Growing up, it was tough having a birthday the day after Christmas. First of all, my father was a minister. That meant that by the time my birthday came along each year, he was exhausted and didn’t want to do anything but sleep. Then there were the Christmas presents that said, "Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday," no special presents on my birthday. Add to that the fact that the family was always ready for a party on July 9th, when my brother’s birthday came around. It really sucked when I was a kid. After I had my own family, though, they always made a big deal out of my birthday, and when they had grown up and left home, someone was often visiting for Christmas, so I got to be with them for my birthday, too. The only think still missing was the birthday blessing at church. Somehow they never seemed to happen on the Sunday around Christmas. This year, I decided to make sure it happened. You always get the option of having a blessing instead of communion by crossing your hands across your chest instead of putting them out to receive the bread. So, after two services Christmas Eve, where I sang with the choir, I showed up at church on Christmas Day (coincidentally Sunday this year) to get my birthday blessing. Fr. Jed greeted me before the service and told me that a service without the choir needed some help, so I supposed that meant to sing out. I let him know I was hoping for a birthday blessing and would plan to get it during communion. I had already had communion Christmas Eve. This kind of blessing turned out to be very private and all the more special because of that. It wasn’t even my birthday yet (that’s today), but it has already made my birthday special. All the family members are elsewhere this year, so Charlie and I are alone.
Christmas Eve was lovely. The music was special, as is often the case for Christmas. We are lucky to have such a great music director and organist, and another person who plays the flute and violin. I especially enjoyed the later service in Trinity, the old church. It’s so lovely, and the acoustics are great.
Earlier on Christmas Eve, we had dinner. We had salmon pie, rutabaga casserole, green beans and corn salad.
Here’s the salmon pie. It’s called Lohipiirakka in Finnish. The crust turned out great this time. I used this YouTube tutorial, which I've used before.
The rutabaga dish is also a Finnish recipe. It’s called Lanttulaatikko. We had it left over from Thanksgiving and kept in the freezer.
For dessert, we had chocolate pie, using a store-bought frozen pie crust and my silken-tofu pudding recipe (super easy).
Earlier in the week I made more Pulla (Finnish cardamom braid). We've had some for breakfast and tea time.
We had cooked a very large acorn squash and only been able to eat half of it, so I made squash/banana bread. We've been eating it for breakfast, too.
On Christmas Day, after church, we had our traditional egg nog with rum. Yum! We watched a lot of football.
I got a turkey ham from Whole Foods and fixed it with the kind of glaze I used to use when I cooked such things. It's uncured, so no bad chemicals in it.
We had roasted vegetables, Dutch-oven bread and salad.
Then more of the chocolate pie.
The Wisconsin grandkids were going to the Texas grandparents this year. Because of the big winter storm, their departure was postponed until Christmas Eve. They stayed overnight in a hotel about halfway. Doll fans will appreciate this photo from Christmas morning. (The doll was birthday present from the last birthday.)
I think the funny glasses were stocking stuffers.
The arrived at their destination safely in the early evening.
We had a pleasant Zoom session with our older son and his wife. He has to work today. The Oregon grandkids went to the nursing home to visit Great Grandma and sing Christmas carols. We will zoom with all four of our younger grandkids today. Maybe all of us together or in two sessions. They will all still have presents to open.
Christmas is turning into the Twelve Days of Christmas! However, we did open some presents. One of my favorites:
Another favorite was a selection of artwork from the grandkids. Daphne is definitely in the Pointillism school, whereas Zachary is floating between Realism and Surrealism.
These will go on the wall. There was also a mouse pad and two quilt blocks with their artwork. (I'll have to think of something special to do with those.) I got a bread knife long enough to use with my new bread slicing guide. We gave and received presents that are really donations to worthy charities...the best presents of all! (Did I mention that my birthday is a postal holiday this year? Enjoy not getting any mail and think of me.)
If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of our other books, Emil and Mariah, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.
Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.
What's in The Doll's Storybook: Pauly's First Christmas Eve. Pauly visits his friends, who are celebrating Hanukkah AND Christmas Eve, and finds out that they don't always come at the same time.
What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Plan for the Worst by Jodi Taylor. Not much progress this week.
What's in my wine glass: Egg nog laced with rum.
What's my tip of the week: When I use plastic wrap, I always end up with a tangled mess. When I was making the crust for the salmon pie, I decided to wrap it over plates, then put the dough for the top crust on one and the dough for the bottom crust on the other. It worked much better. The edges of the plate kept the plastic wrap open.
Addendum: A better idea, and one you can use when you aren't using a plate. You can keep your plastic wrap in the freezer. It gets rid of the static electricity until the wrap warms up again. (Kudos to my friend Eugenie for putting me on to this!)
Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.
If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less.
Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.
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