I’ve got a morning to myself after several busy ones. It’s 25 degrees out. I’m typing instead of bundling up, hoping it’ll be a tad warmer when Finn and I head out.
It’s decided! My Christmas Eve menu, that is: lasagne and tangy green salad with something interesting in it — shallots and pumpkin seeds maybe?
It will be just six of us, the boys elsewhere. Our plan is to see them for a few days of skiing at the end of January, which as you may remember is the trip we cancelled last year because the Omicron numbers were going through the roof.
Anyone else reading about Long Covid and sudden unexplained deaths of the young and middle-aged and freaking out?
I keep turning down invitations. Yes, I flew to California and will fly to Colorado next month. Maybe that’s enough risk for the winter?
There was a poetry reading downtown on Sunday. Oh how the refusals tugged at me!
But a friend has launched a publishing company and this was their first reading of their first publication. I had to go. Had to.
A box of masks sat on a stool near the door. Most attendees wore one. A latecomer patted her purse and exclaimed that she’d forgotten hers. I pointed to the box. Again she said she had no mask. Again I nodded toward the box. “Oh, maybe I’ll just be brave!”
BRaVE?
I’m still thinking about that.
There’s my paper doohickey from Nancy. It directed me to do five jumping jacks on my walk this morning and maybe I will! Why not? These beautiful African combs were a gift from a friend many years back. I love them but plan to ship the set to New Mexico to thank a new beta reader. A recent application of walnut oil really made them look beautiful.
My querying is on pause while I absorb these new comments.
Next week, the 1/6 Committee will convene for the last time on Monday, probably to vote on criminal referrals. On Wednesday, 12/21, their report will be made public. THAT is where my heart and mind is. Not on Christmas Eve or Christmas. The holiday isn’t there quite. It just isn’t there. Anyone else feeling this way?
A menu is a first step. Getting a tree will help. Always love the smell and the glittery lights.
But gifts? Ugh. You’d never know I’m someone who used to start gathering presents in early September, that I’m someone with a gift cupboard. How much is age? How much is Covid? How much is the boys being so far away?
I ask myself these three questions all the time.
PS The third synchronistic event mentioned a bit ago is to remain private.
PPS California paragraph or two to come.
Dec. 21, Winter Solstice, the coming of the light, the possible criminal referrals…will the light of justice prevail ???
As always, I send you my yearly old Celtic Winter Solstice blessing because we all need this:
Deep peace of the running waves to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
May the beauties of the earth, sky and sea
Fill your heart with lasting peace and contentment.
*************************************************************
No tree indoors since out baby Colorado blue spruce is too heavy to bring indoors, it is not tall but full and is outside by our front door decorated simply with old ribbon that spells out joy, a luscious green ribbon that came with a Harry and David wonderful gift pkg from our kids when we could not make it to CA for Thanksgiving. The tree has dried orange slices, something I make very year to signify the coming of the light of Winter Solstice, old tiny pine cones from when we lived near the Cascades in WA, yellow cloth strips,dancing tatterly in the wind, dyed a soft mellow yellow from golden rod to signify the old use of candles on trees and this year, two red cardinals, to r4emind me of my dearly loved son in law’s British Dad, Harold, who always sent us Christmas cards with red cardinals.
Inside, a grapevine wreath that I made years ago with photo ornaments that our grand kids, Wolf and Rowie, gave us plus photos of Erika and Adrian, their parents, photos of our other twin daughter, Shelley and her dear man Grant and photos of Rich and I, Rich bedecked with the green ribbon from the Harry and David gift and me with it tied into my hair before we put it out on our tree. Tiny fairy lights are on our houseplants and on the wall, a long dark green velvet ribbon with 45 year old German Christmas post cards that I gave to my girls in their advent calendar when they were five. A basket with some pine cones, and a dearly loved old book of Christmas Memories and Recipes. The kitchen table has a round wooden fruit bowl with the fruit shaped sort of like a Della Robbia wreath and I also have a tiny beeswax candle on an old candle holder and a clay salsa pot filled with dried red Chiles. Our frig has a snowy postcard from a friend from Norway, and a card that so reminds me of my husband as a little boy in Minnesota. It shows a boy, about 8 yrs old, wearing a ski hat, parka and his tongue stuck to a steel pole, snow all around… and that’s it- no glitz or glamour, just old dearly loved decorations……
Lasagna is such a good meal for Christmas Eve, I have made it many years but this year, I can’t be bothered and want only to nosh: shrimp cocktails, pate with crusty french bread, baked brie, candied pecans, marinated olives, and imported mincemeat pies from England plus eggnog. Christmas dinner will probably be a ham but I am also looking at duck..
Your salad sounds grand: I have a recipe for salad that uses pumpkin seeds, avocado, tangerines and serves 6: I call it my Joyful Salad.
2 red leaf lettuce
2 tangerines, peeled and sectioned
1 red onion thinly sliced
1 avocado, sliced
6 Tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds
Salad dressing:
2-3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
3/4 tsp ground cumin
Flaky salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/3-1/2 good olive oil
Whisk dressing and pour just before sitting down to enjoy your meal.
What a description! If this doesn’t get my readers into a Christmas spirit, nothing will. I’m going to read it again later to take in every detail. I most love the spruce with its symbolic “ornaments.”
A touch of citrus in the salad sounds delicious and it’s not something I usually do, so thanks for that idea. Probably skip the cumin though.
HOW VERY MUCH i ENJOY YOUR DAILY POSTS. tHANKS FOR THE WONDERFUL WORDS AND FANTASTIC PHOTOS SHARED.
You’re welcome. Are you okay Kristin?
Lasagna sounds really good .. it’ll only be the three of us Christmas Eve but it does freeze really well 🤔 also thinking of watching a Christmas Movie .. any suggestions would be welcomed. Your Africa combs look lovely .. years ago my brother carved a wooden comb for each of his six sisters. He calls me every Sunday .. I just think that is so sweet. Im glad that you recently got to spend time with your brother.
Wow. What were the combs made of. That’s kind of an amazing gift.
As for movies, I love LAST HOLIDAY with Queen Latifah. LOVE ACTUALLY is an old standby. And a recent addition? LOVE HARD.
Oh, Dee love those combs! Reminded me a tad of those wooden men I sent you ages ago. Anyway, these are super cool. And your in way more spirit than me…my mind’s been all over the place.
I think they might be made of the same wood. Looks alike anyway.
a paraphrase came to mind, from my long-ago churching … “in this house are many houses” … I never did quite understand the biblical “many mansions” … but I do love your stitched village within a house
lasagna on Christmas Eve and prime rib for Christmas dinner are classic go-to menus in our family … but one year my then-teenaged daughters made Christmas dinner when I was flattened by an extremely bad back … they used a Jamie Oliver cookbook to put together a masterful meal of pan seared scallops, an oven roasted horseradish potato cake, and a lightly dressed salad with red grapes, asiago and pine nuts … seems like yesterday, but it had to have been twenty years ago
That Jamie Oliver meal sounds amazing. And special, given the price of scallops. Well, these days anyway.
i still laugh myself sick watching ‘a christmas story’ every year. ‘a charlie brown christmas’ with its wonderful vince guaraldi soundtrack. if you’ve never seen ‘Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas,’ it’s a muppet rarity. one i love that seems to have dropped off the radar is ‘olive, the other reindeer,’ based on the wonderful children’s book.
Oh thanks for the recommendations!