Winter solstice cake
December 21 is the day of winter solstice. The shortest day of the year, or, the longest night of the year, however you prefer to look at it. Celebrate by baking a dark chocolate cake and decorate it with a frosted image of the sun. If you’re not into cake decorating,...
Alternatives to Christmas cards
If you did not do Christmas cards and you feel guilty about it, try doing New Years cards instead. Or you can plan for Valentine cards, like Julia Child is famous for doing. (Image credit: Remy Tumin and Patricia Wall for the New York Times) You might also like these...
December week 3
With less than 2 weeks left in the countdown to Christmas, I hope you are keeping your smiles and your sanity. Does it look like you might have a white Christmas where you live? If so, be sure to stock up on grocery basics and toilet paper so you don’t have to...
The Mother of Thanksgiving
This is Sarah Josepha Hale in 1831, portrait by James Reid Lambdin. Sarah Hale is the woman who persistently lobbied for Thanksgiving to be a national holiday in the United States. I mean, REALLY persistent. Here she tells President Abraham Lincoln that she has been...