel cozier and fancier.

In which we are flexible on a Serving Sunday

Last Sunday after church, I made a speedy solo grocery store trip. On the way in, I discovered Cub Scouts running a food drive and made a quick decision to be flexible with our Serving Sunday Advent tag.

I texted Katherine and Aaron, and they picked out the food items they wanted to donate. Part of the fun in the past has been seeing how close the kids could get to a certain cash dollar amount. 

I felt the nudging of that still small voice to be flexible and to donate to the Cub Scouts instead. And so we did.

Christmas Candlelight

Once again, we drove up to Northwest Arkansas, making our eagerly anticipated rest stop at the Coffee Parlor.

Attending JBU's Christmas Candlelight Service has become a beloved tradition in our family, even though this year we didn't have any Choates singing or playing.

Some of our adopted students joined us for supper of beef stew at our Air Bnb, then we all filled up a pew to enjoy the concert together.

Afterwards, we continued the tradition of stopping by Braum's for some post-concert ice cream.

And we recreated last year's full booth picture :)

The AirBnb was an unexpected oasis. We anticipated the rain that fell overnight and into Saturday morning, so I brought appropriate clothing for a slow morning walk to help me wake up after such a late Friday night.

We stayed on a farm, and the gravel path I followed ended at the Illinois River. The rain was so peaceful and gentle and the perfect way to begin the day enjoying God's creation.

A Season of Senses

Christmas is indeed a season of senses. Our eyes search for light in a season of darkness, our ears are tuned to sleighbells and choirs, we taste and smell the "for a limited time only" gingerbreads and evergreen scented candles. ~Matt Rawle, "The Redemption of Scrooge"

We certainly enjoy diving into engaging alllllll the senses during Advent and Christmas. St. Lucia's Day is a bright spot in Advent, maybe this special day is what launched Sarah into her baking creativity and competency. This year, we traded pictures of our baking from Texas and Arkansas. Olivia, too, enjoys baking and took her turn as the oldest daughter of the house on St. Lucia's Day.

As we all know, each person is unique, and Katherine wasn't thrilled about getting up early to bring us breakfast in bed :) So she and Aaron made these easy Almond Danish Swirls the night before, and I popped them in the oven when I got home from my early morning walk.

Obviously, our family enjoys making music. Performing in music ensembles together was the foundation of our friendship that led to our marriage. The sounds of Christmas include everything from The Arcadian Wild's Happy Golden Days to Paul Baloche's genious blend of carols and praise choruses to Corelli's Christmas Concerto (which we played in high school and is one of Sarah's favorite pieces for study music).

Advents Tags and Jazz Concerts

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who procalim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" Isaiah 52:7

We added a new Advent tag this year that revealed Christmas socks for Katherine. This was a gift that several of our other kids received, too. I really enjoy coming up with little surprises during Advent. My young adults know to expect hand soap when they see the verse about having clean hands, but it's fun to stick in a little something they don't anticipate.

The jazz bands held their 3rd annual "Jazz Up Your Chili" cookoff, and this year we contributed chili. So many of the orchestra students participate in this fun ensemble, look at all these fabulous junior high students! What a fun night enjoying music and sampling declicious chilis while raising funds for this community program.

Advent Sweet Sabbath

 "It's not just that waiting and hope work together. They're the same thing! In other words, you don't just wait with hope or wait with faith. From a biblical perspective, to wait is to hope. To wait is to trust. To wait is to have faith." ~Mark Vroegop, "Waiting Isn't a Waste"

A dear friend gifted us this spiral Advent and Lenten wreath many years ago when The Keeping Company was just a seed in the mind of the young man who made the wreaths. We use it every year to help shape our celebrations.

Second Weekend in Advent

The second weekend in December, the Advent tag read CoHo (The City of Hope Outreach). This organization hosts a Christmas store for the community, and we have insider information! My brother works there :)

When I asked him what CoHo still needed, he told me many requests for baby dolls had come in, but only a few had been donated. Baby dolls are such a beneficial part of a child's experience. I have many sweet memories of my earliest dolls "Pink Baby" and "Orange Baby" (original names, I know), and I loved watching our children nurture their dolls. Katherine picked out these dolls to donate, and I think they are perfect! In fact, there's a large part of me that wants to get one (or two) of these dolls for little visitors to our house.

In addition to our routine weekend activities, I attended my first quinceanera. I was so excited to be invited by one of the orchestra students! She has really blossomed this year.

 

Saint Nicholas Day

With only Katherine left at home, we decided to enlist some extra help to make our traditional St. Nicholas Day cookies this year.

Knowing Sarah was making the same cookies in Dallas (also knowing that her cookies spread just as badly as ours!) gave me a sense of connection with our young adults across the miles.

CARTI has locations to treat cancer all over Arkansas. Homebase is in Little Rock, but I'm thankful they also have a center in my hometown that provides most of the services I need. For my six-month checkups, I needed to return to the Little Rock offices. Their four-story building can be a little bit foreboding. The fourth floor is where I began my chemo before I transferred to my local center for the remainder of the year of treatments. I hadn't returned to the big chemo lab since that initial infusion.

Peering out through the window and watching the hundreds of people waiting to receive chemo that day brought a flood of emotions and memories that I wasn't expecting. I was only there for some quick blood work, but I felt gut-punched. My body is slowly rebuilding muscle and stamina, and my prognosis is good. As I watched people be lifted out of vehicles and into wheelchairs, I felt extra gratitude for my current situation. 

After I finished my two morning appointments, I met a friend from junior high downstairs. We used to sing in choir together, and now we are both cancer survivors. We joked about starting a club, in fact, another one of our sweet friends from our choir days also has tackled and beaten breast cancer. So our club is small, and nobody would really want to join our elite membership requirements! Rebekkah played piano along with me on cello, and we made the lobby festive for an hour with Christmas carols, spreading joy and hope and encouragement in a place where it's often hard to find those elusive qualities.

Advent Reading

"Peace, a complement of hope, is the sign that our hope is rooted in Christ and his kingdom."

~Matt Rawle, "The Redemption of Scrooge"

We're always looking for new resources to help us celebrate Advent and Christmas, but I was hesitant to try this book from Matt Rawle's "Pop in Culture" series. Halfway through, I'm really beginning to like how it takes Dicken's Christmas classic (which our family reads aloud or listens to each year) and finds nuggets of wisdom that correlate with Biblical truths. It's not a Bible study, but "The Redemption of Scrooge" is a thought-provoking addition to the season.

Carols at the Capitol, Cancer, and Coffee

My appointments continued, and we celebrated the clear mammogram and a good visit with the surgeon by using our Barnes and Noble gift cards for a coffee date.

Day 4 of Advent was "Carols at the Capitol". Katherine joined members of the Arkansas Symphony and other students to add joy and beauty to the beautiful acoustics of our state capitol.

One of my cello students participated, too. Now that I know adult community members can play along, I'll be clearing my calendar next year so Aaron and I can take advantage of this opportunity.

Waiting during Advent

 "Waiting is the spiritual posture of endurance." ~Mark Vroegop, "Waiting Isn't a Waste"

When I scheduled my many "six months after chemo" checkups, I didn't realize they would fall during the first week of Advent. This theme of waiting, persevering, enduring keeps popping up in my life. So while we're waiting to unwrap each day's Advent tag, I'm spending copious amounts of time in waiting rooms.  

Day 2 reminded us "Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?  The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god." (Psalm 24:3-4) Katherine found hand soap in a yummy Christmas scent when she opened the package.

On Day 3, we attended our first Conway Men's Chorus concert. One of my students unexpectedly texted me and said "I see you across the auditorium!" And after we got settled, an orchestra mom walked down the side aisle and sat down next to us.

The local high school choir opened the concert, and it was fun to pole my head out into the hallway and give everybody a thumbs-up before they walked on stage. The biggest reason we attended this concert, in addition to the beautiful music, was to watch my student Evan play as part of a string quartet with several of the songs. What a lovely way to kick off Advent!

 

Sweet Sabbath

"Sabbath is an invitation to receptivity, an acknowledgment that what is needed is given and need not be seized." ~Walter Brueggman, "Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to a Culture of Now"

"What is needed is given"...reading this sweet reminder makes me breathe a big, happy sigh. God is the one doing the work in my heart, He is the one fighting on my behalf, He is the one wearing the other half of the yoke, He is the one leading the way.