Ms Booshay's little Christmas meme really did give me a bit of a jump start. Now, little by little, I'm warming my engine and getting into the Christmas spirit. It started that little autofill feature that, well, um...autofills the title field of my blog entry. I started to type "Christmas Meme," and, lo and behold, I already *have* an entry titled "Christmas Meme." Inspired me to go back and read my entries from last holiday. And you know what? We actually enjoyed Christmas last year, even on a budget only a bit less strict than this year's budget.
And the thing about those entries is that they serve as a reminder. For several years now, I've worked in the mail order department of a local cheesehouse (hi, Ashley!). The past two years, I headed up the mail order operation. Last year, I was miserable. I missed my family, we didn't do our traditional stuff, and I felt like Christmas just kind of rushed on without me. I vowed that I would never let that happen again.
And so, while it's very financially tenuous right now, I'm thankful that I'm, once again, a stay-at-home mom during the Christmas season. That's very important to me. After all, Bard will be seventeen in just two short months. While I hope she plans to stay at home for as long as she wants to, I know that my holiday seasons with her at home are numbered.
Monet and Sweetheart did some gift shopping for me. They spent their "free money" that their Illinois grandpa gave them to buy me treasures from the thrift store. Sweetheart is anxious to get them wrapped, but I told her to wait, that we'll soon get all of our Christmas decorations out and she can wrap them then. She knows that there will be meager offerings this Christmas, and she says she doesn't mind. As long as her stocking is full, she says, and she gets a couple of coloring books, that will be fine. I do know that I bought her a few little goodies at the thrift store, and she'll be pleased with them: a soft cotton quilt, a mosquito net for her bed and a hand-embroidered pillow case with a cute little kitty in a basket. She'll be happy.
Tonight, I prepared some holiday foods--a gallon of eggnog and a pan of homemade vanilla caramels. The eggnog is chilling in the fridge while the caramel loaf is cooling just a few feet from where I type, waiting to be set enough to be cut into pieces and wrapped in wax paper. Later, I'll make dozens of batches of hard candy--watemelon and wintergreen and spearmint and cinnamon and root beer and butter rum and cherry. Lucky for me, I bought a dozen or more jars of the oils last year and I still have them in my spice drawer, so the only outlay I have for that is corn syrup.
Making hard candy was originally Bard's idea. We were trying to think of a good gift for Grandma, and Bard thought of the hard candy, which she thought we could break into pieces and pour into a huge jar. Her idea was inspired by one of Grandma's hobbies--stained glass making. We've made the candy every year since, filling a large jar as full as we can with every flavor we can find. The first year we made it, I added the cinnamon oil too soon ended up with oil burns on my face. I was red for days. I've learned since then, and am much more patient when it comes to adding the oils.
We'll also make butter toffee, pulled molassass taffy and fudge. And this year, for our neighbors' Christmas gifts, Houdin and I will make peppermint cheesecakes, presented on platters found at the thrift store.
For tonight, though, I think we'll put on our jammies and settle in for a couple of our favorite Christmas movies.
Tidings!
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