Embracing Life

Love love love!!!

This was our first Christmas since my grandma passed away. One of the things we talked about after dinner was the location of Gigi's famous Taffy Apple Salad. I took a look through her recipe box and found it. She used to make it for every picnic we had. And she'd bring it in the same cracked glass bowl. There was rarely any left - it was that good. At our 4th of July picnic this past summer, there was a noticeable emptiness on the table since we were missing Gigi's Taffy Apple Salad. I'm torn about wanting to make it - because I know it won't be nearly as tasty without being mixed by her loving hands.

When I was a little girl, my mom ordered this book from Currents (apparently in 1985).  Every Christmas, she would bring it out and read it to my sister and I.  Now that I am a mother, I wanted to continue this tradition.  I found a used copy of the book on Amazon a few years back.  Last year, I pulled it out, but with the busyness of the holiday season, we only read a few stories. This year, as part of our Advent calendar, (actually it was day 2), "a new Christmas book" was the activity.   Since then, we've read a story every night.  The kids LOVE it. It makes my heart smile, especially since as I am reading the stories aloud, I am reminded of snuggling up with my mother *cough* 30 *cough years ago as she read the exact same stories.

When I was a little girl, my mom always had us put our shoes by the backdoor on December 5. The next morning, there was evidence that St. Nick had visited.  This year, he came in the night to our house.  According to the kids, he doesn't come in the house (Keira wasn't too keen on that), so instead he uses a magic key to open the window, throws the toys into the shoes, then shuts the window so burglars cannot get in. The kids were pleased at punch by what was in their shoes this year:  

Sunday's Advent calendar activity was to go see Santa. 4 out of the 5 of us had a great time seeing Santa.

Had some technical difficulties with posting last night, so here is yesterday's post. Keith surprised me last night with two of my favorite things: Movie Popcorn One of my favorite Christmas movies. Keith even sits through it year after year!

Our Advent calendar is ready to go! Connor moved the candy cane today and our activity was to make snowmen! The kids had a great time doing that while drinking hot chocolate and listening to Christmas music!