I feel like burning a yule log...or maybe just eating one

The holly and the ivy
Now both are full well grown,
Of all the trees that are in the wood,
The holly bears the crown.
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

With Winter Solstice within arms reach I find myself dreaming of snow and dark nights lit by candle light. There are many cultures around the world that celebrate the Winter Solstice even those who follow Christian traditions throughout the year join in on the merriment. I think it is a wonderful way to add to the season of Christmas another way to celebrate without the commercialism and materialism that our other Christmas traditions bring with them. I am going to burn a Yule log this year complete with mistletoe and rosemary and of course holly and ivy and drink glogg and possibly even attempt to make a chocolate Yule log. Yikes - jellyroll pans scare me! Looks like it will be warmish so we will maybe even enjoy a day at the Arboretum.

Yule Log Recipe : http://www.joyofbaking.com/YuleLog.html

Glogg recipe: http://goscandinavia.about.com/od/restaurantsdining/r/gloggrecipe.htm

Two Fat Ladies make Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5iuJzFmWAM

December is upon us now. In my town it is nearly 75 degrees today so it hardly seems bleak or midwintery. This poem put me in a chilly state of mind which always helps to move my Christmas spirit along. Yesterday we visited our family in Granbury. Mom, Skylar and Aunt Billie decorated Grandpa's house in Billie's over the top Victorian Christmas style while Dad and I cut cedar branches and picked bright green gourds from the woods at Blue Branch Ranch. Last night Skylar and Wolf and my parents and I played tag in the park among the twinkling lights of the Granbury square. We ate dinner at an old renovated gas station that smelled of hickory and pinon smoke from the fire pits out front. We drank hot chocolate and roasted marshmallow cappuccinos (even though the air conditioner was on in the coffee house). Then we walked back to Aunt Billie's house to have a "camp out" in her living room. A fine start to December even if it was warm enough for sandals.

December in Warm Climates

The Snow Man
by Wallace Stevens
One must have a mind of winter To regard the frost and the boughs Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; And have been cold a long time To behold the junipers shagged with ice, The spruces rough in the distant glitter Of the January sun; and not to think Of any misery in the sound of the wind, In the sound of a few leaves, Which is the sound of the land Full of the same wind That is blowing in the same bare place For the listener, who listens in the snow, And, nothing himself, beholds Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.