Come Play In The Kitchen!

This time of year, I am usually starting to feel excitement and anticipation about the coming holidays — from Thanksgiving to Christmas, I always embrace the season with gratitude, coupled with joy and mixed with a dash of nostalgia. As a person whose favorite season is autumn, followed by winter, I enjoy the changing of the leaves from vibrant green to stunning shades of gold and orange and red (though none of them are colors I normally enjoy outside of nature), and I start to slow my pace to prepare for the coziness of longer evenings, snow glistening in the twilight and crystallized bits of frost on the window panes of my old home. I find that there is more goodwill and peace present (normally) during these fleeting months. When you think of this time of year, are there are any memories that you cherish? For me, I think back to my youth when my sister and I would wake excitedly on Christmas morning, meals with all of the family — grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins — as we visited, the familiar foods, special treats reserved for this time of year, traditional foods, songs and hymns, decorations…I especially remember singing with my father’s side of the family, and meals with my mother’s side of the family — where my Gram would send me to the attic steps to get a Pepperidge Farm cake or Sara Lee pie because she did not bake! As an adult, I tried really hard to recapture so much of that nostalgia for my own family when we started our holiday celebrations.

Beginning with my husband’s birthday September 25th (so, exactly three months before Christmas is celebrated), I start looking for the annual Christmas cookie magazines in the bookstore and start planning my cookie trays and menus for all the things. I start listening to Christmas music on playlists as early as my birthday (a week later on October 3rd), and as soon as it can be tuned in on our local radio station — where the dial is set almost permanently til December 26th. Then comes gift planning — purchasing, crafting. I used to have all this done by October, but now that the kids are grown, they have more specific needs and wants, and sometimes if I’m giving food gifts not all can be purchased or created so early except for home-preserved projects (which are already planned and done when canning season starts in spring!).

On to Thanksgiving. I remember laboring in the kitchen, trying (some years quite unsuccessfully!) to have the turkey out at the same time as all the other dishes. That absolutely comes with years of practice! Although for a few years (sadly not enough!) we had a more vintage electric oven that had an extra space on the stovetop where it looked like there should have been two extra burners but the space was lovely!, and which had an extra small oven space exactly that width of the burner space. That was a great year for me, as I used those ovens!! (I need double wall ovens in my kitchen and also an extra stove top lol!) My husband and our oldest daughter prefer canned cranberry sauce, so it was almost a huge faux pas the one year (yes, just that one!) I tried to make a homemade more relish-like version and did not have a jellied can anywhere in the house! I also bake pumpkin pies this time of year — when pumpkins are actually in season (!).

One of the things I really enjoyed doing with the kids when they were young was making turkeys with construction paper and writing on the feathers things they were thankful for. I still have some of those stray faded feathers and I always smile when I read the handwritten block letters in childish scribbles that say things like “food”, “toys”, and sometimes even “Mom and Dad”.

Once Thanksgiving gave way to Black Friday, it was shopping, planning for our annual tree hunting trek, decorating, and crafts and cookies.

We would go to a tree farm that offered live trees you cut yourself, complete with a little petting zoo area that usually housed sheep, chickens, rabbits and an occasional goat. We would wait, usually bundled up due to the Pennsylvania colder temperatures, while Les would stand in line to get a tag for whichever tree we would pick. Then we would all get onto a horse-drawn wagon with other families — except for the year that we took up a whole wagon ourselves with all the kids, their significant others, and extra friends who started to join us annually for the tree hunt! The usual tree of choice is a Douglas fir and we would all seek out the perfect tree — tall, fat enough for all the ornaments, with fragrant, full and sturdy branches. It was so much fun! Les was usually the one to cut down the tree, until our oldest son Zachary started to help. Some years the job fell to our middle son, Will. (I’m not sure if the youngest son, Sammy, has ever cut down the tree — yet!) One year we drove to the tree farm and the weather was perfectly sunny. We finally got onto the wagon and it had started to cloud up out of nowhere. We got into the fields to a light drizzle. Then we were cautioned to hurry because it looked stormy. Well, getting back onto the wagon, there was thunder and lightening and I actually fell off mid-climb because the horses jumped! We had to shield ourselves — and I was covering Sammy, who was maybe just 3 or 4 — with our jackets because it started to pour! They always had free hot cocoa (and candy canes) in the little Christmas shop, and at one time they had a barn full of old department store Christmas displays with moving pieces, lights, and you could get pictures with Santa. The “mom rule” (made, of course, by me) was that if you came to get the tree, you had to have your picture taken with Santa. I have many group photos of my kids and many extras, and cherish every single one of them! I am so thankful that the kids all indulged me in that!

I commence with decorating the house as soon as Thanksgiving and fall things are put away, usually the day of or after. Snowflakes and twinkly white lights are my favorite things to see around the house, and I love crafting my own things to use for the decor, as well as for gifting! Sammy had taken many art classes when he was homeschooled, and our habit was to choose one of his winter themed works to have printed into Christmas cards/postcards for family and friends. Before that, I would have all the kids help craft cards. One year each of them added a brown fingerprint to the front of a blank card, with a caption that read “Merry Christmas from our little deers!” and I used a black ink micro pen to add details like antlers and eyes and a nose, putting each child’s name under their print. I always keep one of each of the cards that were personalized these ways, and I cherish them so much — especially now that the children are all grown! I always found fun ornament kits for the children to make too, a lot with beads or painted pieces. We also would make other crafts, as well as food treats. One year I bought some inexpensive Christmas themed rice krispie treat kits somewhere and each kid decorated their own rice krispie snowman. I have lots of photos of all of these things (and someday I might actually print and organize them)!

Les, along with whatever kids had their hunting license, would usually leave to go up to his dad’s house after we got the tree, so they could all be out for the first day of deer season (rifle, not archery). After his mom passed away, I tried to send up some kind of meal for them — quiche, or at least cookies. A fav request is farmers’ market quiche or meat lovers’ quiche, and cheeseburger casserole. Playing in the kitchen is not just fun for me, but it’s my love language and my gift as a hospitality ministry, so I really am thankful that I can bless everyone in this way. I am always grateful when the hunters come back. When everyone was young, I did use that time to shop and wrap, since the house got quieter during that few days. Plus — I never sleep well when Les is away. So there were numerous long evenings where I just used that time to sing and wrap gifts and pray over each recipient as I tried to keep the packages neat and not get tape stuck everywhere but the intended place!

We always celebrated St. Nicholas Day on December 6th, mostly as a way to connect with my German heritage. Initially the kids would set out their shoes before bed on December 5th and wake up to an orange and candy in them. We decided early on that some of their shoes should NOT house food, so I started putting all the candy in small ziploc bags and then stuffing them in the shoe and adding the orange or clementine on top. But that evolved into my decorating paper bags — one per child with their name and some kind of winter/Christmas picture, like a tree, a snowflake. Then I would line the bags up on the dining room hutch or living room coffee table and the kids would get them the morning of December 6th. I even did this for the kids who came around often, so I would have multiple bags with the names of all my beloved “extras” (who are still included in my prayers morning and evening every single day!) Sometimes that table would have barely any room with all of the paper bags, and I also had to get creative so everyone had a different picture/design on their bag! But I do love being generous, and I try so hard to cultivate that into my life ALL year long — but especially during the holidays. I just want others to see that reflection of the Lord shining through me, and I hope that is how it comes across…That I am giving because I’ve been so blessed, not that I am giving to make myself seem important or in expectation of getting anything in return. I just enjoy using whatever talents God has blessed me with to bless others. And that’s why I so enjoy Christmas baking.

I LOVE all the varieties of Christmas cookies! I am actually working on pulling together a Christmas cookie book binder with ALL of the kinds of cookies that are a must on our cookie trays, so that my family will have it and be able to replicate the ones they love even some day when I am gone. I do get a little crazy with it — I bake at least thirty different kinds, but I have made up to sixty different kinds of cookies in one year (and yes — sixty…60!). I try out a few new recipes every year (those magazines are so inspiring!) For a cookie tray, I typically add 2-3 regular size of each different kind, plus 5-6 minis (like a spritz or a candy, depending). If I’m adding a large cookie like a springerle, a molded cookie, or a decorative shortbread I will just put one in the center. The past two years I have been experimenting with sugar cookies decorated with royal icing, which are so lovely! My favorite was a set of cutters that, when placed on the tray, made a Santa face with a hat, and of course mustache, then with individual snowflakes or stars, as his beard. You could add as many of the snowflake/stars as you wanted to make the beard really large for a crowd. Right now, I’m delving into experimenting with homemade candies. I’ve made a few so far over the years. I like the ease of peanut butter cups, peppermint bark, and some fudge — but I really want to try some filled truffles. I enjoy pulling these treat trays together to give family and friends a selection to try! It is one of my favorite things to do this time of year! I typically start December 1st (sometimes maybe a little sooner, for things like springerle that need time to develop their flavors), and I start with cookies that can keep the longest, baking ones that can only sit a few days just before I distribute the platters (which varies, due to food safety, and I have tested all my tried-and-true recipes to see how long each one keeps). I have made dough and kept it in the freezer to make things a little easier, but until I get a dedicated freezer for baked goods, it isn’t my preference for many reasons — mostly because I dont’ always remember to thaw anything in time to make!

While my youngest son, Samuel, is my favorite birthday gift, being my only surviving biological child born September 30th between mine and Les’ birthdays and brought home on my own birthday the year I turned 35, my absolute favorite Christmas gifts ever include the birth of my sister when I was two (December 22), adoption day for Zachary (December 21), and adoption day for Kayla, Sara, Emma and Will, who are biological siblings (December 18). When the kids were all little, we celebrated Adoption Week with a trip to Candy Lane in Hershey to see the lights, ride the rides, and of course go to Chocolate World. The wonder and joy of kids is always so sweet to me. In a world where there is increasing evil and the darkness is no longer hiding, I enjoy the twinkling lights, the glow of candles, and the sweet, smiling face of children who are discovering the awe and wonder of God’s love facilitated through the joy that accompanies this season, even though I hate the pagan roots of the holidays (which I didn’t discover well into adulthood). I am thankful that I have those sweet and innocent smiles of my children etched in my heart as a memory to cherish. Seeing their eyes light up with excitement was a treasure. It saddens me that some of us lose that glow as we grow in our knowledge and our innocence is lost. It has been a huge comfort to me to be able to trust that God is good and to know He sent His Son to redeem the whole world. The light that He brings gives me great peace.

Our church usually has services for either Christmas Eve Eve (December 23), or Christmas Eve. So we usually attended a Christmas Eve service. Although I am not a practicing Catholic, having come into a deeper faith with God and a personal relationship with Jesus that is more supported at the church I now attend, I do still love the tradition of midnight mass, and so some years I would still go. This was normally before children, or once the children were older, as having young ones and trying to get everyone to that mass, or get all the things done with a young family even if I went solo, was often too much for me. I appreciate the beauty and solemnity of that particular mass, and it brings back a lot of memories of my young adult years. I have always had so much support from Les with my faith journey, and I am blessed in that way. But getting to midnight mass with the kids little was just so complicated!

Les and I spent many years staying up literally all night wrapping, searching for gifts we had hidden away from the nosey and prying eyes of children, making sure that some of the food was prepped, and hiding the Christmas pickle ornament on the tree. If you’re not familiar, the Christmas pickle ornament is a tradition where a glass pickle ornament is hidden on the tree and the one who finds it gets a special gift for being observant. Since we are not far from Hershey, we would normally get a giant Hershey kiss or Reece’s Cup from Chocolate World. Our rule was the finder could not look for the pickle the next year. I loved seeing the receiver decide, often without any prompting at all(!) to be generous and share with siblings. Anyway…we realized some of the kids were trying to sneak downstairs to see what the gift situation might look like and to find the Christmas pickle ahead of everyone else in the family, even though the rule was that no one was supposed to go downstairs until parents went down first. We came up with the idea to place gift wrap over the doorway to the living room. That assured no one could get in to see anything without us knowing. But they were always so ready to burst through that giftwrapped door like a football team entering a field on game day!

And of course it can be difficult trying to get excited children to actually go to sleep on Christmas Eve. One year when we were getting Christmas gifts/crafts/maybe even the tree, I spied some Rudolph noses. (I think we were actually at Candy Lane in Hershey.) Les told them if Santa’s sleigh was nearby when they were still awake, he was probably not going to stop. They were still a bit rambunctious. So Les grabbed one of the Rudolph blinky red light noses and climbed onto the porch roof, which had windows into both the boys’ room and the girls’ room. Well, he stomped up there and paraded in front of the window with the nose so the kids saw a glowing red light, and I hollered up that I thought I saw Santa’s sleigh and heard him, and those kids quieted down real quick!!

One year all the kids were being especially naughty the week leading up to Christmas, and especially Christmas Eve, with lots of fighting among them, and we were really frustrated with trying to emphasize the need to be kind toward one another. Les decided to hide all of their gifts behind one of the sofas in the living room. When they came down on Christmas morning, they all were wide-eyed that there were no huge piles of gifts under the tree. But something beautiful came out of that! In our family, because we had six children, my mother-in-law wisely suggested each child only shop for one sibling like a polyana. Rather than drawing names so that everyone could get the same name each year, the first year the oldest bought one gift (up to a set price we kept every year, which helped with our budgeting!) for the next child down. Then the following year they bought for the child after that and so on. So Child A bought for Child B the first year, Child C the next…all the way down to Child F. At which point they start at the top of the list and go down through (so Child F buys for Child A, etc.) When they realized they had no gifts of their own under the tree to open, at first there was shock and disappointment. But within a minute or two they started thinking of the gifts they had to give to their polyana and gifts they’d gotten for Les and I. The focus turned toward others instead of toward themselves. It was such a beautiful transformation and is one of the most treasured memories I have of Christmas. Once all the gifts were so lovingly exchanged and the kids were ready to eat and play, Les “discovered” that there were other presents in the room for each of them.

On Christmas morning, I would serve a brunch buffet rather than a main meal, and I would add and subtract things from it all day so everyone could snack and graze (yes, keeping food safety in mind!). The main dishes are usually a huge platter of candied maple bacon, cheesy potato casserole, baked french toast, some kind of egg dish like quiche or frittata, a fruit tray, and ham and egg cups. Then toward late morning I will add ham, veggies of some kind, cookies and candy. Doing the Christmas food this way leaves me time to enjoy the celebrations, as many things can be prepared ahead and chilled or heated up before serving, so I’m not in the kitchen all day — because as much as I love playing in the kitchen, I don’t want to miss all the little moments that make this season so special to me. While I personally do not think Jesus was born on Christmas, I just want to embrace the time with family and friends and celebrate His good gifts. I always think of the loved ones who are no longer with us. I don’t want to let any day go by where the people in my life don’t know how much I appreciate them and how thankful and blessed I am to have them in my life, so while I try to do that year-round, I enjoy that there is this very particular season where I can show that in a more special and dedicated way.

That being said, I am grateful to all of you who read and stay with me, because I know how this blog has been silent off and on with busy seasons, poor health and just a mix of other things like procrastination or the need to do other things while I have the energy to do them. Thank you for staying invested in reading. I am praying my vision and overall health will allow me to really develop this space a bit more as a creative outlet since some other things are necessarily changing and being redefined in my life in the season I’m currently in — which I suppose is typical for the cycles we go through in life as we grow and change. Again, thank you for support and friendship, or just for reading. I really am blessed and appreciative!

If there are any memories you’d like to share, or any prayer requests, please feel free to leave a comment! Blessings for a wonderful holiday season!