Christmas is here....Let the celebrating begin!!

This week is Christmas and first of all, I am reminded of the ultimate gift God gave to me in the form of His son, Jesus Christ. Without this gift I would be nothing and I would have nothing. Jesus has given me the strength to perservere when I thought all hope was gone. He also gave me the strength I needed to start a new life in 1985 with my daughter. Remembering back on those days of being a single parent to a 3 year old, I wanted the holidays to bring the best memories I could possibly give my child.

One of the traditions I had was to have my daughter go to bed on Christmas Eve and then when she was asleep, I'd jingle some bells and run into her room and tell her, "Santa just left and those were the reindeer I heard." She believed me until she turned older, and I think she didn't want to spoil my fun and didn't tell me for a few years just so we could jingle the bells and proclaim Santa came to our house.

I also remember those days when my dad would take my daughter shopping for a Christmas present for me. I was always humbled by my dad's actions because he would do this for Mother's Day as well.

When I started celebrating Christmas with my new "blended" family, I tried to make traditions by decorating EVERY (yes, I said EVERY) part of the house. I had theme rooms. Our living area downstairs was the Santa room with the tree; the family area where we spent most of our time was the angle and nativity area because this is why we really celebrate Christmas; and of course the kitchen and bathrooms were decorated with snowmen. I would even have our girls decorate their rooms with lights and fake trees so they would have something of their own. Of course their friends would come over and call my house, "the Christmas house" because of EVERY part of the house had something to do with Christmas.

Another tradition I started when our kids were small was to give each person (including the gentlemen) Christmas stockings in their Christmas stockings. (One of the first things I did when I remarried was to make everyone in the family their very own Christmas stocking. As our kids got married, I would make their spouse or their children a Christmas stocking to match.)

Since the kids have all left home, I haven't been decorating as much and in fact in the past few years, I haven't even done the outside lights. With the twins coming from Washington DC and our newest grandson coming from Washington State, I decided this year, I'd bring all the glory back to the house and make it kid friendly so the little ones will remember Grandma and Grandpa's house as a house of wonder and delight.

I'm also pulling out all the stops in the food area this year. We are having baby back ribs and turkey for our celebration plus Red Velvet Cake, cookies galore and all the favorites my family enjoys. So for this post, I'm going to give you my favorite sugar cookie recipe. I've mentioned before my grandmother would always put out sugar cookies at Thanksgiving time and I could never find the exact recipe she used, but I did find a recipe comparable. Enjoy and continue to make those traditions with your families as you celebrate this season of joy.

Grandma Reimer's sugar cookies

1 1/2 cups softened butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar

Cream the above ingredients until light and fluffy.

Add 2 eggs and beat well. Add 5 cups flour, 4 teaspoons baking powder, and 1/2 cup milk and mix well. Regfrigerate for 3-4 hours until firm or overnight. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick and use your favorite cutters. Place on parchment lined cookie sheets and bake 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees.

Before these cookies are baked, you can sprinkle colored sugar on top or frost them and design them once they are cooled. Use a buttercream frosting.