As we continue our Christmas Tea, complete with holiday memories and favorite recipes, I invite you back to the Shootin’ Star Ranch in the 1980’s. A good ways outside of Houston, Texas, my Nana and Grandaddy’s little ranch house was one of the loudest, happiest places I’ve known. Holidays there meant big hugs, good food, and lots of laughter.
The final mile of our drive to the Shootin’ Star Ranch was down a red dirt road, often in the dark, with the moon “following us” out my window and anticipation fluttering in my chest. As we pulled up to the Ranch and opened the station wagon doors, we were met with the cold night air. The back patio door squeaked open, and loud voices and laughter spilled with the warm yellow light out of the house and into the lawn.
Days at the Ranch were not just peppered with laughter – some evenings were designed just for laughing. As kids, we cousins only caught a fraction of the jokes as our parents, aunts, and uncles let loose playing charades late into the night. Other nights were devoted to “Life’s Most Embarrassing Moments” – an annual opportunity for informal, stand-up comedy, each of us bringing our most cringe-worthy experiences of the year for the amusement of all. We howled and guffawed until cheeks ached and faces were streaked with tears. Eventually, we kids were sent to sleep as the adults’ laughter went on and on.
Sleep was hard to come by with the adults cutting up late into the night just outside our door — sometimes chuckles, often a chorus of belly laughs, it was always punctuated by my Nana’s cascading cackles. Nana laughed with joy and abandon. Eventually we slept, awaking the next morning to the aroma of Nana’s Spanish coffee cake, a delicious holiday morning staple.
My Nana and her children didn’t laugh so easily because life was so easy. She navigated a solid share of struggles and pain. Raising my father and his siblings was no easy task, to put it mildly, and they each had their own share of heartache as adults, too. But Nana lived with great grace and took much joy in her children and grandchildren. When our lives took unexpected turns, Nana’s warm welcome was unswerving.
Grace that Jingles
I think that grace, with all of its second chances and words of encouragement given out along the way, left my Nana free to laugh. Over the years, Nana exemplified Colossians 3:13-14 as she brought up our family:
“…bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Colossians 3:13-14)
When I let go of my strain towards perfectionism and instead see myself as a mistake-maker who is so grateful for God’s good grace, I find myself lighter. When I see my children similarly, recognizing that of course they stumble and need grace, too, I am slower to scold and quicker to enjoy their playfulness. It seems grace given and grace received free us up for joy, and for laughter.
My Dad’s family was not particularly musical, though a few of my cousins are now extraordinary musicians. Rather than carols and bells, our holiday soundtrack was more of a laugh track, but it jingled nonetheless. As my own family enters this last week of Advent, I’m looking to lean into grace, throw off the pettiness that can so easily entangle me, and enjoy my own energetic, wildcard family with laughter and grace. We’ll also wake on Christmas to the smell of Nana’s Spanish Coffee Cake. Merry Christmas!
Spanish Coffee Cake
Ingredients
2 ½ cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
⅓ cup slivered almonds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Mix together the flour, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and vegetable oil. Remove ½ cup of the mixture and set aside.
- Add in the baking soda and baking powder.
- Beat together the buttermilk and egg. Add half of this to the flour mixture and beat for two minutes. Then add the rest and beat for an additional two minutes.
- Pour into a greased, floured 9”x13” pan. Sprinkle on top the ½ cup of crumbs set aside in the second step and sprinkle on the almonds.
- Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.
