Christmas 2014

We have developed a weird Christmas Eve Tradition. We go out for Chinese Food.  It started about 10 years ago. As you know, my husband is a pastor.  Our church used to hold two Christmas Eve Services as so many people came, they didn't all fit in the building at the same time. Since our home is nearly 1/2 hour from the church, it was not feasible to go home for dinner between the two services. We resolved that problem by going just a few blocks down the street to a Chinese Buffet.

Things have changed. We are now in a big building and can all attend one Christmas Eve Service together. Still, the Chinese Dinner Tradition continues.

We go to a nicer place where there are plenty of vegan options for our vegan family members.

We feel all fancy and nearly have the place to ourselves as we go pretty early.

We aren't always all there but those of us in town gather for that bit of family time to kick off Christmas.

From there we go on to church. I love Christmas Eve! I and our son-in-law, Eric, are on the Worship Team and we begin singing about half an hour before the service. I love it! I love the whole service. Often there are people back in town that we've not seen for awhile.  Many of the little kids are dressed up in their finest and they look like sweet angels. It always just makes me feel so warm and happy. I am always a bit disappointed when it concludes.

When I get home Christmas Eve, I put together cinnamon rolls for the next day (I will do a separate post and give away all my cinnamon roll secrets). After that, there are always some last minute things to do before falling into bed.

When I was a kid, we often were at my grandparents house for Christmas.  My Mom had 4 sisters and a little brother and usually at least 4 families were staying there at my grandparents. I usually got to be one of the kids that got to sleep in the living room. I really loved sleeping in Grandma's living room. That way, I was sure to be a part of any of the action!

Early Christmas morning my brother and I would each go into one of the bathrooms and start flushing. For some reason, we were allowed to be obnoxious on Christmas morning. Grandma and Grandpa's plumbing was really noisy so the flushing produced some pretty good results in that everyone started waking up. That, of course, was our goal. Sometimes we had everyone up by 5:00 or so!

My last year staying there for Christmas Eve I think I was 19. My brother wasn't there but by then there were a lot of younger, much younger, cousins.  I don't know what came over me but I got them all in on my evil plot. I had a nice little talk with them before bedtime. I was much too cool for the toilet-flushing by then. I had bells! Yep, I walked around shaking little bells and that was their cue to wake up their parents (the kids were sleeping on the floor in their parent's rooms). Why the relatives let me get away with that, I'll never know. I do know that there were a lot of photos of sleepy adults at my grandparents house on Christmas mornings.

Anyway, we no longer open presents quite that early. In fact, we let Sam sleep in and wait until our daughter and her family come by.  My apologies to my aunts and uncles.

 Cordelia got a new doll. Little girls and dolls... too precious.

Eric and Elise

You really should bop on over to our daughter's blog for a second to read about the gifts the little girls gave to us.  It is pretty adorable.  I hope you went and read her post as it will make this picture make more sense.

This is our Advent Wreath. Each candle is lit for meals during the four week prior to Christmas. I added that center candle as our "Christ Candle". It was a gift from some sweet friends at church and I just thought it looked right to have it in the center of our wreath this year.

The girls have been wanting dance classes and we also got them the clothes to wear. Elise's class is actually a tumbling class, set to music. Instead of new ballet shoes she got Hello Kitty Sneakers but she was just as delights. I'm sure the tumbling teacher will allow her to wear her ballet clothes...I hope! Anyway, I couldn't stop taking photos of those sweet girls, dancing around amidst the Christmas mess.  It was great!

I hope your Christmas was as sweet as our's.

Do you have any weird Christmas confessions such as our toilet-flushing trick?

Cinnamon Roll Caramel Waffles

Do you all have a Pinterest Account? If you do, follow Only the Manager (me) if you'd like. I'm finding I really enjoy peeking in on Pinterest more than I thought I would. There are such cool ideas there!

It's funny, really. Pinterest uses modern technology and concepts that would not have ever crossed my mind before. Yet, the more I see on it, the more I long for simpler days. I want to try every cool Do It Yourself project I see! And the recipes... there are some really wonderful ideas! I think maybe I could even be a reasonably good cook if I just had the time to try out some of those delicious recipes. I'm also finding lots and lots of crocheting ideas that I wish to do. If only I had more time!

This week-end, though, I did try out one of the simpler recipes I saw on Pinterest. I made cinnamon rolls on our little waffle maker.  I'm not kidding! It was tasty AND easy...just my kind of recipe. It was so delightful I decided I needed to share the joy with my readers.

To start I bought a tube of pre-made cinnamon rolls. I sprayed my waffle iron with an oil spray and heated it up. I chose caramel rolls but any would be yummy.

I separated the rolls and plopped two of them on the iron.

I closed the lid and cooked them just as if they were regular waffles.

When I opened it up again, it looked like this...

When I added the caramel that came in the tube, it looked like this...

You want a bite, don't you?

Now, the thing is, I make really good cinnamon rolls the old fashioned way. Someday I will share that recipe as well. This way, however, is pretty wonderful when you are in a hurry and not feeding too many people at once. It tastes even better than it looks!

Did you all have a lovely Christmas Day?  Do you open presents on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve?  


Mike's family was a Christmas Eve kind of family.  My family was a Christmas morning kind of family.  We've done it both ways over the years but since Mike became a pastor and was always busy with Christmas Eve Services we pretty much stuck with Christmas morning for a more relaxed time to open them.  This year, with Christmas being on a Sunday morning, we probably should have rethought that but we didn't.


Yesterday morning we got up early.  I made some Christmas cinnamon rolls that seem to have become part of our tradition.  I just use regular bread dough.  I made it in my bread machine Saturday night but you could even use frozen bread dough from the store.  I roll it out, spread butter on it and sprinkle a lot of brown sugar and cinnamon on it.  I roll it up, slice it and place the rolls into a buttered pan.  That is when the best part comes into play.  In a small pan I boil a stick of butter, a cup of brown sugar and a cup of vanilla ice cream... yes, I said ice cream.  Boil it awhile and then pour it over the top of the rolls.  Cover the rolls with aluminum foil, plastic wrap or whatever and put it in the fridge.  In the morning, bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or so, until the center ones look done.  I flip it out onto a cookie sheet and let the goo pour down all over it again.  It is sooooooo good!  I have made up a vegan version of them now.  Instead of butter I use Smart Balance Light.  I substituted coconut ice cream but soy is fine.  Either way, it is yummy!


We went over to Maria and Eric's house to open presents.  That was a first for us.  I love having traditions but I also think it is important to do things differently from time to time.  My theory is that if our children see that the world doesn't end if Christmas has to be done a bit differently, it will make their first Christmas away from us easier.  I have lots of theories on lots of things and will be happy to share more if you wish.


After opening stockings, gifts and eating our cinnamon roll breakfast Sam went home as he was starting to feel ill.  We've had a nasty cold circulating through the family.  The rest of us went to church and by the time that was over, Cordelia was running a fever.    


Mike and I headed a few hours out of town.  It has been years and years since I had spent Christmas Day with my Mom and that was my wish for yesterday.  My sister, Tina, and her kids, Stephanie and Steven, were there as well.  They had to hold dinner for us quite awhile as we stopped along the way to help a family who's vehicle had broken down out in the middle of poor-to-no-cell-service Wyoming.  They had 4 little kids under the age of 5!  I don't think they were having their favorite Christmas Day but they were holding up impressively well.  Luckily the day was pretty warm and eventually a tow truck was finally summoned.


Anyway, we had a very busy but lovely Christmas Day.  Here's the photographic proof...

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