Please Have Snow...And Mistletoe

I'm grateful that Tim and I  were able to spend a few days together with our parents before Christmas. We felt the warmth of hugs that come from those who love us, ate entirely too much food, and watched the children bathe in all the affection that comes from Nana and Papa and Mamaw and Papaw.  

But leaving my parents' house on Christmas Eve morning is tough.  Grateful that I might be for the time we've had, it always stings that just as everyone else is gathering together with their families, we always have to leave our families in West Virginia and head home. Nonetheless, Christmas Eve service in North Carolina cometh, and we must go. 

Lest I feel sorry for myself for having to leave the parents whom I love on Christmas Eve, I will remember Someone else who...during the very first Christmas season...left the Heavenly Parent whom He loved.

I bet that was tough, too.

And perhaps that difficult good-bye and sad drive back to North Carolina should remind me of why we even have Christmas at all: to celebrate the birth of the One who would forfeit the comforts and pleasures of Heaven so He could sacrifice himself for me...a sinner...that I might be able to enjoy the comforts and pleasures of Heaven someday, too.

Thanks to all our parents for accomodating us again this year in our pre-Christmas trip.  A big thanks to Mom and Dad and my brothers for moving your family Christmas celebration up to December 23rd... just so you could celebrate it with Tim and me and the kids. 

I wish I could upload the video of Dad reading Charlie Brown to Anna.  

(Unfortunately, the file is too big.)  

That will certainly be a treasured memory...

There has been only one Christmas -- the rest are anniversaries.

--W.J. Cameron

-Kara

Christmas Morning

 

Well, the kids apparently made it to the Nice List once again.  They awoke at 6:30, so we followed our tradition of reading the Christmas story from the New Testament, and then....

Below, the kids are unwrapping their newest set of Adventures in Odyssey Cd's.  They love AIO, and I love that they love it.

 A new indoor/outdoor basketball for the boys to share.  

Because they have worn-out their old ones this year!

John - my shark lover - wanted new house slippers. 

 So Shark Week slippers were a perfect gift!

Below, Anna would receive a new silver charm for her charm bracelet that she got last Christmas.  This year's charm was a teddy bear.  I received a charm and charm bracelet from my grandmother when I was a little girl, and I still wear it today.

 This was the first year that the kids were allowed to spend their own money on gifts.  Wanting to make sure they didn't overspend, Tim set the $5 rule:  every gift the children bought - whether for a sibling or a parent - could cost no more than $5.  At first, I was dubious.  But WOW!  You wouldn't believe how each child could spread $5!!!   Sometimes they bought favorite types of food, such as $.99  2-liters or favorite packages of cookies.  They also discovered that if you use a coupon, you could get a gift worth much more than the $5 limit (which is what John did below...using a 40% off coupon to buy his brother an art set at Hobby Lobby).  But perhaps most creative of all was Christopher, who made his dad and me a set of coupons for such treats as making our bed, bringing us breakfast in bed, and offering to clean our car inside and buying us a car wash for the outside...which costs about $5.  I'm so proud of my creative kids!

One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly. ~Andy Rooney

--Kara

Christmas Eve Through the Years

In 2008, I started a tradition of taking a picture of the kids in front of their stockings right before they go to bed.  It was Christopher's idea to hold our countdown-to-Christmas calendar (which usually makes it into the picture) to mark that it's Christmas Eve.

2008:

(Anna was just a baby, and she was already asleep by the time I took the picture)

2009:

2010:

2011:

2012:

 2013:

2014:

Nat King Cole was certainly correct: tiny tots find it hard to sleep on Christmas Eve, and they find it even harder to stand still and pose for a picture.  Lest you think it's easy for a paparazzi mom like me to get a good picture of her fidgety kids on Christmas Eve... 

In retrospect, the out-takes might be the ones that make me smile the most!

-Kara

A Gift

A gift from Christopher, John, and Anna

for the grandparents they love

but with whom they cannot be together on Christmas Day.

Or for anyone else who wants to watch. :)

Enjoy!

--Kara

(the mom and the piano teacher)

So Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding

This month in homeschool, the kids and I have been reading Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol together.  To really enhance our study of 19th Century London, we made a batch of figgy pudding and ate it while watching the 1984 George C. Scott rendition of the movie.  FYI:  In my opinion as a 19th Century English Lit junkie, the George C. Scott is hands down the absolute best movie rendition of the novel that has ever been made.  Tim disagrees, believing that the 1999 Patrick Stewart version rules the day.  (Personally, I think Tim - a big fan of Star Trek - just likes hearing Jean-Luc Picard say, "Bah, Humbug!")

So here's how we made Figgy Pudding.
(Recipe courtesy of FoodNetwork.com)

Pudding Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups chopped dried pitted dates
1/2 cup chopped dried figs
2 cups water
1 teaspoon baking soda
7 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups self-rising flour
2 1/2 ounces dark chocolate, grated
spray or butter for coating ramekins

Sauce:
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups heavy cream
14 Tablespoons butter (no, that is not a misprint)
fresh figs for garnish
vanilla or ice cream, optional

 Preheat the oven to 350.  Add the dried dates and figs and water to a medium saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat.  Remove pan from the heat and stir in the baking soda.  Let cool for about 5 minutes, then add to a blender and puree.

Using a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl.  Add the eggs and beat well.  Fold in the flour, the pureed date mixture and the chocolate.

 Put the mixture int 4 (we actually used 5) buttered, 1 cup individual ramekins, filling halfway or slightly under.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Prepare the sauce by stirring the sugar, cream and butter in a medium saucepan over low heat.  Simmer until the sugar dissolves.  Raise the heat and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove the ramekins from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes.  Pudding may be served in the ramekin or unmolded onto a small serving plate.  Pour the sauce into the center of each pudding.  Top with fresh figs and vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.  Serve warm.

For those who have never had a traditional English pudding, you'll note that this is not a "pudding" in our American sense of the word:  it's a cake.  And it is GOOD.  If you like raisins, you'll like figgy pudding.  Perhaps this might just become a family tradition of ours each year.  But then again, perhaps anything tastes good when it's topped with a sauce made of brown sugar, butter, and heavy cream and served warm!

--Kara

Gifts from Afar

 I admit it.

In years past, I have unquestionably been a person who has taken for granted the wonderful friends whom God has given our family.  Those special individuals who provide encouragement to our hearts and feed our souls with laughter and hospitality and care.  Especially when it comes to our children.  But as of late, I have learned to not take those friends for granted.  

This week - perhaps now when we needed a little more Christmas joy than ever - two special boxes were delivered to our home which gently reminded our family how special and rare and wonderful our friends are to us.  We were reassured that true friends are not designated by distance nor terminated over time.

The first package.  Our dear friends Tim and Diana once again "surprised" us (I never cease to be surprised that they continue to show such generosity and thoughtfulness each year) by sending a homemade gingerbread house kit for us to assemble.  The kids love following our tradition of snuggling-up in warmest pajamas and spending an evening glueing and constructing our family gingerbread house.  And here she is...

 The Barnette Family Gingerbread House 2014!!!!

Contrary to when they were little, the kids are now old enough to actually plan how the house would look the best and work strategically to follow a design. Christopher meticulously faced all the M's in the same direction.  John was Mr. Lifesaver, and Anna was Miss Gumdrop.  Tim was the commander of all things icing.  And my favorite part had to be the white sanding sugar, which looks exactly like glittery, fresh-fallen snow when sprinkled over everything at the end.

I'm always tempted to cover the whole house with the colorful candies.  But to be honest, the gingerbread that Diana makes is so beautiful and perfect that I can't bear to cover it up!  So we usually cover the top and roof and bottom with candy and leave the windows and chimney and doors.  Hands-down, though, the best part of having a fresh-baked gingerbread house HAS to be the smell.  The aroma is so scrumptous that we're keeping the house as the centerpiece for our dining room table throughout the New Year.

I always get tickled looking at our gingerbread-house-building pictures, because everyone looks so intense!  When it comes to gingerbread construction, we Barnettes are very serious about our fun.  Ha.

And perhaps because we live in the South, where snow rarely falls, we felt compelled to take all the leftover icing and coat the ground and build snowmen.  No doubt about it.  We're dreaming of a white Christmas.

THANK YOU TIM AND DIANA!!!!

And the second delivery was a care package from our friends Mike and Kathy in Cincinnati.  Mike and Kathy faithfully served as our kids' 'surrogate grandparents' during the years Tim pastored in Ohio, and we still miss them.  "We" includes our dog Prospect, whom Mike and Kathy used to dogsit. When the box arrived, Prospect uncharacteristically sniffed and sniffed it with her beagle super-sense of smell. Tim is quite certain that Prospect was smelling Mike and Kathy's scent on the box, a scent she remembers even after 18 months of being away from them.  Heartwarming, huh?

Somehow, "Grandpa Mike" and "Grandma Kaffy" managed to include a few gifts for the kids that had made it onto the kids' Christmas lists but aren't expected to make it onto Santa's sleigh.  Such a delightful surprise for Christopher, John, and Anna!

Anna was thrilled with her Stuffeez, and she vows to never reveal to her brothers the location of its "7 magical hidden pockets."  Just about everything on Anna's Christmas list year has been at one point been featured in a TV commercial.
Anna Jean is the "As Seen on TV" Queen.  :D

I was delighted that Christopher received the box set of Despicable Me movies, because those are my new favorite movies.  I love those little minions!  And I love Mike and Kathy, who have neither forgotten our family nor ceased in their generosity and thoughtfulness toward our kids.

THANK YOU MIKE AND KATHY!!!

And that is how Christmas joy was delivered to our house this week. 

Twice. 

I must kindly disagree with the Grinch.  Just this once. 

Perhaps...sometimes... Christmas does come with tags.

Perhaps...sometimes... Christmas does come in packages, boxes and bags.

--Kara

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,

All losses are restored and sorrows end.

-William Shakespeare