Today

Today, I am...

...Cleaning the house
...Reading Possession
...Watching Songcatcher
...Eating homemade food cooked for (not by) me
...Saying goodbye to my MIL who has been here since Thursday
...Thinking about Farm School
...Loving my little bald kitty
...Folding laundry
...Packaging the mint I dried for winter teas
...Knitting Christmas presents
...Basking in the fact that my semester is over

Christmas Menu

Roast Goose
Butternut Squash and Gruyere Bread Pudding
Roasted Root Vegetables
Individual Yorkshire Puddings with Rosemary
Bitter Greens with Pomegranate Seeds and Goat Cheese with Balsamic Dressing

Raspberry Pie
Mulled Red Wine

Christmas Tree 09

I am going to admit something terrible: we have two Christmas trees. We have an upstairs living room (when in romantic moods, I like to think of it as the Parlor) and a downstairs living room (... the Den) where we watch tv, etc. So it wasn't any fun to be in the Christmas spirit in one place and not the other. Last year we got a fake tree for the den. It's a nice, perfectly shaped tree with colored lights. So this year, for our real tree I wanted something that was perfectly misshaped, if you know what I mean. Something with a Scandinavian feel. Like we went out into the snowy countryside with a sled and a saw.

I decided also that because we have a nice tree downstairs just waiting for all of the beautiful ornaments of my childhood, I could continue on with the "theme" for the upstairs tree and use red/white/hearts/straw ornaments. I don't know why I am always drawn to heart-shaped ornaments, but I am. I also have tons of corn husk angels from Prague and various straw ornaments from other places...including Ikea, where I found the most gorgeous straw/hearts/red garland a couple years back.

I am so happy with how it turned out. It looks so great in real life. Why is it always so hard to shoot pictures of Christmas trees? I don't think I've ever taken a good one.

Who else needs a cup of cheer?

Chickens and Peppermint Ribbons

Aaron and I recently re-wallpapered the kitchen. The old people that lived here before us had really boring taste (as you can tell from the living room drapes that we still haven't taken down that are featured in many pictures). Here is the before picture of the kitchen wallpaper:

Blah. Totally not me. I always wanted a red kitchen. Red and white. I didn't have a picture in my mind of what I wanted or how exactly it would come together, but I've been slowly accumulating red items for about 10 years (I was the 16 year old that used her Christmas money to buy a red kitchen clock instead of whatever 16 year olds buy). And so, after years of apartment leases that didn't allow painting, when we bought the house I was going to finally do things my way. And I wanted my red kitchen!

As I was trying to decide on how we should do it, I kept thinking Candy Store. Something fun and juicy. We were only re-papering one wall, the others are painted a flat white, so I could go a little wild without creating a monster.

I think Aaron and I turned into monsters trying to hang the wallpaper, though. It sucked big time. We both agreed that we will never do it again. Trying to time everything just right and align everything was frustrating and by the end we weren't speaking to each other. But now it's up, it's cheery, we're happy.

It looks kind of Christmasy. It's like pretty wrapping paper.

We got some beautiful ribbon candy in the mail -- it's so nice looking that I don't want to eat it. I just like putting it in the chicken by the polka dots, and lifting the lid.

Tree

Confession time: We put our tree up well before Thanksgiving. I was feeling low so Aaron took me to a tree farm. Had I known we were going to have a photo-op, I might have taken a shower and changed out of sweatpants. But I thought we were going to Walmart, and the outfit seemed about right for that kind of shamefulness. Yes, Aaron is wearing two kinds of flannel!

I think we picked a good one. There are a few holes, but you can't really see them because we put them toward the back. We didn't go for the 1/2 room model like last year because, for the first time in my adult life, I have a couch in the living room. We've used futons and day beds and lawn chairs long enough! I am officially an adult. And the cat officially has a new scratching post. Ugh. She's like spiderman: she'll claw her way all the way across the back of it in seconds. I recall similar maneuvers on the box spring Brennan had resting against the wall when we stayed with him when she was a kitten. And Meghan's curtains! Gah. It was embarrassing because I was like "oh, don't worry, she's really well behaved." Two seconds later, she's climbing the walls. We've resorted to the spray bottle. Elf is more afraid of it than she is.

Anyway, this is about the Christmas tree. I had to get in the right mood to decorate it, so I put on a silly sweater, made some hot chocolate, popped some popcorn, and put on the Charlie Brown Christmas album. And all was merry.

We couldn't get Matilda to sit with us

I like putting the lights on first thing in the morning, having a cup of coffee and reading Little Women. You can't beat that.



Now it's December and I don't have to hide my tree. It is open season for the holidays. Bring it.

First Snow

Christmas Recap

Well, the plane landed, the gifts were put to use, the ornaments put away: the Christmas season is winding down. It happens every year.

Aaron and I had a nice Christmas in Michigan. We spent time visiting everyone, including him:

We ate so much food. In the Midwest, everything is made with cream cheese. You know: dips, spreads, fillings, etc. I bet between the two of us we ate more than 3 bricks. We made a promise not to eat cheese until the spring. Yikes. But there were also cookies. I should have taken a picture of my favorite this year: marzipan Christmas trees. They were so good and really easy. It was nice to see my mom. I haven't seen her since June. We usually stay in my great grandma's old house when we go there, and my mom decorated it all up for us with a real tree and everything. It was so nice. We watched a bunch of movies and cooked almost the whole time. It snowed and snowed the day after we got there, so there wasn't much else to do. On Christmas Eve, we did do this:

Which was fun.

And I fell in love with the cutest thing since Elf:

But I couldn't keep him.

I knew that this Christmas would be a tough one financially, so throughout the year I had sewn these little bird ornaments to give to people. I prefer getting something homemade, myself. There is something special about some homemade mittens or slippers or anything else. My dad's mom makes rag rugs and gives me one every year. They're beautiful. I've made a few.
The birds turned out nice enough, but I still felt really bad that I didn't buy anything. I kept telling myself that it's the thought that counts and it's not about how much money you spend on someone, but it still sucked that I couldn't get people the usual junk. All year I was so excited to be making something special and then when the time came, I was so embarrassed to give them out. Whatever. I keep telling myself that next year so much more will free up, we'll be in a lot better shape.

But Christmas was good. Santa came. Aaron and I got each other the same gift, which means that we were meant to be.

Christmas Wedding

In my dream life, I am planning the perfect Christmas wedding. It seems like it would be a wonderful opportunity to combine two special days. However, all things considered, when planning the actual wedding, I didn't think it was very fair to Aaron or his family to go ahead with my vision. We may not be having the traditional Jewish wedding, but I didn't want to be like "here's a bunch of cultural references that you don't even know, based on a completely separate religion, and by the way, we're having ham stuffed lobster and it's on Saturday." It was a hard dream to give up, but I just thought it was pushing it.
So, though I'm not having my Christmas wedding, I'll tell you how it would be. Of course, there would be snow. We'd hold it at the beautiful Inn in Vermont where Aaron proposed, wintery and decked out for the holidays. A few days before the wedding there would have been a big blizzard, but it would have died down to a constant dusting for the weekend of the wedding. The colors, of course, would be red and white with touches of green. I would wear a deep burgundy velvet Victorian-style dress and instead of flowers, I would carry an ermine muff. Aaron would look like a character from Dickens with a deep green velvet suit.
We'd get married in front of a roaring fire and a huge Christmas tree, 20 feet or more, with clear lights and red ribbons. The room would be decorated with big vases filled with tall, spindly branches of red winter berries and we'd hire the Vienna Boys Choir to sing me down the aisle.
After the ceremony, we would all get on our capes (of course, all of the guests would also be dressed in Victorian style) and our earmuffs and we would go outside, where, rather than a first dance, Aaron and I would skate around the frozen pond, arm in arm (of course I would still have my muff), and then everyone would join us. We would have people roasting chestnuts and handing out hot spiced wine and apple cider. The snow would those big flakes that get caught in your eyelashes.
Afterwards, we'd all go in for a traditional English Christmas dinner: each table would have a roast goose as a centerpiece, and each guest would have their own, personalized Christmas gift. Again, there would be a huge tree. Gingerbread for dessert.
And at the end, Aaron and I would be swept away by a horse-drawn sleigh, jingling down the snowy lane.

Christmas music

I had so much fun with the Christmas movie list that I thought I'd write one about Christmas music, which is a significant part of my oddity. I mentioned in an earlier post that as a kid I listened to Christmas music all year long.

I still do. However, my listening has become a kind of dependency. Rather than listen for fun, outside of December, listening to Christmas music has developed into a coping mechanism during stressful periods. For example, during the course of my honors thesis or final exam periods, I would listen to xmas music on my mp3 player on the subway on the way to school in the morning, even in May. I kind of used it like comfort food or martinis: it soothed the rough patches (why am I writing in past tense? I still do this, I listened to it the week I moved here). I am sure that I should probably bring this up in therapy someday.

I know, I'm nuts. The cat's out of the bag.

(Random memory from my childhood that might explain my relentless attachment to cheesy carols: until around the age of 8 or so I thought that "Silent Night" was a lullaby because it's one of two songs my mom used to sing to me as a baby. The other one was made up and went like this: "mommy loves Amber, Grandma Pat loves Amber, Fluffy loves Amber," etc, you get the idea.)

So here is my list of the cream of the crop, the mac-and-cheese, the triple olive extra dirty Bombay Sapphire of Christmas music.

Best Christmas Music:

Charlie Brown Christmas Album - Vince Guaraldi Trio. "Linus and Lucy" is my favorite track. I love this song. I love it at all times of the year, it might be one of my favorite songs ever. It's just perfect. The whole album is wonderful, one of the ultimate must-have Christmas CDs. I would say a close second-best track is "Skating;" it just sounds like snow falling. It's basically my go-to album, the one Aaron never gets sick of during the holidays.

The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole. If only for the title track alone. I would say that if I had to pick one voice as the Voice of All Voices, it would be Nat King Cole's. And just hearing him sing that first bit ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." you know you can hear it in your head) is where that coping mechanism comes in. It's just so nice.

Elvis' Christmas Album - The King. Except for the last 4 songs or so. I can leave those for another mood. I love his "White Christmas" (the only person who does this better is Barry White, seriously) and his "Blue Christmas."

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - Judy Garland. Not an album, but a special enough song to make the list anyway. It's kind of sad.

And so I say to you: the next time you're in the shower, belt out "Holly Jolly Christmas," Burl Ives style. It'll make you feel like you just had a martini (almost).

Newer Traditions: Clementines

A relatively recent Christmas-time tradition for us has been enjoying Clementine season to it's fullest. Last year, we probably went through 6 boxes over winter. During the cold dark months, it's like eating little orbs of sunshine. Clementines are close to the orange I always got in my stocking every year (except even more delicious) and they're Aaron's favorite fruit. I just love heaping them into pretty bowls and scattering them all around the house.

We also usually do pomegranates (this year we're too broke, but it's okay). It's a tradition we usurped from Aaron's family, his mother always has pomegranates during the winter. I imagine the seeds to be little edible rubies.

Happy Saint Lucia Day

In many countries in Europe, including Scandinavia and Italy, December 13 is Saint Lucia's Day, the official kickoff to the (official) Christmas countdown. In my attempt to embrace anything that will get me into the Christmas spirit, I will celebrate St. Lucia Day with a gingersnap and figure out how I can work it in to future Christmas celebrations.

"Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind" - Miracle on 34th Street

Here is a list of movies that one should watch at least once during the Christmas Season. Without them, Christmas just isn't the same. I am on a constant lookout for new favorites, so if anyone has a suggestion, please let me know.

Amber's Holiday Movie Must-Sees


National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation -- The best holiday movie ever. My mom is so Clark Griswold. Fun Old-Fashioned Family Christmas? --We better have it, or else! Best line: "I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is. Hallelujah. Holy shit. Where's the Tylenol?"

Little Women -- (any version will do, but the Winona Ryder one carried me through my formative years) Okay, so it's not entirely Christmas-themed, but Alcott does Christmas so well. This is a popcorn stringing movie...or a movie for that snowy Sunday afternoon, the one where it seems so painful to get out from under the blankets or off the couch. Aaron put it in for me last night and hand fed me popcorn.


Home for the Holidays -- This is technically a Thanksgiving movie, but if you count Thanksgiving as a gateway holiday, as I do, then no list is complete without it.


It's a Wonderful Life -- I know, it's like the Christmas movie, but it's just so good. You have to watch it once.

Scrooged -- I think this is a wonderful remake and I love just about everything about Bill Murray. It's a little 80's, but whatevs, it's still funny.

A Christmas Story -- Okay, I'll admit it, I don't love this movie. It's annoying. But, it's not terrible and you can't escape Christmas without seeing it at least (at least) once because that channel plays it for like 72 hours straight or something.


Christmas movies that nearly make the cut:

Love Actually
Bad Santa


There are various tv Christmas specials that are great, too, like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and etc, but since we don't have tv I'm trying not to think about them too much. And when I was little, The Christmas Toy was the best Christmas movie ever.

Wie treu sind deine Blätter

Those aren't my ugly drapes.


We've had our tree for a couple of weeks already. We got it one Wednesday after work, rushing before we'd be in complete darkness. This year, we decided to go to a cut-your-own farm (see my "going local" post below). Now, when you're in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around except evergreens of every size you could imagine, it's hard to put things into perspective. Things like the width of your front door. Are you kidding?! of course we didn't bring a tape measure. Hah! All we brought (I should say, all I brought, because Aaron was a bit more skeptical) was the knowledge that we finally had our own house with pretty high ceilings and we were going to do it up right for our First Christmas.


And so we walked around, examining each tree, finding it's flaw. A bare spot, a flat side, a crooked top, etc. We find one that looks good, then wonder: will it be big enough? Will it fill that void in my soul that our crappy Boston, 1/2 dead, apartment-sized trees didn't? I wasn't so sure, but whatever. It was getting late, I was getting cold, and we had to cut this puppy down with our bare hands (or a saw, whatever, it's still hard). So we just decided to go for it. So it wouldn't be the biggest tree ever. That's ok, there is always next year.


Cut to the part where we are getting it in the house: oh, what's that you say, you can't fit your end through the door? It's too fat? Oh my. Perhaps we were under estimating. A gentle push popped the thing through and we realized then exactly how much we had under estimated: this tree is huge. It is tall (7 1/2 feet at least) and way way fat (5 feet fat?). It takes up 1/2 of our living room. It's a really good thing that we don't have any furniture because it wouldn't have fit. It's huge and beautiful and it's totally filling the void.



So, after getting it into the stand (and now that we have a special spring loaded stand imported from Bavaria it took under 2 minutes, whereas all my life before I would be the one crouched at the bottom screwing, screwing for what felt like days while Aaron or my mom would hold it straight) we made ourselves some hot cocoa and started the decorating process.


This is the third year that we've used a combination of Red and White lights. The first year we lived together we couldn't decide whether we wanted fun color lights or elegant white lights, so we decided that this was a good solution. So far, it hasn't done us wrong. Plus, with the red star at the top from all of my childhood Christmas trees, it just feels right.


And you know how it goes: with each ornament comes a memory. The Kermit on the sled from when I was little, the red ceramic heart I got for Aaron just before going into the Opera House in Vienna, that time we went to the Christmas thing at Orchard House, buying everyone corn husk angels in the Christmas market in Prague and then giving them to no one but myself. The pink CareBear reminds me of the miniature tree my mom got when I was around 3-4 years old so that I would have something to decorate without handling her extremely fragile heirlooms.


So, for our first Christmas Tree in our new life and our new home, I would say we picked a memorable one. We'll probably remember the tape measure next year.

Christmas Extravaganza

My gift to you this holiday season, my lovlies, is a trip through Christmas, as I see it. If you don't know, I love Christmas. I live for Christmas. It is a season charged with potential...it is what you make it, so I always have big plans. Right around July I start feeling ready for snow and ice and lights and trees.

And it's all my mom's fault. She totally did this to me. When I was a kid, Christmas was a huge deal. We always got the biggest tree we could find (one year we had to hold it up with twine nailed into the walls) and it was imperative that we created the biggest, best Christmas ever. Once, we had two trees: one real and one fake. My mother decided to let me convince her to leave the fake one up all year. The friends who came over during the summer thought it was awesome. Of course, they were 10 years old. But the tree up all year is just a detail. We would also listen to Christmas music all year, too (more about the repercussions of that later). So my mom gave me awesome Christmases and now I'm bent on reproducing that childhood feeling of wonder and merriment. Or whatever. My goal is to give to you the things that make my holiday season great: old traditions, new traditions, memories, favorites, etc. So, even though by this point we are well into December, let's pretend I started this the day after Thanksgiving.

Grab yourself a cup of cheer and let the holiday in.