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All eight of the kids decide to brave the frigid weather outside for a chance to play in a rare event, freshly fallen snow.  Over the next half hour, as more of that pristine entity flows from the sky, my children and their friends work together to build a snowman and a fort.  The end result is, of course, a snowball fight.  Kookie, Emmie, Everett, and Abner are pitted against Lyric, Janna, Alastair, and Noel.  They seem pretty evenly matched.  But Kookie and Lyric are particularly sneaky as they pursue each other.  I watch for several minutes as they hide behind snow walls and trees as they attempt to surprise each other.  I think these two will end up becoming good friends. 

Janna is merciless in her pursuit of her best friend.  Emmie finally runs for cover into the house.  My younger twins are launching missile after missile at one another’s heads.  As are Everett and Noel.   I watch them with delight for a few minutes through our huge picture window.  Then I head into the kitchen to make a big batch of hot chocolate.  I’m sure my frozen troop will need it to thaw themselves in a few minutes.   Some soup might not go amiss either.

I head to the pantry to get some broth, canned chicken, and egg noodles, stopping at my chest freezer to rescue a bag of frozen vegetables too.  I return to my kitchen with all the necessary supplies.  As I work on assembling all the soup ingredients, I turn on some holiday music.  Suddenly, I’m swamped by sadness as I realize that all of Jungkook’s beautiful Christmas covers are no more.  But the one I miss the most is O Holy Night.  It was the first song I ever heard him sing.

When Kookie enters the kitchen a couple minutes later, a tear is sliding down my cheek over the loss of my favorite Christmas song sung by a most treasured voice.

“Mom?  What’s wrong?” asks my sensitive, eldest child.  

I lift my face to gaze into his eyes.  And I have to admit he’s barely a child anymore.  He’s turning into a man.  And becoming one full of character and compassion.  More with each passing moment.  I smile with pride in him.

“Nothing,” I whisper as I reach up to cup his cheek with my hand.  “Absolutely nothing.”  

I clear my throat and remove my hand from his soft skin to wipe the tear off my cheek.  “Are you hungry?  The soup will be done in a couple minutes.  Oh!  And there’s hot cocoa in the crockpot.”  I gesture towards the island.

But Kookie is still gazing at me.  “Mom, are you sure you’re feeling all right?”

I smile tenderly at my little – make that big – sweetheart.  “Yeah.  I’m just a little nostalgic.  A while back my favorite Christmas song was on YouTube.  A boy with the most beautiful voice – almost as beautiful as yours – sang it.  But it’s not there anymore.”

His brow wrinkles.  “What was it called?  Maybe I can find it.”

“Sweetheart, thank you.  But it’s gone.  I know it’s gone.  Maybe I had to make a choice.  Maybe this is all a dream.  Either way, I’d rather have you as my son than that boy’s voice in my ear over the airwaves.”  

He frowns at me.  I know my words are making no sense to him right now.  

“It’s fine, Kookie.  I’m fine.  I’ve got you.”

He is still looking at me a little strangely.  But he wanders over to the island and helps himself to some hot chocolate.

“How goes the great snow war?” I ask, amusement lacing my voice.

He grins.  “Everyone just came into the house.  The twins were getting cold.  I think Noel and Everett were too.”  He shrugs.  “And I was getting hungry.”

“Of course!” I laugh.  “Building a fort takes it out of you!  As does plotting the downfall of an adversary.”

I glance around.  I’m wishing I had some frozen rolls to bake for them.  But then I notice the loaves of French bread on my countertop.  I can warm them up.  I pop them into the oven and set the timer for ten minutes while I serve up bowls of soup.

Pretty soon, everyone has invaded the kitchen.  I shoo them out to the dining room table forgetting that Janna and Emmie set up their cookie decorating project there.  

Finally, the kids are lounging around the living room eating bowls of soup and hot bread with butter.  Sipping hot cocoa while the snow continues to fall.  My eyes grow wide as I stare out the window.  We must have over half a foot of snow now!

—

After lunch, I decide to take advantage of the moment.

“Who wants to work on another Christmas tradition?”

“What’s next?” Kookie asks.

“Making salt dough ornaments.”

“Yay!” Alastair and Abner exclaim simultaneously. 

“Can you get the cookie cutters from the pantry?”  I glance around at my boys.  “You can make any ornaments you want.  All we have to do is make the dough.  Then you can roll it out and cut out whatever shapes you want.  We’ll let them air dry and next weekend you’ll be able to paint them.”

Everyone looks relatively interested in this project.  

I glance at my eldest son.  “Kookie, can you grab a container of salt and a bag of all-purpose flour from the pantry?”

He nods and sets off for the stairs, his brothers trailing behind him.  A couple minutes later, they return carrying boxes of cookie cutters.  Kookie carries the flour and salt out to the kitchen while I instruct my little guys.

“Set all the cookie cutters out on the coffee table, and everyone can go through them.  Pick out your favorites.  You can make as many ornaments as you want.”

“Can I give one to Grandpa?”  Alastair asks as he picks up a cutter bent into the shape of a bee.

“I want to make one for Grandma!” Abner announces as he picks up a heart cutter.

Everett goes right for one shaped like a snowman.  Noel chooses a Christmas tree cutter.

Lyric looks interested in my musical note cookie cutter.  Of course, with a name like Lyric, what else would he go after?   “This one is cool.  You could make a music-themed tree if you had a set of treble and bass clefs and all the notes.”

“That would be cool,” I opine, imagining such a tree.  Notes hanging off green branches.  A silver ribbon threaded through the tree hung with white lights.  I can just see that tree set up next to a baby grand piano.  Probably in Yoongi’s apartment.

“My favorite is the rainbow,” I comment as I bend over and pick it up off the table.  “Who wants to help make the dough?  It’s easy!”

The four youngest guys follow me as I head to the kitchen to assemble the ingredients for the dough.  I find the recipe and hand the book to Alastair.  

“Can you read the instructions?”

He reads, “Salt dough ornaments.  Mix two cups flour with one cup salt.”

I interrupt him.  “We probably need to multiply this recipe several times.  How about you each make a batch of dough?  Then you can find someone else to share it with.  That should give us enough to start with.  So…mix two cups flour and one cup of salt.”

Everett opens a drawer and pulls out two one-cup measuring cups.  I hand Noel the flour and salt packages.  He carries them to the table.  Abner gets out four big bowls and places them on the table.  I watch as all four of them measure out their flour and salt.  Then Alastair reads the rest of the directions to all of us.

“Slowly mix in one cup water.  If the dough is too dry, add a little water.  If it’s too sticky, add a little flour.  Knead it for five minutes until it has the consistency of play dough.”

I grab a liquid measuring cup and add a cup of water.  Each of the boys whisks their dry ingredients before using a spatula to mix the water in.  

“Now comes the fun part!  You get to get your hands wet.  Knead your dough for a while.”

Pretty soon we’re making several rolling stations.  Once we have the dough rolled out, I encourage them all to grab their cookie cutters.  Kookie unearths some more cookie sheets.  

“I’m beginning to understand why you have so many of these,” he comments as he glances through the doorway to the dining room table where several cookie sheets are already covered in cookies.

I smile.  “What can I say?  I love to bake.”

“Good thing or we wouldn’t have enough cookie sheets for this whole army to make ornaments.”  He heads to the living room to pick out some cookie cutters.

An hour later, everyone is done cutting out their ornaments.  They’ve neatly lined several cookie sheets with them.  Snowmen, snow globes, bells, airplanes, basketballs, Christmas lights, rainbows, hearts.  Next weekend, they’ll fill them with bright colors as they bring their creations to life with metallic acrylic paints in a myriad of hues.

“Now what?” Abner asks.

“Hmm…Christmas movies?” I query.

“How about we play UNO?” Kookie suggests.

I smile as I remember BTS UNO.

“I wish I had an UNO game with my children’s pictures on it,” I murmur.

“What?  That’s a crazy idea, Mom,” Kookie chuckles.

I laugh.  Is it?  Is it any crazier than having a bunch of game cards featuring the pictures of seven young men from the other side of the world?  Boys I’ve never even met?

I think not.