My favorite Christmas carol is "O Holy Night". I love the message of this song...
Long
lay the world in sin and error pining.Till He appeared and the Spirit
felt its worth.A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,For yonder
breaks a new and glorious morn...
The King of
kings lay thus lowly manger;In all our trials born to be our friends.He
knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,Behold your King! Before him
lowly bend! ...
Truly He
taught us to love one another,His law is love and His gospel is
peace.Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.And in his
name all oppression shall cease...
It
also reminds me of my mother. I took several years of voice lessons
growing up...my mother used to take me door to door to sing to the
neighbors. She would knock, they would open, she would name a song, I
would sing...that's how it went :) This song was our favorite...I seemed
to end up singing it the most.
These
are the cookies I was making when the phone rang with the results from Sugar's celiac biopsy. I was up to my elbows in flour...I'll
never forget hanging up the phone, after hearing the news that celiac
was confirmed, and staring at my floured fingerprints on the receiver. I
wondered how Christmas would ever be the same...would we ever make
Christmas cookies together again?
I'm pleased to report that over the years I've made GLUTEN FREE batch of these babies using Jules Gluten Free Flour....and it looks like the Christmas Snowball has been saved forever :)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans
additional powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans
additional powdered sugar
Cream
butter, sugar and vanilla until fully mixed. Add flour with salt to
creamed mixture, blend thoroughly. Add nuts and mix well. Chill dough
for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 400F. Shape into 1-inch balls and bake 8-10
minutes. Do not brown. Cool, then roll in powdered sugar.
This is my favorite Christmas decoration...
It's
been in my family for YEARS!!! My mother made it when I was a little
girl. I clearly remember the anticipation of waking up each day and
pulling out a new ornament to put on the tree. It counts down the days
until Christmas, beginning on December 1st. Through the years, we've
managed to keep 23 of the 24 original little handmade decorations. A few
years ago, I had to replace all the Velcro, but aside from that, it
remains just as I remember it.
A couple years ago, Jason decided it was time to replace the missing ornament...so HE
went to Michael's and picked up a few things...then sewed this by hand
so that our special family heirloom would be complete....
Christmas
Eve is my favorite day of the year. I love the anticipation and
excitement that this day brings. It has become a tradition for our
family to have Christmas dinner followed by a Christmas Eve church service that we all attend together. We have found this to be the most
effective way to make sure that, as a family, we end the day with our
hearts full of praise and our focus on Jesus.
What are some of your favorite things?
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I love it when you post GF recipes. Knowing that it tastes yummy to the Candy Hearts clan encourages me that mine will enjoy it too.
ReplyDeleteLove hearing about your traditions. We have a tree almost like that which my mom made when I was a little girl too! It is my girls favorite Christmas decoration too.
Lovely traditions!
ReplyDeleteOur family always reads the Christmas Story out of Luke 2 on Christmas Eve. My mother's dad did it, then when he passed, my dad took over. Now that he's graduated to Heaven, it falls to either Ubergeek or my brother-in-law, depending on where we are celebrating. It wouldn't be Christmas without it!
Love those cookies. we make them too. And the chocolate version. Though not the non-gluten version. I was so happy to see those cookies when I was flipping through the blogs...Amy
ReplyDeleteThese are some great favorite things! That Christmas decoration is the cutest heirloom I have seen and so full of memories that make it extra special...just like you and your family!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful post! I love the message in O Holy Night as well..."Truly He taught us to love one another,His law is love and His gospel is peace."....always makes me smile...:o)
ReplyDelete