Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Bob and I recently went to Christmas by Candlelight at Old Sturbridge Village. It's something we do every year now that we're only an hour away. We're members of the Village so we get discounted tickets. We stayed at the Old Sturbridge Inn in the Oliver Wight House, which is a historic building with 10 rooms.

The Sugar Cookie, complete with a sugared rim and sprinkles.

Friday night was dinner at the Oxhead Tavern across the street. Since it was early and the diningroon was empty, they sat us in front of the fireplace. (I wish I'd taken a picture. It's a beautiful old--huge!--fireplace.) We each had the French Onion soup to start. Bob had the bacon-wrapped meatloaf and I had the Oxhead panini with fries, which is basically a Thanksgiving-themed panini with turkey, cranberry, sage and sausage stuffing and a side of gravy for dipping. Way too much food for me, of course, so most of my sandwich was packed up to take back to the room for later. I treated myself to one of their special Christmas drinks, the Sugar Cookie. I can't remember what was in it, but I was feeling good when we left! I was only able to drink half since alcohol hits me so hard. Bob took a couple pictures of me before and after the drink. In the "after" picture my face is flushed and I have a stupid grin on my face. Obviously, I'm a very light drinker these days, which was true even before the weight loss surgery. Bob had beer, as usual.

Bob and I at the Oxhead Tavern.

Below they're making soft gingerbread using the tin oven in the fireplace. I'd love to learn how to cook using our fireplace, but I just haven't made the time or effort to do it yet. I've made their gingerbread recipe in my own oven, though, and it's delicious. Very moist and dense. You really need to like gingerbread, though, as it's an acquired taste for some people.

As you can see from the recipe below, it makes a lot of gingerbread. If you don't have a lot of gingerbread-lovers, I suggest making half a recipe.

Making Christmas dinner

Here they're making Christmas dinner using a tin oven for baking and a rotisserie of sorts for the goose. The "rotisserie" is basically twine that spins over the fire. You truss up the goose and suspend it from a hook over the fire, then twist the twine. As it unwinds, it turns the goose. It amazes me how much time it must have taken to make a holiday meal in the 1800s. 

They're making mulled cider. This is my favorite part!

And here's my favorite part:  they're making the mulled cider. It's probably my favorite part because we get to sample the finished product. I've been trying to find a jug like the one they have on the table so I can make my own mulled cider in the fireplace, but I haven't found on yet that I like. I'd also need a mulling iron. 

The shoemaker

I love this candle holder. I'd like to do
the same in my house. 

As usual, we visited all the other exhibits, like the shoemaker, the tin shop, the general store and others, and sampled any food they had to offer. I like that they change it up a little each year. This year in the general store it was peppermints, they had Spanish shortbread cookies in another building (which I'll be making!), and roasted chestnuts in the Small House. I have to say, I don't like chestnuts at all. My mom loved them, which is why I tried them, but I didn't like the texture at all. We also sat and listened to a reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas in the school house. The interpreter did a fantastic job and we really enjoyed it.

In front of the Christmas tree at the Bullard Tavern.

On our way out we visited the gift shop and I bought real bayberry candles. I buy them every year. If burned down to the nub on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, it is thought that it brings good luck for the following year. 

On to our Christmas trees. We put up two trees every year ever since we moved a few years ago. We have a historic house, which was built in 1735. We have a formal living room (it doesn't look formal, though), as well as a family room. Our picture window is in the living room, so we put a tree in front of it and decorate it with older-looking ornaments. The other tree goes in the family room since that's where we spend most of our time. 

This year we decided to start buying some of the older ornaments while we were in Sturbridge. As you can see, we got some nice ones. These are the ones I remember from childhood. They were inexpensive, too.  Typically 75 cents to $2.00 each. We bought about 10 of them. Here's the finished tree. The icicles you see hanging from the branches are handmade from Old Sturbridge Village.

Here are closeups of some of the ornaments we bought.

And here's our standard tree in the family room. We got a great deal on the trees this year:  $40.00 for both of them. One had been cut down and left in the field, so the nursery owners wanted it to be sold. We got it for $10.00, which is the one below.

And here are some kitty pictures. This one is Leia.

This is Max sleeping next to the living room tree. One would think he's the one that did all the work!

And here's Marty under the living room tree. 

Hope you all have a nice holiday and don't eat yourself into a coma! But wear the elastic-banded pants just in case.