Well, we didn't end up getting snow on Christmas after all - instead we got a foot and a half of snow on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday before! Christmas day itself was clear, sunny, and warm, so enough snow melted so that we could actually see the streets. Sorry I haven't posted in over a week - this was a super busy week and part of the time I was at my Grandma's house in Vermont - there's no internet or even cell phone reception up there.
Soooo....let's see, I finished up finals last Thursday and spent the last 2 days on campus relaxing and binding books for Christmas presents. My mom arrived to drive my sister and I home just as the blizzard started, and it snowed pretty much constantly through until Monday morning.
On Saturday and Sunday, we prepared for our annual Christmas party. Usually, this involves cleaning the house from top to bottom and cooking up a storm, then having about 100 people try to cram themselves into our teeny-tiny apartment. Very loud and very squished. Usually, my cat has to hide:
A note about books in our house: we have a lot of them - maybe 10,000 or more. My whole family loves to read and we read all the time instead of watching television. Because our house is so small, we have floor-to-ceiling bookcases covering all of the wall space in every single room, the kitchen, hallways, bedrooms, porch, and living room included. In fact, there are so many books, that we double stack books on our bookcases and have to stack them on flat surfaces such as this steamer trunk too.
This year, however, almost no-one showed up due to the snow - just 25 people as compared to the usual 100 or so. It was actually nice, because it meant people weren't stuffed in like sardines.
The next day (Monday) involved our family's usual mad-dash approach to Christmas shopping. My mom, dad, and sister all procrastinate, usually until Christmas Eve, but this year they had to get the shopping done early. I like to either make things or buy stuff on sale months before Christmas, so I just came along for the ride and made suggestions. I have no money right now, so I couldn't really spend any anyway. I don't know how I'll afford textbooks this January, so hopefully I can work out a loan or something with the college. We also went to see a Christmas show that we go to see every single year. I was in it once when I was 15 - it involves a lot of singing and caroling and there are 18 performances during the month of December. That was the closest thing to a professional production that I've done.
The next morning (Tuesday), we got in the car and drove 4 hours to the farthest reaches of Vermont and visited my grandma and grandpa. They live so far north that the Canadian border is only about 15 miles away from their house. While there, we exchanged presents, did a lot of cooking, and went to the Christmas Eve candlelight service at my Grandparent's church. There are only a handful of people in their village, so my sister and I volunteered to sing in the choir that night. We sang a bunch of lovely Christmas carols and the church looked beautiful all lit up with candles. That night (Wednesday), we drove home and the roads were really snowy so it took us much longer.
Christmas itself was amazing. My dad's English, so there are a lot of traditions that we carry over from his childhood, as well as some that are unique to our family. Here's the way our day went (and how we usually do Christmas):
We got up in the morning and opened our stockings while leisurely reading the paper, drinking tea, and relaxing in the living room. Around 10 or so, we had Christmas breakfast consisting of baked eggs with spinach, cheese, and ham as well as ham, toast, and strong English mustard. If you've ever tasted pure wasabi, it's got a similar level of spiciness to English mustard. The key is to buy it dry and make it up fresh as needed so it remains spicy.
After breakfast, we cleaned up, then removed all of the old bread from our freezer. We went for a long walk by the river and finished up by feeding the geese. This year, the geese were particularly cheeky. One kept on pecking the back of my leg for attention while another tugged on my coat pocket in an attempt to get more bread. After that, we walked back to the house and had yet another cup of tea.
At this point, it's about 2 or so in the afternoon. We opened presents (we never open them in the morning, and one night even started opening them as late as 9pm! That way, Christmas isn't over in 5 minutes after a quick unwrapping of presents). It also takes us a while to open presents since we open them one at a time and take time to thank the giver as well as try the present out or talk about it. We finally finished opening presents around 4, then started to cook Christmas dinner. We sat down to eat around 9pm, then watched a movie afterwards.
I love this approach to Christmas because it's so family oriented - sometimes we get asked to celebrate with other people but we always say no because it's a special day for the four of us. We have our traditions and they help to strengthen our family. I think it's part of the reason that we're all so close to each other. The way we do Christmas also makes it so that the day lasts longer. Instead of 5 minutes of presents and then spending the rest of the day feeling let down, the whole day is a celebration and it feels really special. It's definitely my favorite day of the year. When I have kids and a family, I'm definitely going to be doing something like this to celebrate the holiday.
For appetizers, we had potato blini with caviar, fresh dill, and Crème fraîche. It's a recipe that I invented recently and it turned out great:
I also made prosciutto, caramelized fennel, and shaved Parmesan cheese on garlic-rubbed sourdough toasts, another recent recipe invention. I didn't get a picture of those, though, because they got eaten so quickly! With the appetizers, we served champagne and sparkling white wine.
