Rhinestone Armadillo

Christmas Recap Part 1

I'm a little behind, but I had over 750 photos to deal with.  I take oodles on my digital camera, then dread uploading them.  I love having the photos, but really dislike processing them.

I hope you all had a nice holiday.  We did.  It was peaceful and pretty quiet, just the three of us.  As quiet as things can be with an almost-three-year-old, anyway.

Our friend Charlotte sent some adorable aprons.

 

They're a matching Mommy-Daughter pair.  Aren't those great details?  I'm a sucker for pom-poms.

We did some pretend baking...

...and lots of real baking.  We made our traditional sausage rolls.  They're like giant pigs in blankets, but we use Elgin sausage and homemade dough.  I also made a big pan of chocolate covered toffee.  I experimented with a variety of toppings....walnuts (yum), crushed candy canes (pretty but not my favorite combination), and chopped dried apricots and cherries (meh).  I like just plain old toffee best, I think.

I like the moment before you smash the whole tray into bits.

The sun is shining and I'd rather be outside than in here on the computer.  I'll finish this later.

I've been obsessed with Sweden, Norway, Finland, and to a lesser extent, Germany lately.  Something about the white wintery-ness of those countries seems so magical.  I like the fairytale appearance of so many of the original villages.  They seem so very different from Texas.

 

Here is a neat television special from (I'm guessing) the later 1940s or early 1950s.  If you can't view it above, click here.

At 4:55, there are some very intriguing creatures in a store display.  They might be taxidermied miniature goats (???) with reindeer antlers.  They are odd, but the little girl is petting them so happily.  I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up at one of those, would you?

At 5:05, there are some amazing edible Christmas structures that resemble birdhouses.  And I love how they're letting kids that look about 3 years old light candles with matches. I also shudder at the read candles and sparklers on the Christmas tree. 

This photo has nothing to do with anything. (from Lisa Golden)  I want one of those tree beehives so bad I can taste it.

At 8:43, there's quite a frightening Swedish Santa Claus.  I'd be running straight for my room if he showed up at my house.  And I guess it's no big deal there, but it seems odd that everyone skiis to church on Christmas morning.

And the food...the food!

There are traditional parties called GlöggFest. People gather at each others homes to share different types of mulled wine. They do this at work, too. Apparently, drinking in the workplace is not only not frowned upon, it's practically required.

Swedes invented the belly stuffing meal known as a smörgåsbord. Their Christmas version is a buffet called the julbord (pronounced 'yuleboard'). - the 'Christmas buffet'. I like it when they serve it laid out in lines of food like this:

This includes:

• ham, pork sausage, gravlax, meatballs, pickled herring (ew), liver pate, lutfish (nasty rotten dehydrated then rehydrated jelly consistency fish), beer, glogg, schnapps---applied liberally
  
  To top it off, they traditionally leave all the food out overnight. I hope it's cold enough for that. That seems like a good recipe for food poisoning. Maybe you've built up a life-long immunity when you're Swedish.
  
  What a great postcard from Sweden....pigs on ice!

Early Morning

I got up in the early hours with Adam this morning.  He wakes up when it's cold and dark.

Hours later, the sun peeked through the window.  My friend Charlotte has been on my mind this morning.  I'm guessing there's a 99% chance she has a cup of coffee in her hands. Hello to you, out there in Washington! 

To take the chill and gloom off those early pre-sun hours, I like to light candles.

I made Adam some sausage, egg, and cheese bagels.  That man eats like a horse.  I would love to eat breakfast with him every day, but he's a solitary sort in the morning.  Not unfriendly, he just likes mornings to be quiet and efficient.  I've been told by multiple people I might be a bit on the chatty side.

Here is this year's Advent Calendar.  Each day has a little square box you flip over to reveal a nice winter village scene.  I write our day's activity on a slip of paper.  They range from family cocoa and read a special holiday book together to go look at Christmas lights to take a winter walk.  I've noticed that when we ask Violet to count to twenty at random times, she sometimes 'forgets' the order of the numbers.  However, when we're counting the Advent Calendar days, she is very, very accurate.

I have two of these pyramid/whirligig/thingamabobs, a small one and a large one.  The heat from the candles makes the propeller on top turn, which makes the central plate turn.  I'm sure there is a much more scientific explanation for that (Adam went into a great deal of detail about air currents or some such thing) but we'll just say the candles make it go.

Adam's step-brother sent us this one while he and his family were stationed in Germany.

The big one has three levels.  Unfortunately, Baby Jesus is missing his parents.  He just has the wise men to keep him company.  Maybe I'll add some sheep to keep him company.  Or dinosaurs.

Violet likes to watch them while she eats.

Some mornings, I have early coffee with Adam, then breakfast with Violet.  I had one jar of jam left over from last Christmas.  I made orange rosemary and orange cinnamon anise jam.  The anise really permeated the jam the longer it sat on the shelf.

As a joke, I ask Violet if she wants coffee every morning.  Usually, she says, "No, Mama.  I'll just have milk, please."  Today, though, she said, "OK-I'll try some coffee."

I made her a small cup of decaf that was mainly sugar and milk.  She thought about it a while, then nodded and went back to her berries.

We're doing 'Elf on the Shelf' this year.  Adam is very good at finding a new place for him every day.

I made our elf.  I sculpted his face from polymer clay and made his body from wire, batting, and felt.

I love this old tarnished ball.  I like a nice grody patina on things.  Some people are into the moldy look, some aren't.  It's not really moldy, but you know what I mean.

Here is my little tribute to Bronte this year.  Someone gave this to me a long time ago-it's a dachshund made from goat hair.  How wrong is that?  It still smelled goaty, because Bronte took a bite out of its backside when I first got it.

Adam..."Mama, could you see if there's something in my ear?"
Violet...."Wassit Mama?  Wassin Daddy's ear?"
Me...."Oh, no.  I'm afraid Daddy has a case of Santa Ear."  Tsk tsk.       Daddy..."I'd better start using my q-tips again." 

I'm wanting to make a Christmas cake that isn't too sweet.  I've had my fill of chocolate for a while.  I want coconut, but Adam wanted something less sweet.  I was thinking something along the lines of carrot cake or Italian cream cake.  I'd like a mild to medium spiced cake with a not-too-overpowering icing.  Any ideas?