Baking Day

I was exhausted last night. I spent about 12 hours baking. I made 11 loaves of Portuguese Sweet Bread, 6 dozen hand-dipped truffles, two batches of cream cheese pastry, and two batches of refrigerator cookies and 5 pounds of fudge. When I write it out like this, it seems like so little, yet it was so much work and so time consuming! I actually made the fudge and refrigerator cookies on Saturday.

It was so much work, but also fun and worth the effort because the goodies are such an important part of the traditions that my kids love so much. They really hate it when anything changes about the holidays. There is no such thing; in my eyes, as saying, if I don't have time or money, I just won't bake this year. It is too special to my kids and makes them so happy, I just won't compromise on that. I've seen how much deviation from the norm upsets them. Last year, my mom stopped her annual tradition of giving each kid a personalized Christmas ornament on Thanksgiving. My kids were devastated! They were upset again this year, although not as upset as last year, since they had been hoping she only took one year off, but no such luck. I remember how much I loved the holiday traditions when I was a kid, like getting a Life Saver's Christmas Book every year. I guess since the kids of this generation are being raised in such a scary and tumultuous world, keeping things the same is more important than ever.