The mental snapshots of Christmastime~by Joanne Jaytanie

The holiday season is in full swing. It takes twice as long to drive through town, find a parking spot, check out of a store, and don’t even mention trying to mail a package. But I do love this time of the year. Yes, it’s a busy time, and no, I probably won’t get all the items on my to-do list checked off. Even so, I adore spending time with friends and family, a meal, a drink, even a phone call are the times to cherish. Sharing the wonder and joy of this magical season is something one should never outgrow. Keep the mental snapshots of every heartwarming moment close at hand. 

What better way than to share an excerpt from my story Christmas Reflections. I hope it spurs your Christmas hopes and dreams of this extraordinary time of the year. 

Christmas Reflections:

     Colton followed Juliet back to Forever Christmas. He offered to help unload her car. This was his first opportunity to see her shop and, he admitted to himself, he wanted to get a look at one of the old houses. They drove past the main house that buzzed with workers, and down one of the dirt roads. Evergreen trees framed the road and blanketed the landscape as far as he could see. 

     She turned off the dirt road into a clearing. In the middle of the clearing, sat a pristine two-story Victorian-style house, painted in shades of lavender and trimmed with chocolate brown. A wraparound porch surrounded the house. There was a large parking area to the side of the house and at the front of the lot, a large silver and purple sign read Christmas Reflections. Other arrow signs in the same color scheme pointed toward the back of the house. Colton got out of his car and helped Juliet unload.

     “Thank you, again. You really didn’t need to do this. Lunch more than made up for running me over.” She grinned at him.

     “My pleasure. I’m done for the day, and this gives me the opportunity to see more of your farm. The trees are really impressive from the road. On foot, you don’t get the same appreciation for the massiveness of the area.”

     An oversized cobblestone walkway picked up at the edge of the lot and led to the back of the house. He turned the corner and stopped, stunned by the view. The walkway bloomed into a full patio that encompassed the entire length of the building. The door was painted a deep purple, and the top half featured a beautiful window made of clear leaded-glass. Above the door, a large, elegantly-carved silver and purple sign read Christmas Reflections. Flanking the door, the bay windows burst with color, adorned with panes of stained glass in all different colors and patterns. 

     “You did a marvelous job, Juliet. I know a dozen people who would love to hire you, should the need ever arise.” A feeling of guilt stabbed him. “How long have you done glass work?”

     “Most of my adult life,” she said.

     “I find the name of your shop intriguing. Mind if I ask you how you decided on it?”

     “It’s based on my life. As we discussed over lunch, I left for bigger and better things, or so I thought. Upon reflection, I realized everything I needed to make me happy, I’d left behind.”

     When they entered the shop, Colton thought he couldn’t be any more amazed, yet he felt as though he’d left the world behind and entered a magical land. Colors flashed and sparkled around him, rainbows danced on the shop walls. There were Christmas ornaments made from dozens of tiny pieces of glass, jewelry boxes, and glass table lamps displayed on the cherry shelves. Oversized A-frame cherry wood stands held additional framed glass windows, stunning angels with milky white wings, and holly wreaths. The Christmas tree in the corner shimmered with glass holly, Santas, and snowmen. He was drawn to one of the glass table lamps.

     “This is all amazing, your work is breathtaking. I love this desk lamp” he said.

 The angel and blue box were made by me.

Wishing you and yours a wondrous Christmas season.

  

To learn more about Joanne and read her past blog posts click here.

Until next time...

Joanne

The Sugarplum Table ~ by Kristine Raymond

I have boatloads of favorite memories from my childhood and most of them revolve around food.  Mom was a stay-at-home mom who embraced, with open arms, her profession as homemaker.  Every meal was homemade; every dessert baked in her own kitchen, not store-bought.  (I remember trading freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies for my classmates' Chips Ahoy.  But that's a different story.)

Mom was, and is, a great cook.  I swear, every time I call her to chat, she's in the kitchen.  So, I have many stories that I could tell that relate to some feast or another, or a cooking mishap, but what I'd like to share today, in the spirit of the season, is a most-cherished memory that began each year on December first.

Copyright ©Depositphotos

Though she excelled at cooking, baking was Mom's passion.  From birthday and wedding cakes, to pies and creme puffs and strudel, the woman is a master with flour, sugar, butter, and eggs.  It was those ingredients, among others, that lined the counter after the dinner dishes were washed and put away.  With Christmas music playing merrily in the background, Mom would open her well-worn copy of the Betty Crocker cookbook and begin measuring.

Each night, from the first day of the month until a few days before Christmas, Mom would bake a different variety of cookie.  Sometimes she had help in the form of little hands that made more of a mess than any sort of actual baking but she was patient as she taught my sisters and me how to measure and mix and roll out dough to just the right thickness.  And on the nights she made sugar or gingerbread cookies, we had the extra excitement of decorating them.  

With weeks to go before Christmas, the only way for the cookies to stay fresh was to freeze them.  She'd line shirt gift boxes with tinfoil and waxed paper and layer the treats gently until they reached the top.  Then she'd lower the lid, taping the boxes shut - to discourage any early sampling - and store them in the huge chest freezer we kept in the basement.   Hmmm...looking back, I guess that was also to discourage us from getting into the cookies.  Nicely played, Mom.  Nicely played.

Copyright ©Depositphotos

So, night after night, Mom labored in the hot kitchen while carols played and the aroma of freshly-baked cookies filled the house until, finally, it was Christmas Eve.  Now, there was no way she was going to open those boxes and let us kids stick our grubby hands in.  Oh, no.  Her hard work deserved the proper presentation and that's when the fun started.

At six pm on the dot - I know this because, as the youngest of my siblings, I was tasked with watching the clock, usually beginning at 4 pm...lol - Mom would unveil the Sugarplum Table.  What, for the other fifty-one weeks out of the year, was merely a brown, wooden coffee table, it had been transformed into a confectionery buffet.   Plates piled high with iced and decorated sugar cookies, gingerbread men, thumbprint cookies, peanut butter 'Kiss' cookies, chocolate chip cookies, meringue cookies, Spritz cookies, and my absolute favorite - bon bon cookies. For as many times as I used the word 'cookies' in the previous sentence, there at least twice that many varieties laid out in front of four, eager young children.  After all, we'd waited a month for this moment.  Now our patience was to be rewarded.  Well, sort of.

There was no way Mom was going to allow us to gorge ourselves, not to mention this 'feast' had to last until New Year's, so we were each permitted to choose one cookie - two, if we pleaded hard enough - to mark the beginning of our Christmas festivities.  As our eyes moved from plate to plate, mouths watering, we weighed our options, debating, reasoning, making our choice, then changing our minds.  

Chocolate chip cookies are yummy, but Mom makes those all of the time.  No reason to start off with one of those.  Oooh...I decorated that gingerbread man.  Maybe I should eat him first.  Nah, he's too cute.

Spritz cookies!  I wait all year for those.  But wait!  How about a chewy coconut meringue cookie?  Or a thumbprint cookie?  I know, a bon bon!

Copyright ©Depositphotos

Copyright ©Depositphotos

Copyright ©Depositphotos

Choice made, that first bite was heavenly.  The second bite wasn't too shabby, either.  And the best part?  The same spread awaited us every day for a solid week.  Our cookie limit was also lifted, though we knew better than to over-indulge.  No one wants a stomachache during Christmas vacation.





There are a lot of family traditions that I wanted to pass down if I'd had kids, and the Sugarplum Table was at the top of the list.  As it turned out, life had other plans for me but, today, I'm passing it on to you.  Maybe you already incorporate something similar into your holiday traditions or maybe it's the first you've ever heard of such a thing.  Either way, remember to always make time to make memories.  They're sweeter than any treat on the Sugarplum Table.

Oh, and by the way, I'm the proud owner of that Betty Crocker cookbook.  The cover is falling off and there are smudges on the pages but the recipes - and my love for them - are the same as they were back in that kitchen all those Decembers while I was growing up.

Copyright © Kristine Raymond

Happy Christmas Eve ~ by Darlene Kuncytes #originalitybydesign

photo: Pixababy

Happy Christmas Eve everyone! And happy holidays!

For my blog post this month, I decided to write a bit about traditions. About, celebrating the holidays and how we need to hold on to the feeling this season brings, and not just until the credit card bills start to flood in.

We need to remember at this time of year, and with all the craziness going on around us in the world today, what matters most.

It doesn’t really matter what holiday someone celebrates. What matters is that feeling it brings to our hearts. That feeling we sometimes lose as we grow older. That feeling that we really need to find again and hold on to for dear life. Because, when it’s all said and done, those memories are the only things that truly last.

Remember as a child, practically bursting with uncontained excitement?

Close your eyes, and remember. It was everything.

The lights, the decorations, the hustle and bustle, but in a really great way. It was that incredible feeling hanging in the air wherever you went.

It was electric. 

Photo: Pexels free

It was something I wish I could bottle and safely squirrel away on a shelf somewhere, so I could pull it out when needed. It’s a feeling I wish we could feel every day for the rest of our lives.

But…we have to grow up. We have responsibilities, and we tend to lose that particular feeling. If we're lucky, we still get excited by the amazing little things in life, but the butterflies in our tummies at the thought of what Christmas day would bring is for the unbiased wonder of youth.

Think back to the night before the celebrated holiday. You no doubt were so excited you could barely sleep. You were anticipating what the morning would bring as you nervously tried to will yourself to sleep.

This is what I’m talking about. It was amazing!

I love traditions. I love hearing what others do every year. I love creating new traditions that perhaps newer family members will carry on for generations to come. I love remembering the times we shared with those who are no longer with us.

The Christmas after we lost my father was one everyone in my family knew was going to be really hard to get happy about. We knew there would be an enormous void.

My father LOVED the holidays. Every year, even a few in sub-zero temperatures, he was outside hanging lights, and he would always come in from decorating and wistfully say that he knew no one would do it after he was gone.

That first Christmas after we lost him, and every year since - and he has been gone 17 years now, I decorate the outside of my house no matter what.

I do it for him. I do it for me. And, I do it for my neighbor across the street who tells me every year how much she enjoys sitting in her living room at night, and looking out to see my lights... That it makes her heart so happy.

Photo: pinterest

These are the little things. The little pleasures we can still achieve as grown-ups.

I wanted to keep this short. I want everyone to relax, and enjoy their evening. No matter what you do.

In closing, I want to say whether you are waiting up for Santa tonight, or you celebrate by lighting a Menorah, or whatever you do this time of year - do it with love in your heart. Do your very best to hold on to this amazing feeling for as long as you can.

The world can be a pretty scary place for us adults, but it doesn’t always have to be. Let’s do our best to accept and love each other. To do something for someone who may be alone. To keep this feeling alive all year round.

Thank you all for allowing me into your lives.

Dar