Saturday, December 13, 2008

Tradition

One of the last steps in making Tea Rings
Mom letting Ezra help with the process...

The new face of CenPeCo...


David (my brother) visited his girlfriend, Molly, in Italy, where she was studying for a semester. I look forward to hearing more about their time when I see them at Christmas. The little he has said about it makes it seem awesome- David loved every minute of it! In this picture, they are standing at the back entrance of a castle started in 1201. He said it had a moat and a drawbridge and everything. Amazing!

Daniel and Cynthia (law school grads) on the Pacific coast. Beautiful!

As the boys grow older, I have more of a desire to both pass down traditions and establish new ones for our family. My mom came down on Wednesday and we made Swedish Tea Rings, a Christmas tradition in my family. Every year, mom would make tea rings for Christmas. Tea Rings are made with a sweet bread dough. Butter, brown sugar, cinammon and raisins are spread on the rolled out dough. The dough is rolled into a log, formed into a circle, then cut partially and laid down on the pan. After it is baked, we drizzled frosting on it, then placed maraschino cherries on top. It seemed more like Christmas this year because there were tea rings in my home.





We have the Sollenberger Christmas gathering tomorrow. I am really looking forward to it. I love the festivities of Christmas. We keep our schedule pretty free, so the business of the Christmas season centers around family get-togethers, which I love. This year (finally!!) we get to have a Lengeman Christmas get-together at my parents. My brother and his girlfriend as well as my sister Krystal will be in from Iowa. That means that everyone except my brother and his wife, who live in CA, will be together. 8 out of 9- not too shabby. (By the way- my brother and his wife found out recently that they both passed the bar- three years of law school have paid off and they are done! My brother is now a District Attorney for Riverside County in California. I am so proud of him!)





Asher fell asleep a little before 6 this evening. Amazing. He woke up to eat at 8, then fell asleep so deeply I checked twice to make sure he was breathing! Ezra is asleep, there is Christmas music playing, the tree is lit, we are home, and I am at peace.





Blessings to you this Christmas Season.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

No wonder the tea rings tasted so good! I love the part they play in your Christmas traditions for your family - and look forward to them every year now :-)

What a treat for you and your family to be together this Chrismas!

I can sense the peace in you just through your sharing on this blog and in person as well!
Mom Lehman

Sabrina said...

I love Christmas! I think my mom used to make tea rings -they sound great. Just curious, did your one brother marry a Molly and your other brother is dating a Molly? Maybe I read it wrong. Pretty cool if it's correct!

Charity said...

How embarrasing. No- my new sister-in-law is Cynthia. I'm going to edit my blog now, so it will read correctly. Thanks for the heads up, Sabrina.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't figure out how to comment on your most recent post so I'll comment here ---

I promise to never complain when Marin wakes me up at 7am!
Your title was so perfect. It's truly just another day in our lives as mommies of little ones.

Have a wonderful Christmas with your family. Look forward to a playdate in 2009!

-jo