At this point, our breakfast arrives, and we dose our waffles with maple syrup and dig into the eggs.
Winter Break
StandardAfter all the ‘busy’ness of the holiday season and the death of my cousin, I am behinder than ever in my writing and editing.
I need a break!
So I am going to be off social media for the next two to three weeks in an attempt to take a deep breath and catch up with my life.
Don’t miss me! I’ll be back!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
StandardWhile some sadness crept into our holidays with the death of my cousin, Paul, and the travel north to his funeral, our grandchildren – as they tend to do – provided us with some lightness of heart.
Eli found delight in a pile of his favorite food, cheese, at a restaurant, and was fascinated with the jellyfish at the Baltimore aquarium.
Alex is, well, Alex, still getting her sea legs as she continues learning to walk.
Happy New Year everyone. May 2023 bring the world and our nation some peace and comity.
Christmas in Prague
StandardThis is a re-posting of a blog from 2020 about Christmas in Prague, where my husband and I lived for a year.
We spent Christmas in Prague and were introduced to its customs by the Czech couple, Vladimir and Milada Reznick, who shared their apartment with us. The first tradition we encountered was a visit from Svaty Mikuláš. Svaty Mikuláš (Czech for Saint Nicholas) descends from heaven on a golden cord held by angels, as he returns to earth for his gift-giving rounds each year. In the European advent calendar, St. Nicholas pays a visit to children during the first week of December, bearing gifts of sweets to the well-behaved. He is traditionally accompanied by a devil (Čert) and an angel (Anděl ). Some friends of mine arranged for me to be visited, and luckily St. Nick gave me a present. The devil is sometimes portrayed as Krampas in a scary costume, usually in the public square along with St. Nick and the angel.
Vladimir and Milada purchased a Christmas tree – it appeared one evening – and it was lit with real candles! We lived in fear that it would catch fire. but Milada assured us it rarely happened. Right. Good that I couldn’t read the Prague newspaper!
The traditional Christmas Eve meal is carp soup. The Czechs love polévka, or soup, and Milada was a wonderful soup maker – especially gulašova polévka (gulash soup) and dršťková polévka (tripe soup). Every family would buy a huge carp from enormous tanks found on the streets around the city. They were filled with icy water (it was December after all) and huge carp slowly swimming around in them. The men who sold the fish were in their shirt sleeves with the sleeves rolled up and their forearms were blue from fishing in the tanks and pulling out a fish for you!
Once purchased, the carp was taken home and placed in water in the bathtub and kept until Christmas Eve. (Caveat: Never let your children name the carp) At that point, it would be dispatched, some of the meat saved for the next day, and the rest made into carp soup. Which is, by the way, delicious.
The traditional Christmas dinner was carp (kapr) schnitzel, made with the fresh carp fillets, along with potato salad. This might seem strange – potato salad at Christmas – but I swear the Czechs make the absolutely best potato salad in the world. And of course the fish was yummy and delightfully fresh (no wonder there).
And the sweets. Each Czech is born with a sweet tooth. There is a Christmas bread called Vánočka, which gets its name from the Czech word for Christmas, Vánoce. It’s a braided cake made with raisins and almonds. There are also cookies, lots and lots of cookies, Vánoční cukroví / Christmas cookies. We ended our Christmas meal with a variety of those, along with fruit dumplings that Milada made to perfection. These are usually made with plums (if available) and sprinkled with sugar and poppy seeds.
In the Czech tradition, I wish you Veselé Vánoce a Šťastný Nový Rok
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Wenceslas Square in Prague at Christmas time. Named for good King Wenceslas!
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
StandardAfter spending Christmas last year in Utah with my son, his wife, and their brand-new baby girl, we were ready to do Christmas here.
The lead-up was a cookie exchange at our clubhouse.
These cookies are mine, made from a recipe of my mother’s. Chocolate drop cookies frosted, with cherries.
We finally found a spot for the huge wreath we always hung on our stone chimney in the living room of our old house: in the clubhouse, where it serves as a centerpiece! Just the right fit.
Soon after we had our luminary night, early because a lot or our residents leave for Christmas to vaction in warm places or to visit family. This is a charity event for the Ronald MacDonald House and almost everyone participates.
Welcome to our home!
This year I decorated our mantel – we’ve never had one before! – and placed the creche on our sideboard. Then the carolers took pride of place on top of the mediumboy (it’s called that because the top part, which would make it a highboy, was missing when my mom bought it.
I finally figured out a way to display our Christmas cards, using paper clips to clip them to our tobacco basket.
And finally the tree. After decades of real trees, we decided we couldn’t manage one any more – putting it up and taking it down and vacuuming needles. And remembering to water it. I do miss the smell of a real tree but this manufactured one is OK. It’s big enough to hold most of our ornaments, collected over the years, it doesn’t need watering, doesn’t shed, and is relatively easy to assemble. And it looks pretty real. It also comes with three types of lighting: clear (yellow) lights, colored lights without the clear ones, and colored lights with clear ones. We like all the colors!
This is our favorite – all the colors.
I hope you enjoyed the tour! We send all the joys of the holiday season from our house to yours!