Christmas is Coming to the Burston Household!

By Belinda

Last night, the house sparkled with Christmas by the time I tucked in the girls and prayed with them at 9.30. They snuggled into the comforters on their bunk beds and I went back upstairs to tidy up.

It was 10.30 when I headed into the bathroom to get ready for bed myself, Paul having gone long before.

From somewhere in the house I heard...singing. I went into our room that is over the girls' room and up through the heat register came the strains of a hearty duet of The Twelve Days of Christmas. I didn't have the heart to squelch their Christmas spirit. How could I tell two sweet things to, "Please stop singing Christmas carols," when they had just spent the evening putting up Christmas decorations?

By 11.00, though, when I emerged from the bathroom, the festivities were still going strong down there, and their mom would be home at any moment. Besides, I was going to bed! I went down to find Tori and Tippy, on their knees, facing one another in the bottom bunk, playing a clapping game while singing camp songs. Caught in the act, they jumped beneath the covers. I firmly but gently warned of the morning soon to come and the need for sleep and they nodded in seeming sober agreement, but I hear that they were still up when Brenda arrived home from the hockey game at midnight.

Tonight I unwrapped the precious cake that my friend Eileen made for me before I left England in October. I didn't weigh it but it is very responsible for my excess baggage charges on the way home. This cake is a treasure and she makes one for us every year as well as one for Rob and Mum. Ours lasts us all through Christmas. Rob can't understand it--his is gone in a week!

I know that the pile of marzipan on this cake is excessive, but Paul insists! He is passionately fond of marzipan. Nancy, of Nancy's Nifty Nook asked me how big a cake I was covering when I bought four rolls. I told her it was just one. Her eyes widened in surprise.

The end result (at the top of the post) is not elegant. It would make my domestic science teachers shudder in horror; I was taught better. But clumsy though it may look, it will taste delicious and that is what counts around here.

These are Pumkin Pie Squares, which have been the hit of every celebration in our house and church since Thanksgiving. The recipe came from my friend Patricia Paddey’s blog and I share the link because every one who tastes them asks for the recipe if they bake at all.

And for now, merry pre- Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!