A New Greenhouse

For Christmas, I got a One Stop Gardens 6 x 8 foot aluminum-framed greenhouse. I met with my contractor today to review the site and the building of the treated-wood foundation, and he brought over the materials and will start the foundation and installation on Monday. I am so excited about my first greenhouse!

The greenhouse will be ready just in time for the arrival of my vegetable seeds in February, and the seeds can be started in the greenhouse and then moved into the garden between March and May. I can't wait to get started!

Vintage Postcards for Christmas

I have a wonderful collection of old postcards from 1910 and onward that my grandparents left to me, displayed in beautiful, large postcard albums. Back in the days when my grandfather was courting my grandmother in Brownsville, Oregon, the postcard simply bore her name and the town of Brownsville--no house number or street address. It's fun to read the greetings between the two of them and their friends and families as they chronicled their lives by short greetings on beautiful postcards.

Here is a sampling of some of the Christmas postcards that I love the most, on display in my living room. One evening, while reading by the fire, I'll reach for one or several of these and read them, taking myself back over 100 years to life in rural Oregon and the beginning of Alma's and Ernest's life together.

Christmas Linens

The Italian Country Home and Kitchen store in Woodinville featured these lovely hand-woven linens when I stopped by last weekend. The Bertozzi Family in Italy carries on their tradition of weaving the linens and then using woodblocks to stamp the dyes into the fabric.

I have many table covers and kitchen towels, and over the years from use and washing, the fabric becomes even more soft and beautiful. I will enjoy this particular item for many holidays to come.

The Red Plaid Thermos

Remember these Thermoses from years past? This one belonged to my stepfather Milt, and he carried it with him everywhere--to chop wood, on our family picnics, and hunting in the woods.

Right now, it has a place of honor in my new cabin, and I brought it into the house yesterday, attached a red bow, and put it under the Christmas tree.

Christmas Lights

For Christmas this year, my Little Sister Alex got me a lovely and unique gift. It's a glass brick filled with tiny pink lights, and is wrapped with a gold bow and red berries. It sits in a corner of the dining room, and in the evening, with the lights low, it glows with a lovely pink light.

I enjoy the unique gifts Alex finds for me, and this will remind me of all of the fun we've had Christmas shopping together over the last five years.

Fruitcake from King Arthur Flour Company

Each year, I order two complete fruitcake mixes from King Arthur Flour in Vermont. The fruits and nuts and rich yellow fruitcake mix are better than anything I can make myself. My mother and I gather in my country kitchen to mix up the batter, add the fruit, and bake small and large loaves until the house is filled with the fruit and maple aroma.

Here is a picture of the six small loaves for my mother and her friends. When this picture was taken, two large loaves were baking in the oven, and later cooled on the sideboard overnight. These loaves will be thinly sliced and arranged on a silver platter on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Thoughts on Christmas Traditions

So many of our holiday traditions come from other cultures, and come alive each year at Christmas time. With the increasing commercialism of Christmas, deep-felt traditions become more important to us as we move through this blessed season. They remind us of our roots, preserve our cultural heritages, and remind us what Christmas is really all about.

Filling the house with evergreens and ribbons and putting up a tree is more than just decorating for the holidays--it is a way to express the importance of home and hearth in our lives. Making special foods to share with others brings family and friends together, allowing us to celebrate the love we have for one another and to rejoice in our good fortune.

Gift-giving shows others how much they mean to us, and greeting cards let us exchange greetings with those we are not able to be with during the holiday season. Even the songs we sing reaffirm our heritage and put us closer in touch with our beliefs and feelings about our place in the world.

As we approach this holiday season, look within to find your true blessings, and pass them on to those you love.

Stollen

This week was Christmas Stollen baking time, and the many diverse ingredients for this German sweet bread were gathered together in the kitchen yesterday. The yeast dough was prepared, kneaded, and then placed in the frig for 12 hours in preparation for a second yeast rising and then the baking in the oven today.

Here are the two fruit-filled loaves, topped with icing and later to be decorated with citron and cherries. It will go well with the Broccoli-Garlic frittata tonight as we kick off the holiday season and savor the results of our labors in the kitchen.

Christmas Cactus--Schlumbergera

Schlumbergera is a small genus of cactus that grows in the coastal mountains of southeast Brazil. There are many 'theories' on the best way to get these cacti to bloom--most of the suggestions are false.

Schlumbergera are "thermo-photoperiodic", which means that their bloom initiation is triggered by a combination of day length and temperature (day length is the main trigger). Once the day length decreases to 12 hours, the plant is triggered to bloom.

My cactus this year is lovely, with even more blooms on it than the year I received it (two years ago). We are enjoying its crimson blooms and it heralds the Christmas season.

Poinsettia Season at Molbak's

It's Christmas, and Molbaks once again has hundreds of lovely poinsettias for sale. They grow these plants at their farm in Woodinville, and then decorate their large in-store nursery with lovely plants of all colors and sizes.

Here is a picture of the panoramic view as I visited there a few weeks ago. There were holiday shoppers everywhere, enjoying lunch, perusing the gift shop, and buying Christmas Cactuses and poinsettias.