wassail

Christmas 2025

It doesn’t seem possible, but Christmas Eve and Day have come and gone already!

Our celebration started on Christmas Eve morning, with Christmas Crunch:

I made time early in the day to deliver gifts to all of my neighbors on Gloriana, and also chased Roald around my island for a bit, trying to get the perfect picture (which I did).

Bunny had to work in the morning, but when she got home, she put the finishing touches on this year’s Advent Lego project, Rivendell:

And then we went to my second-favorite service of the entire church year, Christmas Eve candlelight:

Candlelight being a relative term, as it was still fairly light out when the service was over. We didn’t stop by the city of St. Louis Christmas tree downtown this year, so it was pretty bright for our drive through the Way of Lights!

When we got home, I made wassail, which was a bit of a change for us…I think it may become a new tradition!

And we enjoyed a gingerbread layer cake with gingerbread mousse filling and molasses cream cheese frosting, and topped with sugared cranberries for dessert.

We also played our new Christmas Eve board game, Ticket to Ride Northern Lights. I lost spectacularly, but not as spectacularly as Ladybug won!

We watched the San Francisco Ballet Nutcracker and Rick Steves’ European Christmas, and then I filled the stockings and escorted Mary and Joseph to the stable. I hope there’s never a day when we don’t want to put up the Little People nativity, even though we no longer have any little people living in our home1

On Christmas Day morning, we enjoyed our favorite coffee cake:

And then we went back to church, nice and early so I could get some pictures in front of the beautiful church Christmas tree:

Our church is always beautiful, but there’s something extra special about it at Christmastime!

The family picture we took after the service is probably one of the nicest ones we’ve ever taken!

We opened presents when we got home, and then I got started on dinner, the best dinner of the year, the famed “Pick Out Dinner!”

Setting the table is pretty low-key compared to Thanksgiving, but I still like to make it look nice, including napkins folded like Christmas trees. I added a few small Christmas trees to our traditional centerpiece of the Advent wreath…they balanced out the additional candles I often add quite nicely!

We had quite the spread this year!

We spent the afternoon and evening watching Christmas movies, playing games, and building Lego sets. The weather was far too warm for Christmas (it felt, smelled, and sounded like Easter!), but thankfully the weather isn’t what makes for a good Christmas, and we had a lovely day. And luckily for us, Christmas lasts for 12 days, so we still have our “fancy” (although dialed back a bit this year thanks to rising grocery costs) dinner and more cookie baking to look forward to…and maybe even some colder weather! Merry Christmas!!!

Nikolaustag 2024

We’re a day late, but today we celebrated Nikolaustag! We wanted to wait until Bunny was home from college, which just happened to be today. We did all of our favorite Nikolaustag things, starting with stockings and decorating the tree. In addition to the children’s yearly ornaments, I also added two new ornaments…a Christmas Tree Cake that Ryan surprised me with this morning, and Hallmark’s rendition of “It’s a Small World.”

We always have wassail while we decorate:

And for dinner, we had our traditional meal of döner kebab:

I like to make a gingerbread dessert for Nikolaustag…this year, it was gingerbread whoopie pies:

This is one of my favorite days of the year, and between Bunny being home and the traditions, it feels like Christmastime is really here!

Another Christmas Dinner

On Christmas Eve, we had our traditional dinner of appetizers, dips, and desserts. Christmas Day ended being a little funky, meal-wise, so we ordered pizzas. Our big, fancy Christmas dinner was finally enjoyed today! I chose an English theme (since this has been a major “Rule Britannia” year for us), and the menu I settled up on included roast beef, brussels sprouts (a very important Christmas dinner staple in England), roast carrots and potatoes, cranberries, and, for dessert, a French cake popular in England, the Bûche de Noël or Yule Log Cake. We also enjoyed drinking wassail, which is another of our regular family Christmas traditions, but fit in nicely with the theme for the day!

Wassail, hot out of the pot:

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Standing rib roast with a rosemary-garlic rub, served with a horseradish cream sauce:

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A trio of roast vegetables–brussels sprouts, carrots, and potatoes:

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Spiced cranberries:

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The feast:

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The table:

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Christmas Crackers:

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In addition to a paper hat, everyone’s Christmas Cracker came with a toy:

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As well a joke:

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The Bûche de Noël:

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Happy Christmas!

Tasty Tuesday–Spiced Apple Cranberry Pie

This was a new recipe I tried out for Thanksgiving. I wanted something similar in taste to the wassail I make at Christmastime, and with the apples and cranberries, plus the cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice, this definitely fits the bill. Around here, we’re even calling it “wassail pie!” The blend of spices is perfect, and I love finding another use for fresh cranberries.

  • 2 unbaked pie crusts (I use store-bought)
  • 3 1/4 lb. Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick
  • 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp. ground allspice
  • 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 4 tsp. cornstarch
  • 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
  • 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
  • 10 oz. fresh cranberries
  • 1/4 cup water
  • Egg wash: 1 egg white, beaten with 1 tsp. water
  • 2 tsp. granulated sugar

To make the apple-cranberry filling, in a 5 1/2-quart Dutch oven, stir together the apples, brown sugar, 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar, the cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, salt and cornstarch until the apples are evenly coated. Set over medium heat, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are just tender but not mushy, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and vanilla, and let cool for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, stir together the cranberries, the remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar and the water. Set over medium-high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries have broken down slightly and the liquid has thickened to the consistency of a loose jam, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool for 30 minutes. Add the cranberry mixture to the apple mixture and stir to combine.

Position a rack in the lower third of an oven, place a baking sheet on the rack and preheat the oven to 400.

Let the pie crusts come to room temperature for about five minutes. Line a pie plate with one crust, and spoon in the apple cranberry filling. Gently place the second pie crust over the pie. Trim the edges flush with the rim of the dish and press the top and bottom crusts together to seal. Brush the entire top crust with the egg wash and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.

Place the pie dish on the preheated baking sheet. Bake until the crust is crisp and golden brown, about 1 hour, covering the edges with aluminum foil if they become too dark. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 1 1/2 hours before serving. Serves 8.