December 7 - Christmas Trees

Among his many poems, Robert Frost wrote one about CHRISTMAS TREES that I wanted to share with you today:

Christmas Trees by Robert Frost

This Christmas tree dispatch comes to us all the way from Colorado! Emily recounts the adventure she and Arman had cutting down their Christmas tree:

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Arman and I headed to Arapaho National Forest to cut down our Christmas tree. I didn't know that many National Forests will allow you to cut down a tree with a $20 permit. (I saw a choice to buy a permit for Northern Wisconsin.)

We parked off a fire road just north of Winter Park, CO. The road was full of cars; there was barely a place to park! But the forest is big, so it was easy to safely stay away from others. Since we had to be at least 75 feet from a trail or road, we just started hiking up the mountain. After hiking up about 45 minutes, we found the perfect tree. It has split at the bottom so it was fuller than a lot of other options!

I cut it down myself! 

We decided to take the trail back down to the road, which was much easier than traipsing through the snow. We passed many families with young children who were not happy to be looking for a tree. And I get it - it was a lot of work! We were both tired and sore after we got home!

We got the tree tied to the top of the car and I nervously watched it through the sunroof most of the drive home. Once we got it home, we weren't sure it would fit, but I think it's perfect.

For size comparison!

Arman and I were both sore after the experience, but it was worth it!

Emily and Arman, your tree and its provenance is VERY impressive! Well done! Maybe we will be inspired to check out that National Forest permit in northern Wisconsin next year!

Last year when Bryan and I were driving from San Jose to Carlsbad at Christmas, I was feeling nostalgic and purchased a digital copy of a Christmas album I had on eight-track as a child, "Merry Christmas from Sesame Street", initially released in 1975. One of my favorite tracks is a Sesame Street Christmas pageant hosted by Prairie Dawn, and I hope you will enjoy it too:

Read on here for more Christmas tree history!

Last but not least, I have a song for you. It's not exactly a Christmas song, but Christmas trees feature in it, and I think it's a beautiful song:

December 6 - Saint Nicholas

December 6 is SAINT NICHOLAS day! 

From these Saint Nicholas stories evolved a feast day, a whole host of traditions around Europe (and some in North America), and a wide variety of (mostly) related holiday gift-bringers. Learn more here. 

Among them we have:

• Father Christmas - Britain
• Noel Baba - Turkey
• Père Noël - France
• Pai Natal - Portugal
• Sinterklaas - the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg
• Samichlaus - Switzerland
• Weihnachtsman - Germany
• Santa Claus - United States

For a more scholarly look at Saint Nicholas and all his derivations and related celebrations, Caitlin R. Green's collection of online resources will allow you to dig as deeply as you wish!

Some Saint Nicholas Day traditions are, frankly, terrifying:

I think I prefer a kinder, gentler Saint Nicholas (without a troop of accompanying scary minions):

May your shoes be filled with nuts and fruit, or your stockings filled with coins, if you choose to celebrate this day!

December 5 - Ice Skating

It will be a few more weeks until the lakes are fully frozen - and even then, I'm not sure I'm ready to walk out onto them. However, I have always loved ICE SKATING. The folks at Minocqua Winter Park said that the the ice rink should be opening soon, so maybe we can enjoy skating there this winter. (Do our skates need sharpening? It's been a while since we used them!)

I have a poem for you, Ice-Skaters by Elder James Olson. Be sure to click through to the subsequent pages to read the whole thing - the poem spans four pages of the November 1960 issue of Poetry Magazine. 

I have taken several adult ballet classes over the years, and when we were living in Lexington, I was the stage manager for several of the ballet school's annual performances. That was where I first learned about Les Patineurs, a short ballet that depicts a Victorian skating party on a frozen pond on a winter's evening. The whole thing is only about 25 minutes, and fortunately there is a version available on YouTube so we can all see it:

Or, perhaps your ice-skating preferences lend themselves more toward Peanuts: 

After skating, or just on any day when you want to feel cozy, I highly recommend a cup of hot chocolate. Once I learned how simple it was to make from scratch, I stopped buying hot chocolate mix. Here's how I make it:

Hot Chocolate

Ingredients, per serving:

• ¼ cup water
• 1 T sugar
• 1 T cocoa powder
• 8 oz milk (use part half-and-half or cream for extra richness)
• ½ t vanilla
• Optional dash of salt, sprinkle of cinnamon and/or cardamom

Method: In a small pot, whisk water, sugar, and cocoa powder and heat just to boiling. Lower heat and add milk, vanilla, and spices. Whisk to combine; heat to a comfortable drinking temperature. Serve hot.

Tasty additions:

• Marshmallows
• Candy canes
• Grated chocolate
• More cinnamon, nutmeg, or cardamom
• 1 oz liqueur (Grand Marnier, Kahlua, spiced rum, brandy - lots of things taste good with hot chocolate!)

December 4 - Singalong!

If you dislike Christmas music, you should stop reading here and ignore this blog post, because today, we're having a SINGALONG!

According to this study, it is definitely time to start playing Christmas music, so that's what we're going to do!

Hold onto your hats, because the Christmas songs I have for you today are the weird ones! 

In every place I've lived, there's been a radio station that starts playing Christmas songs the day after Thanksgiving (or sometimes the day after Halloween). They always play the classic carols and the pop star or country star covers - but there are also some novelty Christmas songs that have a more regional appeal, and I have heard them in one part of the country, but they're virtually unknown in other parts. 

In Wisconsin, the Christmas song that gets stuck in one's head is this one:

However, in the Boston area (populated by many people of Italian descent), we heard this one all the time: 

There are some songs that never show up on the Christmas radio stations, for good reason! In 1986, when I was in kindergarten, the second graders sang a Christmas song from Christmas in the Stars: a Star Wars Christmas Album in our annual Christmas concert, and it has been stuck in my head ever since: 

(The Star Wars Holiday Special is generally regarded as having been terrible. You can go find it on YouTube if you want to see how bad it is, or if you watched when it aired and have since blocked it out.) 

If that was too awful, you can remove that song from your brain by playing another one that is guaranteed to stick: 

We've had four novelty Christmas songs so far, but no Muppets yet! This one is for my little friend in California who loves Sesame Street AND cookies:

And this one is for Gramma - because I know she loves a good chicken - and this song has six chickens!

Okay, that's enough of that! I'll leave you with one final Christmas song that's more of a classic, and one of my favorites:

Do you have a favorite Christmas song, novelty or otherwise? Share it in the comments!

December 3 - Mittens

What is cozier than a good pair of MITTENS? My favorite pair is one that Emily made me when she had my name for Christmas. They are purple and double-layered, with thick durable wool on the outside and soft light wool on the inside. I wear them all the time!

Emily comes by her mitten-making naturally. Darleen has just completed a massive mitten-making project that I want to share and celebrate here. Darleen made, not one, but TWO, mitten advent calendars, for Emily and Rachel to decorate their homes for the holidays!

For all the crafters, here is a link to the Ravelry pattern page. Darleen noted that she redesigned #6, since she wasn't sure what the design was supposed to be, and the red carried yarn showed through. 

When I was a small child, sitting in the back seat of the car, driving back from somewhere on a winter evening, my dad would tell the story of Granny Glittens and Her Amazing Mittens. It was in a book my dad’s parents read to him when he was little, and I found it online for us all to read: Click here to read the story! (I can verify that my dad was practically word-perfect in his retelling of this story - I could hear his voice in my head as I read it!)

Deanna is the one who taught me to knit mittens, when she and my mom came to visit me in Boston. I made one pair to give to Bryan, and they turned out really well - he has since worn them out! I started a second pair for myself but never got farther than the cuff. I should pull out that simple vintage pattern and give it another try!

If you have favorite mittens, describe them in the comments!

December 2 - Hygge

HYGGE is a word that's gotten a lot of attention in the past few years. ("HOO-gah" is a close pronunciation.) Despite the fact that our family has Danish ancestry and still has some Danish holiday traditions, I hadn't ever heard this word until it was all over the media. Happiness researchers have found that Danes are the happiest people on earth, and there are lots of reasons for this, but hygge seems to be one of them. 

(For more reading on the happy Danes, I recommend The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell.)

What is hygge? There's not a perfect English translation, but I found it described as “a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture).” Learn more on Wikipedia. 

Fortunately, The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking provides a blueprint for living your best hygge life. I recommend getting it from your library! The book is a fun, quick read. 

I listen to a podcast called By The Book. The two co-hosts, Kristen and Jolenta, live by the tenets of popular self-help books for two weeks and share their experiences. They lived by this book, so if you'd like, you can listen to the episodes detailing their experiences:

1. Kristen and Jolenta live by The Little Book of Hygge
2. Epilogue - one week after living by The Little Book of Hygge

(To listen, you can click the links above - there will be a Play button on the webpage to start playing the podcast. Please also note that Kristen and Jolenta use some adult language, so be prepared.)

There are lots of ways to embrace hygge in this cold, dark season:

• Use candles and soft lighting, accents and textures from nature, and blankets to create a cozy atmosphere.
• Choose comfy, casual clothes, and enjoy your wooly sweaters, thick socks, and warm scarves. 
• Indulge in yummy foods like hot drinks, baked goods and pastries, and slow-cooked recipes. 
• Spend time in nature when you can.

A very Danish, hygge treat: Aebleskiver!
 

I am sending you hyggeligt wishes from my couch, where I am wearing a puffy vest, sweater, wool socks, and slippers; snuggled with afghans made by Grandma Ada and Bryan's Aunt Jan, and a down blanket from my friend Amber; and Bryan has just brought me a cup of hot chocolate! We have achieved ultimate hygge already!

Cozily,

Amanda

December 1 - Snow!

 

SNOW is one of my favorite things. I love winter, and I have missed it during the years we lived in California. We had our first snow in our new house the day after we moved in (mid-October), and it has snowed, and then melted completely, several times since. 

It snowed yesterday, however, and it was finally enough that Bryan decided to give the snowblower a try - it worked! Hooray! We will be ready when the big snow comes!

Here is my favorite snow song, from one of my favorite holiday movies:

A couple of weeks ago, my friend paged through an old cookbook she found in an AirBnB. She came upon this recipe:

She wondered if I had ever heard of such a thing, because in doing more research, she found this recipe for Wisconsin Snow Pudding. Despite having grown up in Wisconsin, I had never had this or even heard of it, so of course I asked my personal home economist, my mom, and here's what she had to say:

"I have seen that snow pudding before - always in recipe books - but I've never made it. And I didn't realize it was a 'Wisconsin' thing. I've always thought of it as a kind of wobbly Schaum torte - mostly just sugar and egg whites. I'd probably like it with my sweet tooth! Especially served with raspberries and custard sauce. You should give it a try! It would be a lovely presentation for Christmas. Old cookbooks are so interesting - we can learn so much about people's lives - in and out of the kitchen."

Mom is right! I don't own any kind of decorative mold, so I don't think I can make the Wisconsin recipe - but maybe I could try the one from the old cookbook for a fun project sometime. If you are feeling ambitious and decide to make either recipe, I hope you'll take a picture and share a review!

For a bit of snowy reading, here is a snowy poem: "Snow Day" by Billy Collins

Please leave a comment to share your own thoughts on snow, or send me an email if you have a suggestion for an item to include on a future day of the advent calendar. 

Thanks for joining us for this 2020 Virtual Advent Calendar!

Amanda 

2020 Virtual Advent Calendar - Starting Soon!

Image Source: https://www.nikkisplate.com/40-diy-christmas-advent-calendars/

We moved back to Wisconsin in 2020, but there’s a global pandemic on, so we can’t spend the holiday time in-person with our local-ish family and friends that we had hoped and planned for. That’s a bummer, but we still want to celebrate all the things that are good about our lives - and for us, things are pretty good!

As a way to stay connected and to celebrate this festive season and countdown to Christmas, we’re hosting a virtual Advent Calendar. Every day from December 1 through December 25, we will post some holiday inspiration here on the blog.

You can expect to see:

• Stories, poems, or articles to read

• Pictures and videos

• Songs and music

• Recipes

• Games

• Suggested activities that put us in a holiday mood

• And other fun stuff we discover along the way!

If you are a contributor to the Fresh Bait blog (or if Darleen will make you one), and you would like to volunteer to host a day, please let me know via email which day(s) you would like to post. If you have ideas to contribute, send me those ideas as well. Please also feel free to comment on the posts - I hope you will contribute if you are inspired!

The Fresh Bait blog is read mostly by members of the Worm family - since we want to share this with a wider group of family and friends, it’s possible that we’ll see some additional readers. If there are other folks in your circles for whom this would be meaningful, feel free to invite them to read along too!

Here's to a fun virtual holiday celebration!

Amanda

Deer Camp Memories

Tonight while we were listening to Simply Folk on WXPR, our local community public radio station, we heard this song called "Deer Camp Memories", by Pat Wiley.

It made us smile, and we thought you might want to give it a listen too.

Hope everyone is staying safe and cozy at home!

 

Northwoods Projects

 Hello! Our first two weeks in the Northwoods have been lovely, beautiful, and cold! I've been wearing the slippers that Darlene gave me for Christmas nearly non-stop. And that means I've worn through the floss holding on the soles.

I decided that this time, I'd try a single-piece sole, instead of the separate forefoot and heal pads. And, I expanded it to cover the whole bottom, moving the stitching to the outer edge. I'm hoping this means that I walk on the stitching less, and that means the stitching doesn't wear through as fast.

This is also the first official project (other than unpacking and reassembling a bookshelf) in what was sold to us as a "third bedroom", but we have decided to call the "project room". All the craft supplies live here, as well as room to use them. The couch is here to relax as well, or to be converted into that third bed when guests become a regular thing again.

Amanda was also working on footwear - assembling our new snowshoes! We're prepared for the cold and snow to continue.