It’s been official since a few days after Thanksgiving – the Christmas Season. The decorations (20+ boxes) came down from the attic. The tree went up. The lights went on. The decorations (red and silver) spread themselves all over the house – on the tree, across the top of bookcases, over my desk, on the dining room table, everywhere that empty space can be used to spread Christmas cheer.
But now it’s really official. I just finished rolling out the cookie dough and my amazing daughters, Emma and Abby, cut out gingerbread people, hearts, stars, trees, ornaments, and this year a new addition: butterflies. They’ll go in the oven in about 15 minutes. We have to wait because the other official marker of the holidays, Chex Mix is in there – taking up space and 250 degrees of heat for an hour.
While the Chex Mix is cooling on newspaper, the cookies will be in the oven. I’ll be mixing powdered sugar, butter, and water together for icing – along with multiple food colorings: red, green, blue, purple, orange, and maybe a little white for good measure. The sprinkles and other small sweet items will come down from the top shelf and find themselves stuck to frosting, fingers, and my kitchen floor. We’ll much on the Chex Mix while we commend each others’ icing and artistic expertise. And by the time we’re done, we’ll be glad we are (except for the cleaning).
If it’s not too late, we may even get to another official marker of the season: watching all three of the Santa Clause movies. We ought to be ale to make it through one of them before visions of sugarplums dance.
I’ll admit it: I’m a sucker for these kind of traditions…even when they really translate into more work for me (i.e. cleaning). The girls are now the ones who bring them up, who insist that they take place, who make them happen. And that’s a good thing. My hopes for their experience of this season have taken root: they get it, they know the drill, they love the hoopla and silliness and massive donning of all-things-shiny and bright.
But more, they know that ritual and routine are what create and enrich our memories of family, of home, of life and love together.
It’s all good – these traditions. They matter.
Off to munch and frost and sprinkle. And later, to clean. In all: to love.
What an enormous magnifier is tradition! How a thing grows in the human memory and in the human imagination, when love, worship, and all that lies in the human heart, is there to encourage it.
(Thomas Carlyle)
In many ways, I think that tradition, at least in part, is what builds and strengthens our faith. Not completely, of course; I can argue and advocate for many other aspects of such, but it’s definitely in the (Chex) mix. This means that Christmas Cookies and yes, even the Chex Mix build and strengthen our faith. How great is that?
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this is lovely!
am smiling ear to ear thinking of a messy, warm kitchen full of delicious food and happy hearts.
you cool chex mix on newspaper???? good to know. good post, reminding us that it’s the little things that we’ll carry with us. (well, that and the pounds from the cookies and chex mix.)
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