Holiday Memories

Snow Dove

Christmas Cherub

Through the Window

Promise of Spring

The Nutcracker

Looking Up,Up,Up

Winter Nest

Trimmed for Christmas

Traditions are wonderful, but every now and then I find myself straying with curiosity or need from the familiar and my family's time worn traditions.

This year indeed I did stray. Decorations to deck the halls were taken from storage, the wreath and swag were hung to greet visitors, but when it was time for the traditional tree of Balsam or Spruce to be brought in to decorate, a grand winter storm appeared leaving a thick sticky blanket of new snow. We have donned snowshoes is years previous to search for the perfect tree, but this year I decided to leave the snowshoes hanging. For many years my father has wondered what a tree of Cedar fully decorated would look like at Christmas, and lo, that perfect Cedar was standing in our very yard. The scent of a fresh cut Balsam tree is wonderful at Christmas, but I think I may decide to permanently change this tradition! Cedar is beautiful as a decorated tree, with no sticky pitch!

Pumpkin Today, Pie Tomorrow

For many years it has been a Thanksgiving tradition for me to create our homemade pumpkin pies. The word create was chosen because I would carefully select the perfect golden orange pumpkin harvested from our fall gardens, then clean, carve, cook, and puree it. Creamy white goat's milk from our Alpine does blended into the fresh puree, along with farm fresh eggs with rich golden yolks, sugar, and traditional spices of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. This delightfully smelling mixture was then poured into glass dishes carefully lined with handmade dough. After baking, beautiful rich colored, aromatic spiced pies were delivered from the oven with crusts that flaked and melted in your mouth.

Tomorrow the above pumpkin will begin this traditional journey. And even though the locally raised pumkin was not grown in our garden this year, I am positive it will yield the same deliciously flavored pies as the pumpkins before it.