Still celebrating Christmas, homemade donuts, and hopes for the New Year (7 Quick Takes)

~1~

Are you still celebrating Christmas? It’s only the 10^th day of Christmas, and the Three Kings haven’t yet arrived. Our tree is still up, and we have been exchanging final gifts with friends and baking cookies.

One day this week, we invited my sister Maureen and her four children to come bake sugar cookies in what I think is now an annual tradition.

We have so much fun cutting the dough with my random assortment of cutters. Nothing says Christmas like Darth Vader, octopi, and snails. The girls take decorating the cookies very seriously, and it shows.

All of our out-of-town cousins have gone home now, and school has started again. Still, on this 10^th day of Christmas, somehow we will probably still have as much fun (and make as much noise) as 10 drummers drumming.

~2~

My children went back to school yesterday, and my husband returned to work. But Loyola, where I work, is closed until Monday. It’s an amazing gift to have two days with so few obligations. I spent yesterday shopping with my mother, hanging with my sons, and making a real dinner—beef vegetable soup—for my family.

Today is all mine until school pick-up. Amazing. Really, all I want of 2020 is more time with my family and more time to write what I want to write—and hopefully what you want to read.

~3~

We had a beautiful Christmas break together as a family with a balance of noisy fun and less-noisy relaxation. We took our boys for a little used book shopping at Ukazoo and Wonder Book. John and I used to go to bookstores together back when we were dating and newly married, but there aren’t as many stores that sell used books as there once were.

Then for a while our children were too young to take to stores with rare, old books. Now our sons are this magical age where we can take them almost anywhere.

~4~

I’ve had a donut pan for more than a year, but this week I ended up with a little extra time and buttermilk, and I decided to look for recipes. I do realize that you can make buttermilk using regular milk with a little vinegar in it, but there’s something about having a carton of buttermilk around that inspires baking.

I made donuts using this chocolate donut recipe, and they were a great hit. But one child asked for vanilla donuts, so I made this vanilla donut recipe the next day. Nothing says, “We’re celebrating Christmas,” like consecutive donut days.

If I had planned it better, we would have made them in honor of the zeros in 2020. But I recommend both recipes. I didn’t frost the vanilla ones because almost inexplicably not everyone here loves frosting. I just let the vanilla lover dip them in sugar.

~5~

Christmas isn’t quite over, but I’m starting to think ahead to the next big holiday—Chinese New Year! Well, to be honest, I plan for it year-round. But I need to kick into gear because the Lunar New Year begins on Jan. 25, and we tend to celebrate in a number of ways.

This year for Christmas I had the idea to give the boys each a Year of the Rat ornament. I wish I had thought of doing this years ago, but each year we’re going to give each of them an ornament of the upcoming year’s zodiac animal. Then when they have their own trees one day, they’ll have all 12 animals.

~6~

We visited the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen on New Year’s Eve for Mass for the holy day, and I was struck by the beauty of that church. John and I were married there because I was a parishioner when we were engaged, and both of our sons were baptized there. It was really special to close out 2019 there.

We had already taken our seats when my brother-in-law, his oldest daughter, and my sister Shaileen walked into the church for Mass, too. So, we closed out the old year and started a new one with family in a church that is full of beautiful memories.

~7~

Happy 2020! I love the start of a new year and all that comes with it—new beginnings, new opportunities, and new experiences. I love possibilities. That’s why I’m excited that my word for the year is “Open.” (You can get yours here.) I also try to greet a new year realistically, knowing that much will not change. There’s some comfort in that. I wrote about that here.

I haven’t taken on any specific resolutions. I just want to be more patient and more present and carve out more time to be an ordinary person who doesn’t work every moment of the day. Oh, and maybe write the book I say I will write every year.

For Christmas, my mother asked me to print out a copy of all my blogs/online commentary for her to read. The printed version filled 400 pages. So, maybe it’s time for me to stop making excuses and just write it already!

Read more quick takes at Kelly’s blog, This Ain’t the Lyceum, and have a wonderful weekend!

 Print