Christmas Recap

Another Christmas has come and gone in a flurry of gifts and goodwill and general chaos. It was BB's first Christmas here at the house (her first one was spent on the East Coast and her second was spent with Nana J in Southern California). Santa had no trouble finding us, I'm happy to report. BB's Belle doll and BJ's orrery were both under the tree, much to their delight.


S and BJ got to work putting together the orrery right away while BB worked on the candy in her stocking.


For some time now, she's been asking about chocolate candies (the kind that are an assortment in a box) and wouldn't ya know it, but Santa brought her a box from See's!

And here she is showing me her candy cane kisses. (Don't ask me why the coy pose along with it!) She's seen them at Target a few weeks back and had longed for one. "Maybe at Christmas," I said. Is Santa smart or what? ;-D


Our "big" gifts to the kids: a rocket ship play tent for BJ and a dollhouse for BB.

Pop-pop and Giki had sent along some darling Calico Critters furniture and a little cat family to populate the dollhouse. BB has been having a wonderful time setting everything up!

Lest one get the impression that BB has turned entirely into a "girly-girl" with her dollhouses and princesses, let me point out that it was BB who insisted that BJ's new snake (dubbed Slithery) should join them in blasting off into space. Slithery was a stocking gift. As S put it, "A little boy can't have too many rubber snakes." I beg to differ but wasn't going to argue the point, especially when BJ was clearly delighted with the newest member of his serpentine family. Slithery was so special that he gets to sleep in the gorgeous treasure box that Grandpa D made for BJ!

Grandpa and Grandma gave some very special gifts indeed. In addition to BJ's box, Grandpa had made BB a wooden doll cradle. He's such an artist with his woodwork! She really likes it. Bonus for the vintage Cabbage Patch doll and handmade bedding (thank you, Grandma C!) that just rounded out the gift perfectly. Naturally she set about undressing the doll right away and tucking her into bed.


Grandma had also sent a nifty talking solar system "computer" that instantly became the control panel for BJ's rocket ship expeditions.



Other highlights of the day:

I was very pleased to have finished making the doll clothes for BB. I'd repurposed them from some old clothes of mine, a pink silk shirt, cotton skirt, and blue knit shirt. I keep meaning to get a better pic; for somebody whose sewing skills are still those of a fair beginner, I was quite proud!



A gears toy for BJ from Pop-pop and Giki. He was thoroughly fascinated!



A neat princess hat for BB -- thank you, Auntie B, Uncle R, and cousin B!


The kids got jewelry for me -- with S's help, BJ chose a pretty pair of opal flower earrings and BB selected an enamelled necklace in blues and aquas.

I also got the scanner I asked for (thank you, S!) and look forward to having fun with that.

S received several games and neat t-shirts. (As well as his early gift to himself, the custom made top boots that he's longed for ever since first going to a Ren Faire as a teenager. I've yet to spend as much on any pair of shoes for myself! But I was glad to see him splurge.) I was pleased to have found this clever shirt at the shop of fellow Etsian Broake & Thumb. S laughed aloud when he opened it, which is always a good sign. The caption says, "Beware the Smiling Dungeon Master."



For the first time in a long time -- perhaps the first time since we started to cohabitate back in 1996! -- it was just us for the holiday. Us and the kids. Every other Christmas has either been spent at one of our parents' houses or spent at our house with one or more parents visiting. Odd to be on our own, but nice in a quiet way.

And probably a good thing it was just us, given how dinner turned out. I had decided to make the traditional "Happy Birthday Jesus Cake" on Christmas day instead of Christmas Eve. My mom always made it on Christmas Eve, and now I think I know why: all about the scheduling.

As I was working on the cake during the afternoon, my heart sank when the 7 minute frosting failed to set up. I've had trouble with this frosting recipe for several times in a row now, so I ended up making a second batch of frosting after an emergency call to Mom to try to troubleshoot what had happened. Second batch worked out -- I think it was a slight bit of oil remaining in the Circulon pan which I'd used the first time, as well as every other time I've made this recipe. Using a stainless pan seems to have solved the problem! But by now I was running into the time I'd set aside to make Christmas dinner. Frantically trying to frost the cake and get the ham glazed and start the sweet potatoes cooking.

Rushing in the kitchen is almost always going to go badly, in my experience. Not only did I misspell the inscription on the cake -- and not realize it until it was time to cut the danged thing!


But, even worse, I turned off the stove so it had no heat during the last 45 minutes that everything should have been cooking. The ham had been baking for an hour when it was time to glaze it and start the sweet potatoes, and in the process of turning on the timer for those last crucial 45 minutes, while I was running around trying to finish the cake (see above) I apparently turned off the entire oven.

And didn't realize it until I went to pull everything out 45 minutes later. Instead of everything being done, everything was lukewarm. Oops.

Thank heavens for the microwave! It salvaged everything, at the expense of a dry ham, and dinner was only 25 minutes late. But at least we were still able to eat.

I still had my knickers all in a twist about the near-disaster of dinner when we got a phone call from my brother-in-law -- which put everything very quickly in perspective. The entire family had been hit by the flu! And if that wasn't bad enough, M had been at the hospital all day with his 8 month old daughter K because she was so dehydrated that she needed an I.V.

In comparison with that a healthy, relaxed day at home with a dinner time comedy of errors to conclude it suddenly seemed like exactly what Christmas should be. I knew I had lots to be thankful for before M called, of course, but as I got off the phone with him I felt especially grateful. So many Christmas blessings! I am a very, very lucky woman indeed.