Christmastime is Here

If there was any question about the holidays being here, it was most definitely answered this week. You know Christmastime is here when suddenly it's Friday afternoon and the last thing you remember is listening to The Splendid Table on Sunday morning. Instead of calling the week that's been a mess/disaster/other negative term that I'm apt to use, I'm instead taking the week at face value: a lovely week of family and Christmas preparations and maybe not so much getting work done.

Lezbehonest, there's been a lot of the bare minimum going on around here when it comes to work, but if we can't let go of endless to-do lists when the holidays draw nigh, what kind curmudgeons are we?

The Etsy holiday rush basically wrapped up on Monday and I took that as my cue to put my feet up and have another cup of tea. All week I've been looking at the work to-do list and asking the following questions: What do I want to get done today? What needs to get done today? What will happen if it doesn't get done? Can it wait until after Christmas? I realize this sounds a bit like procrastination, but I assure you it's more about lowering expectations, because it's ridiculous to expect that we can maintain a typical workweek (at least when you have the luxury of working from home) and wrap all de presents, do Christmas baking, and have a clean and festively decorated home.

My brother and his girlfriend were around at the start of the week for a quick holiday visit and Andy and I got into town on both Monday and Wednesday to spend some time with them. Despite the fact that the heavens like to open forth with snow whenever my brother and I are near (whether it's on his turf in Michigan or here in MN), safe travels and good visits were enjoyed by all.

Mom made us pose for a Christmas card photo

We received a slight reprieve from the subzero temps throughout the week. That said, it's been below zero more often than not this week. This fact has not stopped Andy from using the new snowmobile. He just puts on approximately 40 lbs of clothing and heads out regardless.

Folks dressed up like Eskimos

We finally got our Christmas tree yesterday. I was kind of thinking that we might be able to get away with not having a tree this year, thinking that perhaps the assortment of holiday knick-knacks would be good enough. That said, I'm glad we got the tree (even if it does displace some living room furniture in a cabin with no place for displaced furniture) - it's so nice to have the Christmas lights on in the morning and evening, especially as the darkest day of the year approaches tomorrow.

Except for one last outstanding package, all of the presents have been wrapped and placed beneath the tree with care. I'm glad to see the presents all gathered in one place because it makes it so clear where my holiday gift budget went. I'm not even mad.

The Christmas baking is basically done, except for some quick stuff on Christmas Eve (Is it bad that I'm already kind of weary of Christmas cookies?) and all of holiday cards and packages have been mailed. I'm so prepared for Christmas that I'm going to have to start doing actual work. Le sigh.

Andy and I went for a ride down the snowmobile trails yesterday. It was pretty, but cold. I'm pulling on the bib snowpants next time.

Happy Solstice!

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O' Christmas Tree

We finally got our Christmas tree this weekend. I'd like to tell you how we tramped out into the woods on Saturday morning through the freshly fallen snow in search of the perfect tree. How we paused to make snow angels. How we hemmed and hawed over which tree to bring home. How a spontaneous snowball fight broke out.

In truth, we looked at exactly one tree - which from a distance looked pretty but ended up being a spruce tree and spruce trees, in my honest opinion, smell like cat piss - before settling on the balsam fir that's currently in the living room. The entire process of getting out of the truck, selecting the tree, chopping down the tree, and throwing it into the pick up bed took approximately 4 minutes.

I explained to Andy that our Christmas tree reconnaissance was going to look kind of half-assed on the blog. "Hey, we got an awesome tree," he said.

It's true.

This year we opted for a vertical, slim tree, rather than a short and squat tree. The slender tree takes up no more space than the chair that was sitting in its place. It's nice to have the twinkly lights and sparkle of the tree without having the tree take over the room. We aren't constantly bumping into tree branches and that seems to be keeping the ubiquitous balsam needles at bay as well, at least for now.

I have no desire to having a "matchy" or "elegant" Christmas tree. My mismatch of ornaments and Christmas decorations come from all sorts of stages in my life. We don't have a whole lot of homemade ornaments, which I suppose is indicative of the fact that we have no children (our own or nieces or nephews) in our lives. We have just a handful of homemade decorations:

My aunt made this little bell out of a teeny flower pot back in 1994. I know that, because "Ada '94" is written on the top of it. For a while, my aunt painted flower pots of all sizes to sell for supplemental income. The small business never really took off. I wonder where she'd go with an Etsy account . . .

Here's a "Tantalizer" circa 1970 via 2011 New Year's Crafting weekend. It is hideous. Therefore, I chose to display it as prominently as possible.

The vast majority of ornaments on the tree are mine. But Andy made this painted globe back in the day. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it really is quite pretty.

The most ornaments on the tree are Hallmark ornaments. That's because my grandmother is a Hallmark fanatic - we're talking like Hallmark Club card holding fanatic. It just isn't Christmas until you've gotten this year's ornament from Gramma.

As you might guess, through the last 25 Christmases, I've amassed quite a collection. These are some of my favorites:

Madame Alexander Irish Dancer. I got this either the Christmas before or the Christmas after I spent a semester in western Ireland.

I'm not sure when I got this little angel, but she reminds me so much of all the Sunday school Christmas pageants I was in. In fact, when you press her halo, she recites a Bible verse my mother said I once read during a pageant. I don't remember.

I got this little suitcase the Christmas during my six months living and working in London. My real life suitcase is almost identical to this ornament, right down to all the bulges!

This isn't a Hallmark ornament - it came from Harrod's Christmas World display. I picked it up during my time in London. Harrod's is well known for its teddy bears so a Christmas tree ornament that featured a teddy bear and the Harrod's green doorman outfit was just too much to resist.

Andy's declared this year's tree the prettiest Christmas tree that's ever been in the cabin. I've only seen two Christmas trees in the cabin - this year's and last year's- but if those are indeed the only two trees that have graced the cabin's living space then yes, I totally agree. Prettiest Christmas tree ever.

Is your Christmas tree up? What are some of your favorite ornaments? 

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Wednesday: The Vlog Edition . . . Burn Baby burn

If Mohammad won't come to the mountain . . . The snowbanks aren't going anywhere, so Andy proposed we have a bonfire on Friday evening to dispose of some of the brush he's cut during the winter months around the cabin and some of the snowbank. While this was a perfectly honorable task, things got out of hand quickly and yet another "you know you're a redneck when . . ." post was born.


What did Andy say at the end of that video? He said "This is really going to woof." You'll see what he means. . . .



I apologize for the poor video quality. This videographer was a little too close to the burn pile.

But all's well that ends well. Right? Right?

(Please don't repeat this at home. In fact, I would prefer not to have this repeated at my home either.)

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Greening Up the Gunflint

For the past four years (three years in an official capacity), the local community has set aside a weekend each May to focus on forest regeneration. Originally, the reforestation began because of the people of the community was hungry for some solidarity. After the 2007 Ham Lake Fire experience, people wanted to plant trees, not just to replace the trees that had been lost in the fire but also to regain a sense that life and the forest were both returning to a more normal, familiar pace of things. In the May 2007, a group of neighbors gathered to plant trees in the areas burnt over by the Ham Lake Fire. And they kept planting little white seedlings during the two Mays that followed, only this time they invited others to join them and dubbed the event “Gunflint Green Up.” It was quite the success. In 2008, 500 people gathered that May weekend to plant trees along the Gunflint Trail.

I have always been on the edges of this fire and subsequent events. I was finishing up my degree when the actual fire burnt and for the last two years work has kept me an arm’s length away from the Green Up events. So somehow, this past weekend ended up being my first Green Up. We didn’t plant trees. Instead we “released” them.

(One of the things I’m most excited about with my new summer job is that I think it’ll be much less likely that I’ll be called “Ranger Ada” this summer. That doesn’t mean I don’t mind acting like “Ranger Ada” every once in a while.)


That’s right, we poked around the burnt areas looking for trees that had already been planted and then we trimmed brush and undergrowth away from them. The organizers warned us yesterday that finding the little white pine seedlings might be a little like an Easter egg hunt. The area we were assigned to clear out was pretty brushy and it was hard to tell if past year’s planters had actually ventured through the heavy undergrowth to plant trees. Andy and I spent a lot of time smashing our shins against fallen, charcoal tree trunks and picking twigs out of our hats. At one point we thought we heard a moose splashing around in a nearby bay, so I spent a good ten minutes crashing through the woods to find, you guessed it, a now very moose free bay.

We did find some little seedlings and clipped away undergrowth to let the sunshine in. We pulled bindweed away and nipped a raspberry, dogwood, alder and aspen that could crowd out the white pine seedlings and rob them of nutrients.

When we got back to the cabin, we planted some white spruce trees around the property.

It’s hard to know if the little seedlings we found yesterday will someday grow to be the towering trees with their cloudlike branches of needles that (along with the moose) have become somewhat iconic symbols of the region. It’s unlikely that all six of the white spruce trees we planted yesterday will really take off. But we gave some trees a little better chance to survive what Mother Nature might have in store for them and if they do, this corner of the world will be just a little bit greener.

Last but not least, Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! We love you, so much.

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