Friday, December 28, 2012

A White Christmas


Between gifts from family and friends and of course, Santa Claus, we had quite the bundle to be thankful for this Christmas. 


My favorite Christmas present from Mike was his thoughtfulness. He stayed up late Christmas Eve and unbeknownst to me (as I was fast asleep), he tidied the house and baked all sorts of things while waiting up for Santa. 

He even took the time to write all the dishes down on the kitchen chalkboard. 

How cute is that? 

The dishes with the (v) are vegan dishes as we are striving to be more and more vegan each day. 


He baked Sweet Potato muffins (vegan). 
They were amazing! He found the recipe here.  


Take 1: 
This is the face I get when I ask Mike to pose for a picture. 


Take 2: 
This is him contemplating my request to smile like he means it. 


Here he is with his pumpkin pie made with the last of our garden pumpkins. 
He used this pie crust recipe but substituted spelt flour for the white flour. 

Delicious!

Anyone have a fabulous vegan pumpkin pie recipe to share? 

I spied a little still life as I wandered through his bustling kitchen and asked, "Is this wine?" 
He had poured the wine to eliminate the sediment from the older bottle, and to let it breathe a little. 

Was he surprised that I took a picture of his breathing wine? Probably not. 


This Golden Lentil Stew is a new favorite. I think the special ingredient is the chopped dates, along with the combination of the sweeter spices and more pungent herbs. 
This dish is so good over roasted herb potatoes. 
Here is the recipe, although we opted to not add the pasta. 


Outside, the snow fell and covered each and every branch and limb that the eye could see. 


The stillness of that first snow fall is always quite magical. 

I hope that the holiday season is warming hearth and soul. 

Peace
for 
Everyone. 

Happy New Year. 

xo

Friday, December 21, 2012

Gift Wrapping


Now don't you think that jingle bells just make a present all the more fun? 
A gift that jingles is a gift that smiles. 


I also love a gift adorned with fresh cedar clippings. 
The aroma of the wintry woods is always memorable.  

More cedar clippings and jingle bells...

And one of my favorite ways to honor antique lace is to use it to wrap a special gift. 
You can find such beautiful remnants of it here and there. If the lace is longer than needed, I usually wrap it around twice so that I don't have to cut it. 

~

My Grandmother believed that the package in which a gift is wrapped is just as important as the gift that's in it.

I will never forget the time when I was a little girl and wrapped my Grandmother's Christmas present with aluminum foil. I had grabbed a Christmas pin (a kitten in a red stocking) from my drawer (that's childhood Christmas shopping for you) and then proceeded to the kitchen to find my wrapping paper.

I tore a piece of foil off the roll, put the Christmas pin in the middle and then just scrunched it up real tight, squeezing it for good measure.

When I gave my gift to my Grandmother that night, she looked at me with such affection in her eyes and said, "Darling, did you wrap this?"

I nodded proudly as she proceeded to very delicately unwrap my wad of foil. She loved the pin but I think she loved the wrapping more.

She wore the pin each and every Christmas thereafter and every time I saw it, it reminded me of how happy it made her.

Aluminum foil and all.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Grieving




I am overwhelmed with sadness.  
My heart is heavy with unbearable grief for the precious lives lost at Sandy Hook Elementary. 

The teachers. 
The staff. 
The children. 

The beautiful children. 

The families who will grieve for them for the rest of their lives. 

It's just too much for the heart to bear.  


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

'Tis the Season



The house is filled with flowers, cedar clippings, and a Christmas tree not yet decorated. 

I draped cedar clippings around the chandelier. I love the contrast between the organic and the crystal. 


I just love this time of year. 


White poinsettias are always a favorite of mine. I could fill the entire house with them but I only put them up high and out of reach of little arms.


These are clippings from a broken plant that toppled over. The cuttings last wonderfully long. 

I always start out with more elaborate plans for the mantle, but in the end left it sparse as usual. I just love the simplicity of evergreens all on their own. 


I made the little wreaths using some floral wire. I saw this in a magazine years ago and I'm just  getting around to doing it this Christmas. 

I didn't get a chance to force paper whites or amaryllis this year.  Perhaps for the New Year? They go on sale soon after Christmas, so perhaps I'll indulge then. 


The little cedar wreaths make the familiar so much more festive. 

The tree is standing with lots of lights (and hopefully freshly watered...why do I always think of checking the water late at night?), but not yet decorated. 

We'll see if we get to that before Christmas! 

We are finding enough time to eat lots of festive foods however. Mike made a pumpkin pie from the garden pumpkins and then there's those Christmas cookies... I just bought some fresh organic apple cider with some mulling spices, and hope that a warm cup of that is going to replace all desire for Christmas sweets. 

I'll let you know how that goes. 

Happy holiday season to you and yours. 

xo


Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...