It’s upon us, the hustle and bustle! Do you feel it yet? All the craziness! The rushing of mailing out the Christmas cards! Every year I say the same thing, “I am going to start my cards in November!” but it just never happens. I bet that happens to a lot of people. Oh! And the packages, mailing packages, receiving packages, wrong address packages! Even with all the brouhaha everything always works out at the end of the day before Christmas…funny thing how that works!
This year I decided to make new gingerbread cookies for my tree. Yes, the old ones looked a little sad, one even looked like a critter must have gotten at it! Yuck! I am just going to push that thought out of my mind, hope you do to. I have used this gingerbread recipe from “The Tasha Tudor Cookbook“, for years. These are not to be eaten cookies, they are to be hung on the tree cookies.
Every year I prepare my oranges for the tree, a sentimental tradition I just love. I slice them up and place them on parchment paper (Martha Stewart would be proud) at 225°, turning them every half hour. The BEST PART IS THE HOUSE SMELLS YUMMY! When the peel looks like a warm golden color and they are not quite dried out, I cool them on a rack and then place them in a bowl of orrisroot. After a week or so I take them out, tie a ribbon through, and hang on the tree. Not sure if this is the proper way, but it works for me.
It’s hurry, hurry time to get the Christmas tree…before the snow comes! We have a beautiful Christmas Tree Farm right here in our own town! “The Old Farm Christmas Place” we have been going there the last few years. It’s so nice to see the familiar smiling faces filled with holiday cheer! Cutting down the tree roasting marshmallows, tying it to the top of the roof, listening to Christmas carols being played on the way home, I just adore that warm fuzzy feeling that the holidays bring!
After home and preparing the tree, have to wait till trees limbs fall a little then it will be lights, garland, gingerbread cookies, oranges and antique Christmas ball! We all have different ways of tree decorating, some people like birds, while others prefer memorabilia or just a little of everything.
Before I mix the gingerbread for the tree cookies, I slip in one of my favorite Christmas movies. For anyone who doesn’t know me it is..” it’s A Wonderful Life “. I could watch this movie over and over, it just makes my heart smile!
I love the hustle and bustle, making cookies, drying oranges for the tree, making rosemary wreathes…I could go on and on! I love it all!!! Did you ever notice when you unpack your christmas decorations the funny sounds you make as if is the first time you have ever opened the box…OOOH how pretty! Aww this one is my favorite! And then there are the memory decorations the ones we all cherish the most, I have a ceramic Christmas Tree my mom made me, it always give it the best place of honor where I could see from almost any room, which is pretty easy since it is a small cottage house!
I am very sentimental when I decorate, I listen to Bing Crosby, dry my oranges in the oven…it makes the whole house smell wonderful and cozy and always fire up the wood stove, “Brrr…we are having some cold days here in Maine!”.
Sooo…make some hot chocolate yummm! And listen to White “Christmas” with Bing!
Hi my name is Cheri and I see the world in pictures. I am a watercolor artist living on the coast of Maine. I have a 'peek-a-book' view of the ocean, which is a short walk from my cottage.
My studio is filled with seashells and paintbrushes, mementos and inspiration.
