I realize that many a Christmas tree has already been undressed, dismantled, and tossed to the curb or back of the property...or up to the attic (in the case of those who refuse to deal with incessant falling needles). Not so, in this abode...and I'm always heartened to see twinkle lights and wreaths with red bows still bedecking many a home and shop front up in our neck of the woods for many weeks to come.

I didn't want the Season to entirely slip away, though, without sharing our favorite homemade ornaments from this year. We happened onto an Open House at an Eco-Village/Co-Housing development that's evolving down in Belfast (which is another wonderful topic of its own!) and what we found was a group of warm friendly people in a renovated farm house offering an array of yester-year homemade Christmas ideas.

Three men were playing instruments in the background while the children were immediately swept into the fray. They engrossed themselves in decorating gingerbread men (some of which were gobbled up and never made it to the tree!) and popping beeswax out of molds and tying strings for these lovely sweet smelling creations...

They also poked loads of cloves into oranges to be then wrapped with lace and ribbons...

And with all these whimsical natural touches...we added our assortment of abandoned nests to our tree as well! This group at the Open House also provided old antique canning jars that the children filled with stones and water to force their very own paperwhite bulb...that are still blooming beautifully!

Of course all this does is only spur me on...into an even more frenetic feverish pitch! I really have to ask myself...how can I possibly wait an entire 365 days until it all comes 'round again next year?? Mmmmm...but isn't it simply delicious while it lasts! : D

Our chickens are just TOO cool! Literally! You can't even imagine the kind of night we had last night...the WIND!!...and snow blowing from every direction. It was an honest to goodness blizzard for sure! And I worry about our animals out there, hunkered down...nestled together against the cold, wind, and storm.

However, not only did they survive the horrendous blizzard raging last night...with snow drifted all over their little coop and their cage completely filled to the brim with snow...they laid us two eggs this morning! And they were so cozy in their little house that their water wasn't even frozen this morning either. The bunnies survived just fine, too, burrowed under two layers of tarps and a big pile of hay. And Babycakes pony is over in my friend, Heather's barn (while we're finishing a fence for her).  Morgan, the kitty, our indoor cat in the winter, was curled up with the children upstairs...his usual spot. So everyone's accounted for! Ahhh...what a relief!

Now that's my idea of sweet...hearty...chickens...
made for Maine!! : D

Since we're still lolling lazily in the Holiday groove, I thought I'd take you for a little stroll along the sidewalks in Old Port...my haven of Portland...with its brick facades and cobblestone streets...for a bit of that wholesome good old-fashioned window browsing....

 

One of my all time favorite past times anyway. It's not just the windows...it's the people walking their dogs, the snippets of conversation brushing by, and children dressed in cute outfits...or babies bundled up to the tips of their ears in strollers with only their little bright eyes peeping out. I would call it window shopping, except that I don't necessarily shop for things per se...rather I shop for ideas. And the ideas...the more eccentric, creative, and crafty the better!...far outweigh the 'things' in my book!

This window is always a treat, for instance. This is the Abacus store...chocked full of all types of artisan goodies. They usually have some huge quilt of Crispina Ffrench vintage hanging on some wall somewhere in there...plus pottery, wood carvings, quilts, those wild metal monster contraptions...funky En Gry & Sif scarves, mittens...the list goes on. Some of it is local...some of it's semi-local...some of it's from the far flung regions of the globe. These snuggy slipper boots caught my eye today. I'm totally loving the mismatched felted sweater look these days. And I still have my own stash of those glorious wool sweaters to do something...many things....with. Aren't those the coolest??

Hmmm...I should've gotten closer up here...can you see those lovely necklaces there? I'm really not much of a jewelry person, but I am somehow drawn to this Victorian Vogue look. These necklaces are a perfect case in point...they're so eclectic and individual...yet charmingly feminine all at the same time.

I took these photos on Christmas Eve Day...that's what I call it...and in my humble opinion, window browsing is always at its finest this time of year!

Things are changing for us...although it doesn't exactly appear like so much change on the surface of things...it's there. And this Christmas marked that change, I believe, more particularly than times before. This 'change' seems thoroughly absorbed and exuded from my children who somehow seem to absorb things more readily and exuberantly than their maternal counterpart. We began this quest toward a more simple life with the jump-off point in the rural countryside of Maine. However, shirking the Dallas metroplex mentality in lieu of backwoods resourcefulness and self-denial has been much less of a 'jump' and more of a 'juxtaposition'...a rather bumpy one at best....for at least one supposedly adult female in the family.

For anyone who may be thinking out there that a rural romantic life in Maine is all pink with no gray...or even purplish-bluish-black....well, please rest assured the darker hues of the color wheel readily mix with all those ephemeral pastels. Which is as it should be, don't you think?? I always love the scrappiest of scrapbooks the best...I suppose because they reflect the real beauty and essential quality in life the best. The dark swirls only edify and punctuate those soft pale happy colors, giving them the background they need to dazzle and shine forth.

So what's the point in all of this exactly? Did I end up with some blue, woe begone Christmas rather than the cheerful white-red-and green one...with silver and gold bells jingling all about me? No, of course not...BUT...I must admit to you, my dear friends, that in the quest for simplicity, I'm afraid, I still have my delusions of CITY ambiguously attached to that 'simpli-'...and 'city' in the sense of all that the Modern-Woman's-Guide-to-the-Perfect-All-Around-Well-Rounded-Christmas Package represents...which means 'presents'...and usually quite a few of them.  The Perfect-All-Round-SKIMPY-Christmas doesn't remotely figure into my Holiday vocabulary...much less roll off my tongue very easily. Now, 'skimpy' I realize...is only a state of mind. Believe me, I give myself that lecture with oft-occurring regularity...and sometimes I do manage to believe what I'm telling myself...with not quite so much oft-occurring regularity.

So how does a child-product of the materialistic, consumeristic, Christmas-is-for-gifting-and-lots-of-them wean herself from that state of mind exactly? Especially when she's staring into the voluminous empty gift bags of her 4 children with only 2...count them two...tissue wrapped presents each...then self-consciously stuffed with tissue paper at the top to make them look 'fuller'...and to mask all of that massively voluminous empty white space inside??

As I gazed into those large essentially bare un-filled bags, my panicked thoughts bouncing and echoing off the stark cavernous walls...begging to be filled with something...anything!...all of my 'simple' resolutions vanished and dissipated out the window...poof! Laura and Mary Ingalls of Little House fame were ecstatic with only a penny and a new tin cup for Christmas. The Von Trapp's 'new' farmhouse fell into the cellar at Christmas time...so the children slept in the barn. Despite this catastrophe at 30 below zero, they hung out by the big fireplace on Christmas Day still reveling in their newly acquired farm in Vermont...shambles and all!

But this is the cusp of year 2010. The night before Christmas these days is not filled with visions of sugar plumbs...let's be brutally frank here! I was frantic with guilt...how can my poor children possibly have a nice Christmas with a few books...a few mini-candies...and a couple of oranges in their stocking?? It's just physically impossible, that's all there is to it. I admonished myself, "These are lean times...and when the money's tight, the money's tight."

But...but...but this is America...the land of plenty...the land of box stores, cheap gadgets, plastic in a plethora, and outrageous credit (un)limits....and this is the HOLIDAYS...and all that implies. I was seeing their doleful, neglected eyes on Christmas Morning in my mind's eye already! I couldn't possibly have been happy with two books for Christmas as a child...of course I couldn't...no way!!!!!!! This is just cruel. I'm nothing but a cruel, stingy mother that has inflicted unbearable atrocities onto my own children on all days of days....Christmas morning! How can I possibly sleep peacefully in my bed tonight...and all future nights...for that matter???

Don't they look completely dejected and crushed? Doesn't it look as though their fate of the 'skimpy' Christmas has left them with deep tragic scars for life? Do you see staggering sums in future psychiatric bills from subconscious repressed childhood trauma? In all fairness, they didn't get  just that for Christmas. Grandparents sent money that the girls joyfully spent on adding Schleich farm animals to their collection...and a couple of new dollhouse people. And our son bought a venus fly trap plant that has him thoroughly entranced.

And what was their mother's greatest Christmas gift this year? A  change....a slowly emerging Freedom. Freedom from the shackles of the 2010 Modern-Woman's-Guide-to.....fill in the blank. Technically we did get snowshoes 'for Christmas' since we picked them up on sale last Spring and hadn't broken them in yet.

So that's what we did. We went for a snowshoe hike down through the wintry woods, discovered lots of animal tracks in the snow, and slipped and slid over a tiny frozen pond. We tromped back at  late dusk in the light of Daddy's flashlight to a warm snug house glowing with Christmas lights and red bows. We guzzled hot chocolate and handfuls of crunchy kettle corn. This was the highlight for the children...for ALL of us. To my utter disbelief my children said this was their favorite Christmas Day...ever. And next year they want to make it an entirely homemade Christmas. "Let's make everything ourselves next Christmas, Mommy, OK???!!!! We don't want anything store bought...can we please, Mommy???!!!!"

Sure, why not. Go ahead...torture yourselves...and be happy! : D

Don't you worry...I won't be inflicting these on you...much! ; D

You must try these...the recipes that is! First that super creamy tomato basil soup...recipe compliments of La Madeleine...one of my all-time favorite hang-outs in Dallas. I used a 12 oz. can of tomato puree and a 12 oz. can of crushed tomatoes. I used 2 cups of heavy cream and a stick of butter. I didn't have enough fresh basil leaves on my fledgling windowsill plant - so I used about 5 or 6 fresh leaves and supplemented with a couple of heaping tablespoons of dried basil. I mixed the cans of tomatoes together first in saucepan then poured into the blender and blitzed until very smooth. Pour back into saucepan and heat over a burner until the butter is melted and blended, add a heaping tablespoon of raw sugar, then transfer to a crockpot to relish all afternoon or evening!

Next, from Nigella Lawson's cookbook, How To Be a Domestic Goddess, her mother-in-law's Madeira Cake recipe. I added the zest of 2 lemons. Bake at 350 degrees...and in my convection oven 45 minutes was still a bit too long. Next time I'll take it out sooner...perhaps 35 to 40 minutes. It's moist and too scrumptious!
Enjoy! : D

Let's just say that Nigella Lawson knows...like no other that I've yet to come across...how to get me off my proverbial you-know-what, out of paralysis and, most importantly, into the cooking mode...this done all with a sense of fun and flair! I've hung the twinkle lights over the big windows in my kitchen, the Christmas music is singing through the house and I'm happily imbibing her overflow enthusiasm for the Holiday Season with all its savory and pleasurably decadent joys for the tastebuds!

And where do I start??? ALL her video recipes are scrumptious! OK, we'll start with the following:  3 short episodes on getting into the Christmas Holiday Kitchen mood...traditional desserts, dinners, and time-saving tips to render it all enjoyable as opposed to impossible...especially for someone as inept and unmotivated as me!

And what's Christmas without cookies?

Or Christmas Fudge...I don't necessarily go nuts over this stuff...but pistachios?? yummmm....

Or one of those infamous fruitcakes?
Admittedly not one of my favorites...BUT...I just might try this one...
someday...

If it has eggnog in it...around it...
anywhere in the near vicinity, well...I'm there!

I can see that my Holiday repertoire is expanding...
along with my pants size...but we'll just ignore that for the moment.
After all...'tis the Season!

I realize that I've been rather remiss in blogging this Holiday Season. But I will make up for part of that today...my only day to catch up a bit. I thought I'd give you a little tour around the abode as we're all festive...finally! We've seriously been lugging boxes and boxes of 'stuff' out of this very cozy cottage all Fall and up until this week...really!

But last night we had our friends, the Dows, over for dinner and some Christmas cheer, so I grabbed the opportunity to shoot some pix before my fav of favorite seasons is completely over and gone...just as I'm feeling it should only be the beginning! Ah well, thankfully winter in Maine lends itself totally to keeping the festive decor up for many weeks to come...so here we go...

The front stoop...is somewhat different this year. I must say that things don't look so really different this Holiday Season as they have from years past. We have been here long enough now that we've developed a few little traditions, but I added a few new touches this year...it's always fun...isn't it???

Below is our thoroughly flocked tree that hubby drug through the knee-deep snow from over on our land. What a trooper! One of our 'Maine traditions' has been to have a fresh cut tree...and it has come from the woods on our land every year except one. And that one came from our neighbor's woods that year...so it still counts...for me anyway!

We're now inside...standing in the entry/mud room...looking into the main room of our house....

I LOVE paperwhites and haven't grown any from bulbs in ages. They've blossomed beautifully for us...just in time for Christmas Day!

And speaking of flowers, I also just added this shelf unit in front of a window that I want to inundate with plants and flowers. This is a start...

Moving on into the living room....


You can see, below, that I've added a reading nook at the base of the stairs. Never enough bookshelves!

My cozy bedroom...I say 'my' since my husband patiently puts up with all my pink and floral decorating. I can't enthuse enough on how I revel in the reflective light of the snow that bounces into this winter haven. Doesn't it just beg to snuggle up in, teacup in hand, and knit away all afternoon?? Well, that's the whole point!

And now the aerial view from the balcony above...

Hmmm...yes, you can see the blue cooler tucked under the desk to the left? Our 'new' fridge is still broken down...a $400 compressor isn't in the budget at the moment...and the old fridge out on the deck is basically nothing but a freezer now. So we handily keep the milk, my ever-needful eggnog, and lunch makings in the cooler there. It's actually working out very nicely...and saves lots of electricity! At least one consoling benefit to an otherwise inconvenient pain in the neck...

I've put to use the little red wooden footstool to set our read-aloud books next to my cushy chair-n-a-half...that I couldn't bear to leave behind in TX. We just finished reading the true story of the Von Trapp Family Singers...written by Maria Von Trapp...the authentic version. It's been an absolute delight! The children's favorite so far...even more than those beloved Prairie Stories by Laura Ingalls Wilder. How it can surpass the 'Sound of Music' movie is beyond me...but it most certainly does!

I'll be posting more blogs today as I try to catch up with some links, photos, and such that I've been dying to post. Then we're off to Portland tomorrow...which in effect kicks off our Christmas celebration!
Merry Christmas! : D

And yes! We do have snow! Looks like it'll be a white Christmas for us after all....and it's continued to snow from flurries to storms for the past couple of weeks. I say, "Bring it on!" I love the quintessential full-out nostalgic New England Christmas...and that has to include the white snowy version!

Our son, Andrew, has now added tunnels to his road network around the yard...

He doesn't seem to mind all the shoveling so much. I suppose it's all a matter of perspective, huh! ; )