Goodbye 2006

My family got together this Christmas in Jasper, Indiana, where my sister now lives with her family. It was great to have everyone together again after two years. We mostly chased the kids (5, 4, 3, & 2) around, and nibbled on Christmas cookies. We watched Christmas Vacation, a holiday tradition, and dressed up on matching pjs sent by our stepmother, also a tradition (I would post this picture, but then would risk the wrath of my husband and siblings). We went to church Christmas eve, we ate ham & beef tenderloin on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and we opened all the gifts that had waited under the tree so patiently (wait, it was the kids who waited so patiently). It was such a blessing to be around the ones we love and to share the joy of Christmas.

On the last day I was there, my sister got out a book that our Grandmother Winslow had given her when she was an early teenager, called something like My Family Christmas, in which the owner is to record all the memories and details of Christmases (who was there, where you were, and what happened that year) as they go by. We flipped through it and couldn't even believe that she had recorded more than 20 years of Christmases, and the book will soon be filled. When the book began in the 1980s, she pasted photos our mom took of us for the family Christmas card-- now she is pasting in photos of her own kids, 2 & 4. My how time flies. It's so good to get together with family to remember the times, both good and bad, and how the years have passed.

We have had lots of traditions in my family, many of which have gone with my dad, but Paul and I are starting new ones as a family of our own, which we know will be cherished and remembered for years to come. Goodbye 2006... hello 2007!

Christmas Is Coming

Christmas is coming fast. It doesn't quite seem like December yet, much less almost the end of December, because the weather has been so warm all month. But it's coming. I'm making a huge effort this year to not get caught up in the madness. I'm consciously avoiding the shopping malls (I did most of my shopping online), and definitely making an effort to say "Merry Christmas" to shopkeepers and people I see, rather than nothing at all, or much worse, "Happy Holidays." I mean, what holiday(s) are we celebrating, really? It's Christmas, so we might as well say it. I'm trying to avoid images of Santa Claus and focus on what/who this holiday is truly about: Christ. I am so thankful for His birth, and I am so full of the joy that comes from celebrating Him this Christmas and all year.

Needless to say, however, I do get very much into all the traditions of Christmastime. One of my favorite family traditions is the "S" cookies. (No, the S is not for Sarah.) These have been in my family ever since I can remember, and it took my older brother, of all people, to remind us about these wonderful cookies. My mom made them every year with her old-fashioned cookie press, and she made them because the generation before her had made them. Mrs. Olson (not related to my family of Olsons), my Grandmother Winslow's friend, spent Christmas with my mom's family every year, and every year brought the S cookies. They are Swedish Spritz cookies, made with butter, flour, sugar, almond extract, and vanilla extract. They are divine. Not too sweet, but sweet enough. So this year I bought a cookie press at Williams-Sonoma, and got to work on the S cookies. I made a tin full and will bring them to Indiana for all of us--especially my brother--to enjoy.

On the topic of favorite Christmas traditions, I want to share part of the lyrics of my 2nd favorite Christmas song (my very favorite is Once in Royal David's City):

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn
Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine

Bake & Craft Sale

Yesterday was the Missions Fund Bake & Craft Sale-- first annual! It took a ton of preparing (I took Friday off work to bake all day), but in the end it was so worth it. We raised more than $1,500 for our missions fund.