Life After Windbird, Day 132: Christmas Baking
Date: Thursday, December 22, 2016
Weather: Partly Sunny with Afternoon Rain; High Temp 46, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Today I baked small loaves of cranberry bread to be given away as Christmas gifts. And I haven’t done anything for weeks that felt so good. I started baking this particular cranberry Christmas loaf in the late 1970’s, but when I moved aboard Windbird in 2003, I left the small baking pans with Heather and have only made the bread a couple of times since. And now, for various reasons, I don’t even eat bread or anything made from wheat flour. But something about reverting to old traditions, the smell of the grated orange peel and the heavy scent of raw honey, made for an absolutely joyful afternoon of baking.
My morning was also joyful. The technician from the cable company came early and got the TV working again. Actually, my television and equipment were just fine. The problem was in the wiring coming into the apartment complex. But for now, I’m all set. Once he left I moved the Christmas tree back into its little corner and put the living room back in order. I have all the packages for Heather, Jed, and boys wrapped, so I put them under the tree.
While the Christmas lights and packages brightened the day inside, the little black and white Buffleheads brightened the harbor. These guys come down from Canada for the winter and I love watching them.
I then went food shopping once again, this time to find the fresh Rock Cornish game hens for Christmas day. I was prepared to drive to Hyannis to find them, but that wasn’t necessary. I struck out at the first store. They were supposed to get a shipment this morning, but didn’t. The other large supermarket didn’t have any in their meat section either, but I asked a someone to check in the back for me. It took a while, but he came out with a new shipment of eight and I bought six of them. I headed home with the bounty and started baking. I’m not sure the last batch of bread got completely done, but I had to take those little loaves out of the oven and head to East Falmouth to pick Sam and Jonah up from school. And at the last minute, I got a text from Heather asking me to pick her up on my way. She was at an office Christmas party that was on my way, so the two of us picked up the boys. They packed for the overnight and we then headed to my place. Heather was to meet up with Jed here when he delivered Ollie, so while we were waiting, Heather and I packaged up the Christmas loaves.
I had a delightful evening with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie, and tomorrow morning we will start another baking frenzy. We are going to make more Christmas cookies. And who knows what else we’ll get into tomorrow.
