Look at you. You're ready for Christmas early this year.
Christmas tree up and decorated - CHECK!
Christmas cards out - CHECK!
Shopping done - CHECK!
For the rest of us doing finger math, trying to figure out how it's not still October, I bring a little gift. A playlist - my Christmas playlist. I thought of titling it with the year, but this is the playlist I listen to every year. Buy the songs and play them loud. There is no better way to navigate a mall parking lot on Christmas Eve than while blasting Mele Kalikimaka. Trust me, I should know.
It's quite a mix. Most you'd expect, some you might not, and some that might just make you cock your head at the stereo (for your sake, I did take out "Last Christmas" by Wham!). Regardless, it comes with love. So without further ado...(click on the image below)
Ah…the family dinner. Is there any notion more comforting than the family gathering around the table for a hot, delicious, home-cooked meal?
“Mmm, Mom, this roast is delicious!”
“Glad you like it, Bobby. Now take your baseball hat off at the table, son.”
Then each member of the family would gaily recount the day’s events, wonderful as they were.
“I hit a homerun!”
“I got an A on my spelling test!”
“I got the Henderson account, honey!”
Oh, can’t you just see the gleam in their eyes? No?
Maybe you’re a child of the seventies and eighties, like myself. Most family dinners were fish sticks and canned corn or Happy Meals, between soccer and mom’s Aerobics class. Or maybe when you did sit down to dinner, it was only to glare across the table to your evil older brother or bore everyone with the details of Star Search (the original American Idol).
I’m a mother myself now. And I find myself doing the exact things my mom did, when I’m sure we both hoped for the scenario up top. Is it possible? In this day and age? How? Can we stop and remember that food can be love and life in itself and that our families are so worth it?
In her book, A Homemade Life, Molly Wizenberg shows how to do just that. A beautiful food memoir, Molly demonstrates through recipes how our lives are (or can be) so intertwined with food and meals that some of our best memories are born from experiences with cooking and food. Touching, romantic, funny, beautiful, and sad, this book is a wonderful journey through a life as seen through the kitchen. I found myself wanting to make recipes I would never had given a second thought to because of the life and personality Molly provides them through written word. Braised cabbage? Sounds beautiful. Thanks, Molly.
