Our Winter Holidays

 

  

 

 

 

 

Another New Year's Day has come and gone, bringing to a close Acacia's very first month-long celebration of winter holidays and festivals.

On December 6, Acacia experienced her first St. Nicholas Day, when we dig the Christmas boxes out of the closet and get out all the Santa decorations. She helped by sleeping through enough of the day for me to unearth all the boxes and sort through them for the first time since the move to our new house.

December 11 brought with it the Colony Christmas Festival in the cute farm town of Palmer, about twenty minutes from home. The craft fairs, food stands, hot drinks, ice sculptures, parade of lights, fireworks, decorations, and happy crowds made us really start to feel festive, and Acacia got many compliments on her cute little cap and booties (which were all you could see of her sticking out the ends of her sling!).

Next up was Santa Lucia Day on December 13, and all the angel decorations came out. I call Acacia my "little angel-baby," so this particular holiday held extra meaning for me this year. I must remember to find an angel ornament or decoration for her next year!

The Winter Solstice was December 21 -- the longest night of the year. This year's Solstice was unique as it started the night before with a total eclipse of the Moon! Dave, Acacia, and I stayed up and watched from the warmth of our livingroom bay windows as the Moon was slowly shadowed by the Earth -- turning a deep, mysterious red and casting the snowy world outside into darkness -- then emerged again, unscathed. What a beautiful event! We had a little under two hours of sunlight at our house, with sunrise at 12:15pm and sunset at 2:00pm. (The "day" here was actually a couple hours longer, but the sun is blocked behind a low hill at the southern edge of our property.) Solstice is also the day we unpack and put up the Christmas lights and candles (to encourage the Sun to return!) and hunt down our Yule Tree! Acacia slept through the hunt, but she enjoyed watching the tree being decorated -- especially all the lovely, twinkling lights.

On December 24, Christmas Eve, we hung our stockings (sadly, not over a fireplace for the first time in many years -- the one thing this house is lacking!), and I made hot crab sandwiches for dinner. Late that night as I tried to lull Acacia to sleep, I held her in my arms in the darkened house and we gazed at the warm glow of lights on the Yule Tree. I recited "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to her, remembering all the wonderful and magical Christmases of my own childhood and imagining all the joy and wonder to come during future Christmas seasons with my little daughter...

December 25 -- Christmas Day! Dave made a delicious breakfast of sausage, eggs, toast, and tea, and afterward we sat at the table and opened our stockings like the excited little kids we are at heart. Acacia fell asleep just as we moved on to opening presents, but of course we were happy to help her out with opening her gifts. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and relaxing before it was time for me to prepare dinner: smoked ham with papaya-pineapple-clove glaze and caramelized pineapple rings, steamed peas with butter, and garlic-parsley mashed Yukon potatoes. Yummy! Dessert was a bottle of Late Harvest Ice Wine, which we'd been saving for a year -- we bought it just before finding out I was pregnant with Acacia! We spent the evening snuggled on the couch together watching holiday movies.

December 26 is Boxing Day. Growing up, my family would usually go over to our dearest friends' house (also our nearest neighbors at half a mile away in rural North Idaho!), eat leftover food and pie, and go sledding by moonlight. Fun times! This year, however, no longer living near family or old friends, we spent the day in pajamas, reading new books and eating leftover ham. I think I could get used to an annual pajama-wearing, ham-eating day..!

For New Year's Eve, December 31, Dave, Acacia, and I stayed up till midnight watching a marathon of old TV shows interspersed with a fantastic view out our livingroom windows of all our neighbors' fireworks displays! They seemed to celebrate the New Year in every time zone, so we had an ongoing show for hours. At one point they sent up beautiful fire lanterns, which floated slowly up out of the trees and away into the night sky. Dave and I toasted the New Year with a glass of mead, a kiss, a look back at the gifts of 2010 -- our daughter and new home chief among them -- and a hope for a happy and healthy 2011.

The end of our month-long celebration of winter is Epiphany, on January 6. This is the day that our family traditionally takes down and packs away the decorations for next winter. I managed to pack up most things, but it's slow going with a baby in tow and I didn't quite make it to the Tree, so this year we enjoyed a couple extra days of those beautiful glowing lights and ornamented branches before the festive season was finally over and our home was restored to its everyday appearance. Acacia watched intently as I wound the string of lights up into a ball and packed them away. I wonder, will she remember them next year?