Christmas Tradition #3: Books!

Yes, yes…Christmas is over. The kids’ toys are put away (well, for the moment!), the tree will come down this weekend and even the fridge is nearly void of leftovers. But one of the first thing you learn in writing class is “the power of three”. So, I thought I should share at least three traditions.

Eventually, I would like to do an advent calendar sort of thing to count down the 25 days till Christmas. The ones I really like are the drawers you can put little treats or notes with Scripture in them. But since I 1) don’t have the money to purchase a nice one I really like, or 2) haven’t the time to buy an unfinished one to finish this year Emry and I made a construction paper chain with numbers written on each link. After all, is childhood complete without making at least one paper chain to count down to Christmas?

Eventually, I might also like to “wrap” the books in cloth bags or pretty Christmas cloth and ribbons to be opened each day, permanent tags with a number attached to co-ordinate with the day. That might happen in, like, a decade. I’m thinking the permanent tag might be do-able, but this year I taped pieces of construction paper with numbers written on them. Emry could match the number on her chain link with the number on the paper. A fun way to review numbers!

And, eventually, I would like to actually own a collection of 25 Christmas stories, one to be read each night as we make our way to Christmas. That part is actually on it’s way. I own eight or nine favorite Christmas stories I’ve collected over the years. The remaining, I checked out about 30 or 40 Christmas books from the library to make up the difference or simply read. I also used them to begin compiling a list of the ones I would like to own. I found six or seven well worth a re-read every Christmas. And although I have 30 or 40 more on a list we did not check out, I have serious doubts of all the Pinterest pins I put on my Holidays! board. For thus far, I can barely name 20 books I would re-read every Christmas, let alone 30 or 50! Maybe I’m just a little picky.

In the end, I would like the tradition to be rather simple: every night we count down on the Advent calendar, reading a Christmas story and Scripture verses as a family before bed. This year, we got a good start on it. Next year, we’ll try it again!

Merry Christmas! 

One of the best pictures…

And my favorite!

Christmas Tradition #2: Cookies!

There is one Christmas tradition I am bringing into my family: Christmas cookies! It's not great for anyone's waistline, but what is Christmas without cookies?

Growing up, we made the same cookies every year. Several of these I have brought into my family because I love them and simply can't imagine Christmas without them. So, Spritz cookies, gingerbread cookies and Sandies have stuck around. Now I'm on a search for "new" cookies my kids can grow up with.

Last year I tried some toffee cookies, but I wasn't overly impressed. I also made some cookies Ed kept talking about: Ladies Fingers (also called Clothespin Cookies). They're very popular in the Pittsburgh area and I was able to find hundreds of recipes on Pinterest. And I made them. They were very time consuming, rather exhausting and, while they tasted wonderful, didn't look picture perfect. So, I didn't even attempt them this year. I'm thinking I may do them every other year, but if that's the case then I'm going to have to get some different supplies. Wooden spoons simply don't work very well.

This year, I pinned lots of options to try and came up with two. One is a favorite lots of people make I always love to eat and I think they'll become a Camus family tradition: Reese Peanut Butter Cups. Emry loved making these! The other was an almond shortbread, raspberry swirl thing that looked great and were even okay for a few days, but I not so brilliant that I didn't get tired of them quickly. So, next year, it's back to the drawing board.

Eventually I hope to settle on one or two other cookies that are outstanding. But, then again, maybe trying a new recipe every year should be a tradition. Who knows. Meanwhile, we'll enjoy what we have (and exercise a lot...!)

Emry decorating the Spritz cookies.

Emry and her grandma Camus making gingerbread cookies.

Emry putting the Reese cups in the Peanut Butter Cookies.

Ethan's contribution: eating the cookies!

Christmas Pictures!

Like most mothers with more than one child, I am guilty of taking a lot less pictures of Ethan than we did of Emry. I could say my excuse is Ethan never sits still long enough to get his picture taken, but...well, I just simply don't think of it as often as I did with Emry.

However, I am trying to get pictures of him to remember his first Christmas. It's been fun to watch him discover the same things Emry discovered two years ago. And laugh at how different his reactions are! Mostly, while Emry (who was 8 months at her first Christmas) just sat and enjoyed, Ethan (who is 10 months) goes head first at everything and enjoys. So, while I never had to worry about Emry and ornaments, or Emry and gifts, or Emry and just about anything; Ethan is constantly into ornaments, gifts (most of which are hidden to avoid them all being unwrapped before Christmas), and just about everything! Some days, it's exhausting!

So, to compare my two little ones:

Emry: Can I take this thing off?

Ethan: Look at my hat!

Emry: Oh! Let's watch the train.

Ethan: Faster! Faster! Faster!

Emry: Aren't the lights pretty?

Ethan: Let's eat the lights!

Death at Thorburn Hall

It all began with a relaxing trip to Scotland for the Open Championship. A stay in a beautiful house, wonderful hosts, gorgeous weather, great golf champions. It ended in murder, deceit, greed and intrigue.

Drew Fathering, his wife Madeline, a couple of friends and a handful of stranger are invited to Scotland by Lord Rainsby to stay in his lovely home and enjoy the British Open. While there Lord Rainsby asks Drew to look into a little mystery involving his business partner,but before Drew can delve very far, Lord Rainsby is murdered.  As Drew explores the possibilities of who could have murdered Lord Rainsby and why, he discovers more than he bargained for…and a mystery much closer to home.

Death at Thorburn Hall by Julianna Deering is the sixth installment of the Drew Fathering series. As I said in my review of Ms. Deering’s last book, the series has improved greatly. The characters are interesting (except Carrie whose reactions to the murders are understandable but lack depth) and certainly bring the story along. The dialog is always good, but the attempt at the end to finally bring Drew and Madeline’s faith into conversations was stilted. However, Ms. Deering accomplished the goal of all mystery writers: I didn’t figure out who the culprit was until just before the big reveal. Bravo! 

This book was provided by Bethany House Publishers for review purposes only.

Happy 26^th Birthday, Jenny!

Snow!!!

It snowed. Like real snow. Like three inches of it. Like more snow than Emry has seen in all three winters of her life. I must confess, I’m amazed. Despite old pictures, I was beginning to think Pittsburgh didn’t get snow except as a random inch now and then. I AM SOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!

And I’m not the only one. Yes, yes, yes. It is a hassle to get kids ready to play in the snow. The list of clothing goes on forever: extra socks, a pair of mittens (or two), snowpants, coat, hat, scarf, boots. Sometimes it takes more time to get them dressed and out the door than the amount of time they actually spend in the snow. But I was not about to let my kids miss this perhaps-once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity. Besides, Emry has been hoping and praying for snow for weeks! (Yes, yes, yes. So has her mama.)

So, we bundled up. First Emry. Then Ethan. Then me. That alone was a good morning exercise routine. Then we clomped outside, Emry adjusting her walk to her new boots, Ethan squirming even though the very thickness of everything he had on shouldn’t have allowed for that and me. SNOW!!!!!!

It wasn’t a sticky snow. So, no snowmen. And the only snowballs were formed from shoveling and broke apart once we picked them up. It wasn’t too cold. Right at freezing. So, for my kids who I take for walks in nearly all weather, it wasn’t a big deal. Obviously. Ethan was delighted when I put him down so he could squirm wherever he wished. (He managed quite well on the shoveled sidewalk – not so well in the actual snow. Three inches is right in his face as he wiggled about in his typical military-style crawl.) And Emry? Well, that wasn’t the only time she would bundle up and head outside that day. Before it was over, she went out three different times, plopping down in the middle of the snow and playing whatever her imagination conjured up.

I have kids after my own heart. We all LOVE SNOW!!!!!

Here we are!

 

Emry and Ethan.

Ethan enjoying his time outside.

Emry hunting for snowballs.

And one more snow delight – snow ice cream!

Christmas Tradition #1:The Great Christmas Tree Debate

I feel sorry for my husband. Very sorry for him. Until he married me, he never once had a live Christmas tree. Never! Poor guy grew up with little artificial ones. And that was in the 70s and 80s. Yes, you can all feel sorry for him.

I always had a live tree. I don’t where we got them when I was really young. In Tennessee, we’d go to Mack and Elinor’s and cut one down. Later we got them various places: tree farms, Boy Scouts, nurseries. But until I left home in 2009, I never had a fake tree. That year, I put up my grandfather’s little fake tree. That was quite sufficient since I was going home for Christmas anyhow. 2010 was one of two years I didn’t have a tree where I lived. Haley and I both were headed home for the holidays, so we didn’t bother. The next year, though, Haley’s parents were coming to Texas so a tree was required. We ventured up in to the attic where we found one of the two fake trees stored up there as well as a box full of lights. I think most of the lights were half-working, but we made do and strung it up with red and white lights so you could plug in solely red, solely white or both. Haley had ornaments, I had three or four I had never taken home to pack away with my others and the tree was so nice we put it up again the next year. The following year I was in Minnesota where I borrowed some lights and ribbon from camp to decorate a window in my apartment. Since I blank out after about a half-hour of decorating and decorated a couple of trees at camp, I had my fill and it was enough.

The next year I was married and in Pittsburgh. Christmas arrived and the discussion began: real or fake? That year I think Ed thought real was such a novelty, he easily agreed to my side. The next year he took a bit more convincing, but since it was Emry’s first Christmas he agreed to another real tree. Last year, he took quite a bit of convincing and, to be honest, I looked at fake trees. After all, his argument is quite true and hits where I’m most vulnerable: in the long run a fake tree is more cost-effective. In a matter of years, it pays for itself and saves tons of money. However, I wasn’t quite ready and so we got another real tree.

This year our dilemma wasn’t so much real vs. fake as where in the world we even had room to put a tree. Wherever we put it, it would have to be small. We looked at fake trees, but we got stuck on the question of do we purchase a small tree when, in the hopefully near future, we would like a place where we could purchase the tree we really want. So, in essence, purchasing two fake trees. I think he saw I couldn’t get over that and came home saying he saw signs for a tree farm in Freedom where you could pick out your tree, they’d cut it and off you’d go. So, on Thursday, we bundled up the kids, grabbed a blanket and straps to put the tree on top of the Pilot and off we went.

Now, first of all, Ed does not read signs like I do. I read anything and everything. Ed might read the speed limit. So when we got to the sign pointing to the tree farm, he finally read what it said, shook his head and said “Cut a tree? We’re not cutting any trees!” For a few minutes, I didn’t say anything. We drove down the winding, somewhat dirt road to the farm in order to turn around and come back. He said one or two more things about cutting trees until I finally said, “What did you think a tree farm was? They grow the trees so, of course, you cut them down.” He glanced at me and replied, “How would I know that? I never had a real tree until I married you.”

Now I know Ed and I grew up in very different ways, but that was the first time I realized how those childhoods were different in rather odd ways. Like something as simple as a Christmas tree.

As I said in a previous post, some traditions just come to be. This, apparently, is one of them. For next year, I’m sure we’ll have the same discussion yet again…