Starting the New Year off Right

This year, we have decided to start the New Year off the right way. This year, we are heading out on New Years Eve to the last place in the states to ring in the new year, Kauai. I’ve never been anywhere tropical before. I’ve always thought that hooded sweatshirts and wool socks were typical beach wear. So the thought of sipping Mai Tai’s on warm sandy beaches and swimming in warm ocean water is delightful.

In the meantime, we will return to see these cut nectarine branches in bloom (hopefully), our annual cover crop sprouted (which we just now finally planted!), and the excitement to start a new year. This year will be a good year, I can feel it. I have a lot of fun ideas for this blog space for when I return. Have a very Happy New Year. I’ll drink a mai tai for you all!

Merry Christmas to You All

Oh sure, we don’t do snow much around these parts, but we do make a mean snowflake waffle in our kitchen.
Here’s to wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Any Norwegian Readers Out There?

This past weekend my sister called the ladies of the family together for a Lefse making party. Lefse, a potato based tortilla, has always been a staple at our annual family Christmas get togethers, but for years now, since my Norwegian grandmother became older and then passed away, we’ve only had store bought from Nordic House in Oakland. Store bought lefse are pretty awful when you compare them to homemade. The flour-y, potato-y smell of a fresh grilled lefse is such a familiar and comfortable smell to me. Spread it with butter, roll it up and enjoy.

With my father recruited to watch all the little grandchildren we mustered up every last cell of Norwegian blood we have left in our bloodline, got out the funny looking lefse rolling pin, rolled up our sleeves, covered ourselves in flour and got to work.

After you roll them out, you need a this special flat lefse stick (this one my father crafted) to slide underneath, lift it up and lower and then roll it onto the griddle.

A stovetop griddle is far slower than the hearth top cooking that my dad remembers as a kid, but we built up a nice little pile of lefse. And the joy of getting together as a family over the holidays to carry on a family tradition that almost got lost was priceless. There are so many traditions associated with the holidays, new ones that my little family have created, ones that I remember from my childhood, but to participate in one that has been in our family line for generations upon generations was very special. Thanks for getting us all together, Marga.

Although, contrary to the family history, we decided to skip the Lutefisk.

Do you have any long lived holiday traditions in your family?

‘Tis the gift to be free

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

No, this post doesn’t have anything to do with gardening or food or any of my normal topics, but when my four year old filed into this soulful theater with the rest of his little schoolmates singing this it made me all teary eyed and I thought I would share. We send him to a Montessori school in our 100 year old community center that places strong emphasis in developing each childs true sense of being, something that is very important to Scott and I. We hope in this big world full of commercialism and keeping up with the Jones’ that both of our boys figure out just who they are and find the place that is just right for them.

May we all find the place that’s just right for us.

Slowing Down in December

I’ve had such a hard time putting words together on screen lately. Thoughts have been rushing through my head like wild fire and I’ve composed entire posts in my head while waiting to fall asleep. I’ve even imagined clicking ‘post’. Have you received those insomniatic posts on your RSS feeder? Those are always the good ones, the ones virtually written in the wee hours of the night without a pen in sight. This week, I hope to actually get them to you.

Each year in December I try to inject a little more meaning behind my Christmas decor and take out some of the glittery lamé. While I’m not quite ready to sign us up for a No Shop Christmas or anything drastic, I do what I can to slow Christmas down, to be actually be present in the season, and I avoid shopping centers at all costs. And maybe it is an overly romantic idea, but I try to keep the consumerism down for my two young boys to a minimal level. We don’t show them cartoons that show commercials and we make doubly sure that this doesn’t happen at this time of year. I’ve found that filling our house full of things that remind me of the true merriment of the season helps focus me.

Last year I read about how in Germany, at the begining of December they take a pruning of their apple tree, put it in a vase inside and in about 20 or so days it will be in full bloom…just in time for Christmas. It just so happened that the day I read that article, Scott happened to be pruning our dormant apple tree so I took a few branches and put them in a tall vase on our mantle. With a healthy dose of scepticism but with my ever ensuing hope, I kept the vase full of water. And wouldn’t you know? Right around Christmas Day it burst open with little pink blooms. I was all ready to show you how we did this this year, but it was such a warm fall that our apple tree is still full of leaves. However if its been cold where you live and the apple trees have lost their leaves, give it a try. Seeing those little pink flowers during the longest, darkest days of the year is a welcome sight indeed.

This year, however, I bought this Swedish welcome star (pictured at the top). And I just love it. I’ve never been to Sweden, but I’ve read that they place these in their front windows to symbolize light in the long dark days and to welcome visitors to their house. We don’t have a front window to place this in, but I put it in front of this old mirror in our family room and the beautiful light gets reflected all over our living area. Sitting next to the music box angel that I inherited from my grandmas house makes it even more meaningful.

What do you do to celebrate the holidays that’s a little more natural and a little less consumeristic?