All Is Calm, All Is Bright - Guest Post from Snowy Colorado

As I've always said, at least once in a lifetime it's a beautiful thing to experience a Northern Hemisphere Christmas. I like to have a friend guest post here every December, which is why I am so excited to introduce you to my American friend Lisa from Things Here Lately. Lisa is a gifted writer and photographer, and it is a privilege for me to have her guest post on my blog today about celebrating Christmas in the winter. She lives with her family in the spectacularly gorgeous State of Colorado and I kid you not it will add some happy into your busy pre-Christmas day to pop over and get to know Lisa and see more of her amazing photography. Thank you Lisa for bringing some of your winter beauty Down-Under!

All Is Calm, All Is Bright

"Snow/ To see a mountain covered with a quilt of snow." - Irving Berlin, "Snow" from White Christmas

Snow. The very first thing I thought of when Rachel kindly asked me if I would share with her my family's Northern Hemisphere Christmas experiences. Snow. I woke up to 3 more inches of the white, fluffy, powdery stuff this morning.

It is still a bit of a surprise to me. This is only my second ever White Christmas, having moved with my husband and our three kids from the coastal climate of Houston, Texas, to the mountain climate of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, a year and a half ago. I am truly in awe of it. It is not uncommon to find me standing at the window, staring outside at the fairy world that is a Rocky Mountain winter. I love it.

But some things stay the same. Seasonal traditions that we have enjoyed together as long as we have been "us". There is a lot of baking. Sweet Spiced Pecans that are packaged up and shipped to my husband's work colleagues. Scottish Butter Shortbread to eat with an afternoon cup of tea, all sprinkled with white sparkly sugar to look like it is covered in, yes, snow. Christmas-Eve-Only cookies called Cocoa Snowflakes. (Because the only things better than dark chocolate and snowflakes are dark chocolate snowflakes!)

There is the listening to Christmas music all day (but only after Thanksgiving). I have a different favorite Christmas song every year, it seems. Last year it was "A Marshmallow World". Ironically enough, this year it is "Mele Kalikimaka".

There are the Christmas movies in the evenings after dinner. Popcorn popping. Fireplace burning. Winter stitching. Bundled up together on the couch under a Christmas quilt.

There is my sewing room with the door closed. No kids allowed! It has magically turned into Santa's Workshop full of gifts and stocking stuffers and candies and wrapping paper and ribbons. Amazingly, the kids stay away. They don't want to ruin their surprises. They have more self-control than I ever did.

With the addition of snow has come the addition of a new Christmas tradition. If you ask my husband what that is, he would tell you it is the regular shoveling of inches and inches of snow from the driveway and deck, or worrying about the feet and feet of snow that melt into thick ice dams on the eaves of the roof. (I have threatened to called him "Scrooge".) No, that new tradition is Snow Days! Spend ten minutes putting layers of clothes and snow boots on and go outside to play in a winter wonderland. Build a snowman. Throw snowballs. Make a snow fort to guard the cabin. Sled. Make a snow angel. Follow the tracks left in the snow by deer or chipmunks or foxes. (Sometimes we are lucky enough to spot one.) Sooner or later Mom comes outside with a platter of warm crepes to eat, the outside play is concluded, the kids come inside and spend ten minutes taking off their snow boots and peeling off layers of clothes. Hot cocoa all around while sitting by the hearth. Contented sighs everywhere. I am reminded to slow down and savor every single moment. I am reminded to remember to breathe.

I remember meeting one of our new neighbors for the first time when we first arrived. (Another transplant from Texas.) "Just wait 'til Christmas...it is magical!" she said. And she was right. Even though there is the excitement of the season, the frenzied wrapping of gifts, the busyness of cooking and baking, there is an underlying calm to it all. A season of joy. The celebration of Advent. The promise of His Coming. The days are ended with an Advent reading, and I feel hopeful. In the midst of the achings of our hurting world and the sufferings of our broken souls, there is Hope. "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows:.."

Of course, there is little sleeping done in the kids' rooms on the night of Christmas Eve. The lights are out and they are all tucked in their beds, but the visions of Sugarplums are too vivid and exciting to allow for much rest. I can see Bing Crosby sitting in the dining car of a train headed for Vermont with the hopes of a White Christmas in my mind.

"I'd love to stay up with you/ But I recommend a little shut-eye/ Go to sleep and dream of...snow. SNOW."

Bless the Creators of Pinterest

It's that time of year again. My kids finish school on Friday - which is usually a week earlier than most schools in our area.

I had so much fun doing the gifts last year, and I wanted to have fun doing them this year too, but we've been under quite a bit of time pressures with one thing and another, so I haven't been able to spend quite as much time on them as I would have liked.

However, let me just say here, God Bless the Creators of Pinterest!

I couldn't have done it this year without you.

So, if you're under a time restraint, but you still want to do something special for those amazing people that pour so much time and energy into your kids, I thought I would share what I have done this year.
As you know, I now have 4 children at school, so the gifts rack up at the end of the year!

First up, my favourite gift to make this year.....

Spa in a Jar.

This is for Meredith's form teacher, Miss B. How lucky were we to get her this year. She is amazing! We love her, and she navigates the tweenie hormone rushes and social cliques like a pro.

Spa in a Jar - basically a mason jar filled with hand lotion, sugar scrubs, nail files/oranges/pedicure sponge/pumice and even a little bit of candy.

We also made her this bookmark. Meredith came up with the words. You can make your own on Wordle.

Teddy has also had an fantastic teacher this year. Miss E has been a God-send for him. Just a newish and young teacher she knows her job well and has been wonderful in working with the learning challenges that Teddy faces - keeping him on track and striving to catch up to his peers. And as she is moving up to the next year to teach, we just found out that he gets to have her next year also, which was the best news this week.

We found this most perfect cup for Miss E, and we filled it with chocolate.

Hugh who is in High School has so many teachers for all his different subjects, so I asked him to pick out a couple of his favourites and asked him what he'd like to get them.

Chocolate. That was his choice, so I obliged. He has two teachers who he's really enjoyed this year. Both ladies, so I hope they like the strawberry and cream Lindors.

Don't you love the labels I found online to wrap around the gift. You can find them here.

And Miss A has completed her first year at school, with Miss M. I am so looking forward to her going into Year 2 - it's one of my favourite years at school.

For Miss M we decided to do a cookie in a jar. This is always a popular gift, and looks pretty.

The recipe comes from here.

In the next two days we will say goodbye to the teachers from 2014. The children have had another wonderful year at their school, and we're looking forward to seeing what next year holds for them.

Do you do teacher gifts? And what are you giving this years?

A Summer Christmas Menu

Merry Christmas!
It's Boxing Day here in New Zealand, and so nice to have a leisurely morning for the first time in weeks.
Boxing Day (for those who don't know) is a national holiday here in New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries (originating from England) and is a day when we give our servants gifts - as a token of appreciation for running around after us on Christmas Day and all the other days of the year.

Ahhh. Sigh.

It's so hard to find good help these days.

I had to do all the cooking and Christmas preparation myself yesterday.

In our family we have a tradition of waffles for brunch on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

My sister gave me a waffle maker as a gift when I returned to New Zealand from the USA way back in the early 90's. Waffles were not a common menu item in New Zealand back then, being more American than anything else, but they have grown quickly in popularity, and for a cooked breakfast is a real treat and a small way of incorporating my love of America into my life.

It's a lovely way of using the beautiful fresh fruit that's around at this time of the year. Strawberries and raspberries and blueberries and peaches and bananas and pineapple. All topped off with fresh cream and cinnamon and Maple Syrup. It's very handy having a sister living in Canada, because we often get blessed with real maple syrup, although I did find some 'Made in Canada' syrup in our grocery store this week.

 

My recipe for light and fluffy waffles is here.

We ate our waffles when we came home from church, the children having already opened their stockings on waking - which was way too early!

When we finished our waffles and the clean up, we enjoyed sitting around the Christmas tree and opening all the presents at our leisure, but with four children all eager to find out what was in those wrapped-up surprises, we were all done by 1pm, which left lots of time for Dad and big brother to retreat to the garage to put together the bikes and the Go-Kart and the remote-control cars, while I busied myself with preparations for the evening meal. The great Christmas celebration with the best food we can buy and all the lovely things we like to eat.

For many years we celebrated with a roast turkey, but last year we decided to try the Baked Ham everyone was raving over,  and it was such a success, and hugely popular with adults and children that we are fixed on that now as our traditional Christmas dinner. Baked Ham is out of this world delicious, and the bonus is that we can take the leftover cold ham away on holiday with us to the beach.

For the glaze on the baked ham, I used the recipe Spiced Cranberry and Maple Glaze from Chelsea Winter, who is fast becoming my favourite celebrity chef (she won NZ's Master Chef last year). This glaze was so good, I even used the leftovers as a sauce for the table while we ate. 

We ate new boiled potatoes cooked with mint and liberally bathed in melted butter, with a fresh lettuce salad. I tried to keep it simple as my children are not big eaters, and there is always so much food around on Christmas Day.

 

Here is Miss A singing her special grace that she learned at kindy - 'Hallelu…..la"! at the top of her voice.

For dessert, I intended to make three things: the Lees family Pavlova, Blueberry Tart and Lemon Curd Profiteroles, but the grocery store had run out of an ingredient I needed for the profiteroles, so in the end I just made two things. Normally, I make Christmas Icecream, which is also something I bought back from America and adapted to use here, long before it became popular when Jo Seagar brought out her recipe, but this year I decided not to use it.

The Lees family Pavlova involves cinnamon and chocolate, and the recipe was given to me as a wedding present. Seriously it is that good!

I made a Blueberry Tart which looks amazing, and the creamy lemony filling is incredible, but there was too much pastry for my liking, so I think I would have to adapt it to make it again, but it was still enjoyed by everyone.

By the way, I love using RED serving plates. The one that the Blueberry tart is on was given to me by my childhood friend Naomi. It's my favourite.

I hope you all have enjoyed good food and company this Christmas.