Laowai

Sometimes I walk into my kitchen after dinner and wonder, was it my husband who was cooking in here or was it the Swedish Chef?

But I try not to complain because he does all the cooking on the weekends and he makes some super yummy meals.

Dear dinning room, I have big plans for you. You are such a lovely room, warm and sunny with views into the garden, someday you will not look so rough around the edges. Maybe there will be lots of green paint that we will be able to glimpse from other parts of the house. Maybe there will be even more plants. Maybe you need a round table, or maybe not. We'll see. You just need to be patient. The first task for you will be getting your pretty windows looking sharp and unfortunately that won't happen for quite a while. 

Until then we'll keep enjoying you – you're the best place to soak up the sun in the winter months.

I was reading Quiltfolk magazine and they had an article about an old quilt and it's history. It explained that the quilt was made by a woman in 1875 and it was made shortly after her five year old son died. It struck me as so poignant and so full of feeling the idea that a quilt was made while the woman was grieving her son. That her hands were working with the fabrics and thread as her mind was trying to work on some sort of healing. The idea that a quilt is so closely associated with an event or a time interests me. 

It mades me think of the quilts that I have made. What was I thinking, what was happening in my life? Some quilts have strong feelings associated with them. They can be happiness but they can also be angst or worry or sadness.

Martha Stewart had an article about the health benefits of hands-on activities. It pointed out how people turn to sewing, knitting and crafting in times of struggle. From the civil war when people made socks and war supplies to today when craft companies noticed a remarkable uptick when the pandemic hit.

The association of handiwork and the time it was made gives it so much more meaning. It's not just a chicken scratch embroidered tablecloth or a scrappy log cabin quilt or a ripple stitch crochet blanket. The items are elevated to into a physical manifestation of the thoughts and feelings of the maker at a specific moment in her life.

And the craft trends interest me too. Right now it's interesting that masks are a creative and useful outlet. Not only do the crafts reflect the wider design and style trends of the time but the crafts also reflect everyday practical needs and the availability of materials. So while we make masks with patterns that we find online and fabric that we can find at Joann's – our grandmas made quilts from patterns in popular magazines out of feed sack fabrics. It's a time old tradition that craft and place and time are connected and I just love the richness of it all.

So what's my next quilt? Well I might go back. Back to a quilt that I made Brian when we were so young. I think it was just the second quilt I ever made. In my inexperience I did a shabby job, so I might go back and re-do the quilting. But I'm saving that for the dreary days of January and February. And I'm still on a mission to reduce my ridiculously large stash of fabric – I have a stash-buster quilt pattern in mind. Stay tuned and sorry for the ranting lecture.

This Christmas is going to be different. We won't be traveling to Michigan. We won't be spending Christmas Eve with Grandma J. and Christmas morning with Gramma C. No playing with grandma's dog. No shared meals. No helping to decorate the tree. No Christmas hugs.

But thanks to the grandmas we will have the usual Christmas sweets. We got two very special packages this week. One form Gramma C. full of some of our traditional favorites: pecan pie bars, millionaire shortbread, Nutella peanut butter balls and lemon pie bars. And one from Grandma J. with her addictive caramel puffs and some sweetly decorated shortbread cookies.

So thank you Grandmas! We are comfort eating ourselves silly and that's OK!

We also didn't get to have our gingerbread party this year. It was just us girls carrying on the tradition. Bea's house features each type of fish that she has in her aquariums. And Claire went all out with her Smarty roof this year. 

And even though we are overflowing with sweets I still have some baking to do. I need (need – ha) to make more gingerbread for eating because Brian and I agree that it is sooooo good with a cup of coffee. And I must make the Stollen bar recipe that I found and loved last year. 

Hope your house if full of soothing holiday sweets too.

Look what Bea made for me – the tiniest, sweetest little Christmas tree. I love it!

I've been baking almost everyday. Brian gave me a special bread baking dish for my birthday – it's for no-knead type bread. It does the same thing as a dutch oven but because it's smaller and shaped for a loaf the bread comes out better. So I've been making all our bread. I made doughnuts the other day. I can't decide if the frying hassle is worth it. I might just stick to going to our favorite doughnut spot in the future. And since we won't be traveling to Michigan for Christmas Brian has decided to make some of his mom's traditional Christmas cookies. He started with her lemon pie bar recipe – yum!

My girls have been doing home school for the past few weeks. They are going back to in-person school for two days next week. I try not to use the internet during the day because they need all the bandwidth they can get to attend their online classes. I can tell they are frustrated with the way things have to be at the moment. Maybe that's why I feel like baking so much. I can't control anything but I can make sure there are cookies in the cookie jar. I'm finding it harder to be sneaky with everyone around the house. I mean it's harder finding time alone to finish some handmade presents or just to hide presents away. 

My square Pyrex dish broke in the oven so I had an excuse to find a new (old) one on Etsy. If only it said Bake Queen.

We went to the Chicago Botanic Garden's Lightscape for the second year in a row. It's all outside – a path through the gardens that is filled with a variety of light displays and music too. This year it felt especially special because so many other holiday things are cancelled. A lovely evening spent with our one and only quarantine bubble family.