Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! Here it is nearly 8 o'clock on Christmas Eve. I have a half hour before we go to church for Christmas Eve Service. It is one of my favorites, always a bit different, but always full of Christmas Carols, songs thanking God for sending a way for an imperfect mankind to live with Him forever. None of us is perfect, and the Babe we see at Christmas grew to take our sins away....if we only ask Him to.

We didn't do much shopping this year. Just a few things for the Grandchildren and kids. As usual, Mr. Scottie Dog and I will exchange a small token. Our real joy comes from seeing the joy in the Grandkid's eyes. Today Beka Skyped me from Ottawa, Canada where they are spending Christmas with Jason's family. At one point Jakob (nearly 4 now) ran up shouting over and over again, "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas," as if tomorrow morning would come faster if he said it a certain number of times. He did throw me a kiss and his eyes lit up when he saw my face on the computer screen.

Today I did a tiny bit of grocery shopping, went to the Scottie Dog Store and helped Liz out for just a bit. She's cooking most of tomorrow's feast...breakfast included. I came home and made a Banana Cream Pie.....a pretty awesome one too. My secret....use half & half instead of my usual skim milk! Tomorrow's a Feast Day...splurge a bit! Funny how for years I've used skim milk for everything and they always turned out OK. Not fabulous, just OK. Now they turn out fabulous. But only for Feast Days.

I cheated and bought an apple pie and a Christmas Stollen. Stollen is a family tradition in Bill's family. I've made it many times and it always turns out great. But the recipe starts out with 12 cups of flour. Do you have any idea how much stollen 12 cups of flour makes? I have tried to half the recipe twice with poor results. Joan, one of our quilting budies owns Cherry Blossom Bakery in Henderson Center, Eureka and she told me last month they were making Stollen this Christmas. AHA! This year we'll have our Stollen sliced thin and toasted with coffee or tea while we open the gifts tomorrow morning. Liz is making berry cobbler so we'll have a feast. Sydney most likely won't eat, she'll just open gifts.

After making tomorrow's pie I fixed a special little dinner for Mr. Scottie Dog and I to eat in front of the Christmas Tree. I got a crab, picked the meat and made Crab Melts on Sourdough Bread and home made clam chowder. Umm, Ummm, Good!

Off to Church in just a few minutes so let me wish all of you a very Blessed Christmas. May the Christ child find you this season! God Bless you all.


Love,




2 comments:

Liz Scott Adams said...

Yummmy! I love Christmas Stollen! It always makes me think of Esta. Toasted with butter is the best and I actually broke down and bought real butter for tomorrow morning. It will be delish. Instead of berry cobbler, I made bread pudding and tried a new recipe for something called Apple Streusel Squares. Looks more like pie to me! Most of what we are having tomorrow for dinner are new recipes, so it will be an interesting day. After breakfast and presents, I think we'll all have to take a walk to the zoo to see the animals play with their treats!

jen duncan said...

Liz sounds like me.,,..every year I have to try all these new recipes. So far, no catastrophes. :-) Today it's authentic chili verde (roasted tomatillos and all). Don't ask me why, just felt like it! All your food sounds FAB. I've already gained weight as of this morning but I'll look at it as you suggest; it's FEAST time! Back to the diet grind next week. :-)
hugs and kisses and merry Christmas wishes to you and yours Brenda.
jen