Preparing the Food

This past weekend, Allen and I dropped the kids off at Nana and Papa's, and we headed north to Lake Texoma for a quiet weekend. I asked him for a mini-vacation for Christmas and I really enjoyed the one I got a few days before Christmas. He and I enjoyed quiet time together, playing games, eating tasty food, watching a movie, getting a few last-minute gifts, and being away from the everyday stresses that wear me out after awhile. When we came home, we had two and a half days to get everything ready for Christmas day.

The kids pitched in and we all worked hard and got just about everything done on Monday. I headed to the grocery store while the kids helped Allen clean the house, and he helped them wrap the gifts they were giving. They got all the cleaning done while I was away! Allen took the boys for haircuts while Maddie and I worked on the Christmas morning casserole and I helped her wrap the gift she got for Allen. While I was cleaning up the kitchen a bit, Allen taught Will how to make twice-baked potatoes. I wrapped gifts while Allen made some cookies with some off-and-on help from the kids, then Allen did some wrapping while I worked on cookies. The house smelled great, and somehow the kitchen-cleaning was manageable.

By afternoon, the cooking was as done as it needed to be and we were done with a day to spare! We made the breakfast casserole, twice baked potatoes, and four kinds of cookies: Grandma Ruth's Christmas tree cookies (FINALLY tasting like hers did), ginger cookies, biscochitos, and Hello Dollies. By then, the kids had taken off to play at the park and we had surprise visitors. Allen went to get the kids, and all of us were thrilled to see Jeremy and Kerbi -- friends of ours who are missionaries in Costa Rica. Our kids have prayed for them every single night since they went to Costa Rica three years ago.