Christmas 2022: Christmas Eve Part One

I am halfway through the Christmas posts. If you don't care to read them, just come back in a few days and the blog will be back to horses as usual.

A long time family tradition of ours is to decorate Christmas cookies the afternoon of Christmas Eve. I bake the cookies ahead of time, sort them out onto plates for everyone who wants to participate, and then supervise the decorating.

This year I just was not feeling it. I was tired, I was grieving, I hadn't had a moment to make those cookies ahead of time, I was absolutely overwhelmed.

Cole called me and offered to make the dough and Emily was willing to cut out and bake the cookies.

I still felt overwhelmed at the thought of decorating the cookies, but I knew the first hurdle was over. Besides, it really is a favorite tradition of my kids and grands (and me!) 

We all gathered over at Curt's home and again with help from Emily and Vanessa, we got the cookies sorted, the frosting and sprinkles out, and then I gave a few instructions. (The biggest being,"No licking your knives or fingers and then sticking them back into the frosting!")

I may have dragged my feet in getting the cookie decorating underway, but I ended up really happy that we were doing it. Maybe it was the normalcy, maybe it was the link back to years and years of cookie decorating on Christmas Eve, who knows? My spirits lifted and I was able to laugh and enjoy myself.

We didn't worry about meticulously decorating our cookies, we just had fun (and a few knives were licked and no one was harmed.)

Trinity and JC's cookies were the "safest" to eat. You knew that there had been no knife or finger licking from them! Haha!

Susie, on the other hand, had clear evidence that her knife had made its way into her mouth.

Ian's cookies turned out nice!

Kate passed the clean mouth test.

Lukie got to eat all his own cookies (if you catch my meaning...)

Sweet Cambria did a lovely job and seemed to like green! 

I'd brought some gold sprinkles and Mila liked those the most.

Titan's cookies match his socks and apron!

After the cookie decorating was over, we hung out as a family in the house - it was still way too cold to go outside for any activities.

We played board games and watched Christmas movies together.

And we hung out and chatted. Lisa had also joined us for the day, and while she was quiet and very subdued, I was so glad she was with family and not alone.

Then we had a big surprise for Craig. We started gathering everyone into Curt and Vanessa's family room,

pulling the kids up from the basement and the gamers from the kitchen table. And then we sang "Happy Birthday" to him. With a bewildered look he said, "But my birthday is in July!" 

Yes it is, and last July he turned 70. He said he did not want a celebration, so we didn't have a big party for him. But, we did decide we needed to recognize that milestone birthday and so we made him a book.

Every family member wrote him something - a favorite memory, something they liked about him, etc. and then sent what they'd written to me. I printed them out, put them in clear sleeves, and compiled them into in a binder.

Was Craig ever surprised! He sat and read it several times while the family was with us. And I love how the grands couldn't wait for him to read what they had written. (For example, Lukie wrote, "I like to beat Boompa playing Llama Llama and to bake cookies with him.")

By now it was time for our next family Christmas Eve tradition - pizza for dinner! Todd and Curt went to pick it up while the rest of us straightened things up and got ready for two more family Christmas Eve traditions - the PJ elf to arrive and the family Nativity reenactment. 

In which a camel makes a wrong turn. Stay 'tooned!

The Flip Side Part 2 & a Recipe

When I first started photo showing in 1971, my dad, ever supportive of my horsey side, offered to take the photos for me. He was a photographer with a darkroom in our basement, and so we went downstairs and set up my models on the pool table using old drapes to mask the shoe boxes and background.

Unfortunately, I didn't think to ask him to use photograph film; he used slide film instead!

Luckily (and rather expensively), Dad was able to turn the slides into pictures. And... I didn't think to tell him that I wanted  3x5 pictures! But the small photos showed just fine and I am still grateful to my father who helped me take my first show photos.

Believe it or not, this costume won a lot of ribbons for me. It was made from my parakeet's feathers. Whenever my bird, Buttons, molted, I would save his feathers for costumes. 

Me with my parakeet, Buttons, back in 1969.

Scojeadon wearing an early halter I made by cutting up a necklace and using some leather scraps and Elmer's glue.

The back of Scoj's show photo. You can see that I pasted a new sheet of paper on the back of the photo when it got full of writing and was all messy.

The next photos I took myself with the camera that Buttons is perching on above.

Equitabar, an early Hartland and made of tenite plastic like a Breyer, strutting across our horse pasture. That's the Wabash in the background.

My first Hagen Renaker. I love how they used to put the date on photos; for documentation purposes, I can document that I have had this piece since August, 1972.

All these pieces are still with me. While I would not say that I am a black hole collector, I did and still do love my carpet herd and just about every one of them are still with me.

Now, on to my absolute FAVORITE sugar cookie recipe. I just made these with Lukie for Halloween!

Lynn & Lukie's Favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe

Cream together 1 & 1/2 cups powdered sugar (not granulated!), 1 cup butter, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1/2 to 1 teaspoon almond extract. (I use the full teaspoon, but then, I love almond flavoring in holiday baked goods. You can also omit the almond extract.)

Mix in 2 & 1/2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon of soda, and 1 teaspoon cream of tartar. Chill a few hours. (You can skip that step and be fine. The dough also freezes well. Often I make a few batches and freeze them during the holidays. Grands come to visit? We just thaw the dough and bake together!)

Roll dough out and cut into shapes. Place on parchment paper or greased cookie sheet and bake 7-8 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Easy Creamy Frosting

1 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1-2 tablespoons of milk, and a couple of drops of food coloring. Stir with a spoon. To make a thinner frosting, add a little more milk; to make a thicker frosting, add less milk.

Decorate those yummy cookies with your favorite folks and then eat 'em up!

You can bet I will make this recipe several times between now and New Year's Day!

Reunion at the Barn

After all my own children were in school, I started my teaching career and taught twenty years before retiring. Some of my former students have remained in contact over time, including Angelina, who just graduated from high school.

Angelina is a fellow horse lover. A year or so after leaving elementary school, she visited me while in middle school. She was very comfortable being in the middle of all the horses and happily fed carrots and peppermints to them all.

When I retired in 2018, Angelina came to the surprise retirement party that a bunch of my former students planned for me and held in my classroom at the end of the day.

 That's Angelina standing on the right with other classmates that just graduated this year.

She and I had been texting recently about her post graduation plans and I asked if she'd like to come see the horses again.

 Angelina was thrilled about that! She hopes to own a horse herself some day.

After some hugs and tears, we headed out into the pasture to visit the herd.

 She found Hokey's favorite spot - he was so happy!

 Although she did have to prove to him that she did not have any treats left.

 Hokey is a sweet boy and he enjoyed having all of Angelina's attention. (Look how loose his lips are - that boy is in heaven!)

 We toured the new barn and Tim's wagon collection...

... and then we sat outside on the hay wagon and chatted. I wanted to hear about her plans (going to Purdue to study Biology), hear how her family was (stepmom is undergoing cancer treatment so we made sure we wore masks while we were together), and we just generally caught up on each other's lives.

She also baked me the YUMMIEST cookies! And packed them in a pretty box with a gold ribbon!

The biggest treat, though, was not the cookies or the horses. It was the opportunity to reunite with a young woman that I've known for many years and love very much.