what i want for christmas
Dec. 16th, 2011 06:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miss_swampWe're not going to have any relatives in town for Christmas this year. My parents and brother came last year, but they've traveled several years in a row and I can't blame them for wanting to stay home. My parents are coming on the 27th and staying over the new year and they're even going to help James and me have a little kid-free getaway. I'm thrilled that they go to such lengths to know their grandchildren despite the 2,000-mile distance.
Relative-free Christmas should be liberating, right? No rules, no demands, no hosting. But all I can think is that it's just going to be like any other day, but with a lot more Stuff. We'll still have naps to deal with, we'll still have boys pushing the limits on when they're allowed to get up in the morning. Plus presents, which may be fun but hardly relaxing.
Most of all, though, I'm going to want to make a nice Christmas dinner. I love cooking, and holidays are a good excuse to try new recipes and ideas. We didn't host Thanksgiving (American or Canadian) this year, so I'm overdue for a cooking event. However, the kids will make it hard to spend too much time on anything elaborate. And if I do manage to make something awesome (probably by allowing hours and hours of screen time), the boys will say, "Ew, gross, can we have pizza?"
The more I think about it, though, what I want most for Christmas is to give the kids some joy and create some family traditions and memories. So far the best vaguely-Christmasy activity we've done was making peanut butter kiss cookies. The boys unwrapped the Hershey's Hugs, Ellen and I mixed the other ingredients, we all scooped out the dough and placed the candies after baking. It was simple enough that everyone could actually help, and the results were universally enjoyed.
So how do I use similar ideas for the rest of our Christmas meals and activities? Can I decide that for this year, a Santa-shaped pizza (and a nice bottle of hard cider) is enough of a cooking event? Or make some fancy casserole forthe adults myself and Ellen that can be ready ahead of time and just popped into the oven? Gooey GF cinnamon rolls for breakfast will put everyone on a sugar high that might give me a Toy Story-assisted break in the afternoon.
Then back to roasted salmon in a couple of years.
Relative-free Christmas should be liberating, right? No rules, no demands, no hosting. But all I can think is that it's just going to be like any other day, but with a lot more Stuff. We'll still have naps to deal with, we'll still have boys pushing the limits on when they're allowed to get up in the morning. Plus presents, which may be fun but hardly relaxing.
Most of all, though, I'm going to want to make a nice Christmas dinner. I love cooking, and holidays are a good excuse to try new recipes and ideas. We didn't host Thanksgiving (American or Canadian) this year, so I'm overdue for a cooking event. However, the kids will make it hard to spend too much time on anything elaborate. And if I do manage to make something awesome (probably by allowing hours and hours of screen time), the boys will say, "Ew, gross, can we have pizza?"
The more I think about it, though, what I want most for Christmas is to give the kids some joy and create some family traditions and memories. So far the best vaguely-Christmasy activity we've done was making peanut butter kiss cookies. The boys unwrapped the Hershey's Hugs, Ellen and I mixed the other ingredients, we all scooped out the dough and placed the candies after baking. It was simple enough that everyone could actually help, and the results were universally enjoyed.
So how do I use similar ideas for the rest of our Christmas meals and activities? Can I decide that for this year, a Santa-shaped pizza (and a nice bottle of hard cider) is enough of a cooking event? Or make some fancy casserole for
Then back to roasted salmon in a couple of years.
