Christmas time

It seems the lead up to Christmas drags on for months but the day itself, gone in an instant. A blurry memory of torn wrapping paper, many laughs, some tears and much love.

This year marked our first Christmas in our new home. I've been so busy with sorting out the house and doing all my 'holiday activities' that I didn't feel too anxious about the upcoming day. Christmas means a lot to me, being a foodie I love the food preparation and the eating, I love the planning, I love preparing the gifts for people, thinking about what they would like and seeing them open their gifts. I love being with other people and relaxing for the day. Obviously I wasn't sure what to make of this year being so far away and missing out on those usual activities in the comfort of our family homes.

The lead up to Christmas was wonderful, we found ourself unleashing the 'kids must be in bed at their 7pm bedtime' rules to, 'lets leave to see the christmas lights at 7.20pm'. The freedom that came with our more relaxed holiday attitude was wonderful. We got to enjoy the innocent wonder of the Christmas lights through the eyes of our sweet boys. What miracles children are! Mere days before Christmas a friend lost her baby girl to a rare genetic disorder, so many times during these holidays I looked at my boys and couldn't stop thinking of baby S. I am just so lucky to have my boys, every single day that I get to cuddle them, that I get to tell them I love them and even when I get to experience the joy of having them fight is a wonderful day because it means I have them.

We are so fortunate to have a wonderful village of support over here, I guess you lean on these people more when you are away from your family and older friends. As a result Christmas day did not go by with my sitting and tearing up at the thought of the events we were missing back at home, I did at various points in time think with fondness back to what we would be doing had we been back home. But we had such a lovely time with new friends and adopted family that I cannot say I felt sadness at what we were missing, just nostalgic.

I've managed, you see, to get myself into a good headspace! It is a nice place where I don't yearn for things I cannot have, I live here, not there. I CANNOT simply have the life we live here AND the life we left behind. THIS is our journey for now, and I'm going to enjoy it and not wrap myself up in what we miss and what we cannot do. We take the opportunities here as we can and continue to grow into a stronger family unit as a result of living in isolation to those family ties.

Christmas has come and gone and we prepare ourself for another New Year, what a great year 2012 will be. I am sure.

Gingerbread Men in a Jar

Thanks to a gorgeous book 'Kids in the Holiday Kitchen' that I purchased from Pottery Barn last year I found the perfect teacher gift for this year. They are biscuits in a jar. Basically you layer the dry ingredients in a jar and then attach a gift tag with the recipe. The recipient just adds the required additional ingredients like butter and eggs to then make their biscuits. I purchased jars from Ikea, gingerbread cookie cutters from Big W, cardboard and ribbon from Spotlight and with just a little patience whilst putting them together we have beautiful personalised gifts for teachers and daycare workers.

This is the recipe that I used and this is the text I put on a card attached to the jars.

Gingerbread Men in a Jar

For scrumptious holiday cookies preheat oven to 180^oC. Beat together 1 egg yolk with 125ml golden syrup and 125gm room temp butter. Add dry ingredients of jar, mix till well combined. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Place dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out until 4mm thick. Use gingerbread man cutter to cut out shapes. Place on prepared trays 3 cm apart. Bake in oven for 10 mins or until brown. Push smarties into warm cookies to decorate.

And this is the completed products at less than $10 a gift.