1. Gingerbread House
Yes, we're amateurs, and no, our house wouldn't win any prizes. Unless, of course, there are prizes like The Most Fun We Had All Week.
2. Pomander Balls
I may be seriously behind times but I was only introduced to oranges decorated with cloves when last year at my sister-in-law's house. This year I did my own and had so much fun with them that they became an instant tradition. According to what I read online, these aromatic balls can be kept from year to year, but considering oranges and cloves are cheap entertainment, I plan to do fresh ones each winter.
3. Cut-out Cookies
Ok, why can't bread be seasonal? Bread dough and I get along much more nicely than cut-out cookie dough and I. Which is why I rarely make cut-out cookies and why they turned out like the picture below. I'll tell you later about cookie dough sticking to rolling pins and other tragic tales in a later post. But, hey, if you close your eyes when you bite into them (saves yourself the pain of seeing what you are eating) they taste amazing. Plus, my sprinkle-happy four-year-old had a ball decorating them.
4. The Slumber Party
No holiday would ever be complete at our house without our traditional family slumber party in the living room. The children love it.
5. Holiday mail
Okay, so whether this can be filed under the category of "tradition" is debatable, but it certainly is a sign of the season. We get three-fourths of all personal mail in the month of December. To us it feels like mail by the truckload. I mean, sometimes we get two whole pieces of mail in one single day. That is worth celebrating.
One tradition I have is to take something to all my neighbors at Christmas time. This year I decided to take Cranberry Yogurt Muffins, which are so moist and good and festive. I baked a triple batch, filled red plates with white snowflakes, put a Merry Christmas sticker on each plate and loaded them up in the van. Felicity went along to deliver them to each door and I came home with a satisfied feeling that I had blessed my neighbors and maybe they would be so impressed with the muffins that they would request them next year. When I came home, I bit into one of the remaining muffins and was slightly alarmed at the dryness and texture. In a calm panic, I went to the cookbook and looked up the recipe. To my dismay, I discovered that I had put 2/3 c. of yogurt in instead of 1-2/3 cups!!! So much for making a good impression!! I hope they were able to choke down the muffins and are gracious enough to accept my humble offerings next year. (Maybe I'll buy some chocolate covered pretzels...that would be pretty safe.)
ReplyDeleteI'm laughing. I'm sure that your history of taking beautiful baked things will redeem the muffins...though I probably wouldn't spend a lot of time waiting around for their requests for the recipe.
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