Hi, everyone!
We spend so much time getting ready for Christmas that I’m glad it isn’t only one day! There are special days all the way to Epiphany, January 6!
On Christmas Eve, I helped Grandma put all the presents under the Christmas tree! The lights on the tree were pretty from outside when it got dark!
Christmas morning, Grandma got me up early to help make croissants! We used the dough that James made when he came to learn how to make croissants. Grandma froze that batch and let it thaw in the refrigerator for a couple of days. It was easy to work with! I helped shape the croissants before they rose. Grandpa and Grandma and I had fresh-baked croissants for Christmas breakfast!
Uncle Steven’s family came over in the afternoon to open presents. We Facetimed with Uncle David’s family, so everybody was opening presents at the same time. It got a little bit confusing! Thomas brought over his cuddly presents he’d opened at home. There were lots of boxes of chocolate passed around. James got small percussion instruments. Bill and Karin gave Thomas a set of radio-controlled tanks. Thomas opened those right away!
The day after Christmas is Boxing Day. We had ham for Christmas dinner. That left a ham bone, so Grandma could make Senate bean soup on Boxing Day. The recipe ingredients barely fit in Grandma’s 12 quart stock pot! I helped stir the soup. While that was cooking, Grandma decided to make eggnog cake. She does that every year to use up the eggnog we get to make stollen frosting. I helped with that, too! There were lots of containers of soup to put away!
On New Years Eve, we had another party! Some of my most favorite people go to an evening political comedy show and come back to Grandma and Grandpa’s for dinner afterward. They couldn’t do it during the pandemic, but now the show is back and so is the tradition. We didn’t even wait until midnight to toast the New Year. We celebrated on Puerto Rican time, an hour earlier!
On New Years day, Grandma and I took all the ornaments off the Christmas tree. I helped unwind the garland first. Then I made sure my favorite moose ornament was packed away safely! After Grandpa took the lights off the tree, I helped wrap the tree in a tarp. That way, the needles don’t fall off on the carpet as we take the tree out to the curb.
Grandma has started baking the Ground Hog Day cookies, one recipe a day. On Twelfth Night yesterday, I helped her package up the snowy apricot bars. First, I held the ruler so she knew what size to cut the cookie bars. Then I helped cut all the pieces of plastic wrap she uses to wrap up each cookie individually. When all the cookies were wrapped, I helped her add them to the box of other cookies that were already frozen. We’ve done five recipes of cookies and have four more to go!
It was very cold on Twelfth Night! The daytime temperature was 18 degrees F. When we finished wrapping the cookies, it was already getting dark. Twelfth Night is the last night for our apple tree lights to shine. I made sure to watch them before I went to bed.
Love,
Lion-san
Tech support needed. Usually I can click on a picture on little box in upper right and picture gets bigger. Not so today.
Luckily we decorated the day after Thanksgiving and I got my annual letter written and ready to mail that Saturday or Sunday. Then I got sicker and sicker and went to hospital that next Thursday. So I was gone for most to Dec. so didn’t get to enjoy the decorations. Now they are still up and I’m enjoying them. We’ll leave them up till Bev and David come for my birthday weekend. They’ll spend a week in NYC then come back to see us again. We’ll take our decorations down while they are in NYC. They’ll get to see our decorations and then the apartment returned to normal. I admire you, Jeanne, for all the baking you do. Love the apricot bars especially. Happy New Year all. Betsy