Published: Dec 31, 2016 by Tracy
When we were childless, Chris and I rarely made a big deal out of Christmas. We had the one, obligatory, Charlie Brown tabletop Christmas tree. That was pretty much it. We both liked the holiday, but it is a bit too much decorating for us. And more importantly, too much taking down of decorations.
But of course, like everything else, having children means making more holly for the jollying on Christmas. So this year we put up the Christmas tree, made Christmas cookies, drank egg nog (except Chris, who hates it), and generally made good on the promise to be “the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.”
Our homemade gift baskets, which we give every year to friends and family, were how we started the festivities. Chris made beautiful wooden boxes from reclaimed hardwood (our old house fences).
In these little boxes we placed:
- Pickled duck eggs
- one dozen fresh eggs
- homemade, traditional Pfeffernussen (Peppernuts). These are a traditional German spiced cookies and they are tiny. So tiny I had hand cramps from making thousands of them to fill each jar
- candied lemon peel
- homemade strawberry hard candies
- hand crocheted pot holders
 Imagine cutting less-than-dime-sized cookies for three days. |  The Peppernuts that gave me carpal tunnel. |
The rest of my time was spent hanging out with the kids and Chris, playing games (Robot Turtles is a favorite), cooking (finally got around to that Swedish meatball recipe I wanted to try), and catching up on some knitting (I even got new Addi Turbo Rockets.
Was your holiday equally as relaxing?
