A Mom's Year

Creating a comfortable life one moment at a time

Tim’s Mocha-Almond Christmas Biscotti

I was gone for a few hours yesterday afternoon doing a little Christmas shopping while Lily was at a birthday party. When I came home, the kitchen looked like a bomb had exploded. But it was worth it because Tim had made his Mocha-Almond Christmas Biscotti.

I got this recipe from a fellow editor years ago when we worked together at a publishing company. Lisa got the recipe out of a magazine in 1992, but my photocopy doesn’t say which one. It does, however, credit the recipe to food stylist Marie Piraino. I honestly don’t remember why Tim embraced this particular recipe and made it his own special holiday tradition. Knowing him, he probably saw me buried under a pile of projects and offered to help out. And when the biscotti turned out so well, he decided to stick with it.

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Happy Weekend

I’m hoping my father-in-law will fill his suitcase and pockets with holly when he comes to visit us next weekend from Virginia. I think our Santas would look a lot better with some sprigs of real holly tucked around them. That’s one of the things I miss most about living in Virginia: the gorgeous varieties of flowers, trees, and shrubs. Imagine being able to go out into your yard and get all the fresh holly you want. But I shouldn’t complain as I look out the window at the snow-covered hills and trees. We almost always have a White Christmas here in western Wisconsin.

Do you have fun plans for the weekend? Our plans include my mom’s wonderful annual Christmas concert at her church and decorating our tree while Tim makes his Christmas biscotti. I’ll be making a red velvet cake with sugared cranberries for our friends’ Christmas party. I made the exact same cake for this party last year, but our lovely hostess didn’t get any. So this time I’m going to squirrel away a big piece for her.

I hope you have a cheery and festive weekend. Please come back next week—I’ll have photos of our kitchen looking reminiscent of the 1878 flour explosion in Minneapolis. But Tim’s biscotti are totally worth it.

Gift Idea for a Godchild

I am blessed to have two beautiful little goddaughters. One of them I get to see often, but the other one lives far away in Georgia. For years I’ve tried to think of something special to give Ana for Christmas. Something meaningful that grows with her and lets her know she’s in my thoughts even though we don’t get to spend much time together. I liked the idea of some sort of collection, but never saw anything that felt right.

So I was ecstatic when my friend Jackie told me about the gift she gives her goddaughter (who is also her niece). Every year Jackie gives her niece a piece from a nativity set. Why didn’t I think of that? Jackie selected a nativity set made by Fontanani because they do beautiful work and have been around for a long time and aren’t likely to go anywhere. The first year, Jackie purchased the stable because her goddaughter was just a baby and didn’t know the difference. Since Ana is older, I decided to start her with the Holy Family. I can give her the stable next year and then give her an additional piece every year until she has a full set.

By the way, if you don’t have a Jackie in your life, you really should go out and get one. Not only does she have great ideas like this, but she is also the type to drop whatever’s happening in her own life to stay with your children for several days while your husband’s in the hospital and your mother needs a little break. I love my family, but there’s something special about the family we get to pick, isn’t there?

A Tree from Mr. Snowman

For several years, I’ve been wanting to put a little Scandinavian tree in the kitchen in front of the glass door leading to the back porch. For some reason, I was thinking it should be a potted plant but I didn’t have any luck finding one. So this year I decided to get a real tree. I thought this tree in our yard would be perfect, but Tim was horrified at the idea of cutting down one of his pets. I thought about doing it anyway when he was out of town to see if he would even notice, but I felt too guilty.

So I stopped in at Mr. Snowman’s Christmas Tree Farm just north of town. We’ve never been to Mr. Snowman’s because we always get our Christmas tree through my mom’s office, but we have friends who help out there during the holidays in exchange for syrup. For real. It was the middle of the afternoon on a weekday so I wasn’t sure anyone would even be there as I pulled up to the little shed. But Mr. Snowman himself came out to greet me. We introduced ourselves (his name is Charlie) and I told him what I was looking for. He pondered the idea for a moment, then pointed down the road to where I could find a small tree. He was all set to send me off with a saw to cut it down myself, but then changed his mind and told me to follow him in my car. It was a very small saw and I think I could have managed it, but I’m not one to turn down help when it’s offered.

Off we went to a little grove of trees, many of which had their needles rubbed off by deer. Charlie showed me a few different trees and helped me decide on one. The tree was so small it only took a second or two to saw through. When we got back to the office, Charlie cut off a few of the lower branches and tidied the tree up a bit. I asked him how much it was. “Nothing,” he said, handing the tree to me. I insisted on paying, but he waved me off and told me to have a merry Christmas.

Well. That filled me with enough Christmas cheer to last through the holidays. When I got home, I brought in the old metal bucket we use for drinks in the summer and turned it over to set the tree on. Tim found an old metal tree stand that suits our little tree perfectly. I went through our ornaments and found the most Scandinavian (or at least European) ones I could. Two strings of wooden cranberries, and that was that.

And this little troll has finally found a home.