Christmas Traditions - An Advent Round-Up

The Advent Season has come and gone. Christmas arrived with much fanfare and love. We celebrated with joy in our hearts and a bit of sadness as we missed Poppa so very much. 

The girls had a great time with all the advent activities leading up to the holidays. We may not have accomplished all on my ambitious list but we had fun doing them.

We are now ready to move onto 2015 with high hopes that it will be better than 2014.  

Christmas Traditions - Advent Calendar Day 16-21

The Advent Holiday fun has kept us busy and I have been lax in updating here on our adventures. We've colored drawings of Santa Claus, listened to a reading of T'was the Night Before Christmas, Drank Hot Cocoa, took Christmas Tree Light photos and listened to a ton of Christmas Music. We still haven't checked out the WildLights at the Zoo but we did drive to see all the Christmas Lights and checked out Candy Cane Lane. We ran out of time to make a paper garland over the weekend but plan to double-up this week as our tree needs a new paper garland.

Christmas Traditions - Christmas Sugar Cookies

As a child, my Mom made these delicious and buttery sugar cookies every year at Christmas. She'd take out her red Christmas book and flip through the pages to this one recipe. She'd use her hands to mix the dough and when I was old enough, recruited me to mix the dough with my hands. I'd feel the texture between my little fingers and smell the sugar, that is how I identified Christmas.

I loved her Christmas book. The dust cover is long gone and the spine reads, Take Joy! I used to sit and stare at the illustrations in the book. I dreamed of doing all the Christmas things that they were doing. This book is long out of print but remains a favorite in my heart. This year I liberated the book from her bookshelf so I could make sugar cookies with my girls.

I gathered all the ingredients and laid them out so Molly could easily combine them. The great thing about about this recipe is that you literally dump all the ingredients in a bowl and start mixing them with your hands. I thought I was smarter than the recipe and tried using my KitchenAid Stand Mixer to mix the dough. That was a mistake! My poor mixer could not handle it and I ended up finishing the job by hand mixing the dough.

I'm pretty sure the girls and I are going to adopt the tradition of making Christmas Sugar Cookies. As they grow, they too can have the dreaded task of mixing the dough by hand which I hope they eventually learn to love and eventually pass onto their little ones.  

Christmas Sugar Cookies
by Rebecca Mongrain


Cook Time: 10-12 minutes




6068453



Ingredients (5 dozen cookies)

1 pound unsalted butter
2 whole eggs
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 3 Tablespoons milk
Nutmeg for dusting cookies




Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix with hands until smooth. The great thing about this dough is that you can mix, mix, mix without repercussions.

3. Form into a ball, dust with flour and chill throughly. Break into smaller pieces and roll as thin as possible. Dust with granulated sugar and nutmeg. Using cookie cutters or round glasses, cut into shapes.

4. Bake until the top of the cookies are light brown on top, about 10-12 minutes. Place on cookie racks to cool.


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Christmas Traditions - Advent Calendar Day 14 & 15

This past weekend, I headed down to San Diego to celebrate my upcoming 40th birthday with my best friend who is due to have her first baby any time now (she says she needs three more weeks but ANY TIME NOW!). It was my first weekend away from Maggie and Scott's first weekend alone with the girls. I have to say that everyone did awesome while I was away. I might need to make this a regular thing.

We stayed at The Westin in downtown San Diego which was quite lovely. Even more awesome was the fact that my Mom gave me some of her points so I was able to book a very nice room. The best part might have been the bed all to myself and that I was able to sleep through the night without interruption for TWO WHOLE NIGHTS! 

My friend and I hit up the shops after indulging in pancakes for breakfast. Her husband picked us up later and chauffeured us around town. We discovered this place called 85C which supposedly has the best coffee ever and it was really good. Later that night, they took me out for Mexican food and a HUGE margarita. It was nice to be able to drink without worrying about anyone but me. 

We also checked out the Christmas Lights in Balboa Park before calling it a night and heading back to the hotel for another night of uninterrupted sleep (can you tell that I've been having a lot of interruptions to my sleep?). 

The next morning we watched Splash on tv and relived some childhood memories before checking out of the hotel and heading to the Hillcrest Farmer's Market. It was a pretty good market though it had nothing on the Ballard Market! It was a bit of a shock to see fresh berries though!

We finished out the day with some time on the beach before I headed to the airport for my flight home. It was a wonderful weekend and just the way I wanted to spend some of my last days of my 30s. I can't believe that I'll be 40 by the end of the week. That sounds so grown-up and yet, I do not feel like a grown-up. 

Christmas Traditions - Advent Calendar Day 11, 12 & 13

On Day 11 of our Advent Calendar, we visited my Dad's grave and left some flowers before heading out to lunch and a day of remembrance.

For our twelfth day, we stayed close to house and made Play-doh Snowmen! I think I had more fun with the creations than Molly did.

She did have fun gathering supplies on our walk home from preschool and loved putting buttons on the snowmen. She directed me in making a few of them too. 

Today, on Day 13, we headed to the Sheraton Gingerbread House Village which supports the JDRF Northwest Chapter. We had a great time checking out all the beautiful houses and Molly talked about the different ones all the way home. Maggie slept through our adventure. She would be so bummed if she knew what she missed out on. 

I leave tonight for my first solo trip away from the girls. I'm going to visit my best friend in San Diego and I am so excited for a weekend away. While I'm gone, Scott is going to continue the Advent Fun with the girls. I'm sure they will be having an exciting weekend themselves. 

Christmas Traditions - Advent Calendar Day Nine & Ten

We've been keeping ourselves occupied with a few quieter Advent Calendar activities since our weekend of festivities! I also made a switch on one of our items because it just wasn't working with our schedule.

Yesterday, we made a bunch of Christmas Cards for the Grandparents. Molly loved making them at first but it was a bit of a struggle to keep her attention going for the last one. Molly even got into the act and let me trace her little hand onto the cards.

Today we were supposed to go to the WildLights at the Zoo but I switched it with December 18th's activity which was to "Donate a gift to someone in need through a Giving Tree." The gift is also due at the Giving Tree by the 14th so it was a win-win for everyone. 

We gave an Amazon Gift Card which I hope is very helpful to our gift recipient. Molly really enjoyed selecting a tag off the tree and while I know she doesn't quite get the giving portion of this activity yet, I hope she is getting something from the experience. 

Christmas Traditions - Advent Calendar Day Seven & Eight

It was a busy Holiday weekend around these parts! We hit up the Mt. Rainier Santa Train on Saturday afternoon for a Santa Meet & Greet and a train ride along with my brother's family. There was excitement leading up to the train ride, unhappiness on the train, pure panic upon seeing Santa and relief when the train returned to the station.

Molly was so excited about the train while we waiting to load onto it. She chatted about the CHOO-CHOO and how she was going to see Santa and CHOO-CHOO! Once on the train, her excitement faded and Maggie began to get a wee bit cranky.

Shortly thereafter it was our turn to go meet Santa! We got the three grandkids together and headed to the Santa Train Car. There was excitement in the air. The adults discussed photo strategy. I got my camera ready. The other adults approached Santa with the kids and chaos rained down. There was screaming, limp noodle bodies and heels digging in. They were NOT GOING TO SIT ON SANTA'S LAP! And so they did not. Santa still gave them sweet little bears and wished them a Happy Holiday.

We headed back to our seats and entertained the kids until we stopped at the Railroad Museum which was fairly interesting. The ride back to the station felt shorter than the ride out. Molly announced that she was SO EXCITED to go back to the car. I think her excitement lessened when we told her that we were driving to Portland instead of home.

The Santa Train was a fun experience and the views from the train were amazing! I'm not sure this is something we'd do every year but it was an entertaining time.

Saturday night we headed down to Portland for a family birthday on Sunday. Before the birthday party, we headed out to breakfast in Sellwood and visited Sellwood Park to run off some of the girl's energy. While there we saw the Portland Santa Train and yelled, Choo-choo at the train. Molly still likes to yell at the trains.

There was a park bench with a holiday wreath and some holiday lights to check out in the Sellwood neighborhood. We had a grand time exploring the park and area.

Christmas Traditions - Advent Calendar Day Five & Six

Somehow yesterday slipped away without any Advent Fun to be had! We made up for it in spades today. Wellll, Molly and I made up for it in spades. Maggie just continued her reign of destruction around my house. Destruction brings her joy even if it does not bring the same feeling to me.

Wearing her Mermaid Costume (boy, have we ever gotten our money worth out of that thing!), Molly made cards (with a bit of help from me) for Teacher Janice, Coach Kirstie and her Speech Therapist, Deanna. I plan to add a little something to them and then we'll start delivering them next week.

Then we moved on to making treats for our neighbors. Every year I bake up cookies and other treats and then we make the rounds delivering the goods. I love visiting our neighbors and seeing how they are doing and I believe they like the baked goods. Molly's attention span wasn't great so we tackled just one of the goodies on our list today. 

We made Reindeer Chow Muddy Buddies which were perfect for today because they can be stored in the freezer until gifting time (hopefully sometime next week). 

I'm really enjoying our Advent Calendar Fun (even if we missed yesterday due to Holiday parties, appointments and commitments). I'm especially enjoying everyone else's calendars and I'm gathering so many ideas for next year!