I love to wrap presents! When I was younger, I wrapped all the presents my mom would send my way - I think it's even possible that I wrapped some presents that I ultimately unwrapped on Christmas morning!
We wrapped up a few presents that needed to be mailed and took them to the shipping store yesterday. (Shout-out to Postal Express in the Trig's plaza - they can do USPS, UPS, FedEx, and even Speedee, and they can tell you for each package what is the best deal!) With luck, they will reach their destinations early next week, before Christmas!
If you still have presents to wrap, oh boy, I have some fun tips and ideas for you!
If you are feeling rather ambitious, you can give this Christmas tree origami gift wrap a try:
This video features not only gift wrapping ideas but other clever holiday decorations for the crafty among us! It even includes a few holiday costumes, for those so inclined - have to make those Christmas Zooms festive!
I'm pretty sure this solves holiday problems I didn't even know I had!
Do you already have your wrapping down? Maybe these embellishment ideas will help you add a little pizzazz to your already-wrapped boxes!
Now that I have watched all these gift-wrapping videos, my main takeaway is that double-stick tape is the key!
Today's post is about Christmas ornaments, but first, I'm going to share our quiche dinner from last night, because it was really tasty:
I used this recipe, and I had everything on hand except the chives, which I just omitted. It was delicious. I feel like the potatoes made it a heartier meal than quiche would usually be.
On to the Christmas ornaments!
When we got married, Bryan already had a whole collection of Christmas ornaments. In his family, it was a tradition that one of the Christmas gifts every year was an ornament.
I was taking a picture of the wooden stocking with Bryan's name, but actually the baby carriage to the left and Yoda to the right were also part of Bryan's ornament collection!
I had ornaments that I'd been given as well.
I think Aunt Ruth knitted these mitten ornaments when I was a toddler.
When I was in college, I drove back from Massachusetts for Christmas break, and I brought some other Wisconsinites along for the ride. When we dropped off Brett near Madison, his parents gave me this ornament as a thank-you for giving him a ride!
This one came from Deanna, used as a gift tag!
After we got married, my mom invited me to pack up all "my" ornaments, and to take a few ornaments from the family collection, for my own tree. Among those I picked are these two:
The feather angel.
The noodle angel.
I think I remember someone telling me that these two were made by Gramma, but I'm not sure of their provenance. I've always liked that they are such different materials, but they have the same kinds of faces!
Aunt Mary has given a number of ornaments over the years as well:
We have a set of these delicate metallic leaves.
This one was purchased when Mary was traveling in Europe - maybe Latvia?
This one commemorates our cookie-baking ritual.
Bryan's family has continued the tradition of giving ornaments as Christmas gifts, and they have given me a number of fun ones:
This one came, presciently, the year we moved from MA to CA, and I was feeling decidedly UN-balanced!
This one was a gift before I had actually seen Downton Abbey - later that year, I finally got tired of everyone telling me how much I would love it, and I watched it. They were right - it was amazing!
We also have a few ornament traditions of our own!
One year, I bought a sheep ornament for Bryan. The next year, I found another sheep. And another, and another. And then everyone learned that I love sheep, so people started giving us sheep ornaments - and now we have a beautiful collection (and a rather sheep-heavy tree)! Here are just a few:
We have also started to buy ornaments as our souvenirs when we travel. It keeps us from buying lots of tchotchkes and lets us reminisce as we decorate the tree each year.
We bought this one at the Viktualienmarkt in Munich on our trip with Bruce, Judy, and Jennifer in 2019.
This one commemorates our unexpected trip to the Kennedy Space Center when we got stuck for three days in Florida while Hurricane Sandy hit New England.
Even during this crazy year, we still managed to find an ornament! We stopped at Yellowstone on our motorcycle trip in September.
I'm told people have had trouble leaving comments on these blog posts - but if you are able to leave a comment, please share a story about one of your Christmas ornaments! Or, send me an email with your story, and I will post it for you!
It is maddening that using our fireplace will actually make the house COLDER - so we have not used it since the temperatures dropped! Someday we will probably get a gas insert for the fireplace that will actually give off heat instead of sucking it up the chimney, but until that happens, we can enjoy this virtual crackling YULE LOG fire:
Burning the Yule log is an ancient custom that dates from early Germanic Iron Age cultures.
Folklorist Linda Watts provides this overview of the custom:
The familiar custom of burning the Yule log dates back to earlier solstice celebrations and the tradition of bonfires. The Christmas practice calls for burning a portion of the log each evening until Twelfth Night (January 6). The log is subsequently placed beneath the bed for luck, and particularly for protection from the household threats of lighting and, with some irony, fire. Many have beliefs based on the yule log as it burns, and by counting the sparks and such, they seek to discern their fortunes for the new year and beyond.
My friend Abby told me a story after the Christmas Tree post about her grandparents in Maine. They grew Christmas trees, and Abby still goes back to their property to cut down her tree:
Each year, her grandfather invited all the locals over for a holiday party. He would take people out on a flat bed trailer (towed behind a 1956 John Deere tractor). People would hop off the flatbed, go explore to find a tree, and when ready for a ride back to the farmhouse, come back to the road and wait for him to return.
To make it fun for kids, he would cut some birch logs, add a red ribbon, and call them yule logs, which he would hide in the woods for kids to find. He made fake footprints, and hid them up in the trees.
Abby says, "It was my favorite part of the event. My grandfather's demeanor default button was serious, yet for this event he was playful. Meanwhile, my grandmother had warm drinks and cookies inside."
Abby helpfully included a picture of a 1956 John Deere (not her grandfather's) - I know we have some tractor fans who are readers of this blog and will enjoy a photo for reference!
The Yule log also inspired a Christmas cake, the Bûche de Noël.
This beautiful Bûche de Noël was made by Jill!
Jill explained to me that when she makes something like this, she rarely uses just one recipe. Rather, she reviews lots of recipes and uses the parts she likes best. She remembers using this recipe, adapted from a Tartine cookbook, for the cake; she also had this recipe from Bon Appétit saved and may have used parts of that too. I have to say, if Jill baked it, I am willing to eat it!
This recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction features a cocoa sponge cake filled with cocoa hazelnut whipped cream, covered with chocolate ganache, and decorated with meringue mushrooms and sugared cranberries and rosemary. Sounds delicious, and also like a lot of work!
Sally makes it look so easy!
While it looks amazing, it may be more of a project than I need for this Christmas - I still have to make my æbleskiver and Glühwein!
One of the many things we are NOT doing this holiday season is attending, or hosting, holiday potlucks - but since I love a good potluck, we are having one here on the blog! And by "potluck", I mean "a bunch of random stuff I've collected that doesn't really go with any theme I've thought of.
First off, some holiday music, poetry, and scripture courtesy of Wellesley College. Apparently Christmas Vespers was a long-standing tradition, but I don't remember ever hearing about this before. Fortunately, there are now such things as email newsletters to let me know about lovely things like this:
My friend Amber introduced me to Jonna Jinton, a Swedish artist who lives in a remote village. She made a video about singing ice, which is awesome, but since yesterday, Dec. 13, was Saint Lucia Day, I thought her Saint Lucia video would be most appropriate to share:
I remember learning about this tradition in our American Girl books about Kirsten and her family!
On the lighter side, we have this creative couple from Finland. They make lots of interesting videos, including this ice carousel:
(They also run the Hydraulic Press Channel. I never knew I wanted to see stuff get smooshed in a hydraulic press, but it's oddly fascinating!)
We've had Swedes and Finns - how about some Russians? (Or just a Russian dance, with music by a Russian composer.)
Last but not least, a classic holiday video that makes the rounds every year - and I still want to watch!
Hope you enjoyed our little potluck, with a taste of everything!
Emily plays the French horn with the Mid America Freedom Band, and they are having a virtual concert streamed live on SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13, at 4pm central time. (Emily joined when she still lived in Kansas City - but since everything is virtual now, she can continue to play from her new location!)
Tune in here to view the concert: https://www.twitch.tv/freedombandkc
The band has released one holiday song each day for the past eleven days, and the concert today is the twelfth day of Christmas, with the release of the final song and the culminating livestream event.
Since we know and love Emily and want to see and hear her play, I thought I would share the videos of the four songs in which she performs:
Jolly Old St. Nicholas
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Florence Price: Adoration (1951)
Into the Unknown
If you want to view all the songs released, you can find the whole playlist on YouTube:
It is often chilly up here in the Northwoods, and we make lots of warm drinks. You have seen my hot chocolate recipe already, but there are plenty of warm (or warming) beverages that feel appropriate for winter.
Although we discovered it in the spring via social media, it is perhaps more appropriate in the winter: Dalgona coffee has been a defining drink of the pandemic. We made some yesterday afternoon!
Instant coffee, sugar, and hot water in equal parts are whipped together to create the foam, and it is spooned over hot milk. It is quite the afternoon pick-me-up, and it's such a pretty drink!
There's a cold (but warming!) drink my family always had on special occasions around the holidays: the Grasshopper! My dad makes better grasshoppers than any I have had anywhere else. He mixes equal parts Creme de Menthe and Creme de Cacao and blends them with vanilla ice cream (which, according to the Wikipedia article, is the Wisconsin variation). It's always fun to have these!
One of our holiday traditions when we lived in San Jose was a yearly trip to the Weihnachtsmarkt, a German-style Christmas market held in downtown Mountain View, CA, hosted by the German International School of Silicon Valley. We attended for the first time because friends of friends have children who attend the school and were in one of the singing groups - and we have returned every year since. (The market is being held virtually this year, with a live stream scheduled for the evening of Saturday, Dec. 12, starting at 7pm pacific time/9pm central time.)
We relished wandering through the craft booths to look for Christmas gifts, listening to the German Christmas music, eating some of our favorite German foods, and getting our annual mug of Glühwein, a spiced hot mulled wine, or the non-alcoholic (but still hot and spiced) Kinderpunsch. Fortuitously, we actually remembered to take a photo last year!
One hot drink we have not tried, but that Emily and Bryan were scheming to make one winter, was the Hot Flip. This drink is a colonial New England classic drink. I think the reason we never made it is because is requires a hot poker heated in a fire, and a vessel in which one can safely whip the drink with the hot poker!
Another in the warming-but-not-necessarily-warm category is eggnog. Our friend Amber made Alton Brown's Aged Eggnog last winter, and it was delicious. This year, Bryan has started his own batch, and it has been in the fridge developing its flavor since shortly after we moved into our house. (We used the last of the Ledgerock Bourbon we bought when we were in Fond du Lac last Christmas!) We will give it a try soon, but the recipe says it can be aged for months, or even a year. We'll see if it lasts that long!
When I was in high school, the Christmas after my summer in Germany (1998?), I remember Grandpa, Jeff, and Joe meeting in the kitchen at Gramma & Grandpa's house during our holiday celebrations for a shot of Jägermeister. I had tasted it in Germany the previous summer - and I thought it was disgusting! Maybe I should try it now that I have a more experienced palate.
On a few occasions, we have had dinner on Christmas Eve with friends who are Swedish. There is always a delicious buffet of traditional foods, and the drink at the end of the meal is schnapps. It is important to sing songs while you drink it! We do not (yet?) speak Swedish, so we don't understand the songs, but it is clear when it is time to throw back the schnapps!
For actual warmth on a cold day, nothing beats a cup of tea. Lately we have been enjoying these two blends from Poesie:
On our hike yesterday morning, there was finally ICE on Clear Lake. Although it was warmer today and yesterday (in the forties), before that we had a string of cold days that left the water's surface frozen.
The movie Frozen came out in 2013, but I didn't see it until well after its release - maybe the following year at Thanksgiving or Christmas? Bryan's sister Jennifer had it ready for me to watch when we visited for the holidays, and I think the first few minutes are my favorite part of the movie.
I love the multi-layered choral music, followed immediately by the great song about ice. These two songs are why I bought the soundtrack! The rest of the movie is good, and I will belt out "Let It Go" whenever it plays, but this opening scene is the best.
Ice makes noise! This Swedish man is skating on very thin, black ice:
For another kind of ice entirely, we have "Vanilla". This video is terrible in hindsight - maybe it was terrible when the song was released in 1989. Regardless, it fits the day's theme!
Glaciers have always been fascinating to me. I saw some from a distance when my mom and I went to Iceland in 2001, but the first time I saw glaciers up close was on our cruise to Alaska in 2017.
Later in the cruise, we spent an entire day in Glacier Bay National Park. It was mesmerizing, and I think I could happily have spent the entire cruise right there, watching the glaciers and the wildlife in the bay.
We loved it so much, we even bought one of the ridiculous pictures taken by the cruise photographer!
We've spent a lot of time in the woods this fall and winter. Our house is in the woods, and we go hiking a couple times a week. It has been fun to watch the change of seasons on the paths we walk.
We call this the Mushroom Tree. It's on the central path at the Raven Trail, so we pass it nearly every time we hike there.
In grade school, we always had two songs to sing for the annual Christmas concert. One was always a funny, goofy song (like that Wookie song), and the other was always a traditional carol. This is a carol my class sang in fifth grade or so, and I have always loved it - makes me think of being in the woods in the winter:
This stone path runs right along the edge of Clear Lake. Red Pine is over on the other side!
We can see much farther in the winter when the leaves are off the trees.
Although we usually only see one or two other hikers when we are out, it's clear that lots of people are using the trails!
We decorated our own little piece of the woods yesterday. We have a perfect Christmas tree in the yard, right next to the house, and we have been thinking since we moved in that it would need some lights.
Meanwhile, back on the left coast, Judy has decorated the palm tree in their yard (with an impressive handmade light sculpture she made herself)!
Wherever you are, I hope you're enjoying a little piece of the woods, whether it's in person, in pictures, or through a song or poem.
I know this is the post you've all been waiting for! For many years, Bryan and I have met my parents, Aunt Mary, and often Andrew and Jill for a long weekend of cookie-baking (and candy-making) in late November or early December. In a typical year, we make a dozen or more varieties, actual thousands of cookies, and we divide them up to take home and share with our friends and family at our various holiday gatherings. (In the picture above, note the phone, open to the calculator, and the notepad for tabulating our totals!)
Due to COVID-19, cookie-baking weekend is not happening in 2020. However, I am officially declaring dibs on hosting in 2021 - I have never before lived within driving distance of everyone, nor had space to host a gathering, so I think it's my turn!
This baking extravaganza started as a way to spend time together remembering Grandma Z. - she was a great baker, and my dad and Mary have vivid memories of her holiday baking. The first few years we gathered, we used only Grandma's recipes, but over time, we've made some tweaks, tried some new recipes, found some new "standards", and discarded ones we didn't like as well. We've also changed our routines to spend our short time together more productively - we have some cookies we now make on our own and bring, already baked, to exchange with the others. When we're together, we can focus on the recipes that really benefit from many hands to shape, cut out, and decorate.
The chocolate snowflakes are a favorite because they're pretty and tasty, with just the right amount of frosting. My mom often makes extra batches of these to take to Cookie Walk events (cancelled for 2020).
The recipes that were our workhorses for years, for white and chocolate cutout cookies, were some of the ones that we have replaced! One year, Mary got some holiday cookie decals made of edible wafer paper from Fancy Flours, and they came with recipes for cookies that would work well with the decals. These recipes were so good that we have never gone back!
These are the best recipes we have found for white and chocolate cutout cookies:
Sweetapolita's Perfect Dark Chocolate Sugar Cookie (We have only rarely been able to find the dark chocolate cocoa powder called for in the recipe, and when we've used it, the cookies have been TOO dark - so we use regular cocoa powder, and they are great!)
The chocolate crinkle recipe is another one that we have replaced - Mary found a new recipe that uses both cocoa and melted chocolate, and it's delicious. The secret seems to be rolling them in granulated sugar before rolling in powdered sugar.
Divinity is one recipe where we are divided. Grandma's recipe turns out beautifully if one is patient and the weather is right. Betty Crocker's recipe is what I make if I'm making it on my own. My mom has started making a no-fail Jello divinity that is fruit-flavored and always turns out; Bryan's mom and sister have made it now too. However, it's pretty different from what Grandma made!
The recipe for these Italian cookies came from Mary's friend. They are rolled in sesame seeds - but we ran out of sesame seeds that year, so we rolled some in poppy seeds instead. My friend Amber loves poppy seeds, so I took those ones home to share.
Fudge is one recipe we have rarely gotten right. My dad and I started making marshmallow cream fudge years ago, and that one is tasty and always turns out well. However, we all agree that Grandma Z. made the best fudge - we try her recipe nearly every time we're together, but we almost never get it to turn out the way hers did - the flavor is good, but the texture is all wrong! After several years, I have a theory: Mary and I both use cast iron pots and pans almost exclusively, and they are great for so many reasons...but I wonder if maybe they don't work as well for a fudge recipe that comes from just-post-WWII cookbook that was probably developed when people using lighter-weight pots? My mom and I made it once, and it turned out well - but my mom has lightweight pots! Maybe the quicker cooling pot gives us the better texture in the fudge? Clearly, more research is needed!
I baked Chocolate Crinkles last week for Bryan's birthday, and I'm planning on a few more batches of our favorites before the holidays, but I haven't yet decided which ones I'll make. Christmas cookies freeze beautifully, so we don't have to eat them all at once!
I will leave you with a video. Bryan watches a lot of YouTube videos of people making stuff, mostly woodworkers. He found a series of really well done videos in German, “Wie Man Macht…” (How someone makes…) This is a 45 minute video of a chocolatier making half a dozen types of “Pralinen”, or fancy chocolates, and it is mesmerizing. Although all the audio is in German, I think it will still be clear what’s going on.
Maybe it will inspire a flurry of baking or candy-making in your kitchen - or maybe it will leave you heaving a sigh of relief that you don't have to bake or make candy if you don't want to!
We love a good jigsaw puzzle. My parents used to get Andrew and me a puzzle for Christmas - and sometimes we would stay up all night working on it! Since we can’t all do a jigsaw puzzle together, I submit for you a virtual Christmas Jigsaw Puzzle.
In the Worm family, the game of choice is often Sheepshead. It has a long and proud Wisconsin history.
For those of us who are not so into card games, there is Christmas Trivia!
