the stocking is hung

I had so much fun playing Secret Santa and making this stocking for Anna.  The pattern is over at Purl Bee including the lettering for the embroidery.  (I love that it's a crisp Futura-inspired font but it would look good even in your own hand-writing.) It takes only half a yard each of a solid colour and natural cotton and about half an hour to sew one... a little longer to finish the embroidery.  

Whip one up, stuff it and enjoy playing Santa!

whipped shortbread with eggnog icing

Our knitting group had a Secret Santa swap last night and my recipient, Anna, had specifically mentioned that shortbreads were her favourite.  Not that I needed an excuse to make a batch of whipped shortbread.  A good buttery Scottish shortbread is delicious to enjoy unadorned year round but Christmas it must be whipped short bread, rich with creamy icing and topped with red and green candied cherries.

The icing I did for this batch is really just the Quick White Icing I recipe from Joy of Cooking. The egg nog was a last minute idea to make it more festive. Combined with pure vanilla extract the egg nog flavour really comes through - it would be great on a sugar and spice cookie with nutmeg!

Whipped Shortbread
(40 cookies)

Preat over to 350 F. 

Cream together:
1 pound butter

1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt

Gradually add:
1/2 cup cornstarch
3 cups flour

Whip with an electric mixer until fluffy. If you have a cookie press, this is a great time to dig it out.  I just rolled mine in small balls. 

Bake 12-15 minutes. Like all cookies, take them out just before they look done (cookies keep cooking a little bit even on the counter).

Let cool for 2 minutes on baking sheet, then remove to wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Egg-Nog Icing

In a medium bowl, beat together on medium speed:
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted if lumpy (it makes a difference!)
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

Add and beat until smooth:
3-4 tablespoons egg nog
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt

Correct consistency by adding powdered sugar or more liquid as necessary.

Ice cooled cookies.  Top the cookies with a slice of candied cherry (not maraschino - they're different.  I learned the hard way years ago.) 

Enjoy!

12 films of christmas: home alone

In popular culture, Christmas is full of misfits and outcasts (Rudolph, Charlie Brown, the Grinch).  Twenty years ago (!), Home Alone brought us Kevin McAllister: eight years old, a little bratty and lost in the shuffle of his family's chaotic holiday plans.

When the movie came out my own little brother was not much older than Kevin and the film was in pretty steady rotation in our house.  We watched, of course, to laugh at the bumbling burglars falling prey to Kevin's booby traps. 



Today I still catch myself chucklying over the absurdity but I also see the poignancy in the film.  Like all John Hughes films, it has staying power because amid the pratfalls it has heart: Catherine O'Hara's desperate attempts to reunite with her little boy, old man Marley next door who's also dealing with being home alone and Kevin's mix of exhilaration and terror as he comes to terms with being all alone.  (A feeling that doesn't go away when you are a grown-up.)

It's a fun holiday movie but it's the emotional pull that earns it a spot on my list.  As well as John Williams score:  the minute I hear it, I can picture settling with my little brother under afghans for our umpteenth viewing of the movie.



(If it seems the soundtrack is foreshadowing another boy going it alone, JW also composed the soundtrack to Harry Potter)

a night at the jesus museum

The year my little brother Peter was four (or possibly five) he went to my mother late one fall and asked as earnestly as only a four-year-old can, "When can we put up the Jesus museum?"

My mother was, understandably, somewhat perplexed.  And my brother frustrated that she couldn't seem to fathom what he was asking about.  Eventually they sorted it out... he wanted to put out the nativity scene.

Growing up the Christmas season was marked by countless little rituals.  One of my favourite was that starting December 1 (and not a moment sooner) we were allowed to put up one decoration per day until the Christmas tree went in the weekend before Christmas.  Our nativity scene was usually one of the first boxes to be brought down from the attic.  We got it the year I turned five.  I'm not sure but I think it was purchased at the Grand Isle Drugstore (which was the kind of place where you could pick up your prescription, a pair of rubber boots and a new Bible.)  I know that cousins Richelle and Michael had a similar one although I think the wise men wore different colour robes...

Anyway, putitng up the Nativity scene was one of my favourite rituals.  I was meticulous about the placement of the figures, i.e. it had to look exactly like the photo on the box.  

After his Jesus museum remark, Pete naturally took over the duties for arranging our nativity scene (and others: my grandmother Betty wouldn't put out her nativity scene - with real ceramic figures and moss on the stable roof - unless Peter was there to help).  But he was just as particular as I was about how the scene should look.

Year in and year out it sat in the same place - on the shelf over our stockings, the wise men lined up with their gifts, the shepherd in the doorway and the cow and the donkey just so. Flipping through old Christmas photos, you'd see Pete and I grow taller, hairstyles would change, gifts would change but that little nativity scene was always the same.  A reminder of the reason for the season in the middle of all the Christmas chaos.


Pete has his own home now and Mom and Dad have moved as well.  But they still put out the nativity scene.

Dad sent me a photo to prove it today.  I had to email him back:

"You realize, of course, the shepherd is in the wrong place."

season's greetings from our cove

Image: From our Cove

I was somewhat relieved last night while reading the latest issue of Martha Stewart to learn that according to 'Martha's Calendar', she'll be posting her Christmas cards on December 14.   With all the gift-making, show-rehearsing and Yuletide-socializing, Christmas cards have fallen down the to-do list. 

But I did pick out the cards I want to send  months ago. 

When I was helping my dad set up his Etsy shop From Our Cove, I thought his painting of the lighthouse at West Quoddy Head, the easternmost point in the United States, would make a beautiful Christmas card.  The candy cane colours of the lighthouse as it welcomes a returning ship seem so seasonal. The cards are now available in packs of 20 at the shop along with the print and several of his other seascapes.

Each week dad adds a new piece to the shop and gives a bit of history as well as some art tips over at the From Our Cove blog - for coastal livers and lovers and aspiring painters - it's a great resource!

12 films of christmas: meet me in st. louis

Like Little Women this is not solely a Christmas film.  In fact it opens during a heat wave in summer 1903.  But it deserves it's place in the Christmas film rotation for the Christmas Eve scene and for contributing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" to the Christmas canon.

With Meet Me in St. Louis, director Vincente Minnelli offers up a Valentine to the 'good old days': it's romantic, nostalgic and rich with period detail (Katie's Hallowe'en cake alone is reason enough to hit the pause button.)  When it premiered in November 1944, it was a feel-good film for a war-weary audience desperately in need of one.  It still is.

There's no question that the film is a Judy Garland vehicle - the star said she married Minnelli shortly afterwards because she had felt so beautiful in the film - but there's also no question that eight-year-old Margaret O'Brien walks away with pretty much every scene she is in... including the famous Christmas scene.



A little trivia:  The film was based on a series of New Yorker stories (and subsequent novel) by Sally Benson entitled 5135 Kensington Ave (the address of her own family home in St. Louis).  Benson  gave explicit instructions on the decor of the home in the film down to the last detail. 

counting down

December is here and the real countdown for the holidays can begin!  I'll be counting down with this very cute Advent Calendar from Maree Streeter at inkymoose.