Category Archives: Holidays

Holiday Eating Adventures

food, Holidays

These days, celebrating is strange but necessary. Since our daughter and her partner Dan came home for the holidays to join our “pod” I figured we should engage not in only our own holiday food traditions, such as making and decorating (very specific) cookies, but try out some others as well.

We had “virtual” help, thank goodness. Our friend Arlene walked us through latke making via video chat (her article on the subject is a classic and includes the recipe we used). We gathered all the ingredients and accompaniments (apple sauce, sour cream and cinnamon sugar), debated about how to get as much liquid as possible out of the potato mixture, and had a grand time splattering oil all over the stovetop during the frying process. The result were delicious, crispy creations that didn’t last long around our house.

So, why not try our hand at tamales, as well? We got tamale making advice from a number of sources, including my intern Jennifer, one of my daughter’s friends, and some You Tube videos. (There’s also this article by Laura Wilmot Sheehy which I forgot about until we were done!) Our results probably would make experienced tamale makers laugh – inconsistant sizes, fillings spilling out into from their masa dough – but they tasted pretty darned good to us. Especially with liberal slatherings of homemade green and red salsas using the last of our garden tomatillos and tomatoes.

As a folklorist, I am supposed to be safeguarding against cultural appropriation. There is, I am well aware, a fine line between cultural appreciation and appropriation. I’d like to think we didn’t cross that line by trying out some other celebratory holiday food traditions. We’re not Jewish or Latino. But we enjoy good food and the joy that communal cooking brings, even if this year that means a virtual get-together.

I hope you all have a great holiday, enjoying foods of your own family and culture and maybe trying something new if you feel comfortable doing so. We’re cooking Thai dishes for Christmas dinner, though I won’t bother my Thai-born friend Ang for pointers as she’ll be too busy cooking for her own family. Probably something very American.

Our crispy delicious latkes. Well, just a little burned, too.

Dan and M.E. dig into a latke feast with the trimmings.
Tamale making. Our system of food coloring to mark the types of fillings (pork, chicken, and cheese with or without beans) was semi-successful.
The mis-matched tamales ready for steaming.
We also participated in a virtual cookie baking/decorating party with friends scattered from California to Ireland. That’s me in the top middle row with our decorated spritz cookies..

To Holiday Letter or Not?

Holidays, Round Barn Press blog

Well, it’s that time of year again when I debate whether it’s worth it to send out holiday cards and also to include some sort of holiday letter. I did compile one of these, and I hate for it to go to waste. And, I do appreciate reading the (more concise) versions sent by my friends.

But our printer has been giving me trouble, from non-connectivity to low ink reserves, and I hate to keep bothering my poor husband (and resident Tech Support Person) with these problems. (For one thing, he likes to recycle the ink cartridges himself and this usually results in pools or smears of various colors from magenta to cyan all over the dining room table, and his fingers, and anything else within striking distance.)

I used to send out photos of our darling daughter when she was younger, necessitating getting her to pose in some vaguely holiday themed way next to a pine tree or something, and then getting the photos printed (remember printed photos?) by whatever arcane means we had back when she was a child. This was before cell phone cameras or even separate digital cameras were prevalent (and she isn’t even 30 yet!).

Then I went to a family newsletter sort of thing, invariably criticized by husband and daughter about which photos I had chosen and what I said about their activities. Everyone’s a critic!

So, this year, having decided that I will send out cards to those people who are still on my card exchange list, do I just write nice handwritten notes to everyone, and if they really want to know more, suggest they connect to my blog? This works for the more computer savvy among them, but not that handful of Luddites or older folks who don’t do computers. Or just don’t like blogs.

I think I will just attach my letter thing here and hope for the best. If you want to go the extra mile and download it, please give that a try. If not, don’t. Apologies to those who don’t read my blog and to those who don’t want to click on the link as it’s the only way I could figure to add it. But since you are not reading this, I will have to apologize to you via written note. I am pretty familiar with that technology!

NOTE ON FEATURED IMAGE: We finally got to view the holiday lights at the Mormon Temple last year, which were very cool! Happy holidays to all!

2020-Holiday-letter-thingeeDownload

	

	
	


							


	

				

					

		
				

			Emissaries from the Past
		

		
		

			childhood; stuff; family, History, Holidays					

	


		

		

I recently pawed through years of print photos to find “historic” moments in Christmas cookie decorating for a work blog.   While searching, I found some fun photos from the past, including with one I will not post because it features me as a child sitting on our camp toilet…nuff said.





The others prompted me to send texts to family and friends bringing back memories, moods and attitudes of times past.   These images are not just records of our past exploits and moments caught by chance (or by posing for the camera).  They are messages from our past selves, from moments when we were taken over by pure joy, or skepticism, or bonhomie.    





Yes, that was really us.  And we are still the same people.  A little older, but ready to go bravely into yet another year, the turn of a decade.  Still ready for experience and adventure.  Happy New Year, everyone!





  • Marjorie and I show off our badass Festival attitudes during the 150th anniversary of the Smithsonian in 1996.
  • M.E. comments, “That was back when I could cross dimensions.”
  • Diana and I have a fun moment on a WORK TRIP to Bermuda.
  • Bev, Eliot and M.E. at one of the many Last Dinner on the Titanic parties.






	

	
	


							


	

				

					

		
				

			Missing Some Holiday Pieces
		

		
		

			Holidays, Round Barn Press blog, , , 					

	


		

		

Do the winter holidays ever leave you feeling as though you’re missing a few key pieces?  Maybe you didn’t have as much fun as you thought you’d have, didn’t get the gift you asked for, or missed spending time with a good friend or family member.  Or, like us this year, you sent out many more cards than you received and wondered if holiday cards are “out” now and you just didn’t pick up on that trend?





Our family metaphor for “the missing pieces of the holidays” is the annual tradition of doing an elderly jigsaw puzzle that has, to date, seventeen missing pieces.  This puzzle depicts The Twelve Days of Christmas, with the added twist of gaping holes.  We have other holiday themed puzzles (somewhere) but somehow this is the only one that we can find when there is some quiet time in front of the fire and nothing else to do.  





Daughter M.E. and visiting friend Dan work on the less than perfect puzzle.





Why don’t we just get rid of this defective time waster? Well, for one thing, the zen activity of jigsaw puzzling is made even more mysterious and wondrous by never remembering which pieces are missing.  For another, it is symbolic of the way that, even if the holidays do not live up to the hype (when have they ever?), the best part of the season can be taking time away from hustle and bustle even if the end result is not one hundred per cent rewarding.   Third, the hardest part (the numbers) is still enough of a challenge to keep us interested and add that sense of achievement even in the midst of regret over the fate of those seventeen missing pieces. 





Like the smile of a child with missing teeth (albeit without the promise of growing new ones), the puzzle is endearing.  And, even with some pieces missing, the puzzle and the holidays can be enjoyable and relaxing if we realize limitations.  No one, and no holiday, is perfect.  Make the most of what you have.  










 

	

	
	


							


	

		
				

			Suspended Santamation
		

		
		

			Christmas, Holidays					

	


		

		


It’s that time of year. The Holiday Season, which starts roughly after Thanksgiving (earlier if you are in retail) and extends into the first full week of January. I would argue with the song that claims it as “the most wonderful time of the year” for some obvious reasons: in northern climes such as ours, it is cold and dark, and of course there are those long shopping lines, the stress of holiday preparations, and various reasons why people just are in a celebratory mood and don’t need some sappy song implying there is something wrong if they aren’t feeling wonderful.  But, it can be nice nevertheless, in a multi-sensory kind of way. Colored lights illuminating the darkness, warm smells of cookies baking, Handel’s Messiah, Tchaikofsky’s Nutcracker or other favorite holiday music soothing in the background while you trim the tree and wrap presents, or do whatever else you do if you do it at all.


Okay, nothing new there, just setting the mood. What I do find curious this time of year is my own attitude toward time. I suspend my usual proclivity to planning ahead and projecting my activities into the future, and have a hard time thinking past the weeks framing Christmas. Mid-January seems like a century away (especially, this year, the date of January 20 and what comes afterwards…way too scary to think about now while in a holiday mode).


I feel as though I am living in a bubble of buoyant holiday spirit, with permission to sport tacky holiday earrings, socks, and sweaters, devour things that are sugar and cholesterol laden, and procrastinate real life matters. I tell people I should be interacting with at work, “I know this is a busy time of year, so let’s meet/talk After the Holidays.” This is holiday code for, “My brain is on leave. Blame it on the gingerbread men.” At home, I spend hours doing holiday decorating, wrapping, baking, fussing, and use this as an excuse to neglect anything non-holiday-related, like cooking healthy meals, cleaning the house, or reading edifying journals instead of the Family Circle holiday issue.


Seriously, my retired husband (who is a  bit of a grinch) does most of the cooking, cleaning the house is never a big priority for me year round, and, well, I find it hard to get myself to read edifying journals the rest of the year too…but you catch my drift. This is your brain on holiday, right? Give into it, I say, don’t feel too guilty. Deal with things post-Epiphany. Clear out the left over mini candy canes (wait – they do make good breath mints year-round, no?) and face the New Year with resolve and renewed vigor.


We’ll talk After the Holidays and see how that went.