My favorite part of Christmas is the anticipation that Advent brings.
I love the twinkling lights, the decorations, the candles, and the music. They all add to the anticipation of the season – that feeling of getting ready for something special.
It was not always this way – I grew up in a house where we did not put up a tree until Christmas Eve – and most years we took it down on the day after Christmas.
Perhaps because of that, the minute I had my own place – Christmas anticipation started early! Most years, decorating began the day after Thanksgiving – and I kept the decorations up until Twelfth Night. And, trees – I put up more than one. There was a “fancy” living room tree, a Santa Tree in the den, Kitchen Tree, and small trees in the bedrooms. But the best tree was the “kids tree” that they could decorate or undecorate as often as they wanted!
Christmas now is a more relaxed affair – there are not trees everywhere but, the anticipation of getting ready for something special is the part of Christmas that I hope to never let go.
For this week’s Think Write Thursday we are welcoming December with a hearty hello:
Hello, dear December,
I love you so much, but you can be a bit overwhelming at times.
With the flurry of activities that you bring, it seems that you can be over and done with before I even know it.
This year let’s try something different, shall we?
I think we will both be much happier if we slowed down and savored the season.
I love the anticipation that is Advent…my savoring plan to appreciate Advent each day will start with some Advent meditation.
I love the decorating portion of preparing for Christmas. The tree is up, the lights are on – but there are no ornaments on yet. AND – the tree in this state is not making me crazy! I know, right? My savoring plan for tree trimming is that it will be part of this Friday’s Happy Hour celebration – cocktails, good eats, music – and Steve and I will trim the tree together.
I love the foods of Christmas, and especially the sweets. However, all those sweets are unnecessary – and don’t fit in with the diet very well. My savoring plan for cookie baking will be to bake just one or two favorites – and it a manageable quantity (not dozens and dozens of cookies of a million different types!) And, these will be things to savor – one or two at a time – over the course of the month.
Other things to that I will be doing to remind myself to slow down and savor… tune out the news and tune in the Christmas music or turn off the television and open a book and read – things that are a good reminder that the world will keep, but December won’t.
I am glad you are here December and I am looking forward to spending some quality time together!
If you’d like to join Carole and me on our Think Write Thursday journey you can sign up here!
So, today – I am going to challenge you all to spend some time today thinking about what or who you are thankful for.
It can be things – we are indeed a rich country with an abundance of things! Things like running water, heat, transportation, a multitude of shopping choices, with a multitude of items to choose from. Or things like a table full of food today – perhaps celebrating with friends and family.
But, what about being thankful for the intangible things. Things like kindness, good will, open-minds, open-hearts, love, and peace.
I will share my thankful list, but I will be thinking about this numerous times today – and as I learned with Michelle – in the course of a day, the things you think about can change dramatically. Powerfully. Exponentially. But, here is my start:
Food that is so abundant and has been prepared with love
Steve – who will share this quiet day with me
Family – who while they might be far away, they are always close in my heart
Quiet morning meditations that help me center my day and myself
Pandora’s timely email yesterday with a list of Thanksgiving stations which will keep me from driving Steve crazy with Christmas music (rather now I can do that with Thanksgiving music instead!)
Today, whether you are with family and friends or are celebrating alone – I will be thinking about all of you, with deep thanks in my heart for our paths crossing – even if it is only here on the internet.
If you would like to join us on Think Write Thursdays, Carole and I would love to have you! You can sign up here.
Happy Thanksgiving, dear friends. May your day be overflowing with thankfulness.
This weeks Thing Write Thursday has us all thinking about our favorite Thanksgiving recipe.
Now, for me the Thanksgiving meal at my Nana’s house was the Christmas meal as well as the Easter meal. I loved it as a child, that continuity and comfort of those deliciously familiar foods lovingly made from scratch by my Nana. The one exception were the pies (yes plural – pumpkin, apple, and lemon meringue) that my Aunt Arlene made…she is quite simply the best pie maker I have ever known.
From the ham and turkey (yes, both!) to the insanely good mashed potatoes, to the stuffing, to the gravy – it was a feast fit for kings! And it was always at my Nana’s house – where there were two eating areas. The eat-in kitchen where the grand-kids and the aunts all sat and the living room where the uncles all watched football on TV. (Please note, my Nana never sat down to eat, until her daughters would make her! It became a great game – a battle of wills, as it were. However, my Nana explained to me that tasting all day did not leave much room for eating!)
There was much laughter, so much good cheer, and so much love. They are the fondest memories I have of my childhood.
And then you grow up, get married and holidays become more of a challenge. You have new families to be part of with new family traditions. It can feel not very holiday-like when you are missing all those familiar things.
There is one dish my Nana made that I carried with me – sweet potato casserole. The taste of those oven roasted sweet potatoes mashed with lots of butter, some brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg – baked until bubbly perfection and then topped with a billion marshmallows to brown quickly under the broiler. It was the most incredibly concoction ever and just filled me with my Nana’s love and care.
As a child, I loved the sweetness all by itself – it was the epitome of the perfect child’s dish, and as I grew into adulthood; I appreciated the sweet – savory combination of stuffing and sweet potatoes or sweet potatoes and gravy. However, anyway you have it is is simply delicious!
This dish is the one dish that ties me to my childhood and the memories I have of this dish are perhaps some of the oldest memories I have.
Not the best photo, but oddly the only one I could find!
Nana’s Sweet Potato Casserole:
6-7 large sweet potatoes – washed and scrubbed
2-3 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup to 1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg (I use freshly grated)
1 tsp. kosher salt
½ to ¾ cup whipping cream
1 bag of miniature marshmallows (or 1 bag of large marshmallows – your choice)
Pre-heat the oven to 375°F.
Place the sweet potatoes on a foil lined baking sheet and put in the oven. Bake until soft – about an hour to an hour and a half depending on the size of your potatoes. You want them very soft. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before removing the skins.
Place skinned potatoes in a mixing bowl and begin adding butter. Mix on a medium-low speed, incorporating more butter. The goal here is a very buttery mixture – you might need 2 sticks – you might need 2 and a half sticks – you might need all three sticks, it really depends on the size of your potatoes.
Add in the brown sugar and spices and mix well.
Add in the egg and mix well until it is all incorporated into the potatoes.
Add in the cream in ¼ cup intervals – again, the larger your potatoes, the more cream you will need. I generally add a half a cup, but if all my potatoes were giant – I would add more cream in. Mix well to combine.
Spoon mixture into a baking dish. (Now is the best part – you can make this the day before. Just cover it and put it in the refrigerator. Be sure to bring it to room temperature before you bake it in the oven, otherwise the cooking time will be much longer)
Bake in the oven until the mixture is bubbly – and you can bake it at whatever temperature you are baking everything else at on Thanksgiving.
When it is done, remove from oven – cover top with marshmallows – and I mean cover. Really, be generous! More is always better!
Place under the broiler to toast them. Please note, you can do this while your turkey is resting and you are making gravy. You just want them under the broiler long enough to brown and melt into the top!
My family and I hope that this recipe brings you as much joy as it has for us over the years.
The seasons may change, but my heart remains true. It is you I love most of all.
Your slow sunlit days that are heady with change. When you begin to paint the trees with shades of crimson, gold, and ginger – creating a feast for my eyes.
You make the grey day glow and the sunny day is beyond all imagination, thanks to the vibrancy of your chosen color palette.
The nights you bring can be warm and sweetly mild – in Autumn Summer’s sweet embrace. Or they can be crisp and cool that are the perfect partner to a roaring fire.
You entice me to sip Manhattans with their smoky warmth.
And, when the falling leaves create a carpet so glorious on my lawn – I know you time here is fleeting.
My greatest joy is to savor you completely, because when you are gone it is you I miss most of all.
This week’s prompt was to write about Autumn and Carole and I would love it if you would join us on our Think, Write, Thursday journey. Signing up is easy and you can do that here.
But, really, won’t you share what you love about fall?
When a citizen gives his suffrage to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor; he betrays the interest of his country. – Noah Webster
Robocalls are over, although the ones from Barack and Michelle Obama are pretty darn awesome, the others not so much.
The media will again focus on what is going on in the world we live in, not just politics!
But today, 96 years after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, I will vote as I have done every single election since I was 18. However, this time will be different. Today, I will cast my vote for her. Gladly. Emotionally. Proudly!
I really hope you will be joining me and voting today. It is the most important thing you will do today!
