Christmas Donuts and Holiday Hearts

Christmas time is here.  I used to so look forward to this time of year with the beautiful decorations and time with family.  Now, it seems a bit of a burden with all the planning and preparation that goes into a holiday season.  I'm a little overwhelmed with all that there is to do with gift buying, neighbor gifts (which we've never really been in a place where we did neighbor gifts but here we are), gifts for all the teachers.  There's the beautiful meals to plan and prepare.  The meaningful holiday activities that we "should" have.

I don't know.  I'm a little tired.  Although, I hear having two young children does that to you.  Please don't think I'm being negative here.  I think I am just realizing all the effort that my parents and family put into making holidays wonderful and I'm trying to gear myself up to do the same.  

All of this contemplation has led me to think about the "traditional" activities at Christmas.  I'm still in the tradition building phase of our family and I want to have traditions that are meaningful to my family and not just because "that's what people do" at Christmas.

So, it all started with a treat.  As you have probably read, holidays are very food based for me.  There is nothing else that says Christmas to me more than sugar cookies, specifically Aunt Leta's sugar cookies.  We would wait for these cookies all year.  Now, I don't really make sugar cookies.  It is a true skill (and a lesson in patience) that I just don't have.  In years past, we have bought the mix and whipped them up but they really don't taste that good (at least in comparison to Aunt Leta's).  Also, my sweet picky eaters won't touch them.

So, Leo says to me at Walmart, "I want to make donuts."  And so we did.  I think the donut idea stemmed from our recent visit to Duck Donuts in Fairfax.  They have locations in the Outer Banks and we fell in love with the freshly cooked, frosted and sprinkled rings of deliciousness over all of our trips to the beach.  Now, we can drive a half hour and enjoy them any time we want or even in our own kitchen.

 

 We took the easy route to cook donuts.  I bought the canned biscuits and broke each biscuit in half.  With a round cookie cutter, I punched a hole in the middle and fried them up in canola oil.  In just a few minutes, we had a stack of warm donutes.   I made up some chocolate glaze (milk, melted butter, cocoa and powdered sugar) and dipped the donuts in and then the kids went to town with the sprinkles.  To say the donuts were encrusted is an understatement but we all gobbled them up and enjoyed them heartily.

So, this is the beginning of our new holiday traditions.  What are your family's favorites?  Do share.

Cherry Blossoms and Change

I've seen the blossoms three times in my life.  Whenever I think of Washington DC, I always imagine it cherry blossom time.  I think it's because the first time that I lived here, the cherry blossoms came at a pretty pivotal moment in my life.  They came about the time I was working in a congressman's office and realized that I wasn't cut out for politics and that Heber was the one for me and that I could potentially marry him (which I did several months later).   

 

The cherry blossom season here usually comes in march and remains in full bloom for a few weeks.  100 years ago, in a goodwill gesture, Japan gifted hundreds of cherry blossom trees that were planted around the tidal basin by all of the monuments.  They bloom white and fluffy and incredibly beautiful.  I'm used to a tree here or there with blossoms but this is blossoms everywhere you looks (even along the highway).   

The second time, one year ago, Heb and I were in DC.  We were looking for housing in preparation to make the big cross country move.  We visited the cherry blossoms and walked along the tidal basin.  I was still secretly expecting our Leo, having kept it under wraps and in the completely sick phase (note to self: don't order chicken while pregnant.  You really don't like it).  We were trying to finish our graduate work and prepare for the move.

Now, we have been in DC almost a year and the blossom season has come again.  It's hard to believe.  I've been thinking about it a lot lately, about what has happened in a year.  We don't have any big life changes this year (thank goodness), we're just adjusting to all the changes.  Oh, and we're looking forward to more visitors in the coming weeks (yay!). 

 This year, storms shortened the life span of the blossoms. Bummer.  So I missed out on the really fluffy stuff but we did manage to find a tree or two.