Merry Christmas

Treasure all of your Christmas memories!

Nina's First Gingerbread House

Not much to say. She pretty much did it all herself. Took her a week to do it---she's a perfectionist and motivation got a little thin during school.

Wonder if she'll want to do it again next year. Smells great!
Looks gorgeous!

Brewing

All the hops and grains are in this giant sock-thingy that boils and boils for awhile.

This is when you get the wort going and you boil over the stove with some grains and stuff. You walk in the house and the aroma screams "BEER!!!"

Yes, sometimes the garage does double as a brewery. How rude of you to point that out! Now only 2 weeks to bottling and then another 2 weeks to consuming. Bill's gotten really good at this. I don't particularly love beer but that brown ale is very good with a burger. Thanks to Buzz for getting us started on this.

All the cozy smells of Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Buon Natale!

Vesele Vianoce!

Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr!

Kielbasa steaming from Teprovich's Market in Quakake PA

Gingerbread!

Seven seafood feast on Christmas Eve. Viva Italia!

Christmas day ravioli preparation

The smell of the Christmas tree...aahhh!

Rainy Christmas eve. ('tis the season for rain in SoCal)

Christmas a long time ago

Holidays have a strong association with food for me. I have great memories of Christmases past at Baba's house and the Slovakian treats. When I baked the nut and poppyseed rolls, I remembered more clearly. Same thing with the lekvar cookies. And when I bake them, I hope my kids get that same feeling too.

Cozy and delicious!