An Island Christmas Eve Meal

The Traditional Christmas Eve Meal
at the Carter Johnson House

I would be the one who would look at this picture and be flooded with memories of the Christmases past.  At the very least of 2015 when I enjoyed Christmas in Victoria.

I used the magnification tools to find out just what kind of food was in the dish:  heritage potatoes, brownish-yellow and purple flesh, quartered and ready to be place on the raclette pan.  Then I remembered that Rebecca is the very best on the fruit and vegetable isles of her local grocery stories.  If the merchants have brought it in, she has purchased it.

The cheese looks good.

I am sure there is a pomelo around the corner to be put on the table for dessert.

The only mystery to me is the red and green item.  My best guess is that Rebecca has staged the photo for me with a Christmas decoration.

Arta

Gingerbread Houses

Rhiannon wearing arm bracelets

Seeing pictures of the cousins making their gingerbread houses this holiday season brought back many memories of gingerbread.


 My strongest childhood memory is that a gingerbread cake appeared on our table sometime during the festivities. 


Warm and fragrant from the oven with deep dark spices I wasn’t used to: the ground ginger, the crystalized ginger, the cinnamon, the cloves, and molasses – those weren’t the ingredients that my mother usually cooked with.

Catie working on the roof.

She seemed pleased when the cake came out of the oven.  I didn't like it, but I kept trying it.

This is the season that brings other ginger memories.

 I am in love with the triple ginger cookie recipe. A recipe that should always be doubled.

And there is a ginger bar that is sliced on the diagonal when it is warm and sprinkled with sugar.

And now I have digressed.  At the table the gingerbread cake was presented with a lemon curd, or perhaps a lemon sauce.

Or if the cow had given up a lot of cream that could be whipped, then the top of the cake was almost covered with whipping cream.  Then I liked the cake for what I ate was ginger flavoured whipping cream.

Naomi doing the landscaping

That is when I liked it best – more whipping cream than cake.

And there is a ginger bar that is sliced on the diagonal when it is warm and sprinkled with sugar.

The easy way to have children decorate gingerbread houses is to use graham wafers as the frame for the house.

Not really fair to call those gingerbread houses, even if the colour is right and royal icing is used to fuse the sides together.

I am wondering at the gingerbread fest that is pictured in this post?

Leo, Hebe, Xavier, Rebecca

Who was the master gingerbread chef?


Arta

The Wish Bone

... you have to pull with your pinky ...

When I was young the world was full of opportunities to make wishes: a wishing pond, a falling star, the candles on a birthday cake, and a loose tooth.

At Christmas, the wish bone from the turkey gave a 50% chance that you could get your wish – fifty to you, fifty to the person holding the other edge of the bone

Technique is everything.

Is it better to hold your side of the bone high? 

Hold it low?

... this might be going wrong ...

Should I pull and twist to make the crack go to the other side of the bone?

Are there enough dried wish bones to give a person real practice.

... wait until I get a firm grip ...

I remember one year mother saved the wish bones from every turkey, starting with the turkey for New Years and going through Easter.

Then Thanksgiving brought some turkey meals, as well as a couple of turkeys at Christmas.

 And she was known to have a turkey dinner – just for no reason, other than to invite people in for Sunday dinner.

 The wish bones she saved were to be spray painted gold at Relief Society, decorated with a bow and hung on the Christmas tree.

 That project was done in in the days when money was tight and decorations from the tree were hand made.

 No disposable income at all, let alone money for decorations.

... It worked.  It worked.  The wish will come true...

Remember the time she made decorations from egg cartons, taking the 2 of the cardboard depressions, gluing them together, painting them and then using a sprinkle of sparkle for the finishing touch?

 Or how about a church made from a box and the roof was corrugated cardboard.

 That one was a beauty … at least to me. The golden wish bones hung from the tree for many years.

But the year they were made is the year no wishes came to our house from turkey bones. 

We had to count on falling stars.

Arta

What I want for Christmas -- or imagine that others would want ...

From Mary

Off the top of my head, what do I think would be fun for Christmas?

Some cross country skiing with someone who loves coss-country skiing.

And over the holidays, and on Christmas day afternoon in particular?

For Christmas presents?

How about a “gift certificate” that a person can cash in to go cross-country skiing with you, and bring a friend?.

Or a certificate to try snow shoeing one Saturday?

 Do you think a cross-country skier would pick out a new hat or head tube for outdoor activities?

Or a small backpack to wear while skiing for water and snacks.

What I want for Christmas - Hebe

... I really wanted this ...

From Catherine 

My favourite gifts are coupons and notes.

Money is good too with the idea that a child can pick out his own present with you on a date.

In terms of fun activities how about a Christmas movie fest with Christmas Story, the Grinch, Tne Polar Express, Home Alone 1,2, and 3, Charlie Brown and The Sound of Music.

Drink hot chocolate and eat pastries.

Stay in pyjamas all day.

No brushing hair or washing faces.

... and what is inside tastes so good ...

Or eat breastfast cereal all day.

Make pancakes for dinner.

Wow. Some of the ideas on my list sound really good. I think I'm coming over.

Catherine

P.S. For Christmas Activities, carolling is m favourite.

Christmas with the Bates-Treleaven-Oldham's

We spent Christmas Eve at the Zoo. It was cold, but worth it. Pictures don't work out well in low light when you have only a little photography skill, but here are some of the better ones.

Christmas morning at the Treleaven's was a surprise with iPads and Barbies. Here the kids have chosen their favourite gifts for a picture. A picture rule for our kids: you can do a goofy pose only after you do a nice pose, hurray for digital photography.

Two turtledoves or two young pigeons

Artist: Brooke Melchin

Our home teacher, Brooke Melchin, is the artist on the cover of a Christmas card he gave to us.

The card celebrates the following passage from St. Luke: “when the days of her purification ... were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord; to offer a sacrifice ... a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons".

The charm in the card for me is the celebration of a Biblical passage I rarely hear read or set to music.

I don’t know the medium Brooke used. I am guessing India ink and good quality parchment paper. The picture has concentric circles enveloping different images: a halo around Mary and the child, then one around the Holy Family, one around the other pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem, the last halo encircling the gate to Jerusalem.

I love the way I feel when I look at the walls of the city. I am looking from above and instinctively I lift my chin a little to see over the walls and down to the roof tops of the houses.

I don’t have much space left on my walls to hang another picture.  Still I designated a "frame shopping" event for myself, touching down at Pier I Imports, then Bed, Bath and Beyond, then at London Drugs, wanting just the right frame. Those tiny figures in the bottom left-hand side of the picture need to pop out.

I found the right one: clean, simple, white.

Kelvin will hang the picture as his good-bye to 2013 and as a hello to 2014.

 How is that for a good New Year’s Eve?

Happy New Year to all.

Arta

El Reis - A Dinner to Remember

Dolmas

We have been steeped in a wonderful Catalan food culture for 3 weeks

Today there was a switch to Syrian food: dolmas, falafels, baba ganoush, hommous, tahini paste, speciality olives, deep fried corn, long loves of breads that were still hot from the bakery, kebabs, pilaf, casa, poive, thick coffee for whose who still have room for it.

I ate forgetting that it is important to pace oneself when there are three courses to come in the meal.

And even after dessert, chocolates were passed liberally, beautifully wrapped, the ends fringed like firecrackers.  I am going to miss those treats when I get home.

Tortell El Reis

The Catalan grandmother asked me if we have anything like the tortell in Canada. I had to say that a dessert like that does not come out of the American Puritan background. I know there are German immigrant families and other eastern European families who carry on a rich tradition of breads like the Tortell, a ring that may even contain one of the King´s Hats in its circular middle. Joaquim´s sister had done the tortell, even making her own almond paste which hides in the centre of each piece she sliced for us.

David Camps won the hidden money prize, contained in one piece, a tradition we all celebrated with a round of cheers for him. I do remember a tradition of hidden prizes in birthday cakes from my own childhood.

I walked home when the party was over, from one city to another, though going across the boundary between the two was no more than crossing from one street to another. Joaquim said in his childhood the connection was a dirt path, but now the two city boundaries are side by side. The walk home was with one of the children, poor Joaquim translating between me and her as we talked about our favorite events of the day: the new pink bike, the trip to the vineyard, the presents at the homes of her aunts and uncles, the meal, and what it was she wanted to do when she finally got home tonight – which was slip over to her friends to show her her favorite present of the day.

Arta

The Three Wisemen´s Parade

This was my first time at a parade that features the Three Wisemen. Being able to name them is not important, for the children know them as the wiseman with the white hair, the wiseman with the blonde hair, and the wiseman with the black hair.

Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar

 We ran down the Rambla and to our place on the street that leads down to the sea. The parade began with fireworks going off down by the shoreline and shooting over the tops of apartment buildings. The sky was a blaze of colour. At the top of the other end of the street where I was standing, the parade began. There was the siren of a police car, then an SUV passed, the top of which had huge presents tied on top. Fourteen attendants to the first wiseman came marching along. This wiseman had white hair and was riding on a float, attendants on his platform and people walking alongside, holding standards, wearing tunic pants and sporting turbans on their heads. Sequined material was draped from ear to ear masking their faces. They dropped candy into any hand that was cupped and pressed into the street.

At first I was worried about whiplash. My head was going from the left where I could see the fireworks, to the far right where I could see the three wisemen. Finally I gave up on the fireworks and ran up the street to where I could see the parade one block away. I ran passed a second wiseman with another 14 attendants, the back of his float covered with coloured ostrich feathers and his float was followed by a marching band and more presents, this time inside an SUV. Then the third wiseman floated by with more attendants and more candy being passed out.

¨Who is that uncostumed man in the parade who is going along bowing and nodding to the people?¨ said Bonnie to Roza. ¨Oh, that man has just joined in,¨ Roza replied. ¨Oh, like my mother,¨ said Bonnie. ¨Look! See her in the middle of the parade?¨

I wasn´t in the middle of the parade, but I was running up behind the crowd to get a closer look at the parade as it came down the street.  I only tripped three times on the cement abutements as I was running up the sidewalk, but didn´t go down on any of the stumbles.

Of course I was thrilled.

Our family had rehearsed the plan for the evening´s travels. Catch the parade at its beginning. Run down a few streets and catch it down by the parade by the sea. Dash over to their aunt´s hair dressing shop and catch the wisemen again as the parade finished up its last leg.

How much fun was that to see the six little cousins running hand in hand along the rambla to begin with and then down the side streets to the next parade viewing. We split up to make a run for the last leg, everyone getting there by their own fastest route.

Early Persian painting of the three wisemen

Some families waved paper lanterns as the parade went by. I watched one mother light a candle and place it inside of the lantern, locking the top of the mechanism before she put it on the pole that it was to swing on. Bonnie grabbed me and made me go to the other side of the street as I was watching that process, so that light went out for me.


The more seasoned parade-going children brought plastic bags their parents had brought groceries home in. There seems to be no shame about collecting as much candy as possible. They were holding out the bags and the attendants were casting handfuls of candy in each bag. Those children, also, knew to run from one spot to another. I did a double take seeing a child who might have had collected a kilogram of candy in her pursuit of happiness for the evening.
Why not?

This is the night the three wisemen come.

We left the parade to go to the Catalonian grandmother´s house to make large cards with the names of children placed on each card and then on a dish. The wisemen come to each of your relatives houses. If two families live in one house, the wisemen leave something for you at each family´s spot. So tomorrow David will be going to three different sets of relatives to see what the wisemen left for him there, as well as receiving something at this house upstairs and downstairs (since there are two families here right now). He has already gone to bed in anticipation of the event, as I shall do now as well.

Right now, there is water in bowls for the camels and food on each dish for the wisemen, both of which will be gone when we wake up in the morning.

Arta

The Grocery Store

Joaquim is out looking for presents to help the Wisemen out on their visit, which is only six days away. The seven year old has already cried. Apparently a thief has stolen her bicycle which was too small for her now, out of the basement so she has figured out she no longer has a bicycle. Other know that the too-small bicycle is getting refurmished for the younger sister, and a new one is coming with the Wisemen, but she does not know and so had that sad moment.

This is a small town. Not small so much in population, but as in the footprint of the city, for Joaquim and I can walk across it in a brisk 25 minute walk, which walk we took while out looking for Lego. The weather is 15 above and the humidity is 99%, so the light rain leaves umbrella users wondering if they should be putting their umbrellas up or taking them down.

Bonnie and I are going to cook for New Year´s Day. Cooking is harder when you are not in your own kitchen. On the way home from the shopping trip, Joaquim showed me a shop that sells artisan pasta. A lightbulb went on for me. Why would I cook Canadian when I can buy ravioli stuffed with shrimp and artichokes, or ravioli stuffed with spinach and fresh cheese, or ravioli stuffed with veal. I looked through the shelves of the artisan shop for sauces to add. I found a piquant tomato sauce and then an olive sauce, which through translation between the woman who came over to assist us at the freezer and me, I was to learn, just dust the ravioli with the sauce, so as not to loose its delicate taste.

Boil the water and only leave the ravioli in 3 minutes, the clerk warned me through Joaquim. He is having to do a lot of intermediary work. I do not know how his holiday is going, for he has to translate for Bonnie and for me. As well as wanting to know the name of every item in the pasta shop, I wanted to know where to buy the nativity figures that were in the window of the bakery story. Joaquim asked me to come along inside with him while he tired to find out, because for every question I ask, I have four more question that follow. He may have also been wanting to to deflect the craziness of the questions I ask along the way to me instead of people thinking he is the one wanting to know the answers.. I want to know everything about anything I see that is new to me.

I haven´t know the discreet difference between two grocery stores that are on opposite sides of the highway that cuts through the middle of town. I was wondering about the smaller of the two last night when it was closing. Huge cartoons of vegetables and fruits were being transferred into the store, a man running them on a dolly across the highway between surges of traffic

If I was willing to pick up the fruits and vegetables, Joaquim told me, then we could visit the smaller of the stores. He went right to the line up to pay for the groceries and I was to fill the basket he was holding. That is when I discovered the store only carries fruit and vegetables. I took the last of the pineapples available, I didn´t know that the sign above the cherry tomatoes said two for one, and I picked up a large head of celery that was more leaf than stalk and the bitterest celery I have ever tasted.

The mandarins are only 79 Euros a kilogram, but I left those behind, because how much weight can two people really carry in their arms. So we are going for a second trip right now, since everyone is closing up for the festivities around New Year´s Eve.

¨Why are you closing so early today?¨ one patron asked, to which the clerk who couldn´t cash out fast enough to keep the line small retorted, ¨I have a big supper to cook tonight as well as the one you need to cook.¨

The store was so small that I couldn´t get between the isles of food and the patrons so I began to count how many shoppers were there. Thirty in the store at one time, and the area of the store was no bigger than a small barbershop.

We went down to Calella´s Rambla for this is the night when there will be someone who walks the streets giving out candy – a man who has as many noses as there are days in the year. Since this is the last day of the year, he only has one nose, but that nose is something to behold. Along with the candy, he gives out one fake nose to each person who puts out their hand, young or old. Some of the noses were long like Pinocchio´s. Mine was large and Romanesque, a lovely addition to my face. I wore it proudly. Children ran behind him, in front of him and alongside him. His helpers made sure everyone had a nose and a handful of candy.

Arta

Turning up the heat and turning down the energy

In Doral's comments to an earlier post, having Ceilidh wonder why her Dad is considering having a Thanksgiving turkey for Christmas dinner made me think about traditions again … not that the theme of “what is traditional in your family for the holidays season" is not an old topic, one followed in the schools and at church.

I was remembering one year when I decided that Christmas needed to be spread over the whole 25 days of December, so I tried to figure out something for each day: the day we decorate the tree, the day we decorated the rest of the house, the day a new Christmas cookie was served, the day we got our advent calendars, a day to open a game the whole family could play together.

That was the year that the Mormon musical theatre called “My Turn On Earth” had come and gone to Calgary. The whole family had watched it at the Jubilee Auditorium. Remember? Kelve, so young, bursting into tears, when he understood there would not only be a turn for him on earth, but a turn for him to die.

“I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die,” he sobbed. He was probably only about 7 years old. People around him saying outloud, “Shh, shhh ,” and “keep that kid quiet.” What was I to do? He thought he was going to die right away.

Still Mormon musical theatre was fun. I ordered the CD of the score. It came and we opened it for one of the 25 days of Christmas, so that year we hummed not only the tradition tunes but those off of the CD.

This year, I have been trying the theme of “Christmas every day for 25 days” on Kelvin and the guys who live here. Working around the food theme is the easiest way to pull off the tradition: a festive drink with cranberries floating in the liquid, Walker’s Shortbread for dessert one day, Christmas cake iced with marzipan on the counter the next day, everyone involved in the decorating somehow, yesterday.

Any ideas for me, for I have 21 days left to go and not much imagination left? I am turning up the heat on experiencing Christmas traditions and turning down the energy it takes to create the experiences. Look above. all of my Christmas baking all comes from Costco.

Arta