Saturday, December 20, 2008

Christmas Cookies & Gardner Village 2008

We had 2 holiday traditions today.  The first was making Christmas cookies.  Originally, we made these to hang on our Christmas tree, from an old Danish tradition, and from days when we did not have funds to buy enough Christmas ornaments to make the tree look presentable.  Cookies were cheap, fun to make, and you can eat them afterward.

Now, since we have dogs who like to eat cookies, even cookies that appear to be out of their reach unless you tip the tree over . . . we just eat them.  But we still make them.  They are . . . anticipated.

After the kitchen had been restored from cookie mess to original cleanliness, we hopped in the car and drove south down the valley to a little "restored" village on the Jordan River situated around an old mill that was originally owned and operated by a family named Gardner.  Hence the name.  Each miniscule log cabin houses a tiny shop.  At Christmastime, it becomes a magical place.

This year it was overcast and threatening snow.  The river was iced over, except for the place the ducks and geese kept open.  Our favorite shops are a yarn shop, a Christmas ornament shop, a toy shop and (of course) a candy shop.  There's another shop which defies description, containing whimsical signs, ruffly skirts and shawls, perfumes and incense.  They always have the incense going ad nauseatum, so only Daughter #1 and #2 can bear to spend much time there.  We've found many wonderful ornaments in the ornament shop (even a bagpiping Santa) and this year we were hoping for a lady missionary, but no dice, so I had to settle for a knitting ornament.  The candy shop yielded it's usual heavenly fudge and an amazing variety of Jelly Bellies.

We did find something for Daughter #1's upcoming mission, but it was at the cross stitch and quilting shop.  We enlisted the help of the proprietress in purchasing it under D#1's very nose without her knowing about it.  Had a little trouble in that all the credit card computer systems went down just then, but D#2 and HH came up with the required cash.

It was a satisfactory day.

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