I could hardly believe my eyes this past November as I thumbed through the Land's End catalog. Of all things, a Macduff modern dress plaid shirt was nestled in between all the other plaid offerings of the season. Macduff plaid is hard to come by, unless you order it directly from Scotland. And it's never offered in an American style dress shirt. Kilts, hats and scarves are the most common apparel items available for the different clans.
So of course I immediately ordered a shirt for Matt. Then I called my mother-in-law and she promptly ordered one for my father-in-law. The two men opened their shirts at our family Christmas present opening party about a week before Christmas.
Matt's sister, Lori, gave Isaac a little bitty Macduff plaid shirt--so cute. I asked her where she had gotten it. Kohl's--of all places. Two American retailers with Macduff plaid in the same year? Unbelievable.
I mentioned to my mother-in-law that I wanted to get to Kohl's to try to find a shirt for Paul, who is very proud of his surname and Scottish heritage. I just wasn't sure when I'd have the time to get to the store. My mother-in-law volunteered to go.
Mom found one shirt hanging high on a display. She asked a clerk to get it down. It "happened" to be Paul's size. I was tickled when I heard the news. Mom went back to Kohl's later that night. She and one of the clerks combed through all of the clothes racks and found one more shirt--in Jude's size. With just Joel left to outfit in Macduff plaid, my mother-in-law asked the clerk to see if there just might be another shirt in a different store. Yes, there was another shirt in Joel's size and it could be shipped to our door just in time for Christmas. Yay! Well then, what about the girls? My mother-in-law and sister-in-law came to the rescue again. Grace would wear Lori's kilt, Elizabeth would wear Grandma Dianne's skirt made out of the Macduff hunting plaid. Grandma Dianne also had some wool fabric scraps in the clan plaid, so Elizabeth was able to make cute hair clips for both herself and Lydia to wear. So for Christmas Eve we definitely did the Macduff clan proud, all decked out in a our festive finery. Except me. I wore a black sweater and a black skirt. Someone had to represent the more understated German side of the family.
Last week I was terribly behind in preparing for my 5 Aspects of Woman Bible study class. When I woke up Thursday morning, I hadn't even finished my own lesson, let alone prepared the lesson plan for the class that evening. "Oh Lord," I prayed, "Please give me something to give to the women tonight."
The lesson that evening was to be on "Lifegiver Created." In the chapter I read for the week's Bible study, two things stuck out to me. First, lifegiving is a struggle. Women down through the ages have struggled to bring forth life, from Moses' mother Jochebed, to Hannah the mother of Samuel, to women of the present time.
The other point I picked up on is that lifegiving is not just about having children, but that we as woman lifegive in a myriad of ways, including with the words we say to others. Our words can tear down, or they can build up. I wanted a real life example of a lifegiving woman to present to my class that evening.
As I flipped through Google Reader and my blog list that morning (right after I had sent my arrow prayer to God), I came upon a recipe for pfeffernuesse. My mind started running and I immediately thought of my Great Grandma Katherine. Within five minutes, I had an outline in my head of what I wanted to present that evening. God had been faithful to answer my prayer.
I quickly made the dough for the pfeffernuesse and put it in the freezer to cool (there was not enough time to let it sit in the fridge overnight). I was so thankful to have step by step directions to follow. My old German cook book tends to have directions like, "until it's the consistency of fresh cream," "add enough flour to thicken" and "do not over bake, should be like custard." I remember making pfeffernuesse from that cookbook years ago and being very frustrated with the whole process.
With the pferffernuesse dough safely resting in the freezer, I set to work on finishing my Bible study and lesson plans. I then called my Uncle Keith to confirm what I knew and get more details about my Russian born German great grandmother, Katherine. Later that afternoon I baked the pfeffernuesse and gathered the materials I needed for class.
That evening when the ladies came into the room, our table was set with bowls of pfeffernuesse, an advent wreath and fresh evergreens, a symbol of life. I showed the ladies a picture of my great grandmother and grandfather, George. Then I told them a bit about my grandmother. When Katherine had a three week old boy and a toddler boy (somewhere between the ages of 1 1/2 to 2 years old), the household was exposed to Diphtheria by a school teacher the family had been boarding. Both of the children contracted the disease and died within days of each other. They were buried in the same grave.
Katherine and George went on to have four more children (a fifth was lost to miscarriage when Grandma slipped on the ice while bringing water into the house). She worked hard on the farm all of her life. Grandma Katherine was well known for her sumptuous meals. I've been inside that old farm house and honestly, the kitchen in so small I'm not sure how she managed to prepare meals for all those people in there, especially with no running water, let alone a dishwasher!
Uncle Keith told me about all the times he went to Grandma's house for lunch. She would lay everything out on the table. My uncle, being a boy, was always ravenous, but Grandma would insist on praying first. "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits," (Psalm 103:1-2) she would pray. Uncle Keith tells me that even now he says that verse to himself every morning as he's exercising.
My Great Grandma Katherine struggled to lifegive. She also gave life to others through her words, passing on eternal truths to her children and grandchildren. As we ladies ended our Bible study, we prayed that we would all become the lifegivers God desires us to be.
For me personally, I struggle to control my tongue, especially in times of extreme busyness and stress. I've prayed every morning this week that I would give life to those around me, particularly through my words. As Christmas approaches, I remember that Jesus was the ultimate Lifegiver, bringing life to me when I was dead in my sins and could do nothing to save myself. I'm so grateful that God the Father saw fit to send His Son, so that He might sacrifice His life in order to save mine.
Our house has been a flurry of activity the last few weeks. First off, my dad took Matt, Paul and Joel duck hunting. All last winter Joel was told that he would be allowed to go hunting when he turned four. Joel didn't forget that promise and he was determined to go this season. According to Joel and Paul the best part of the day was the big breakfast Grandpa Tom bought them after the hunt. This particular eating establishment sells HUGE pancakes. Paul and Joel each got one pancake. My dad was surprised to see Joel eat so much as he's not normally not a very big eater. I suppose he shivered off a bunch of calories in the duck blind and needed replace what he'd lost. Our family also took an evening to fulfill our annual tradition of watching It's a Wonderful Life together, complete with a snacky dinner in front of the t.v. Much to the delight of the kids, I bought individual bottles of sparkling cider to go with our snacks this year. I couldn't believe how long Jude's attention was held by the movie. He entertained himself (and us) by dancing the Charleston and repeatedly yelling "Hee Haw!" throughout the show.We got to spend a lovely evening the weekend before last with our family worship group. We sang Christmas carols, nibbled Christmas cookies and chatted with new and old friends. We've also been blessed to enjoy a couple of nice dinners with old friends here at our house.
Lydia spent an afternoon with Grandma Dianne, cousin Mackenzie and Aunt Lori watching a performance of The Nutcracker ballet. A good friend of mine found out that Lydia would be attending the ballet a few days prior to the event and gave Lydia a brown taffeta dress to wear that her own daughter had outgrown. The dress was sleeveless, so I went to Goodwill and found a little shrug to go with it. Lydia really got the princess treatment when Grace styled her a hair especially for the outing. Of course, Lydia loved every minute of the special afternoon. As I've poked around the internet lately, I've been intrigued with the idea of holiday flavored homemade play dough. Grace and I tweaked our family play dough recipe to make a batch of peppermint play dough and a batch of gingerbread play dough. Hands down, this was the smartest move we made this year. The littles have been having a grand time "baking" their own play dough creations at the kitchen table nearly every day. This allows the rest of us to get some uninterrupted work time, so everybody ends up happy.The three oldest kids participated in a recital this past Saturday. It was a major stress fest preparing for the event. Even Paul practiced and practiced and practice some more. It turned out that only two other moms and their daughters showed up for the recital. Better to be over, rather under prepared, I guess. Grace has been practicing her Mozart piece since September. Here's a snippet:
Grace and I have been baking, baking, baking. Grace found a recipe for Danish Kringle, which she mastered pretty handily. It made us all swoon when we tasted it. She also made a couple of kringles for gifts.
I made two batches of pfeffernusse. Matt is not a fan of pfeffernusse, so I wasn't sure how the kids would react when they tried the anise flavored German cookies. I was delighted when they all gave the "pepper nuts" a huge thumbs up. Jude kept saying, "More lil' cookies, more lil' cookies, pwease!" I told all the kids that they were my good little krauts. Even my newest nephew from China liked the pfeffernusse. He's my good little Chinese kraut.
Grace and a family friend went out to run some Christmas errands yesterday. It gave Grace a chance to get a couple of more driving hours under her belt. Elizabeth and I got some time together in the kitchen while Grace was gone. We pumped out a bunch of Gooey Toffee Butter Cakes for our neighbors and Matt's coworkers. I've made these the last couple of years at Christmas time, so I've gotten a system down. With two ovens going, we can get these finished in less than two hours. I buy little "to go" type containers at the dollar store (they come three to a package) in which to bake the cakes. Each recipe can be divided to make three cakes. After the cakes are cool, I put on the lids, affix a label (these were a gift from a friend) and stash them in the fridge until it's time to deliver them. When I finished baking the cakes last night, the kids asked, "Aren't you going to make one for us?" Providentially, I had enough ingredients for one more cake, so I went ahead and made it. These cakes don't look very pretty, but trust me, they're unbelievably delicious.Elizabeth has been the official present wrapper this year. The only gifts I'll have to wrap will be hers. Perfect. It's so nice to have big girls. For all you moms out there with only littles, it will some day be that you have bigs. And the "Hallelujah Chorus" will ring in your ears. Rest assured, it will happen.
Yesterday I went to Albertsons to do a little coupon shopping. I was feeling a little sorry for myself because I had fewer doubler coupons than I normally do and I knew that there would be a lot of deals I would have to forgo (yes, it's an emotion common to couponers). Anyway, I should have been a bit more mature about the whole thing, but I wasn't. However, I happened upon a happy sight when I spotted a cart full of candied fruits marked down to 50 cents each. Oh joy! I have used up nearly all the fruit that I had stashed in the freezer to make this year's Thanksgiving Bread and fruit cake. I filled my cart full and was delighted when my receipt showed an $80 savings. Woo hoo!In the next few days, we'll bake up some eggnog bread and cranberry coffee cake for our Christmas breakfast. I'd also like to bake and frost some sugar cookies with the kids. We'll continue to read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and ready the house for the family and friends we'll have coming later this week. We are so blessed--very rich indeed.
My heart has been heavy with sorrow for those in my circle who are currently dealing with cancer, loss of loved ones and other burdens. This blog post by Doug Phillips was a good reminder to me today. Our lives here are so very short. They are a gift from the Author of Life and should be treasured as such.
Friday night Matt, Grace, my dad and I went to a performance of Handel's Messiah. My dad and Grace got there early enough to procure us good seats. Matt's mom and some good friends sat beside and behind us. The church in which the performance was held was packed, as it was the last local performance of the Messiah after a three decade long run (boo to budget cuts).
My dad, the classical music buff, had never heard a live performance of the Messiah before and neither had the rest of us. I just sat back and let myself be bathed in scripture for nearly three hours. The soloists were all excellent (my dad and I agreed that the bass and alto were the best) and the choir did a very nice job as well.
We were really struck by all the verses that were sung from the books of Isaiah and Hebrews. We studied Isaiah last year in BSF and this year we're studying Hebrews. I had a few teary moments throughout the evening as I reflected on the vastness of what Christ did for me.
We got home after 10 p.m. My mom, sister and the kids were still alive. My sister got to change a monumental poopy diaper in our absence. I do say, "got to" because diaper changing is one of those skills one really shouldn't lose through lack of practice. I owe ya, Ems.
Last night Grace and I packed snacky dinners in paper sacks and popcorn in cute popcorn sacks that I'd been saving for some sort of occasion. The occasion was a road trip to go see a small town's lighted farm implement parade. We ate our dinners on the way in the van while we listened to Christmas music.
When we rolled into town at 6:25 p.m. (five minutes before the parade start time), only to get stuck in the long line of cars all with the same idea we had, I thought we'd for sure miss the big event. Turns out, by some miracle--and I was praying for one--we found a parking spot for our big van and were able to get nine people, their mittens, coats, hats, chairs and blankets arranged at the very end point of the parade so that we didn't end up missing a thing. The boys especially were very impressed with the big tractors, grape pickers and semi-trucks. I enjoyed seeing the looks of awe on their faces. Isaac was so bundled up he wasn't able to suck his thumb, which he didn't like. However, he started groovin' when a truck playing Jose Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad" went by. We were all frozen by the time the parade was over. We trudged back to our van and realized were weren't going any where fast with all the traffic trying to leave, so I ran into the grocery store and brought back donuts to my crew. The van erupted in applause and "Thanks, Mommy!" So I got to go home with the "Best Mommy of Parade" award which was pretty cool. When tomorrow rolls around and I start cracking the whip on chores and school work, I'm sure that award will be revoked. For now, though, I'll bask in its glory.
Well then, what about the girls? My mother-in-law and sister-in-law came to the rescue again. Grace would wear Lori's kilt, Elizabeth would wear Grandma Dianne's skirt made out of the Macduff hunting plaid. Grandma Dianne also had some wool fabric scraps in the clan plaid, so Elizabeth was able to make cute hair clips for both herself and Lydia to wear.
So for Christmas Eve we definitely did the Macduff clan proud, all decked out in a our festive finery. Except me. I wore a black sweater and a black skirt. Someone had to represent the more understated German side of the family.
