A Peanut Butter Christmas

Now that my fever is no longer rendering me immoveable and nonfunctional, I figured I can sit, relax, and write a blog post.

It was the weekend before Christmas…and all through the house…not a creature was stirring…not even a mouse…

Except in the kitchen, where Hannah was busy, making cookie upon cookie, and batch after batch. Because she sucks a gift giving, and baking cookies is way easier.

From about 9:40am to 1pm, and then again from 11pm to somewhere between 2-3am on Saturday I spent it in the kitchen working as fast (yet as carefully as I could) to get my cookie batches baked and sorted. I never know what to get people for Christmas, (except immediate family) so all my friends get their favorite cookies. This year I made two huge batches of snickerdoodles that were spilt among 5 of my friends, 1 batch of chocolate chip split among 2 friends, 1 peanut butter batch split among 2 (the Boy’s were experimented with), and 1 GIANT batch of oatmeal chocolate chip split among a few different people. The baking continued after Christmas on Wednesday when I made a batch of orange sugar cookies for the boy I babysit, regular for my brother, and baked oatmeal raisin and oatmeal chocolate chip for my dad and another family I babysit.

I’m proud to say I did not eat a single cookie, or lick my fingers at all. None of these cookies were made Hannah-friendly, and I didn’t feel like ruining Christmas, haha.

Wahoo for self-control!

With all of my baking and delivering, Tuesday had been long awaited. Who doesn’t love Christmas?

For me, Christmas is about my family. I love holidays like this because I get all my family together. Despite how dysfunctional it can end up sometimes; it’s always entertaining.

This year has held a lot of ups and downs for us, so I did try and get everyone something they would love. For my brother, I bought all four seasons of the original Batman animated series (he nearly cried). The entire weekend (we traded gifts early) every time heard was some other batman scene. I found three new books about adventures on the sea for my dad. Lastly, for my mom, I ordered a bat’leth. Anyone who’s a fan of Star Trek knows that it’s the weapon of the Klingons. My mother is in love with the Klingons.

As I was careful to pick out a few gifts my family would love, my family did the same for me. My brother bought me the exact steamer pot I wanted. I love vegetables, but a person can only make so many stir-fries. Christmas Eve I unwrapped a big box of Peanut Butter & Co. peanut butter. It was the exact gift assortment I wanted, Dark Chocolate Dreams, Smooth Operator, The Bee’s Knees, Mighty Maple, Cinnamon Raisin Swirl, and White Chocolate Wonderful. Mmmmmmhm…

I sat on my parent's bed singing, "I got a box of peanut butter, I got a box of peanut butter, I got a box of peanut butter..." They found it entertaining, for the first half hour. 

Even though my brother was sick and later on my dad and I would find out just how much fun the illness can be, the regular Christmas routine carried on (due to the meticulous “Christmas training” I used to put my family through on how Christmas morning works, I don’t think it will ever break).

We all gathered in the cozy warmth of my parents room to open presents. My parents always tried to teach my brother and I that Christmas isn’t about getting a gift, it’s about remembering Christ was born, and that His life and love is the reason to give. So my favorite part of Christmas is just spending as much time with my family as possible, no matter the size of the present pile under the tree. Simultaneous with being together, is accepting each other as we are. For instance, my mom waking us all up at 8:30 instead of 9:30 because she accidentally hit the hour button on her alarm clock. My accepting the fact that I need to be in the same room with my brother while he hacked up a lung every 5 or so minutes.

(Sick people make me nervous. I hate being sick. I sucked it up to be around him during Christmas, but look where that got me? In bed for a full day straight with a fever that wouldn’t break till the next morning. Well the bright side is my brother’s starting to feel better.)

After presents, my family heads over to my grandparents (basically, we cross the street), for Christmas dinner with my mom’s side of the family.

I even got a surprise from The Boy. He texted me after dinner with instructions to go into my grandparents basement (sketchy, I know, right?) He said there, you would find one of your three gifts. I walked down to find a giant piece of orange wrapping paper hanging from the ceiling.

Behind the wonderful wrapping job, is my very own, heavyweight bag. I now own an object that I can punch and kick as much as I want to without reprimand. I am a happy girl.

This year, dinner consisted of ham, scalloped potatoes, sweet potato casserole, broccoli, carrots, bread, eggplant parmesan, and deviled eggs. My plate looked like this:

A big heaping pile of sweet potato casserole (surely my favorite on the table), honey-glazed carrots, and a few pineapple rings off the ham. Oh and of course, deviled eggs. You can never forget the deviled eggs.

Why do I love the sweet potato casserole so much as to make the usual side dish my main course? Well, one, it’s sweet potato. Two, the silky richness of the sweet potato mixed with the crunchy pecans on top, with the gritty brown sugar? Mmmmhmm.

In fact, on Friday night, I may or may not have finished off the rest of the casserole for dinner.

So as I fill myself with gluttonous portions of peanut butter (one of my friends also bought me a jar of Dark Chocolate Dreams and Cinnamon Raisin Swirl), laugh at my brother as he retells every batman episode, try and get my father to lift his nose from his books, and shake my head at my mother as she YouTube’s bat’leth kata routines, I’ll look back fondly on this Christmas and sit back to welcome the New Year.