An Old-timey Christmas at our House

Christmas morning dawned and our excited 8 year old could barely contain herself.  What did Santa bring and where do we start? Stockings, always the place to begin while Mom and Dad drink their coffee! 3 years ago, I made us all matching stockings from an old knitting pattern. I kept some of the graphics but created new designs to suit each of us. The stockings each had an orange and Rebecca got a pomegranate, which she SO wanted. There were other little goodies in the stockings too. What a festive bunch of paper tearing and ohs and ahs.. Even before the stockings were done, Rebecca declared this "The Best Christmas Ever!"
This year most of the presents I gave were hand-crafted.  I made Rebecca a pair of knitted fingerless mittens, knitted and felted wool and mohair slipper boots and a kitchen apron made of muslin and printed fabric trim with a pocket. I made David a new pair of wool socks and fingerless mittens designed to keep his hands warm while playing the fiddle in cold weather at outdoor festivals. There is something really special about making a gift for someone. The energy that is knitted in with every stitch, the love that is incorporated in the  design and the good wishes that are wrapped in for eternity make the gift a lasting reminder of your feelings. I like that.
It was a morning spent opening presents and playing with our new treasures and enjoying each other's company.

Once the meal preparations were well underway, David made us a Christmas Day Bonfire in the yard. It served as a gathering place as our guests arrived for dinner, bits of snow remaining after our big storm last week..and Rebecca's snowman slowly disappearing....

Our Christmas meal was most amazing. It took all day to prepare.. well, the preparations began the day before,  got the turkey in brine and assembled the ingredients for our feast, planning and all that...
We had a beautiful, moist and tender turkey complete with all the trimmings: stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, divine gravy, spinach salad, cranberry relish, cranberry sauce, wild rice with shitake mushrooms, pumpkin soup, homemade sourdough bread...YUM! Not as many of the ingredients were from the garden as I would have liked.. but we used onions, garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sage, and apples from the garden.
For Christmas Dessert, I made the Sweet Potato Pie again and it was fabulous. I forgot to put the sugar in the filling.. so it was not as sweet as last time.. but really nice. The sweet potatoes have plenty of sweetness in them and the recipe does not call for very much sugar, so it all worked out. We also made some homemade whipped cream for the top. WOW.  As you can see from the photo, I decorated the pie with dried apple rings and raisins. It was a lovely and impressive presentation.
All in all it was a fabulous day, simple and joyful, filled with love and laughter and friends, and a minimal amount of commercialism.