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This time of year is so soft. A waiting, a pause, a gentle interlude. People rest together, reading and playing and puzzling together.
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The Christmas days were full. Full of my sister and her husband and all of us sleeping at my parents’ house. Full of Dominion and laughter, snowshoeing and tea, cheese and cookies, presents and hugs, and even a little Boxing Day shopping.
Now we are in the middle of two cocoon days. Two days with no plans, no rush. There are no boundaries and all of us soften and expand and merge with each other. They’re playing with new toys (a PS3) and I’m knitting. There’s snow to move around for our yard rink. There are vegetables to roast and toss with feta for supper. There are warm mittens and socks to wear. There is even a blue, blue sky overhead.
Sweet, soft, lazy days.
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be merry
When the world is coated in hoar frost, it seems we’re all holding our breath. Nothing stirs. Nothing casts down these tall crystalline constructions. The air is soft and foggy. The world is quiet.
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Predawn. 8:10 am, December 23.
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My To Do list was making me crazy but I think I’ve turned the corner now.
Wishing you a Winter Solstice full of light and dark, softness and a sharp edge, laughter and tears.
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“There are things you can’t reach. But you can reach out to them, and all day long.”
Mary Oliver
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Can we balance only in the striving?
Some of the best things about this season are the myriad moments of enjoyment, of pause, of gratitude, that await us.
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I showed him how to wind thread onto the bobbin.
You’d think I’d handed him giggle powder.
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“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
Albert Camus
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How do you find light?
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Deciding to do without the charity baking this year has been wonderful so far. There’s something about 1600 cookies that really takes up your spare moments. I’ve had time to sit around for hours on weekends, knitting away at my sweater, or reading, or writing Christmas cards. I can’t even remember the last year I did cards. We’ve had the freedom to ask what cookies we’d like to bake this year.
Rainer’s got a work potluck tomorrow and we had the time and creativity to make Lollipop cookies. We’ve never tried them before, but we’ve been enjoying paging through some of the German baking books we’ve got on hand. And drooling. Oh, these things all look so incredible.
These are called “Zwergenlutscher” in the book: Dwarf Lollipops. The whole book is populated by Zwergen in red pointy caps, so it only seems fair that they should get something named for them.
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Simpler than you might think. As tasty as you might hope.
Basically, sugar cookies with popsicle sticks, coated with jam, and then baked.
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Don’t be skimpy with the jam. A lot of it boils away as it bakes. This one got a bit much, but really is there such a thing as too much jam on a cookie lollipop? I’m not sure I’ve probed the extent of this. I’ll let you know if I encounter an outer limit.
