My apologies for not posting on my usual schedule. Like everyone, I get a bit swamped by the end of December. I am very grateful for all of you who follow me and take interest in my work. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and I wish you all the best in the new year! Thanks for being here.
Everyone has their special ways of celebrating, so for fun, I wanted to share some of mine.
FOOD
Over the weekend, I baked cookies with my kids and a few of their friends. I find that once we get through the last school week before Christmas, I am anxious to simply be at home. But there is no time to lounge, so baking with the kids is a good way to feel more relaxed and festive while still getting something off my to-do list. Our favorites are gingerbread, peanut kisses (peanut butter cookies with a Hershey’s kiss in the middle), and the traditional sugar cookie cutouts.
My absolute favorite treat, which admittedly is sentimental because it was also my dad’s, is lefse with butter and sugar. It is a Norwegian food, and although we are not Scandinavian, it somehow became a tradition in our family over the holidays. My dad grew up in North Dakota and always talked about eating lefse in the winter and seeing the aurora borealis. Los Angeles is of course much too far south to ever see the northern lights, but I still love my lefse!
On the other end of the cuisine spectrum, I usually make our favorite Venezuelan meal. It’s beans and rice, which is simple enough, but the main course is a delicious shredded chicken which is not so simple. It’s not necessarily a holiday meal in Venezuela, but it’s become a holiday tradition for me because most of the time, I don’t spend that many hours preparing a meal.
CELEBRATING
For me, the holidays would not be complete without going to church Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. My kids are usually in a program, and we all get dressed up and take family photos.
We open our gifts on Christmas morning. All of us make a list of things we want around Thanksgiving time so we have time to shop, but my husband and I also try to be imaginative and have a few things under the tree that the other is not expecting.
Of course, the holidays are also not complete without people to celebrate with, so we have dinner and a gift exchange with our dearest friends on Christmas evening.
RELAXATION
Between Christmas and New Year’s, we usually behave a bit like hermits. Los Angeles is warm enough we can enjoy being outdoors, so we usually have an evening in our backyard around the firepit. It’s nice to just sit with a drink and periodically throw pine cones on the fire.
Of course, I spend time working on a project. At this point (hopefully!) I’m all done with holiday knitting, so it’s a fun time for me to pick something new to work on for myself.
This year, we are hoping to go up into the mountains for a day or two. My kids have been begging to see snow, and it’s the perfect time to change our scenery for a few days.
I would love to know, what do you do to celebrate and make the holidays special? Please share your fun with me on here or Facebook, because I’d love to hear!
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