Christmas photos

The Tree Is Up!!!

We bought a cut tree this year, the first time in many, many years. We've always had a live tree before but we've had bad luck in the past few years with live trees. I think the problem is that the one I get is too big and the root ball isn't large enough to sustain it. So this year we've broken with tradition. Still, we have neither lights nor tinsel, only ornaments. Some are from John's childhood, some from our first Christmas married, others made by the boys when they were children, and the rest are those I've made or bought over the years. As always, I've put the four little glass ornaments from the boys first Christmases at the very top and the star is the one we've always had.

Cookies

I spent the afternoon baking cookies. I made the "must haves"--the butter cookies with candied cherries, the snowball cookies, and little mincemeat turnovers. The snowball cookie recipe is from John's Danish great grandmother Rasmussen; he remembers helping her make them by rolling them in powdered sugar. He was about four and that's a nice memory for him. The photos show about half the cookies I baked. The rest have been put away for guests and for the other boys and some were set aside to be tucked into John's lunchbox.

I plan on baking more cookies this week: the orange cookies and the cherry ones; the chocolate crinkles and the Santa whiskers. Then there are the cakes: the fruitcakes, the rum cake, the white cake with lemon filling and white frosting covered with coconut.

I've not finished decorating the house; there are boxes of ornaments all over the living room. I'll get a tree and most of what I need at the grocery store on Friday. There are still the presents to wrap and a few yet to find.