Tag Archives: holidays

A Christmas tradition: cake for breakfast

We spent this past Christmas with my in-laws in Indiana. It was such a relaxing time–we temporarily got to push the pause button on this whole ‘being adults’ thing and simply chill out. Be fed. Be taken care of. I love passing the adult baton when staying with parents. It’s so nice.

The manger scene had, as usual, been invaded.

If there weren’t little plastic army guys around, it just wouldn’t feel right. It’s tradition!

At least the Hulk didn’t make the cut this year. He was a little . . . distracting.

The other staple in my in-laws’ household is this Christmas tree. They swear it’s the last year for it–the tree is at least half a century old, and is held upright by a string attached to the corner cabinet.

And every year, it’s covered in ornaments. Plastered. Coated. This is necessary in order to cover the old and bare branches.

Another holiday tradition is this fruit salad.

It’s been in the family for years, and it’s always the guys’ responsibility to make it. Or so I gather. Or choose to gather.

A potential Christmas tradition in the making–playing games. My parents gave me both Dominion and Blokus for Christmas, and the fun-loving violence they generate is a holiday must. Have I mentioned that I’m competitive?

Oh, there’s my stick of Burt’s Bees! If you see some Burt’s hanging around, you can bet your bonnet I’m somewhere closeby.

However, my absolute favorite Christmas tradition is eating angel food cake for breakfast on Christmas morning. I make it Christmas Eve, and leave it to cool overnight, hanging upside down over a beer bottle.

It all started when we were young things. To get us little tykes to focus on Jesus’s birth instead of just the enticing pile of presents, my parents would make a birthday cake for Jesus, and we would sing him “happy birthday.”

In the words of my Mom, “Having a candle and singing Happy Birthday is something young children can relate to, and helps keep the ‘real meaning of Christmas’–Jesus’ birthday–in the picture for them even if they don’t get all the theology.”

The angel food cake is white to represent how God created us in his image, perfect beings in a beautiful garden.

Dad would read from Genesis:

God saw all that he had made and it was very good.  (Gen 1:31)

Then we smeared the cake with raspberry jam.

This represents sin entering the world and tarring humanity, so we would read about Adam and Eve’s disobedience in Genesis chapter 3. There’s probably a deep metaphor underlying it all about sin tasting delicious, but let’s leave that for future ponderings.

Finally, we top the whole thing off with generous poofs of freshly whipped cream. We put the metal bowl and mixer attachments in the freezer for maybe 20 minutes prior to the whipping process–I’m told it helps the cream poof better.

Slather on that cream! We have to cover every bit of that raspberry jam! This repesents Jesus coming to earth and making us righteous and pure through his perfect life and death.

We read from Isaiah:

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”  (Is 1:18)

And then we serve it up!

Over the years we have stopped singing happy birthday, but we continue to make the cake and read the Scriptures. If you’re interested, my diligent mother typed up a Word document with the complete passages we’ve read throughout the years. Thanks Mom! Now I don’t have to scratch my head every year and ask myself “Now what is it exactly we read?”

I leave you with a picture of my husband with his brother and dad. I just love Christmas, and I just love these guys!

A gathering of friends

My husband has this group of friends. They go back to their high school days. And when I married him, well, they became my friends, too. In 2003, we started having New Years together, every year. Personally, I’ve been to about 5 out of the 8 parties. People have traveled from North Carolina. From Delaware. From Louisianna. And probably from other places that I can’t remember! And we converge at this party.

Some of these folks I get to see throughout the year . . .

. . . but some I only see at this event.

Hi Brad! I’ve only met you twice in my life. But I love you, man!

And Laura–I hadn’t seen her for years! She’s probably going to end up being one of the high-powered people of our nation. She’s got the smarts, she’s (almost) got the law degree, and she makes a beautiful party mask. Here she is admiring Steph’s freshly pressed engagement ring.

Last year we hosted the party at our apartment in Chicago, and it was the first time I truly realized how much work goes into preparing food, drink, and bedding for a dozen people. So this year, I want to thank Dave and Katie, our marvellous hosts, for doing all the actual work.

It was great to just show up, decorate some cupcakes, party, and leave. Heck yeah.

The cupcake decorating was a blast. Katie has all these fun tools, and had different batches of icing done up in blue, purple, red, and black. I piped little flowery shapes all over those cupcakes, and called it ‘art.’

My husband also piped some icing on some cupcakes. I like to call his weird-shaped amorphous piles of frosting ‘abstract art.’

Katie had also prepared a mask-decorating table, where we decked out our masks in sequins and feathers.

Everyone got really into it.

Hello husband of mine! Wait . . . where is your face? And why is it all covered in hair???

Brad’s Batman mask may just take the cake.

One cake for you, coming up.

Here’s my almost finished mask . . .

Let’s put it on and check out those cupackes again.

Wow, they look even more amazing through these little eyeholes.

The guys were all over things this year. First of all, Alex and my husband salvaged the roast when the roasting bag split.

Good job guys! You enabled us all to get our protein fix for the evening.

And I love this picture below–each guy is so focused on whatever his task is. And where are the girls? I honestly have no idea. Probably in the other room mixing up a juicy drink.

Way to be men! Way to get things done! Way to carry that table outta there! Each one is in his own little task-shaped world, and yet they are working in harmony to some kind of unifying man-rhythm. I should probably say something deep about manhood and gender as it’s revealed in this moment. But I can’t think of a single deep thing. I’m too distracted by thoughts of a roast.

With each year that passes, the celebration gets sweeter and sweeter for me. Because each added year of friendship with this group also adds a layer of love.

I like my love how I like my frosting: no skimping allowed!

Soon I’ll be telling you all about the amazing game we played–it’s great for large groups of people, and is guaranteed to have you splitting your sides with laughter.

In the meantime, a toast to friendship! A toast to stickin’ together through the hard times and fun times alike! And this party was definitely in the ‘fun’ category.

The only individual who wasn’t amused was Tom Brady, who napped on the bed, completely unimpressed.

You missed out big time, cat.