I have been looking forward to this longest night of the year, as the Winter Solstice marks the beginning of gaining minutes of light every day, moving towards spring. Aside from my annual year-end summation (hopefully I will get to it in the upcoming days), this will be my last post of the year, which is just a reflection on seasonal observations.

A couple of years ago I spied a squirrel sitting on the back fence post enjoying a large baguette (Out of Focus 3/31/23). I’m wondering if it is the same squirrel perched on the same fence, scarfing down what appears to be some kind of sandwich in a paper wrapping. Where did it find this? Why did it bring it here? Mere coincidence? When it saw me it scurried away with its prize.

The month has brought some beautiful evening skies

And a Full Cold Super Moon ringed with rainbow light.

Around the Urban Porch, the last little marigold finally succumbed to the snow.

The Fence Dinosaur down the street (for those who follow) took a bit of a hit with the weather. It was completely covered in snow when we walked by, so I brushed some off to discover it was dressed in Reindeer apparel.

Little Rudi left tiny tracks

Each year the holiday season has become a little bit “less.” The kids grew up and wanted their own children to experience waking up in their own homes on Christmas morning. What that meant was they were no longer coming “Home” (wherever my home happened to be – once upon a time my kids told me “Home is wherever you are Mom”, but I don’t think that is still the case). Now I am the one doing the travelling.

After a while, buying a Christmas tree that nobody else would see or care about but me felt like too much work. Getting the tree onto the roof of the car. Dragging it into the house. Getting it into the stand. Putting up the ornaments by myself and for myself, followed by taking them down and packing them away by myself (that’s the worst part I think), then dragging the tree out of the house.

Eventually I purchased a smaller “artificial” tree (read as “fake tree”), which at the time felt slightly sacrilegious but was way easier. Less ornaments to hang, but still requiring lights to string, later to disassemble and fit back in the box and hauled back into the attic when the holiday was over.

A few years of that went on, until transitioning to a small, artificial tabletop model that already had lights on it. With only enough room to hold some of the most favorite ornaments (ones which evoked the kind of memories that either make you smile or leave a lump in your throat), once decorated and lit it still managed to impart a bit of holiday magic.

Perhaps it was last year (or maybe the year before (I can’t even recall now) I passed all the ornaments on to the kids, split up between them. Without those adornments, why have a tree? I put the fake little tabletop tree on the local Buy Nothing group. It went to a grandmother who wanted it for her special needs grandchild who very much enjoyed and was attracted to trees and lights. She actually sent me a photo of him receiving the tree, which he will decorate himself. Definitely a feel-good moment.

On this shortest day of the year, the Dutch Baby for the weekend was apple/raspberry. I can say with some annoyance which borders on wrath that I seriously hate clamshell containers. I don’t know what it is about them that they (repeatedly) seem to practically hurl themselves out of the refrigerator and land open on the floor, especially the ones that contain berries. I can never close them properly in the first place, and to add insult, our recycling pickup doesn’t want them. I should probably just immediately transfer them to a different container. I wish they would figure out something else. Ban the clamshells! Does this happen to anyone else or is it just me?

The good part about this week’s Dutch Baby is there was a new twist. One of my kids insisted I open my gift from her early, which contained a carefully and lovingly chosen array of all things to enhance the Dutch Baby experience. Dark chocolate with a mini grater, powdered sugar and cinnamon with shaker containers for them, maple syrup and all sorts of luscious spreads!

Speaking of food, I was given a recipe for Amaretti (almond) cookies that is so easy, so quick and so good that even someone like me who has little patience for baking could throw this together.

The season is also once again bringing on the glut of Panettone, which suddenly have proliferated in the stores; massive Italian sponges popping up like mushrooms after a rain. Last year at this time I devoted an entire post to The Panettone Dilemma (see The Panettone 12/22/2024). I expect any day now I will get a phone call from one of my siblings asking if I am going to “have the panettone” and we will start laughing. This year, exactly to the day, my neighbor once again contacted me asking if I wanted the panettone she was just gifted but will not eat. Last year I reluctantly accepted that holiday hot potato, but this year I thanked her for the offer but politely declined. I continue to muse; do they really manage to sell all of these massive displays of panettone? And what do they do with the ones that do not sell?

As I sit at my computer, I will wrap this up and mention one more little gift from a friend because it’s right here in my face and makes me smile. Many years ago, more than I can recall (probably decades ago) my sister gave me a mousepad that looks like a Ouija board. I used it in my office and then it came home with me when I retired. It’s that old and very worn but I never had considered replacing it.

An old friend who was previously my supervisor at work gifted me a new one she had made with a recent photo of Little Rudi on it. Now I can look at his sweet face while I’m writing to you.

Time for new beginnings! Happy Solstice! Into the slowly growing light!

~*~