Tag: Christmas

Things Didn’t Go As Planned
Journal Entry

Things Didn’t Go As Planned

Elizabeth E.13 Comments

Or, We Stayed Home This Christmas.

It certainly wasn’t intentional. We’d been planning this year-end trip with our son for four months. He and his lovely wife Kim were taking their four daughters (and one new son-in-law) to three European cities and invited us to come. Oh, boy, we were thrilled! However, two days before Thanksgiving the Scooby-Doo muscles in my husband’s shoulders (or whatever they’re called) went on strike and he could hardly move. We cancelled our Thanksgiving plans. I forbade him to get out the Christmas boxes. We visited the ER, our doctor (twice), had an MRI, and now he’s in PT. But still, the Christmas trip was a go, albeit tentative.

Here we are, the pose at the beginning airport.

I had my squircles–I was ready!

Here we are at the connecting airport. Still excited, still ready to go with our little passport pouches and all, posing by a nutcracker. Having stayed out of airports for Christmas for many years, I have to say, it was lovely to see all the nice decorations.

We found our gate, sat down just as the airline cancelled the flight to Amsterdam at the gate next to us, and a whole planeload of people went streaming towards the Help Desk, long lines forming. Glad that’s not us, we said, and of course, after two posted delays (mechanical problems), it was us. We went streaming towards the Help Desk at the far end of the terminal, but that only got you a chance to scan the QR code to see the agent (one of three). We grabbed a cup of soup, and after some more time, we were at the top of the list. The options were not good. Because of the Amsterdam cancellation, flights were already full that were leaving. After some time, I looked at my hurting husband, and we both realized we couldn’t complete the trip, given the new (possible, but certainly not probable) itinerary. So much was up in the air, and three hours later, we were too, returning home.

I spent some time looking out the window, the trip so close, yet so far. The plane trouble was “hydraulic problems,” which of course, would cancel the flight.

We welcomed photos of our son and his family as they hit the sights. We went to church two days later and I wept through the service, so incredibly disappointed in missing out on creating memories with this part of our family. We’ve been to all these cities before, but it was the time and experiences with these lovely four young women we would miss.

I have a great church community. By the time we left Christmas Sunday services, we had three invitations to dinner, to help fill this lonely week.

The first was an outside movie night with lots of friends: The Muppets Christmas Carol, one of my favorites. We stayed for a while, grateful for friends and laughing children and pizza, then I took my husband home.

I found this kit I’d purchased some time ago, and thought: no time like the present. I had lots of time, so started cutting. My sisters and daughter began calling me every day.

One of those days in there, I opened up the 2026 calendar book, and started getting that set up. [After my regular calendar planner stopped publishing, I tried out Golden Coil last year and liked it. I made some tweaks to this year’s layout, but am using it again.] I backed up our photo libraries onto a new drive, doing my squircles while I waited. My husband used the heating pad and tried to get better. We talked out what we went through, only now considering options we couldn’t see that night in the airport.

I left the calendar notice on my Phone, but what you can’t see is the word Cancelled after the Ellipsis. And yes, we went to the Dillman home for dinner one night, for a delicious meal of pork roast and potatoes (I brought rolls) with their two young boys, our “adopted” grandsons since our family lives so far away.

More calendar prep, with stickers from my sister Susan. My old calendar had monthly tabs and this one doesn’t, so I add them (click on the right photo to see the tabs).

    I went to Michael’s on Christmas Eve to see the new “JoAnn’s stuff.” Waste of time. I did post about it on Instagram where people definitely have something to say.

    We stayed in the rest of this day as the rains arrived — something we’ve needed all fall. I made Creamy Tortellini Soup, and we had a quiet night. I figured if I could make it to Christmas dinner at our friends, I might probably stop being weepy.

    We head out on a walk on Christmas morning, our neighborhood washed clean by the rain, where I say hello to the lovely Grevillea ‘Superb’ bush. This is at the halfway mark, and it was about now that I stopped aching, knowing my disappointment was but a small thing. Time and perspective help: we have each other and will have other Christmases.

    The Giffords host us, two new faces folded into their family table of children and grandchildren; I’m incredibly grateful for this kindness, and they make us feel welcome: no strangers at this meal. We enjoy the true spirit of Christmas as envisioned by Dickens in his Christmas Carol, and as preached in the gospel of Luke.

    I finish up the cutting of the quilt later on that night.

    Every night I enjoyed the smiles of my family on their trip.

    The day after Christmas, another morning walk, then I’m back in the sewing room. I’d cleaned it up, cleared it up before leaving, but now it was time to mess it up again with scraps of fabric, bits of pattern directions pinned to a quilt over my cutting table. Time to thread the machine, plug the iron back in and fire it up.

    Would I ever have a chance like this again?

    A chance to say to my husband, you are the most important thing in my life and if we need to stay home, we will? A chance to feel the goodness of our friends as they welcomed me into their homes, living the gospel that the Christ child came down to earth to teach? A chance to take a walk in a freshly-washed world and see the amazing beauties all around me?

    I hope so.

    So often life is not what we expect, and between you and me, it can be hard to shift gears, especially after thinking and dreaming about something for four months. But thank heaven for angels all around me, for creativity which pulls me forward, for counting my blessings which ground me.

    I hope you had a Merry Christmas. In the end, I did too.

    Haha. This was in one of the airport gift shops.

    Getting Unstuck • This and That December 2024
    Christmas Quilts · Gridsters · This-and-That

    Getting Unstuck • This and That December 2024

    Elizabeth E.11 Comments

    What do sunflowers have to do with getting unstuck? And why on earth does the term “Fibonacci” sequence come into play?

    I happily pinned up this quilt, finding some cheerful plaid backing in the never-ending stash closet. I rolled it up, set it on the machine and…then what?

    I printed off the quilt in a 50% saturation, and started doodling. Some ideas came right away, but I became stuck on the petals right away, finally breaking through those with the sketch in the upper right (“yes”). But those giant centers!

    So I decided to go to the source: the sunflower plant. And on the way I found out the official name (Helianthus annuus, L.) and then I added the search term Fibonacci to the mix, and found myself deep into mathematics. This site, which combines sunflowers and coding, had some beautiful arcing designs of the path of the sunflower seeds. And the picture above came from a website called Synchronicity, which was a fascinating read. When I watched the video explaining this principle, I learned a lot, getting only a little bit lost at the end when square roots entered the picture. That I didn’t get more befuddled is a tribute to my high school math teachers.

    I went into my Affinity Designer program and using their spiral tool, I drew this. And when you know, you know. I think I will add a little bit of arcing grid at the tops of the petals (shown in the sketch, above), but we’ll see. Sometimes Mies van den Rohe said it best: Less is more. (Also said by Robert Browning, apparently.) So now I can get going, after being stuck. Sometimes it just takes a bit of time to figure things out, and while I am certainly One Who Likes a Project, I’m thinking maybe I had too much going on at this time.

    Like the church Christmas breakfast that I agreed to be in charge of. Our church had always done nighttime parties, but this year we tried something different, asking the members to gather Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. Here is the church hall night before, as we finished decorating and setting the tables. The real Christmas miracle was that we handed out the recipe for 14 breakfast casseroles and all they all came in looking the same, save one (they’d used a tin foil pan, rather than a glass pan).

    Again, if you know, you know. That so rarely happens!

    On our way there, we picked up the cinnamon rolls/sticky pecan rolls from our grocery store (Ralph’s). Thank you, Ralph’s, for your baking. We served the casseroles and sweet rolls with fruit salad, orange juice; we entertained people with a coloring contest and a piñata. We all had a great time.

    I finished off my time in a bee with an old favorite: the Block Lotto birds blocks (she asked for three).

    We did some decorating with nutcrackers, little figurines and quilts. Yes, that’s our “tree” there on the center small table.

    Molly Christmas has joined the guardians of Christmas: an angel and Santa. They are in my office during December, keeping it festive.

    One morning while my husband was out, I felt like making hummus. In he walks a few minutes later with the freshest pita bread I’ve ever tasted. Good karma, I’d say.

    Go to Trader Joe’s right now. You NEED these.

    We made a stop here, too, at See’s Candies, looking positively celestial.

    Screenshot

    Thought this was a nice pairing. If I manage to get out of my pajamas yet only go walking for 30 minutes a day, I evidently leave some benefits on the walking trail. Is less…more…in this situation? And who dreamed up that chart on the left anyway?

    One nice thing about darkened skies/shorter days, is lighting candles, with the tablecloth from your mother and your Christmas dishes on the table. And soups seem to be on the menu a lot. Above, my husband made Creamy Spicy Pumpkin soup (topped with squares of ham and peanuts), which we served with baked puff pastry squares, topped with roasted fennel bulb and brightly colored persimmon wedges.

    The next day I chopped up all the fennel stalks and treated them like celery, in making a mirepoix of onion, fennel stalks, carrot and a bit of garlic, with a wave of kosher salt and a grind or two of pepper. Cook on low heat in 3 tablespoons butter and a wave of olive oil until the vegetables are translucent but not browned; then add in 2 quarts of chicken stock, a teaspoon of fines herbes, and a shake of celery seed. Simmer for a bit. I then added half of a chopped yellow bell pepper, 8 ounces of pasta, and one more carrot, thinly sliced. Simmer until pasta is done, then add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

    Last thing: my daughter (who was baking for the thousands this week) called up to ask if my recipe for cheesecake had sugar in the crust. It took me a while to find it as I hadn’t made it in years. It came out of this bible of cooking, the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, which I bought when I was in college. Click on the recipe to get the whole thing.

    Happy mid-December!

    Butternut Crunch Toffee
    Recipe

    Butternut Crunch Toffee

    Elizabeth E.9 Comments

    My daughter Barbara, of SweetMacShop, recently held a class at a Cooking Store in Salt Lake City, teaching people how to make my Butternut Crunch Toffee recipe. Then she linked it on her Stories, and now I’m putting it here so all those searching can find it too. It’s also on my Recipe Blog at ElizabethCooks.com, if you need other delicious treats like Lemon-Butter Sauce for your holiday baking.

    I found this in our local newspaper, back in the day when newspapers had full-fledged cooking sections.  In the olden days, back when newspapers were read every day around the breakfast/dinner table, there were many pages devoted to Christmas cookies, delectable sweets, ways to manage the Big Day’s meal, and lots of other columns imported from other news services.  I cut it out and tried it, because it had the promise “Master this and you will rule the world.”  My husband, whose favorite candy at the time was Almond Roca, declared this recipe A Hit.  I’ve made it just about every Christmas since.  According to the article, it came from Ann Hodgman’s Beat This! Cookbook, published in 1993.  Now you know really how old this clipping is.  I’ve made some changes: the recipe as listed below includes these changes.

    1 cup (2 sticks) lightly salted butter
    1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
    1 tablespoon light corn syrup, dissolved in 2 tablespoons warm water
    1 cup whole almonds
    1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

    Scatter the whole almonds over a cookie sheet and place under the broiler until lightly toasted–don’t burn!  Let cool, then chop them up in a food processor, but don’t chop them into dust. Leave some chunks.  Scatter half of the almonds over a cookie sheet; reserve the rest for later.  [Note: I’ve always used a cookie sheet, but the recipe calls for a 9 x 13 inch pan.  Your pick.]

    In a medium heavy saucepan, over medium to medium-low heat, melt the butter.  With a spatula kind of scoot some up on the sides so as to “butter the pan.”  As soon as the butter is melted, stir in the sugar. Continue to stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture comes to a rolling boil (a boil that can not be stirred away).  Add the corn-syrup-water mixture and stir well; the mixture will hiss for a few seconds, but that’s all right.

    With the pan still on the heat, cover the saucepan and leave it covered for 3 minutes (use a timer).  Then uncover it and stick in a candy thermometer.  Keeping the heat at medium-low, and stirring once in a while, heat the mixture to 300 degrees.  (My sister Christine also uses the paper bag test: she holds up a brown paper sack and when the toffee is that color, it’s time to yank it. *Note: for higher altitudes, for every 1000 feet above sea level, subtract 2 degrees.*)

    When the candy finally reaches 300 degrees (it seems to get stuck at 220 and stays there for a long time), remove the candy from the heat immediately and pour it onto the chopped nuts, tilting the pan back and forth to cover it evenly.  The recipe says not to scrape the pan or the candy might crystallize, but I’ve been known to help down the last little ribbon of toffee mixture from the side with my spatula.  Other than that, I obey, and generally don’t scrape the pan.

    Let it cool for a few minutes, then scatter chocolate chips over the surface (another trick from my sister).  The heat from the cooling toffee will melt the chips.

    When they are melted, take a spatula and smooth out the chocolate.

    Scatter the reserved nuts over the surface.

    Let it really cool down.  A lot.  When the chocolate is set (about 2 hours or so), break up the toffee into pieces by “stabbing” straight down into the toffee with a paring knife until you hear it break. More stabs equals smaller pieces.  I put it into a dish, then pour the extra bits of nuts and toffee over that.  Makes about 1 pound of candy.

    Now you really will rule the world.