1. Wrapping paper or gift bag?

Yes! I prefer wrapping paper and ribbon but my procrastination has made gift bags the de facto adornment the last few years.

2. Real tree or artificial?

Real! And we like to cut it down ourselves.

3. When do you put up your tree?

The first Sunday in December.

4. When do you take down your tree?

The night before trash day after MLK Day.

5. Do you like eggnog?

Yes, but only the alcohol-free variety.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?

The dollhouse my grandfather made for me would probably top the list. He got fancier as he gained expertise, but mine was the first and remains beloved.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?

Ummm… I have a tiny ornament one on the tree that we used to hang up when we were kids…

8. Hardest person to buy for?

My brother.

9. Easiest person to buy for?

Rudi. My dad. My book-loving friends.

10. Worst Christmas gift you’ve ever received?

I received a plastic ant-farm once from my secret santa at work.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards?

Mail. Although sometimes on Christmas eve…

12. Favorite Christmas movie?

Miracle on 34th Street and It’s a Wonderful Life

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?

I’ve been getting better about picking things up as I see them starting in the late summer. That still doesn’t stop my being one of those people still shopping on Christmas Eve.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?

Yes, although nothing particular comes to mind at the moment except bottles of wine.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?

Stuffing! Apple pie! Trifle! Christmas cookies! Christmas candy!

16. White or colored lights?

Colored, of course!

17. Favorite Christmas song?

“Silent Night”

18. Traveling for Christmas or stay home?

Travelling up to my folks’ — for a week this year!

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?

Yes. Are there really people who can’t?

20. Angel or Star on top of tree?

Used to be an angel, but she kept endangering herself. Now it’s a snowflake.

21. Open presents Christmas Eve or morning?

Christmas morning. On Christmas Eve, I’m still wrapping!

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?

Managing my own expectations and stress about what I’d like to get done. I’m working hard to remind myself that I will be sad after Christmas if I decline fun activities in favor of shopping or knitting alone at home.

23. What I love most about Christmas?

Time with family and loved ones. The communal joy. A night of peace.

Things are a little stressful right now chez nous as I am behind on most everything, although perhaps less so than I was earlier today.

So, to distract you from the shoulder-tensing anxiety here, I’m offering you a meme started by Sweetpea:

• Favorite Christmas cartoon: Hmmm… This is hard. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” would definitely be up there. But if you really mean “favorite kids’ Christmas show,” then I’d probably go with “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.” I still watch it every year on Christmas Eve. I still wonder: are those Santa’s bells that awaken Big Bird? The lesson? Your friends are going to come through for you, even if you don’t realize that you need them to.
• Favorite Christmas movie: Miracle on 34th Street. It’s a Wonderful Life. Miracle on 34th Street and It’s a Wonderful Life. Really it’s all about believing that one person (be he Santa or the little guy toiling away underappreciated day after day) really can make a big difference.
• Favorite Christmas song (traditional): “Silent Night” has to win out. Particularly when it closes out the Christmas Eve service lit only by the parishioners’ candles. Makes me shivery just thinking about it.
• Favorite Christmas song (pop/modern): Dar Williams’ “The Christians and the Pagans” is my favorite of the last fifteen years. It’s all about how you can cross the boundaries between traditions to find the commonalities if you want to enough.

I’m going to give an honorable mention to Hugh Blumenfeld for “Kosher for Christmas.” It’s references are too dated to win outright, but who can’t help feeling a little kinship for lyrics that include “Let’s all sing out praises to/A long-haired, radical, socialist Jew.”


• Favorite Christmas cookie: Eskimo cookies. They’re uncooked cookies — oatmeal, butter, and sugar rolled into balls and dunked in powdered sugar. Yum! You really can’t eat just one.
• Favorite family tradition: Until I was ten, Josh and I shared a bedroom, the door of which opened right onto the Christmas tree. When we were quite little, we’d be allowed to let Mum and Dad know we were awake and they would go and fetch the stockings Santa had left for us to open in our bedroom alone. I think this was so we’d let Mum and Dad sleep in until 7 — an excruciatingly early hour for them, particularly since they’d had to stay up so late to keep an insomniac sprite from interrupting Santa’s arrival. When we were older and had separate bedrooms, our stockings would appear on the hamper between our rooms s o that we didn’t have to waken our parents at all.

Please feel free to share your answers/memories in the comments or on your own blog.

You Are a Fruitcake

People pretend you’re sweet and precious, but they know how weird you really are!

(Not that I want to eat it mind you…)

Last Friday, our office held a belated shower and vegan potluck lunch to celebrate my friend Suzanne‘s recent wedding. My friend Sarah and I had oohed and aahed over the knitting-themed cupcakes that made the rounds of the blogosphere over the summer and decided this was a perfect chance for us to try them out.

I admit, I totally had the easy end of things: I was in charge of making the cupcakes and the frosting. Sarah is artsy and has delicate hands and she offered to play with the marzipan. All in all, we estimated that it probably took us about the same amount of time to complete our tasks.

My first challenge ended up being the easier of the two. What recipe did I want to use for the cupcakes. We were limited by the fact that I didn’t start the process until after midnight, so it was definitely preferable that I have all ingredients on hand. And I knew I wanted chocolate. Finally, after an exhaustive web search, I decided on Joss’ Vegan Cupcakes, which I tripled. The batter tasted good and I felt very optimistic for the next day. I finished baking the last batch and let them cool overnight.

In the morning, I still needed to find a frosting. I wasn’t thrilled with any that I found, but eventually started to run out of time and opted for Very Chocolatey Frosting. The problem? When I mixed it all up, it dripped from the beaters. Clearly that wasn’t going to work.

Now, I admit, I don’t usually make chocolate frosting. In fact, I really only use Mum’s buttercream recipe. So I wasn’t positive what I should add to fix the problem. Clearly solids. But which ones? First I tried a tablespoon or so of powdered sugar. Not enough. But I feared making it too sweet, especially since Earth Balance shortening already has a tendency to make baked goods taste negatively sweet. So I poured in more cocoa. And I kept pouring. By the time the frosting reached a consistency I was happy with, it was probably nearly 3/4 cup more. This allowed me to frost the cake, but did add a granular texture to the frosting that I wasn’t thrilled with. But it was fine, so I was happy enough.

I took them into the office, where Sarah performed her magic, adding tiny marzipan scarves (both finished and in progress) and yarn balls to the baked goods. WIPs were on tiny toothpick needles. Some of the scarves were multi-colored.

Sarah had spent hours the night before playing with almond paste and food coloring, rolling and notching and arranging. You could see immediately how lovely and delicate the decorations were — and people flipped over them. Really they were magnificent.

Here is a closer look at Sarah’s handicraft:

(All photography is Suzanne’s. After all that work and that little sleep, I forgot my camera at home…)

We spent tonight watching the 1973 version of Miracle on 34th Street, which featured such character actors as the guy who played Bosley in Charlie’s Angels, Mr. Cunningham from Happy Days, and Thurston Howell the Third.

And we ate latkes to celebrate the final night of Hanukkah. Rudi made them with potatoes Mum sent down after Thanksgiving and we combined them with a caramelized applesauce I made last month. (It was only caramelized because I kept not milling the cooked apples. So every 6-12 hours for three days, I’d reheat it. It may be the sweetest applesauce ever made.)

I love December for combinations like these.

While Rudi went out to fulfill our final beer brewing for the year this morning, I stayed home to get some seasonal tasks done.

I’ve been working on card writing today while listening to Christmas cds. I’m nearly done with the cards and have listened to the following discs:

• Let It Be Christmas, Dad’s 2004 holiday compilation. (Favorite song: “Let It Be Christmas” by Alan Jackson)
• Once in a Year, Dad’s Christmas mix from … Dad? (Favorite songs: “I Believe in Santa’s Cause” by the Statler Brothers and “Light One Candle” by Peter, Paul, and Mary)
• Cold Blow These Winter Winds: A Celtic Celebration of Christmas. Recorded live at The Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh and bought used for three pounds at a cd shop on Notting Hill in London in 2005. (Favorite song: “Christmas in Prison” featuring Rory McLeod)
• Christmas like a Lullaby, by John Denver. (Favorite songs: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “Noel — Christmas Eve”)
• Yules of Yore: TV Land Tunes from Christmas Past (Favorite song: “My Christmas Room” by Jimmy Dean (I don’t think it’s the sausage guy))
• Singers and Songwriters: Christmas Songs. (Favorite songs: “It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way” by Jim Croce and “Cherry Tree Carol” by Judy Collins)
• Blue Christmas, a release by Mojo magazine (Favorite song: “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Ed Harcourt)