Tis' the Season

Merry Christmas!!

I know, a few days late, but you know what, not many people know that you're supposed to celebrate Christmas many days after the fact.

If you know me, you know that I love Christmas. A lot. I love the excuse to decorate, to bake, to entertain and to gather with family and friends. I love the traditions I have with both my family and friends. I love being in the kitchen and baking up a storm all day long with my Mom. Especially with the Christmas music playing and family coming and going. My memories of Christmas of today and in years past are the sights, smells and sounds that evoke that wonderful nostalgia. Every year we make Christmas cookies, a tradition I've known since long before I can remember. They are sugary, colorful and just plain good! It has evolved from me and my family making them, to me and my best friend Meghan and now to whoever can make the day of epic baking proportions.

Christmas Cookies

Another tradition is Snow Village. What started as one little church my grandmother bought me has now turned into a collection of over 30 houses which takes up over half my parents living room. My sister and I have it down to a science on how to put it all together and make this tiny little Christmas town. I love how my nephews and niece get close enough to imagine this little town coming to life before their very eyes, and I admit it, I do it too. :)

Super Suds

Fifty-Sixth Precint

Dinah's Drive-In

Snowy Hills Hospital

Every year it seems I take on a Homemade Christmas challenge. Whether it's crafting jewelry, knitting scarves, making books, or printing photographs for gifts, I'm always into the homemade gifts with a personal touch. Of course when it's crunch time I wonder why I put myself through the madness, but the end result is usually worth it. This season I made lovely little French Macarons, inspired by a cookbook I bought at Anthropologie, called Les Petites Macarons: Colorful French Confections to Make at Home by Kathryn Gordon and Anne E. McBride. I kept seeing this beautiful cookies on Pinterest and fell in love. Then I saw the cookbook and I was over. I was committed. The task turned out to be very challenging technically but I really enjoyed making these little delights. Below are a peppermint and chocolate ganache macaron and a pink-colored almond with vanilla buttercream macaron. I only had time to make these two batches (other batches didn't make the cut) but I hope to keep this new trade going for future events. 

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas season and I look forward to what the new year may bring. I know this time last year I did not expect to be living on Cumberland Island!  

Au Revoir 2011, you've been a good year, and let's welcome 2012 with hope at all the possibilities the future may hold. :) 

Tybee Trash

Due to the unexpectedly warm December we're having on Cumberland, Emily (pictured 2nd from left) has had huge success while crabbing off the docks of Cumberland. Emily is a native Savannahian who grew up setting crab traps with her family on Tybee Island. It was a treat to experience this little slice of low-country culture a couple nights ago. That's one of the things I love about living in different places- getting to see and experience firsthand new things- the different, the exciting, and the unfamiliar. (Also, why I love photographing them.) In college, I took as many classes as I could in anthropology, the study of culture. I have always been fascinated by the traditions, roles, and rituals we create based on our environment, our heritage, and the people around us. Emily shared with us a tradition she grew up with. And not in a grandiose sense by any means, she's was just doing something she loves (and I, of course, was just in awe of it all). A crab boil is more than getting the meat out of a crab; it is a gathering of people around a table to pick the fruit of your ocean harvest. Similar to the crawfish boils of Louisiana or Mississippi, you throw everything on a table and start working for that food you worked so hard to catch. Emily called it "Tybee Trash." I also have to quote her on "This ain't Martha Stewart, y'all." Basically, throw everything on the table and start working for your food.

The Ocean Harvest

I remember on a legendary spring break trip to New Orleans several years ago, a group of best friends went to a crawfish boil on the Mississippi River, in a park called the Fly. To us, it was magical. The combination of perfect weather, friendly people, and learning how to eat a crawfish, guts and all, seemed completely authentic. As Emily was teaching me how to gently tear apart this little creature to pick out the meat, I had that same feeling of authenticity. I'd say it was somewhere between scooping out the intestines or picking off the "dead man's fingers," these spongy tentacle looking things that are really just the lungs. I'm laughing at myself writing this because it sounds so gross- sorry to the faint of heart. It felt almost primitive, working for that food you caught (well I didn't catch it, but I felt lucky to participate).  And then I remember my mom telling me how her grandmother used to have to ring the chicken's neck to kill it. Yikes! We used to have to work for our food, people! I guess once you work for it, it makes it taste so much better than anything you could buy from a store. Not that I'm saying I want to go out and butcher a pig or anything, but it's just a reminder how much dirty work is put into the food we eat before we get our hands on it. We are privileged in that sense. But, enough of philosophy. All in all, it was a good time had by a bunch of friends around a table. These are the times that remind me why life is good. :)

On Display