Traditions

There are so many Christmas traditions around. Someone in relief society got up to bear her testimony and told about how they would set a place for the Savior at their Christmas eve table and after dinner they would think of gifts they could give him throughout the year (like goals) and put them on his plate. I love the idea of recommitting yourself to certain things in your life and giving that gift to Christ.

In our ward our annual relief society tradition is a wreath making activity. It was a lot of fun and each year we have more and more people coming...not sure what we'll do next year since the gym was mostly full!

My wreath...I know so creative right? And what better place to hang it then right next to the bathroom?

We finally started a tradition that we think is going to last. Every year we have high hopes and then get lazy and forget all about it. So this year Cannon came up with a fun one.

Since 6 ft Xmas trees across the street from us are literally $140 we just thought we wouldn't be getting one this year. But Cannon asked the guy one block down from the sneak thief and got ours for a much better price :) Each year we have a family night to decorate but this year we decided to make it our tradition to.....drum roll please....eat soup bowls, Christmas guacamole and pumpkin pie! Well we are pretty darn excited that we thought of one on our own. And if you know my family you know that all of our traditions are centered around food.

So we ate our food and then started the tree decorating. We had Sinatra going and even though L decides to start throwing all of the glass balls that we are putting the hooks in, oy, all was well and my visions of glass shards imbedded in little feet didn't come to pass. Phew.

We made our own star, out of cardboard and tinfoil...Cannon thinks we're white trash but then again I am from VA....

E had been so excited all night to put the star up, it was to be the highlight of the night. Too bad our little angel is a big wus..or is it woos? She was so nervous because the tree was too high. First Cannon tried to lift her but woah...too scary. So then he tries again and again....meanwhile I'm saying just lift her like a dancer, like an ice skater like a....a six year old who weighs only 50 lbs? Oh I mean she was too scared. (in his defense he was sick for 4 days)

Then Cannon gets the ladder from her loft bed that is just as high as the tree is but whatever works right? L and I both take a turn climbing it while Cannon holds it to show her that look its fun, after a while she finally gets on but no way its just too high for her taste. So then we show her how she can climb on the bookcase and stand up and be right there. Ain't gonna happen. Finally after another shot at the ladder she decides that she can do the bookcase. I get her up to the top but she won't stand up and actually starts freaking out when I am trying to show her how close the tree is....ahh! Then Cannon reminds me that this fun night could turn into a tradgedy. Truer words...never mind all the fun she'll end up in therapy over all of her horrible Christmas memories. FINALLY she decides that yes I can pull the tree to her and she will try and put the star on. So 30 min. later we have a star on the tree...put on by me.

The events as they happend:

E trying out the ladder

I'm trying to help E get up on top of the bookshelf...notice the look of what are you going to do to me?

Finally on top!

Pulling the tree while pulling her arm to meet it....

results in me putting on the star.

This is obviously pre star or there would be tear stained cheeks and...a star on top.

Also my Aunt Ceci and cousin Lory came last weekend and Ceci, who makes beautiful jewelry made this set for E with matching earrings that she didn't have on yet. You should have seen her this morning for church she was so cute and thought she was a princess with all the beautiful jewelry on. She sent Ceci a thank you note right away and enclosed some of her pearls because "you like pearls so much" Love it!

Here are the recipes (minus the soup because thats way too much work, we'll let whole foods do the hard work)

Pumpkin Pie (from the Weston A Price cookbook):



Start with any flaky pie crust you like, WAP suggests making theirs from pg 557, but I think its a whole lotta work when Whole Foods makes a good organic whole wheat frozen one for a couple of dollars.

1 15oz can pumpkin puree
3 eggs
3/4 C Rapadura
1 Tbs freshly grated ginger ( I use powdered)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp powdered cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
grated rind of 1 lemon
1 C piima cream or creme fraiche
2 Tbs brandy ( hiccup...optional)

Cream eggs with Rapadura. Gradually blend in other ingredients. Pour into pie shell and bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 min or until firm in the middle.

This is the BEST!!

Christmas Guacamole:

ingredients

2 ripe avocadoes, well mashed

½ tsp. coriander

2 TBS lemon juice (use half as much if using bottled)

1/4 tsp. cayenne (can add more if you like it hot...but we usually use about 1/8 b/c even 1/4 is pretty spicy)

Seeds of one ripe pomegranate

2-4 TBS finely chopped onion (Blech...I hate onions, but I chop them VERY fine and only put about 2 tbs and it adds a lot of flavor)

1 tsp. salt

directions:

combine all ingredients except pomegranate seeds. Once guacamole is a good consistency stir in pomegranate seeds.

Enjoy!

Sorry about the jumbo font...something is going on with blogger, anybody know why my html cannot be accepted??