Christmas Day 2011

My Kids on Christmas Morning

So all I can say is, thank God for Skype! This was my first year to not have all three kids here for Christmas morning.  Skype was the next best thing! Michael was able to be with us while we opened presents - including opening his for him right there on the video camera. The mail in Nicaragua is too unpredictable, so we couldn't send him anything. And presents that have any value at all never make it through. So we just opened his presents here: Pulp Fiction, 50 Funniest American Writers by Andy Borowitz, Kindle books that can be read online, and a subscription to Audible Books. So even though Michael is staying with a family that doesn't celebrate Christmas, he could still be part of ours.

If you read about Christmas Eve, you'd know I was up a little late with the wrapping. I was SOO sleepy when Alyssa tiptoed in to say, "Merry Christmas" at 8 a.m. Josh had started coffee downstairs, Katie was dozing on the couch, Grandma had already packed up her bedding from the couch, and Ron was up feeding the dogs. Hard to believe that *I* was the last one up this year!

So we all went to My Little Room with the Fireplace and the Tree.  We pulled up Skype and Michael got on. He chatted and watched. We opened presents for an hour. Everyone was happy.

I hadn't made any Special Christmas Breakfast this year. I need to manage my time a little better next year. I like having the Cookie Exchange the day before Christmas Eve, because we have so many cookies for the actually Holiday.  But it threw me off as far as prep for our Christmas.   Of course, as I type that, I'm pondering the idea of going to Nicaragua for some of the Christmas holidays next year.  Then I can bring stuff to Michael that he might like to have. We'll see.

I evidently didn't have the stabilizer on with the   camera, so our Christmas photos are a little blurry. But here's our Christmas Morning! 

After we ate, Josh and Alyssa went to his family's house for Christmas Lunch and gift-giving. Katie hung out with her boyfriend, Michael and I continued to Skype, helping him figure out how to set up his Kindle books online and audible books.

I had a lovely afternoon of reading my gardening/landscaping magazines - one of my traditional - and favorite Christmas gifts! When we don't have a lot of family over, it's nice to be able to curl up in my little front room with my fireplace and dream of beautiful gardens and future projects.  I even managed to squeeze in a delicious little nap!

Ron's brother Scott, and his wife Pam came by after they ate with family in Georgetown. About that time, Katie and Trenton, Josh and Alyssa all came back here for the evening.

Our Christmas was DEFINITELY different this year. I certainly don't enjoy having Michael so far away for such a family holiday. But I pulled off Christmas Day with no tears. (I got a little teary about it at the Christmas Eve church service, but that was it.)

And, who knows! Maybe next year we'll take a big family trip to Nicaragua!!

Christmas Eve

A rainy Christmas Eve for 2011. I think the temps dropped to the lower 40's in the daytime. Ron ran out to get a little heater for my greenhouse.

Because the Cookie Exchange was yesterday, we had plenty of great treats to munch on all day long.  Alyssa and Josh went to visit his Grandma, Katie wrote stories and watched recorded Supernatural episodes.  The kids picked up Grandma on the way home, as she and Pepper are spending the night tonight.

I talked with Michael for a little bit on the phone. He's a little bored in his new location. Also, his family isn't celebrating Christmas, so it's a bit of a let down.  Partially, it's because they're so poor. When you grow your own food and wash dishes in a tub of water from outside because you have no electricity for a pump, life is just plain hard. He told me how they have to stay on watch when they hang out laundry; they have to stay ready for the rain, so they can run out and take it all down quickly, then rehang it all when the rain stops. So, life is very tiring. And they will probably REST on Christmas. But the other reason is because they are not Catholic, they are Evangelicals. They believe that the hoopla surrounding Christmas festivities is pagan. So they do not participate. The town had a big procession for the Virgin Mary when he first got there. The family locked up their house and closed the curtains. Michael was just trying to fit in with them, so he stayed there. If he had known that the Virgin Mary procession was going to be the highlight of December, he might have gone out to soak it all in! We plan to Skype with him in the morning....hopefully it will not make him homesick.

Katie, Alyssa, Josh and I all went to the Christmas Eve service at Gateway today. As Josh put it, it was a bit over the top! They did a performance of the Birth of Jesus.  They tried to modernize it, referring to Mary's husband as Joe, entertaining us with some fantastic breakdancing angels, filming it locally giving it a very "Austin" spin, - snow even shot out from the ceiling at several spots in the performance! I'm glad we went...it's at the Gateway website tomorrow at 11 a.m. Here's a clip of it.


Once Upon a Christmas from Gateway Church on Vimeo.


Then we came home to a huge crab feast with spiral cut ham and roasted potatoes. It was so yummy we forgot to pull out the tamales Ron brought home from work. So that's on the menu for tomorrow.

Afterwards, Ron and Josh did the dishes and we started up the Patterson Annual Tradition: Watching Christmas Vacation.  Grandma laughed so hard at the different pieces of the show which was really funny in  itself!  I guess forgetfulness has it's advantages!


Then all my shopping that had piled up in the corner of my bedroom needed wrapping. I'd so prefer to just sit around and chat with everyone. So I wrapped a little, and chatted a little...which led to my not finishing the wrapping and stocking stuffing until 3 a.m.!!! Luckily for me, Josh stayed up to help me run packages up and down the stairs. Then when 1 a.m. rolled around, he started wrapping too! He was shocked at how our Christmas presents just spill out into the room. I think he'd prefer a more organized Christmas that sticks to a budget - which I cannot even fathom!  Gosh, I need more self-discipline!

So Granda is literally asleep in her kerchief, the dogs are snoozing (yes, Buddy is staying with us),  the "children" are dreaming of their own version of sugarplums,  and I'm wrapping this up and calling it a night!

Merry Christmas to All....and to All a Goodnight!

My Cookie Exchanges

The Annual Cookie Exchange! Truthfully, it's not that annual. I missed last year. There was simply too much family drama for me to focus on doing the "extras."  So in spite of a few date changes, we were able to get friends together for the "Annual" Cookie Exchange.

For those who don't know about Cookie Exchanges...typically you bake a pre-determined number of all the same cookie. So if you're decorating snowflake cookies, you bake X dozen of them and bring them to the exchange. What will happen is that you will share your cookies and then come back home with the same NUMBER of cookies; but you will have a variety of cookies, taking some from each of the other guests' batches of cookies.

And that's where the similarities end!  Every Cookie Exchange is different.  Whoever hosts the party can you a wide variety of methods for how the cookies are dispersed. Sometimes the party has themes or activities. You just never know!

I do our Cookie Exchange differently each time. My first Cookie Exchange was in California. It was HUGE. I think 30 people were there - maybe more! She had everyone put their 5-6 dozen cookies on trays all around her the walls of her living room. We milled around looking at the different cookies, picking up recipe cards if the baker had provided them. The hostess  was a minimalist decorator, so this wasn't nearly the problem it would be at my house. I am not minimalist. I am clutterful. Anyway, having never been before, I didn't realize I needed an *additional* carrier for the  cookies I was about to bring home.  We improvised something, I don't recall now.  She had us all draw numbers to determine where we would be in line.  Then she had this very complicated formula to determine how many cookies each person would pick up. The line would pass through a couple of times, each person picking up 2 of each, then 6 of their favorite, then the line would reverse. This kept the front of the line getting all the beautiful cookies, and the back of the line getting only the broken ones. I liked how it ended up, but I don't think I could ever do the formula. Maybe a mathy friend can give me some advice?? At this Cookie Exchange, people seemed to leave soon after the cookies were obtained.

When I moved to Wichita Falls, I went to a completely DIFFERENT kind of Cookie Exchange. The hostess cooked lots of wonderful food for the guests to snack on while they visited. Each year, about 13 people would attend. She'd let us know at the last minute, how many people were attending and that was how many dozen cookies we needed to bring. We were instructed to package our cookies or bread or whatever we baked in bags/containers with a dozen in each. She kept the large bags at the door and we were to put one package in each person's clearly marked bag when we arrived. After everyone arrived, we told about our baking experience. Each person shared their story of smoke alarms, wasted batches of cookies, family members sneaking cookies, as well as why they chose that cookie or if it was a special family recipe. It was funny to hear what everyone had gone through to get the 13 dozen cookies there! Same amount of time as the California party, but more about sharing with friends.

I decided I really liked the idea of Cookie Exchanges. But my Bunco group had never heard of them. The way Bunco works, is that everyone takes turn hosting the game each month. Since it takes 12 people to play, everyone just grabs a month to host. So I decided I would choose December, and turn my Bunco party into a Cookie Exchange. We knew for sure that we had 12 people, so the numbers didn't fluctuate. One year, we made a dozen to share with each person, and another year we halved that. Making 6 dozen and then everyone taking home six of each kind was a much easier way to do this. This was a group of Girl Scout leaders who, most of them, worked outside the home. They were baking late into the night and that was just too stressful!

So, then, when I moved here, I invited friends to the Cookie Exchange. Each time, I did it a little differently. I discovered Robin Olson's Cookie Exchange website that was FULL of great ideas. I got a little carried away and tried to do prizes for things like "Most Christmas-y Outfit", party games, and sharing info about the cookies each person baked. I liked the idea of hanging out with friends more, but they were often groups of people that didn't really know each other. The prizes and the games were a bust. ha!

This year, I baked my Ham Cheesecake (very yummy), and a few other appetizer type foods. I had everyone bring a dozen cookies to share at the party, and asked them to package up a dozen for each participant to take home. We had 8 bakers. Extra people came just to come to the party, but didn't bake. It was MUCH more relaxing. At first, we had date conflicts.  Early in December, Christmas seemed too far away.  Mid-December was full of people attending other parties, or me not being able to get my Christmas decor all up! Just when I was about to put up my white flag for this year's Cookie Exchange, my friend suggested we do it on Friday before Christmas Eve.  Maybe even in the afternoon, so people wouldn't have party conflicts. AND, this allowed everyone to have quite a variety of cookies ON Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

And that's what we decided to do.

I finally got all my Christmas decorating done. Boxes were moved to the garage. We did a mad cleaning the day before. Cookies were baked and packaged. Candles lit. Voila!  A party!

The only glitch that I have with this method of cookie dispersing, is that my numbers fluctuate. I'm not a firm RSVP taker, and I think that's what it takes. But I want whoever wants to come, to come! It's as much about the friends as it is about the cookies, for me. So when the numbers were off, I was quickly opening people's packages of cookies, pulling a few from each and creating new packets for the last RSVPers. I probably did the math wrong, but everyone who brought something to share, went home with a variety of cookies!

The other problem I have is that as we got closer to Christmas, I felt like I needed to have the number of participants be small, so I wasn't asking people to make 13 dozen! There were quite a few people I would have liked to invite, but time got away from me as well.

So here are the lessons I've learned for next year. I'm putting it here as much to share as to remind me next year, when I think, "Now, what was I thinking would be a good idea for this year?"

• Keep the Eve of The Eve date. 
• Keep the afternoon idea.
• Send out invitations earlier in the month. Evites are still good.
• Invite as many people as I want, without concern about # of dozen or pre-packaging
• No pre-packaged cookies from the baker. 
• Baker bakes 7 dozen cookies to share, and 1 dozen for the party to munch on
• Use the California approach and put the cookies on platters around the room and have people select a certain number
• Maybe have the cookies on tables upstairs around the room
• Between now and then, figure out a formula for how to make this work (Suggestions?)
• We'll munch on food and sample cookies for a while, then fill our platters with cookies to take home
  
  So that's the plan for 2012!
  
  Now...which cookie will I have for mid-morning snack?