My Wish for you in 2011

Friend o' mine, in the year oncoming

I wish you a little time for play,

And an hour to dream in the eerie gloaming

After the clamorous day.

(And the moon like a pearl from an Indian shore

To hang for a lantern above your door.)

 

 Anne Blythe 

by L. M. Montgomery 

from "The Blythes are Quoted"

*********************

Happy New Year my bloggy friends!

From Disaster to Delicious

I always make a Bûche de Noël for our Christmas Eve dinner every year.  Thankfully logs are messy things as this year things got a bit broken before they got better.

I used an orange boxed cake mix and baked it in a jelly roll pan for about 15 minutes.

I turned it onto a clean tea towel and rolled it up while warm just like Martha says to do.

However, when I unrolled it to ice the cake, it all broke apart.  It usually breaks apart a bit, but not this much.

I made a batch of chocolate icing and started slathering on the icing and basically glueing the pieces together.  I had to make more icing because of the amount needed as glue.  Eventually we had it all rolled up and the outside iced.  We ran fork tines along the icing to make it seem like bark.  Sometimes I cut a piece off one end and attach it to look like a branch, but I was afraid to do any fancy cutting with this one so it was a straight log.  Just before serving I dusted it with icing sugar which makes it seem like it has just snowed (and covers up any messy bits), added a few cranberries, and put in our plastic axe that we use every year.  

And presto - it somehow came together and looked like a log.

Have you ever made a yule log?  If you haven't tried making one you really should - it is an easy yummy dessert and it can't go too wrong as logs are messy things so your yule log can be too. 

Little Blue Boxes

When Kate and hubby went to New York just before Christmas (which you can read more about here), they spent some time at Tiffanys - well actually they spent a little more than time.   They bought Kate and me souvenir porcelain boxes along with a little something else for me.   I don't know what that something else is yet because I won't open the present because it looks so pretty and because I'm strange like that.  I think maybe I'll just savour the pretty box and ribbon until my birthday in February.  I might - just might - be ready to open it then.

I loved the look of the three pretty blue boxes - two with red ribbon for Christmas and one with the traditional white - under the Christmas tree.  On Boxing Day I cleaned all the needles up that had fallen on the tree skirt and had a little photo shoot.  The lighting was perfect and it was so much fun.  I think our Christmas tree skirt looks like it was meant to have Tiffany boxes on it, don't you?

 

Christmas in New York City

We have a tradition in our family that when each child graduates from high school either hubby or myself takes them to New York City for a few days.  It is a wonderful bonding time and the trip is tailored to the interests of the individual child.  

I took our eldest to NYC almost five years ago now and we had a blast.  We did the usual sites like the Statue of Liberty and the museums, but we also went to see one of the locations where they filmed the Godfather movie.  The raunchy bar is still there and I made my son go in with me to have a quick look around.  We still talk fondly about our adventures together.

Kate finished high school in June so she and hubby went to New York City the week before Christmas - and thankfully missed the big snowstorm.  They had an amazing time and, of course, she took tons of photos.   Being the good girl that she is, Kate has let me share them with you.  What really impressed her (and me) were the Christmas windows, especially the ones at Tiffany and Anthropologie.

Come on a NYC Christmas tour with me. 

The fabulous Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center

Giant lights at the Rockefeller Center

Outside Fox News

Fifth Avenue

Hanging snowflake at the corner of 5th Avenue and 57th Street

A Christmas tree covered in bows at the Seaport Museum near the Brooklyn Bridge

Wreath on a lighthouse at the Seaport Museum

The Christmas tree inside the New York Public Library

The Christmas store windows were truly spectacular. 

Window at Mont Blanc

Silvery Dior window

 Chanel's window.  I love the Christmas trees and may have to make something like that next year

Giant snowflakes in the Burberry window

Large illuminated boxes in the Louis Vuitton window

I love the tree trunks and fake snow used in the La Mer window

TIFFANY - The whole experience was amazing, according to Kate.  The windows were gorgeous and they had the interior decorated in flocked trees and wreaths with Tiffany blue and silver decorations.  On one of the upper floors they were giving out hot chocolate in Tiffany paper cups, with Tiffany blue serviettes, and macaroons in Tiffany blue, and Tiffany blue candy canes.  Could a girl be any happier?

 Displays on the first floor of Tiffany

Does it get any better than this?

Even the typewriter is in Tiffany blue

ANTHROPOLOGIE - the visit to Anthropologie was another highlight of the trip.  The store's decorations were innovative and creative and, as always, inspiring.

Anthropologie's store window with crazy clocks and garlands and chains

Another Anthro window with a miniature snow covered hill dotted with trees and little mushrooms

I adore the knit snowballs flying into the mitten sun

Another Anthro window with a tree covered in colourful birdhouses

 

Mason jars filled with pine cones and other bits of nature hanging from a ladder

A giant pinecone made out of coffee sacks

Felt icicles hung from wooden stick antlers

A stairway made from books that works its way up to the ceiling and across to the chandelier that is made from coiled printed paper

The market canopy covered in snow

And finally, Kate went skating at Bryant Park with the Empire State building in the background.   How Christmassy is that?

Kate and hubby also did a bit of shopping at Tiffany so there were a couple of blue boxes under the tree at Christmas.  I'll show you those in another post.