American Christmas Traditions

In the US, there is only one day of Christmas, and much emphasis is placed on the evening before Christmas-- Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is a time of family gatherings and going to church. Americans are still largely a church-going people (even if it's only C & E!), and Christmas Eve church services are quite special

The day after Christmas is a nightmare for stores and anyone who wants to retain some festive holiday spirit avoids going to the mall at all costs! Hoards of people line up to return or exchange gifts, each one with a story as to why he/she deserves a full refund without being able to produce a receipt for the purchase!

Another Christmas tradition is to decorate the front door with a wreath. Some people really make elaborate wreaths and wrap them in little lights, but we have opted for the basic wreath-- it gets the job done and the dog doesn't care what the wreath looks like. She just knows the front door is home.

The Polar Express: The Beauty of Steam Locomotives

While running Christmas errands a few days ago, I saw one of the local steam locomotives appear through the trees along the creek. Decorated with Christmas wreaths, garlands, and red bows on the front of the engine, it reminded me of the train in the Christmans story The Polar Express. The sight was so exciting that I raced ahead in my car so that I could pull off the road and snap these photos. I don't know what it is about these steam locomotives, but they certainly draw a lot of attention and encourage the imagination!
Merry Christmas Everyone!

Uncovering the Secrets of Life

The weather's turned cold and my boots have come out of the closet. One of the challenges wearing boots is wearing socks that don't fall down in the boot-- you know, that wrinkled feeling as you realize that your socks are falling down and sinking to the bottom of your boot! Or-- when taking off your boots your socks stay in the boot.

I've solved the problem and have labelled it one of the secrets of life-- MEN'S SOCKS!

When I wear men's dress socks in my tall boots, the socks stay on my feet and legs and don't fall down into the boot.

For really snowy days I wear a sturdier boot with which I wear men's construction boot socks-- they are warm and have a great foot cushion!

Who knew men had it so good?

Rediscovering Old Cookbooks and Soups

Traditionally, in our house the weekend after the Thanksgiving holiday is the weekend to decorate the house for Christmas. Decorating the house for Christmas is not an easy task. After years of collecting Christmas decorations and sorting them into plastic tubs for storage, we never seem to have what we need at the moment we need it. Up come the rubber tubs from the basement-- filled with decorations-- but they're usually the wrong ones! Usually, I find that the extensions cords that I see all over the house during the rest of the year now seem lost, and this calls for a trip to the store. Then, after hanging a green pine garland on the stair railing we find out the lights don't work, so that means it has to be taken down, and after another trip to the store we finally hang a beautful pine green garland decorated with tiny white lights and gold bows. It always takes longer to decorate the house than I think it will!

Spending time and energy decorating the house usually puts me in a domestic diva mood, so even though time was tight, I knew that hungry mouths would be asking about dinner later in the day. Even with everyone running around doing their holiday shopping, we still like to sit down as a family for dinner. However, after so much feasting this Thanksgiving holiday, it was finally time to wind down the eating and simplify... and my answer to simple eating is always a great soup.

On a whim, I reached for one of my older cookbooks looking for a soup recipe... and I found the perfect one in the Moosewood Cookbook. It was a gift from my friend Bernie in 1980. I settled on making a Broccoli Soup which made the vegetarians in the family very happy. The soup turned out well, except that the next time I would whip in the sour cream to make it a bit thicker. Cooking this soup from this cookbook brought back lots of memories... back to my "earth-mother" days and cooking everything from scratch. I remember Bernie and I cooking recipes from this cookbook and sharing our successes and failures! In then end, rediscovering the Moosewood Cookbook and broccoli soup reminds me that rediscovered things from the past can become a new tradition in the future.

Thanksgiving

Thankgiving holiday is my favorite of all holidays. It's so completely American; takes place on the fourth Thursday of November, which also means most workers take the Friday after off. That makes for a wonderfully long holiday weekend! What makes Thanksgiving so wonderful is that it's all about the food and coming home... the point is to have a huge feast with friends and family. It doesn't involve the stress of gift giving or a round of parties to build up to the day, it's simply about having Thanksgiving dinner at home. Every person has a cooking assignment: I always make the jello salads (again, a very American thing!), and Ed has made the turkey for over 30 years! He's perfected it with our favorite oyster stuffing, and everyone in the family, including our German shepherd Fawn, loves it! Phil makes the potatoes and pumpkin pie, Sophia makes the apple pie, and Lili makes a green bean casserole. Michael makes a Southwestern corn casserole, and so on. I love to get up early and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on TV-- that's a memory from long ago when my Mom and I used to watch it together when I was growing up.

Of course, the day after Thanksgiving is when life changes-- the frenzied shopping begins and mall road rage reaches a peak. Some of the stores and shopping centers are opening up as early as 4 AM this year, offering special sales between opening and noon, all in an effort to draw in a crowd of shoppers. I think I'll pass on all of that and just enjoy staying at home :)

Sherlock Holmes Movie

I seldom watch movies a second time, just like I do not read books for the second time (except readings for my doctoral studies-- I read those many times!), but the new version of the movie Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law is one that I am watching for the second time.

This is a movie in which one needs to pay attention. The dialogue is full of nuance, and missing any of the dialogue would make it more difficult to understand the character's motives and details of the plot of the story. Besides being an example of really great acting, the editing of the movie and its use of flashback techniques make this movie well-worth watching!

Opera, Holidays, and Mall Parking Lot Rage

Last weekend's evening at the opera was a wonderful time with family and celebrating a birthday. Every time I go to the opera I like it even more! Supposedly, music changes the brain and listening to music is good for you. I am now searching for a CD of opera arias-- good road music :)


The holidays are here, and even though the shopping rush usually begins after Thanksgiving, my visit to the mall this weekend before Thanksgiving showed that the whole world has already started Christmas shopping! Parking lots were filled and so the ritual of stalking for parking spaces has begun. Parking rage has taken over the minds of even the most reasonable persons! Time and again I saw cars cut in front of other cars waiting for a parking space, or angrily driving around a car patiently waiting for a parking space. Whatever happened to Mom's lessons of minding your manners and being considerate of others?