Christmas Memories 2009 - A Few Of My Favorite Things

Originally posted 12/24/09


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.

Snowball Christmas cookies...I don't know...to me, Christmas just wouldn't be the same without them.

These are the cookies I was making last year 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 I just made a GLUTEN FREE batch of these babies yesterday 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

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.

This year, 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....