One thing is clear: there will be more of this kind of greenery in our future.
I seem to be affected by a seasonal version of a need for a horizontal hold knob. Remember back in the days of analog televisions? You know, pre-cable, when the station wouldn’t quite tune in, and the image would flicker by fast, like pages flipping in a book? I kind of feel that the future is like that right now, no matter what the subject. I can see the image, but it’s flickering by.
Maybe too much is expected of all of us in this season of Comfort and Joy. Of course, I am the biggest Scrooge on the planet, at least according to my husband, so it could be that I am especially prone to dark clouds now. So this inability to focus could simply be due to my lack of seasonal good cheer.
Maybe I just need more spiked eggnog.
Glad you came to visit!
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fast grow the weeds 
Definitely start with the eggnog and see where that gets you 🙂
But I agree that this season definitely expects too much from all of us at the exact time of year our bodies are telling us to slow down and conserve resources until spring. I’m finding it more and more tiring each year (even as I try to cut back further and further).
I hear ya.
I vote for more eggnog too!
I am having a bit of a problem with the perky this year myself. My family calls me Christmas Girl, because I am such a fan, but this year it feels out of reach.
I’m baking cookies today; that will help. If it doesn’t do the trick, spiked eggnog here I come.
spiked eggnog for sure. My brother and his wife are not coming this year. Hooray! My father and step-mother may need to stay home and take care of my grandmonter. Hooray! That leaves me, the husband and all five of our wandering kids. Works for me. We don’t even have a tree yet and maybe I’ll take care of that Christmas eve. In any event, I want almost no part of it. Except for the food.
And you know what? After all that pressure release I feel just the weensest bit Christmasy.
Yummm spiked eggnog. That is the best solution! Lets get some!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/
I love that image…of the V-hold. I think you’re in line behind me in the Scrooge department. My poor mother just called to ask another question about gifts for the kids with lots of apology around it… “I promise this is the last question. I really am trying not to bother you with any of this crap this year.”
sigh.
I do hate the holidays, so. Except for the cookies. There’s nothing to hate about cookies (until *after* they’re eaten).
I recommend going with your last diagnosis: more nog to the egg.
My Dad’s old recipe was to buy the best egg nog ice cream you can afford, add a gallon to a gallon of the best (organic) egg nog you can afford, and a gallon of Southern Comfort. You have my personal guarantee that drinking a few glasses of Dad’s Nog while wrapping presents is enough to cheer up even the gloomiest grinch on even the darkest day.
My personal ritual also includes listening to the Messiah on the best stereo I can afford.
You know, they do prescribe medical marijuana, another kind of greenery, for these sorts of feelings. Haha — Sorry I had to say it.
Is that Broccoli Raab? I’ve got some seeds, and I hope I’m seeing it in the future too.
When the sun dies like it is, I feel a lot of physical and mental changes occur. But, I’m starting to enjoy winter… I was disappointed to see rain wash away all of the snow. But then again it will probably be back again tomorrow.
Hey, maybe a little cannabis couldn’t hurt anyone this time of the year? Or eggnog, you know, because it’s got a lot less baggage…
Or a little bit of both!
I have to bring up Apples again.Does anyone know if there are producers of Calvados here in the states.I love sipping it and cooking with it in the fall and winter.I forgot to look into it this fall while back in NY Apple country.
all things are cured with spiked eggnog.
yeah thumbs up to the egg-nog 🙂
Hey, you mentioned in an earlier post sharpening your kitchen knives once a week. Yesterday I found a knife-sharpener and did all our kitchen knives (and a couple of scissors). My, they do all work so much better (I even slightly cut myself this morning!). So I’m going to follow your lead and spend 20 minutes each weekend to sharpen our knives, so that I can cut the squash and other stuff more easily, and cut veggies more cleanly. Thanks for the suggestion.
Well I looked it up and it seems it can only be called Calvados if it comes from France.America has Apple Brandy and Apple Jack though I have not seen any small producers making it .Only Laird out of New Jersey who’s been making it since I think the 1700’s.With all the small producers of quality food things now in the states including fruit brandies maybe soon.
Andrea, you are so right: don’t we all resist all this rush if the collective will is just to curl up by a fire with a hot toddy in our hands? I just want to avoid forced merriment: I cannot fake my feelings, try as I might.
Jules: Cheers, then!
Pamela: well heck if even you are feeling a bit under-merry then it’s okay for me to be in a real funk, eh? Tell me, did making the cookies help? That’s on the ever-growing list, including chopping down one of our trees tonight. Maybe all these things will help.
Alecto, it sounds like you are in for a fine holiday season then, eh? Less family-induced agita, I can get behind that. Immediate family-induced agita doesn’t count because that knows no season, as you well know 😉 But until you said it I really agree I feel a lot more merry after all the presents have been opened and the damned day is behind us.
Linda, yeah! And hot buttered rum!
Kelly, can we start a club? an I Hate This Season club? Because the more we out ourselves, the more people feel compelled to likewise step forward. It doesn’t help that I married Kris Flippin Kringle. But maybe if I just started baking things would be better.
Okay, WS, your dad was my kind of guy. What a good medic, treating his patients prophylactically: before the gloom sets in, get the eggnog icecream out. The proportions are sure easy to remember!!! I also have fond memories of listening to the Messiah, too. My brother and I used to go every year in high school and college to a local production that was held in…the local synagogue, I kid you not.
TLG: Well, here in Michigan we passed an amendment last month to legalize medical marijuana, so it’s probably now not hard to find. But it makes me paranoid so perhaps…not. But actually that’s piracicaba broccoli, which doesn’t form big heads and is loads more mild than raab. It holds up quite well all winter and starts really going nuts once the sun comes out again in January. Raab/rapini is another favorite but it will shoot into flower if it gets chilled in the greenhouse so it’s only a spring/fall plant around here.
John, I love it when readers answer their own questions 🙂 but recently I was made aware of a few Michigan wineries that are venturing into the hard cider business. If you want to read something really revealing about applejack, pick up a copy of Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. His chapter on apples and the mission of Johnny Appleseed was…revelatory. But anyway the short answer is you shouldn’t have to look too far before you find something hard and apple-y to drink: you shouldn’t need to go to France, much less New Jersey!
Flutter, and Irish Coffees!
Andrea, and glogg!
Dennis! Glad to learn everything is now sharp and ready. It doesn’t take much time as you can see. As a long-term vegetarian, it was my two veggie choppers that got the most work so it was only 2 knives that got sharpened sporadically, but now that we all eat meat there are more knives involved so bumping up the task to a weekly one has really helped here. It’s an enjoyable small task, unlike, say, loading a dishwasher.
Not there yet. I have kids coming in tomorrow and Friday, and we’re all making a Christmas dinner on Sunday. The perky is seeping back.
I’m all over that eggnogg recipe!! And I’m signing up for member number 3 to your club. xmas can suck it this year.