Pikkujoulu 2020

This has nothing to do with the post but aren't they cute?

I don't speak Finnish but I do know this one word. Pikkujoulu means little Christmas. We started having Pikkujoulu to incorporate traditions from my family's Christmas Eve into our celebrations.

We kept doing it because we like it.

I was there when we were 19 and Adam opened his mission call for Finland.  If I had known then that someday we would be married and that his mission call would eventually indirectly result in me not only  knowing how to pronounce but also how to spell Pikkujoulu, let's just say I would have been surprised.

Life can be wonderfully unexpected.

There is tension between keeping traditions and changing them.

Life changes and families shrink and expand and shrink and expand.  Traditions ground us and root us and it's also OK to change them.  It's OK to have traditions you used to do.

Sometimes life hands us things we didn't ask for and you write the carb count on recipes.

Sometimes we choose the changes and we channel more energy into planning lessons than baking cookies.

I did make Berry Shortbread Dreams, which is what the recipe is called.  Our kids call them jammy dodgers.  They are everyone's favorite and have 8 carbs per cookie.

I used to make several kind of cookies as well as fudge.  I told Emma, "I am not making all the cookies this year for Pikkujoulu."

She said, "I know.  I was there when you were tossing things in your cart at Trader Joe's."

I'm OK with it.  I'm OK with keeping what matters most (a holiday that's hard to pronounce) and getting rid of things that no longer matter as much.  (Although fudge matters.  It does.)

Setting a festive table matters to me.

Does it bug anyone else that that spoon is askew?

What matters the most is the people.

Braeden and Anna and Emma put the finishing touches on the tree by adding the ornaments Braeden and Emma grew up with.  (Braeden said he'll take his in August when they move.  I said take them sooner because I don't want to go digging for them in August.)

Anna valiantly aimed to put the ornaments high because I said I left all the high space for Braeden.

Here I am supervising from the couch. It was an exhausting weekend and brought back all the fatigue.  Also I didn't wear a mask because I've already had Covid and I was too tired to bother.  I do appreciate how diligent our kids are in wearing masks though.

Emma paused long enough to pose for a dramatic picture.  I can't imagine how much makeup ends up on the inside of her masks, but a girl has to be who she's meant to be.

If you're wondering where Mark is in all this, he hates decorating Christmas trees and he slipped away to the basement.

Later, he read Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree to the group and also, for the first time, did the scripture reading that Adam usually does.  It's kind of like when the dad lets the son carve the meat for the first time.  Ceremonial.

Emma sang beautifully like she does, Adam and Braeden and Anna all shared a Christmas memory.  Anna's made me cry.  She has more goodness than it seems a person can contain.

I'm glad she's ours.  I'm glad they all are.