Magic in the Air and Christmas Shortbread Cookies

Our valley has once again been covered in a sparkling, blanket of white. Driving my kids to school this morning, I uttered the words I have said several times in the last two days. "Isn't it breathtaking?"

It's so stunningly, beautiful, it makes me cry.

As I write this post, it's snowing again lightly. You can't even see the lake below our house. Magical!

Although winter has it's draw backs in many cases; the biting cold and it took us longer to get going yesterday morning, as both David and I had to clear the drive way, but what it brings to my life is well worth it.

We are forced to slow down a bit more, take our time as we move out into the world. In that pace, a beacon of light shines into my soul and insights often occur. They are light houses, guiding me safely on my journey. Inspiring me to keep going.

 As the snow lightly fell as I was shoveling yesterday, I was thinking how each of us is like a precious snowflake; unique and stunningly beautiful. We have the ability to change the world by the choices we make every day. And yet, many of us squander that time. We rush around with our to do lists running through our heads like a chiming mantra.

Do we feel joy?

Do we feel peace?

Do we feel hope?

and most important of all.....

Do we feel love?

I can tell you the answer to that, at least from my perspective, and that is a resounding, "NO!"

While this is a magical time of year in so many ways, many of us are driven by the lists running in our heads. We are stressed and burnt out. We get sick easier, as we are not sleeping long enough to get a good rest. We are generally feeling unwell. It's like a vicious circle that keeps us down.

One of my sons, dealing with University exams and deadlines, was recently finding the stress debilitating. When he would call me in a panic, I would simply remind him to fill his lungs deeply and slow down to get grounded.

Stop and

BREATHE!

Are exams life and death?

Let's put things in perspective here.

We have a choice how we want to feel.

We have a choice how we impact the world around us too.

The other day when I was walking around the grocery store, list in hand, trying to get out as fast as I could so I could pick up the kids from school, I saw a neighbour in the produce department. I think she saw me too out of the corner of her eye and she quickly moved on.... probably with a similar list in hand. Just as well, I thought as I moved into the bread section, as I can get out of here more quickly.

Then we literally ran into each other in the dairy section. We had to STOP and talk to each other. I'm so glad too as that short little, sweet interlude, catching up on each other's lives; each other's Christmas holiday happenings,propelled me forward, reminding me why we are on this planet together.

We are here to support each other and make life more pleasant. I left the store with a smile on my face and I hope she felt some warmth too.

We can make a difference in each other's lives by caring about each other, by smiling and giving a hug, by wishing each other all the best in life, not just at this holiday time, but ALL year through.

My kids get this. They don't move through their days with lists in their heads or their hands. Nope...but if there was a list running through their little brains, its would be for them to experience

fun,

fun

 and

 more FUN!

 And they are naturally kind too. They don't need to slow down because they are already at a perfect, in sync pace with the world. They live in the moment. They breathe deeply. They laugh from the belly, and they hug without restraint.

Huh!

I can take a few lessons from them....oh and dogs and cats are good at teaching life lessons too.

So I hope that you are able to take a moment this holiday season.

STOP!

be still,

listen to the silence

and

BREATHE!

Chat with a neighbour, hug a child, sit with a pet.

Listen to the bells of silence,

They are ringing with magic.

Let it resonate deep into your soul.

Let the beauty of the season make you weep.

Rejoice.

This life is so precious.

You are so precious!


And speaking of magic.....I want to share my whipped shortbread with you. Yes, they are magic in a little cookie. I got this recipe from an dear, dear, co-worker, Elaine, years ago. She gave it to me when I was in my twenties and I've been making it every year since.

 Now it is part of our Christmas tradition. Each time I make it, I think of Elaine and smile.

If you don't have a great shortbread recipe, let this be part of your tradition too. Plus......it's so easy!

Last night, I stayed up late making these cookies and watching, "It's a Wonderful Life." "Yawn!", but it was worth it. This movie is also a yearly tradition. It reminds me how deeply each of us touch each other. Instead of giving gift cards to our children's teachers this year, we decided to give them a piece of our Christmas tradition....a tin of these cookies and some tea and a little snowflake ornament, reminding them how unique they are.

I hope you try making these cookies and years to come, and as you make them, you will think of Hope and smile.


Hope's Whipped Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients

1 lb of unsalted butter
3 cups of flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Opt: package of Toblerone chocolate
Christmas sprinkles or glazed cherries

Directions

Cream butter, add remaining ingredients and beat until fluffy. Roll into balls, press down with a fork.
Decorate with little chunks of Toblerone chocolate and Christmas sprinkles. You can also grate the Toblerone and add it to the cookie dough. A classic for this cookie, is decorating them with red and green glazed cherries.

Bake on an ungreased pan at 325 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes

This morning I was getting the tins ready...glade I stayed up late and did my baking!

I

Magic is in the air.

Can you feel it?

Merry Christmas my dear blogging family.

You are a precious snowflake.

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

A Simple Christmas~Snow topped Almond Cookies

My favourite month has arrived!
                                     Welcome December!

                                                                                                   Fa la la la la, la la la la!

Oh the joy of season with the twinkling lights and carols playing, fills me with happy anticipation. I've always had a quiet faith in the magic of this season and this year is no different. But with only three weeks until Christmas, I'm also feeling a bit stressed.

My husband, David and I have decided that this year, the holiday season will be different. Even though we have eight children, we are on a minimalist path. Oh, I know, it’s a bit of an oxymoron, to have a large family and be minimalists but it wasn’t always that way.

In the beginning, our four older children were raised in a very consumer driven household and they have been used to having most of their wishes and dreams wrapped up in fancy paper and put under a glittering tree. Over the years though, as our younger children arrived, we have become more concerned about the state of our planet. Even though, yes, we are guilty of over populating the world, we now hope to set an example and teach our children to be conscious consumers; walking the earth as gently as possible.

Still, their Christmas wish lists are spread out before me and I struggle to know what would be the best gifts to give them this holiday. Some of the lists were emailed from University, with detailed pictures of tangible items desired. Although there’s a post script at the bottom, relaying extreme appreciation for their parent paid, post- secondary education. Then at the other end of our family spectrum, we have pencil written lists that begin with, “Dear Santa, I hope you are well.” Do I want to burst these innocent bubbles of magical expectation?

 Victoria holding up a Christmas card that says BELIEVE....you can see the window seat behind her and our view of the lake and mountains

“Oh,” what will we give them this year?” I ponder, as I fill my  red tea pot with boiling water to steep some Earl Grey tea. I look around my cozy kitchen with the old school charm.  David renovated it himself a few years ago and I love it. He took off all the cabinet fronts and stained them a calla lily white and then brushed on a tea stain, so they look old and worn. Perfect to weather our large family!

My favourite part of the kitchen is the window seat, which frames the lake view below our house. I take my big tea cup and curl up on the red checked cushion and look out the window. Kalamalka Lake is a slate blue grey this morning and the hills surrounding it are covered in white, as if Mother Nature took icing sugar and sprinkled it liberally while we slept.

Looking out at the new snow, takes me drifting back to a Christmas over 50 years ago.

It was1963 and one of the last Christmas’s my Dad was alive. A year and a half later he was killed in a truck accident. That holiday, in our sleepy, little town of Hope, B.C. which was guarded by tall, forested mountains, we received a huge dump of snow. What a magical appearance it was to wake up and find a sparkling world of peaceful white, beyond my frosted bedroom window. 

I don’t know what day of the week it was. I had just turned four years old. My days and years blended into one another, like mom’s endless laundry blowing stiffly in the winter wind on our backyard clothesline. Dad probably had worked that day. I’m sure he was tired after a full day driving truck for the Esso oil company but after dinner on the night of that big snowfall, with a glimmer in his grayish green eyes, he suggested we go and play in the snow. My sister J,  eight years old at the time, whooped with joy and was the first out the door, having perfected the art of winter dressing. My older sister’s C and B who were both teenagers, stole furtive glances at each other, to see who would proclaim they were too grown up for such childish play. Surprisingly, they started layering on sweaters, coats and hats while jabbing each other playfully. Perhaps they sensed this moment would ring in our memories for years to come. 

My mom bundled me into my red, one piece snow suit, asking again, if I wanted to use the bathroom.  I shook my head, impatient to get outside and she sighed. She put on my wool hat and tied the bow then wrapped a red plaid scarf tightly around my neck. I could barely breathe. The final touch was stuffing my hands into the mittens that were tied to the ends of my sleeves. I waddled outside like a penguin, barely able to walk. 

My Dad was artfully throwing snow balls at my sisters, who were laughingly, dodging them, as they busily worked together making a snow man. By the time I came outside, the bottom half of him was already built and his lower half was not just one big ball, but a large bottom with a wide lap to sit upon.

The air was biting cold. The sky was ink black and looking up, it felt like we were covered by a heavy quilt of quiet stillness that went on forever. The snow was wet and perfect for packing. Our snowman grew quickly into a giant. I looked at our little white clapboard house to see mom moving around, through the glowing kitchen window. Occasionally, she would peek out and I would wave my snow covered mitten and she would wave back. My Dad and sister’s voices were muffled and seem to come from far away and yet my vision was crystal clear. Everything was sharp and in focus.

Me with our magical giant snowman

Mom brought out shriveled apples for our snow man’s eyes and walnuts for his mouth. Completing his look she reached up high to stick a black top hat on his head. We stood around our snowy creation and mom, wearing only her indoor clothes and an apron said, “brrrrr,” as she snapped a picture of us. In the picture, I was nestled between our snowman’s knees, surrounded by my sisters and my Dad. Although the picture was in black and white, the colours are vivid in my memory. 

Dad had never smiled so brightly.

Me with my three older sisters and my Dad in Hope, B.C. over 50 years ago

We piled into the house, with mom clucking over the fact that her grey, linoleum kitchen floor had more snow on it than our yard. With red cheeks and good cheer, we sipped the hot cocoa and nibbled the cinnamon, sugared toast, waiting for us on the kitchen table. Out of the radio, strains of Bing Crosby crooning, “White Christmas,” flowed into our warm kitchen, with the white cabinets and red checked curtains. Oh, nothing had ever tasted better or sounded so perfect, than sitting in our little home in Hope that night, surrounded by my family. 

My dad left a legacy. Even though we didn’t have much in terms of material possessions, it was the magical moments of simple living that allowed the notes of our days, to create the music of our life. These moments played a rhythm that rooted us deeply as a family. Now that I’m a parent, it’s my turn to make these musical moments for our children.

Thank you mom and dad for bringing simple, magical moments into my life

I am consciously aware that we only have so much time with our children and then we are gone. Whatever imprint we want to leave on them, whatever wisdom we want to share, the moments are ticking by. 

Coming back to this time, I sip the last of my tea and look at my children’s Christmas wish lists laid out on the kitchen table. With a smile I wash my tea cup and start to hum, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.”

                           I know exactly what I want to give this year.

I hope you enjoyed that little piece I recently wrote for my writing group. I regret not finding more time to write on my blog this fall. But there are times in life when I just need to live the experiences ....do you know what I mean? I think it was Rainer Maria Rilke who said, 

"be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."

So that has been what I have been doing...living everything and not stopping to ask anything.

But oh! I love this season and want to share that joy with you. I hope with only three weeks until Christmas you take some time to truly enjoy the magic of the season. Let it seep into your soul and let the simple moments of life bring you the greatest happiness.

Speaking of simple moments; I have to share my recipe for snow topped almond cookies. With vanilla extract being so expensive, I have been baking with more almond extract. I forgot how much I love it. I hope you enjoy it too. When you frost these cookies with a white glaze, you can sprinkle them with red and green sparkles....or with toasted almonds to make them even more festive.

Come into my old school kitchen and let us whip up a batch to share with our family and friends.

This snowman was given to me by my mom, who loved Christmas and Christmas music...he plays the piano and sings

Snow topped Almond Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup margarine (I find the texture better when I use 1/2 margarine and 1/2 butter)
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Glaze:

1/2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tbsp water

Instructions 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

In a medium size bowl, cream butter/margarine and sugar. Add almond extract and mix well. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and combine well. Now scoop up teaspoon size cookie dough and place it on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Place in hot oven and cook for 8 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet. Glaze with icing sugar mixture and top with toasted almond slices and if making at Christmas time, add some sprinkles of your choice to make them look even more festive.

I made these for my writing group and took them in on our last day together...hope to see you all next year!

Now make a cup of tea and sit in your favourite place and munch on a few cookies. Don't you think it's the simple things that make us happiest in life? As you listen to the youtube video below, "Bing Crosby, singing; White Christmas," think about how you can create some magic this holiday season. Sledding or skating with the family?....or cuddled together watching a Christmas movie? Whatever it is, I hope peace, joy and love settles into your heart and stays for the whole year through.

From my family to yours......may the light and love of Christmas find you this season!

In the front row are from Left to right, Victoria, William and Kathryn/ in the middle are Alyssa, me and Grace and in the back are David, Harrison, Mitchell and Clark...and our cat Ryuuki

This blog post is dedicated to my Mom and Dad......and to our daughter Grace Elizabeth, who was born 15 years ago today. What a Christmas blessing you are!

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope