Holiday traditions, like spending all day making special meals with family, are special. The memories of these days we carry with us through our lives, and they sustain us through the toughest of times. As many of us move into our tenth month of social distancing and/or quarantine, the need for joy and tradition feels all the more important. Here in The Wee Laird’s Kitchen we (like so many others around the world) are feeling the isolation from family acutely. With Nanny & Poppy in Florida, Granny Mya in Texas, Great Gram & Great Da, as well as Grammie & Papa at a significant drive – we are sad to miss the big family gatherings – but happy to live in a time when video chat exists!

This last week, after being in quarantine for a few weeks and following rigorous temperature taking precautions, we got to spend the day with Bear and Lion’s Grammie making butterballs for Christmas. It was a wonderful day with lots of love and laughter! We made three batches of butterballs so we can share with others and have a few leftover in the freezer for a snowy day.

It’s going to be a long time (though hopefully not too much longer since the vaccines are coming out this month) before we can see all of our family again in person. So this year many of our traditions will be over video chat. But at least for one day between all the holidays and craziness that is this year – we were able to spend a little time with someone special to us. Because our lives are more complicated than ever, and we don’t get to visit on a whim, I took the opportunity to record the wee Lairds time with their Grammie. I love to have these videos of us all just hanging out. I like watching them right away – but also love the idea of having them for the boys to look back on in 20 years. Perhaps it’s selfish of me – because the truth is I wish I had videos like this of time spent with my grandparents, for myself as well as for my wee lads to be able to see.

We hope you all are staying safe – and connecting with loved ones in what ways you can. From video chat gatherings and social media life updates, to conference calls and socially distanced drinks between neighbors – keeping in touch and keeping joy alive is more important than ever!

From all of us here in The Wee Laird’s Kitchen – we wish you good health and happy cooking from our kitchen to yours!

You can find the recipe and our previous post for butterballs <- here.