Quarantine: December 2020

I basically wake up the day after Thanksgiving in full on TREE MODE. This year the pull is extra strong because it’s snowing out and decorating the tree would be a welcome activity to break out of our normal routine. As usual, we select our evergreen from a local farm. And we are firmly Team Colored Lights. Here’s our 2020 Christmas tree:

We also have a few new ornaments to add this year. Presenting the Wheel of Cheese (impulse buy at Sur la Table) and the United States Post Box (in support of our struggling postal system):

Then there’s this cute, handmade flannel owl (courtesy of Wayside Inn Farmer’s Market) and a stunning hand painted, glass blown purple heart that Mike and I both completely forgot we bought. We purchased it at the Germany Pavilion in Epcot earlier this year but honestly we forgot we even went to Disney altogether because it feels like it happened a lifetime ago. Instead of February. So pulling it out of the box was a nice surprise with a side of whiplash.

Mike’s Darth Vader coin bank reigns supreme as our tree topper. And funny enough, our new entryway light makes for a decent Death Star in the background.

Once the tree was done, we toasted with eggnog. Specifically, Old New England Eggnog which is more booze fest than pancake batter and will absolutely knock you on your ass in the best possible way. We even brought out Mike’s vintage family punch bowl glasses to get extra fancy.

I added a straw Yule Goat and red berry swag to our mantle this year. Yule Goats are a Scandinavian / Northern European holiday ornament, sometimes called julbock or julebukk. Norse tradition goes the last sheaf of grain from the harvest was collected and crafted into a symbol of prosperity to decorate and bless the home during Yule. And goats figure prominently in Norse mythology, usually associated with Odin and Thor for purposes of travel, feasting, honor, and celebration. I think we’ll nix the travel part this year.

Another fun tradition this year: How about a hot sauce advent calendar? Every day is another opportunity to discover a tiny vial of fun hot sauce. We found ours at World Market, as we could not locate the cheese advent calendar we had last year.

Our biggest snowstorm of the year hit the night of December 5th. Mike and I bundled up, grabbed some ciders, and hung out in the gazebo to watch the sun set and the snow pile up.

Later that evening, Mike snuck out and drew a gigantic heart on our driveway and I can’t even with how amazing this guy is. Can’t imagine any better person to be locked up inside with.

What to do when you’re snowed in? Bake scones and have a proper afternoon tea party. We do cream first, jam second in this house. This detail is very important and great English wars have been fought over the correct scone application.

You also have plenty of down time to level-up your pizza game by making it in a cast iron pan. You can even add olives to exactly one slice so you can enjoy your favorite while your husband has an olive-free pizza experience.

In many households, holiday time is cookie baking time. This year I whipped up a batch of my lemon shortbread raspberry thumbprint cookies with the white chocolate drizzle. I say “mine” but the recipe came out of a Pillsbury cookbook I bought in line at the grocery store register as a teenager. But I’ve been making these (now almost from memory) for over twenty years so maybe they’re mine now? Found the recipe online, if you want to try them.

And we traded a tin of them to Mike’s mom in exchange for her frosted sugar cookies and gingerbread, which are THE thing I look forward to every year. Traditionally, she hosts Christmas Eve dinner and I eat my weight in cookies, but this year we stood six feet apart in a driveway wearing masks and taking turns placing cookie tins in each others vehicles. My hope is that by next Christmas we can sit once more around a dinner table together as family because tailgating holidays is cold and weird.

As we close out the year, we have one last tradition in this house: the Lemon Pig! The Lemon Pig was a tabletop oddity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and like many things, faded into obscurity for a good long while. But three years ago, this little clipping from a vintage party planning book popped up in my Twitter feed, via 70’s Dinner Party:

We gave Lemon Pig a try and well, it does seem to bestow good luck to our home! So now every year on New Year’s Eve, we craft the Lemon Pig to herald in a new year full of luck, prosperity, and weirdness. Let’s check in on last year’s Lemon Pig and see how it’s doing:

Poor little guy seems to have seen a few things this year and looks a little worse for wear. But, we have been blessed with good health all throughout 2020 despite a global pandemic so perhaps he worked his magic after all. Stay safe, everyone. We’ll see you all in the new year.