I hope that everyone had not only a magical Christmas, but also enjoyed the downtime week between welcoming Santa and saying goodbye to 2008. Tom had the whole week off (courtesy of the Agilent mandatory furlough program) but it really is a great week to have off and spend with family. Originally we had a mounting list of honey-do projects to tackle, but in the end it was just too much fun enjoying the quiet, playing with new gadget-gifts, reading, and being together as a family to worry about projects. We live in a 1902 Victorian, and with the charm comes a promise of maintenance projects to last the rest of our lives, so what difference would one week make anyhow.

Anyhow, I hope that 2009 provides plenty of opportunities, both monumental and everyday, to spend with all of our families. Here are a few pictures of the "visions of sugarplums" my family had during Christmas.

Like many families, part of the holiday festivities is making a gingerbread house. This year we saved the project for Christmas Eve afternoon. We started with a trip that morning to Powell’s Sweet Shoppe at the Windsor Town Square. What a little gem that store is, and the girls had true visions of sugarplums as they had the remarkably arduous task of choosing their “housing supplies.”

This chimney reminds me of the one at our house!

The dinner table and dessert buffet. My talented sister Sarah created the rose and winter green centerpiece--gotta love having a florist in the family during the holidays!

We never eat anywhere near all the desserts, but between the individual favorites and  family classics for Christmas dinner we have plenty to choose from (and for late night fridge raids for a week to follow!) Here is the gingerbread house; chocolate chip cookies, fruitcake cookies, and bourbon pecan bites; my mom’s tea ring; and a devil’s food cake (the recipe is from the inspiring Tartine cookbook).

Of all holiday desserts, it’s my mom’s tea ring that is my favorite. She made it every year, without fail, when we were kids. It wasn’t my favorite holiday dessert then (I think it was her Chocolate Lacies). But just the sight of it now and years of happy childhood Christmases come flooding back. Isn’t that the beauty of kitchen traditions, the reason we eek out time to build a gingerbread house or proof a tea ring, time that competes with so many other more pressing errands and chores?

The kitchen traditions we find time for every holiday become part of the childhood memories our kids will someday recollect. And aren't we fortunate as parents during the holidays, to reli