“Looks great. Little full. Lotta sap.”
Late last night it poured. The wind screamed. Windows shook. I heard a branch fall. Both dogs sat up and listened, their ears cocked to the sound, but hearing nothing else, they settled in and went back to sleep. The dogs are my barometer for things that go bump in the night. If they go back to sleep, all is well.
Today is a delight. It is 54° with a bright sun. The breeze is strong enough to sway the pine branches but not enough to cool the day. The oak trees still have brown dead leaves waiting to fall. The dogs love this weather. They are outside for so long I check the yard just to make sure they haven’t escaped. In my head, I know they are still in the yard as they are not escape artists like Gracie was, but I still need a bit of reassurance so I check.
When I was a kid, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas seemed interminable. We’d lie on the rug and pour through the Sears catalog circling and uncircling our Christmas wishes. Once the turkey was history, we’d beg for our tree, but my father always said it was too soon after Thanksgiving, but we’d badger him relentlessly, and, under the pressure, he’d finally give in. My father always picked out the tree. I remember him hauling it from the car into the house, putting it in the stand, moving the tree back and forth in the stand until it was straight and then tightening the screws with one hand while holding the tree with the other. The tree always went in the same corner between two windows. To me every tree was beautiful though my father was more interested in price, not so much in full branches. There were always holes, but we didn’t notice. We had our tree.
The tree would stand for a while to let the branches fall. The house smelled of pine. It smelled of Christmas.
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November 27, 2023 at 6:17 pm
Hi Kat,
This morning we had our first freeze of the season. The low was 31° and the high was 55°.
Like you, my sister and I couldn’t wait for Chanukah after Thanksgiving. We always got the big gift on the first night of the eight nights. The other seven nights we got small gifts, similar to stocking stuffers.
Chanukah is celebrated by eating fried foods such as potato pancakes called in Yiddish, Latkes. Jews who came from other Middle Eastern or North African countries eat Buñuelos, otherwise known as bimuelos or levivot, are small fried dessert fritters topped with sweet syrup or honey. They are Mediterranean in origin. Sephardic Jewish families make buñuelos for Hanukkah. In Israel people eat my favorite sufganiyot, jelly donuts. I don’t know if a donut filled with cream and covered in chocolate also counts as sufganiyot. I call it a Boston Cream Pie donut.
November 27, 2023 at 8:56 pm
Hi Bob,
The nights are cold, down to the 20’s and 30’s, but the days are warm, at least for this time of year. We hit 59 today. The rest of the week will be in the 40’s.
My stocking was always amazing. My mother filled it with the neatest stuff, even when we were adults. Impatient is what most kids are this time of year. Is it traditional to get the big gift first?
I’ve always called them latkes. I use to make them quite a bit. I’ve always connected buñuelos with Mexico. Some of them had a filling, but they were always topped with maple syrup. I am not a jelly donut fan, but I am a Boston cream donut and pie fan.
November 27, 2023 at 9:42 pm
Jewish people have lived everywhere in the world and adopted their cooking to their local environment while maintaining the dietary laws.
When King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled the Jews out of Spain, in 1492, many of the Jews continued to practice Judaism secretly underground and many of them came to the new world. These practices continued in spite of the Church’s Inquisition. Today, there are many Catholics living in Latin America that have interesting family practices which are not Catholic in origin but resemble Jewish practices. One woman in Mexico, whom I read about, remembers her grandmother lighting candles on Friday nights. She remembers her grandmother lighting the candles, and covering her eyes in order not to enjoy the lights until she said a blessing. She didn’t remember the blessing her grandmother recited but remembered this remnant of Jewish practice that remained in her family.
November 27, 2023 at 11:21 pm
In the new world, the missionaries connected Christianity with local religious practices knowing that conversions depended upon it. They adapted those practices to the rites of the church. I saw that in Ghana which is quite Christian except in the northern part of the country where I lived.