For me, Christmas has always been a time of togetherness with many traditions that involve food and spending time with family at home. I have fond memories of decorating the tree with my mom every year into adulthood, often with a glass of port and Christmas cookies to sweeten our conversation. We always made gingerbread cookies together and usually a few loaves of my grandma Bettie’s pumpkin bread too.

One tradition Josh’s aunt has started with the boys the last few years is decorating gingerbread houses. They did this again this year and Baxter even managed to get most of his candy on his house! The last few years most of it went into his mouth as he worked so he ended up with a belly ache and a simply decorated house 🙂

Another tradition that I hope to continue every year is planting these paper white bulbs after thanksgiving for Christmas blooms. My dear friend Marlo gave me a whole bag of bulbs which are coming into lovely (though stinky) blossoms in the kitchen window. It’s refreshing for the spirit to have flowers growing during this dreary season.

The small tree on the shelf in between my fermenting carboys is another treasured tradition for me. My mom and I decorated this small tree when I was a child and I’ve put it out every year since. It even has a tiny metal angel atop it and wrapped presents underneath. Side note – we should have lots of good wine to drink in 2019 when all those carboys finish fermenting!

Still to come before Christmas are hopefully some gingerbread men and pumpkin bread. The boys also like to make “Christmas crack”. I’ll share some recipes in case you want to add these to your family traditions too.