Hi, everyone!
The Saturday right after I wrote last, James came over for the afternoon! We had a busy time!
First we made goat cheese biscuits, then we went to One World Goods, so James could pick his Christmas ornaments. In between, James found time to play our foster piano! Before he left, Grandpa brought the Christmas tree in from the garage and put it in the stand. I got to unbale the branches!
I helped Grandma and Grandpa put the lights on the Christmas tree after James left. Grandma decided to wait until Sunday to start putting ornaments on the tree, but the lights were very pretty by themselves! Sunday afternoon she helped me put my favorite moose ornament on the tree.
Late Sunday afternoon, Grandma took me to Powers Farm Market to walk the Nativity Trail! By the time everybody from church got together there, it was already dark! We followed our star to stay together. At each stop, Thomas got to press the button to turn on the lights and start the narrative of part of the Christmas story. Some years, people from church dressed up to be part of the manger scene. This year, there were big moving dolls, instead. The animals around the manger were still real!
After we walked the trail and sang Christmas carols, we went inside for snacks. The weather hasn’t been really cold yet, but the fire felt good! There were doughnut holes and cookies and cider. Thomas brought along his new plushie, Blub.
Afterward, we went to Uncle Steven’s house for dinner. I got to see how James and Thomas decorated the gingerbread house! When we got back, Grandma put more decorations on the Christmas tree.
On Monday, we finished decorating the Christmas tree and putting up the other Christmas decorations. On Wednesday, Grandma and I made our traditional holiday centerpiece with red carnations and holly. Our holly had lots of red berries this year! Everything had to be ready for Friday, because that’s when we had our stollen party!
Friday morning, Grandma got me up very early to start making stollen dough! We made the first batch and left it to rise while Grandma did her exercises and got dressed. When it was risen, I helped Grandma cut wedges and shape them into Christmas trees!
Joe-san came over before the party started to help Grandma with frosting. First, he frosted the gluten-free scones Grandma made and froze a while ago.
By the time our first guests arrived, we had the first batch of stollen baked and frosted. Grandma was shaping the second batch of dough and warming soup to order for our friends.
Grandma made five kinds of soup! We had company on and off all day. My friend Mike-san came, and so did LaVache!
On Saturday, Grandma decided to make the croissant dough for Christmas morning. She knew Sunday (Christmas eve) would be very busy and she wouldn’t have time to do it then. When the dough had risen and then chilled, I helped bash the butter! Then I helped make the layers of dough by folding and rolling. The dough went back into the refrigerator between two plates so it wouldn’t rise too much over the extra day.
On Sunday, before church, Grandma helped me put the last food items in my reverse Advent calendar basket. In between morning church service and the evening children’s pageant, I helped Grandma finish the Advent calendar jigsaw puzzle. The last treat in the upstate New York food Advent calendar was pink gummy pigs!
Christmas morning, Grandma got me up early again to shape the croissant dough! We had yummy croissants for breakfast, along with cherry apricot jam that came in our Advent calendar.
Christmas day was very warm — almost a record high temperature for that date, 57 degrees F.! Grandma and Grandpa took a walk after lunch, and Uncle Steven’s family came over and joined them. Then we had present opening! There was lots of chocolate and other nice gifts for everybody, but I specially wanted to see whether James and Thomas liked my books!
It was nice enough on Christmas for Thomas to be outside climbing a tree. Since then it’s still been warm, but we’ve had a lot of rain. Grandma has a new jigsaw puzzle started. She’s been cooking and baking to use up ingredients left over from Christmas and the stollen party. Now we’re looking forward to New Year Eve!
Love,
Lion-san