Christmas Past

I'm really embracing the holidays this year and I paused to reflected on my prior efforts.  The last time I really did a lot for Xmas was two years ago.  I made my first homemade hostess gifts and put some effort into decorating my condo for my father's visit.  Surprise, I was also unemployed then!  Amazing what some extra time will get channelled into.

This year I'm taking it up to the next level.  2 different homemade gifts, an actual tree, hosting Xmas dinner, etc.  It really does make me think quite a lot about my Mom.  She always loved the holidays and went about doing all the work of making it happen, mostly without complaint.  The low point was usually when no one would help her take the tree down.

I've definitely been feeling the "you are your mother" vibe over the last week.  I somehow went into auto-pilot thinking I needed to buy a wreath to hang where the mirror is over my mantle.  What's so weird about it is that I always thought that it was kind of crazy when she took down the mirror every year.  Apparently it really imprinted!

There are two traditions of my Mom's that I'm slightly overhauling.  I've taken a recipe of hers for cheese cookies that she used to serve at cocktail parties and revamped it a little through trial and error and of course taste testing.  Kind of funny pulling out her old Philadelphia Orchestra cookbook.  I'll post the recipe to my cookbook when I've got the final version.

And for those of you that were part of the masses who said "YOU MUST GET A FRESH TREE!", I was sold.  Really I was.  Until I watched some friends arguing about stringing lights and going through a bag of lights that worked last year but were now dead.  It sent me over the pre-lit tree edge.  I knew that convenience-minded individual was still inside me somewhere.  Nice to see it reassert itself.   My lovely tree arrives from Tree Classics next week.  I think you die hard fresh tree people will be secretly envious. :)