Or more accurately, I survived driving ten hours to Nebraska, two celebrations, and driving ten hours back, part of which was in a blizzard. Needless to say, I will not be volunteering to drive anywhere for a while.
The trip north was a dream. Very little traffic, no bad weather, just watching the thermometer drop and the gas prices rise (seriously, it's like a 30-cent difference from Texas to Nebraska). Podcasts were my best friends, keeping me awake and entertained all the way to my mom's doorstep.
My siblings came over and we celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday. We had to work around a very important event: the Nebraska Cornhusker football game. It's basically a religion in Nebraska. Personally, I don't care for football, so my sister and I did some online shopping whilst my mom and brothers watched the game. To properly enjoy our Thanksgiving meal, we elected to have it after the game. and have it we did. We keep it pretty classic, with turkey and stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, and of course pie. Sitting around the table with my siblings, talking and enjoying the holiday, I have a lot to be grateful for. I am so grateful that my family can have fun together. I know many families that can't be in the same room without fighting, or has a set of siblings that hasn't spoken in years. Now I won't say my siblings and I don't fight, and we've definitely had some rough years, but we all want to be together when all is said and done. It's important to have principles and stick to them, but sometimes you pick your battles and set it aside to enjoy the moment. Thanksgiving in my house was relaxed and happy. We did nothing together because we wanted to do nothing. And we all knew what was to come.
A perfect table for our little gathering
Allow me to explain the Deichmann family Thanksmas. My dad's side of the family is huge, so we have our family Christmas over Thanksgiving to make it easier for people to make it. IT's hosted at a church in town because no house is big enough for this number of people to be comfortable. It's fun, but there are just a lot of people all vying for attention and time because we all haven't seen each other in so long. And this year there were babies/toddlers everywhere! A lot of cousins are getting to the age where they're starting families, so you really had to watch your step lest you plow over one of the waist-high humans running by.
Those tables are about to be full. Oh my.
The day starts with a truly MASSIVE meal cooked by an assortment of relatives. With this many people, everyone brings something so we end up having really diverse and delicious spread. Then we all disperse with one of several groups to A) go shooting B) hang around and talk C) Attend to the needs of children (naps or quiet time) or D) decompress and be with a smaller group of people. I followed my sister to her house because I had to meet my niece's new guinea pig, Guinea. Once the guinea pig met with my approval, I stayed to talk to my sister and cousins while their kids napped. Then back to the church for everyone's least favorite part: family photos.
Now, I have gone to many conventions and participated in many photoshoots, which can be seen on my Facebook. Those shoots can get loud and crazy because everyone is distracted and talking to everyone else. THESE SHOOTS HAVE NOTHING ON FAMILY PHOTOS. It's a similar number of people trying to do similar things (all of each family, all the grandkids, etc.) with one major difference. Half of the people there are trying to escape like a cat from a flea bath. At a convention photoshoot, camera-hogging is more of a problem. With family photos, you can get everyone arranged and smiling, then discover there is someone missing. Again. But the sooner we can get it over with, the sooner we can move on to everyone's favorite part: Bingo!
What, you don't play bingo with your family at Christmas? Well, you're missing out. It's really fun. Everyone brings a bag of small unwrapped gifts for the table and when someone gets a bingo, they get to choose something. The prizes are things like soaps and cosmetics, kitchen supplies, gloves, socks, snacks, tools, jewelry, and other little trinkets people use in life. Everyone ends up with a nice little haul of useful things and we have a good time playing together. After this, we generally have a supper of the leftovers from the earlier meal and people who have to travel or put kids to bed start packing up.
Speaking of travel, getting back to Texas was not the chill experience that the trip north had been. I left Saturday night in an attempt to beat an incoming blizzard. I stayed the night in Wichita and woke up to blowing snow. Great. I knew that the longer I waited, the worse it would get, so I had to power through about an hour and a half of white-knuckle driving before it cleared up. But by the grace of God and a recently-replaced set of tires, I made it out of the storm and back to Texas, so it's all good. Time to start the Christmas baking!
Okay, so remember how I said that everyone brings something to the family Thanksmas? My relatives know about my blog, so they said I could bring pretty much anything I wanted. I decided on cookies because I knew that they would keep their quality through the journey to Nebraska. Matcha is great for holiday cooking (if your audience likes it) because it's naturally bright green, so instantly festive! I haven't cooked with matcha in a while, so I decided to make matcha cookies. Here's my starting recipe:
And oh look, i forgot to take a picture. They look basically like the ones in the recipe picture, though. These are adorable and go well with tea or coffee. Without the frosting, the cookies are really crunchy, but as they sit with the frosting in the middle, they soften a bit (I prefer them this way, but to each their own) The green tea flavor is subtle and a nice change of pace if you're getting a little overloaded with cinnamon and peppermint and chocolate.
Sprinkles of Kim:
-I made my cookies slightly bigger than a silver dollar, to give an idea of size
-Before baking, I sprinkled mine with red sugar sprinkles. Christmas colors!
-I hapened to have coconut milk leftover from a curry recipe, so I used it, I'm sure dairy milk would work just fine
-I completely ignored the frosting recipe and made the buttercream I always make with a bit of almond flavoring added. Looking at the amounts listed, I'm guessing the recipe makes way too much, you don't want a lot of frosting between each cookie or else it smothers the green tea flavor.
I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and enjoyed being with someone you love, be it friends, family, or even just your pet. I wish you joy going into the Christmas season and all year long.
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