Christmas in January

My Christmas cactus bloomed this year.

This is my only houseplant, and I'm fond of it because – in a way – it belonged to my grandmother who passed away in 1979. My aunt took the plant after my grandmother passed on, and when my parents visited my aunt many years later, my mother took some snippets of the cactus, brought them home, and potted them. She gave me one of the plants. It has bloomed without fail every Christmas since.

Last year, with all the chaos of our move right near Christmas, the cactus didn't bloom. In fact, I left it (after a thorough watering) in the sink of our rental house, essentially abandoned, when Don and I moved here to our new home. The rental house still wasn't completely emptied, and it wasn't until much later I was able to return and fetch everything out – including the cactus. I'm happy it survived, but it didn't bloom last year. (I couldn't blame it.)

But this year it bloomed. I'm taking it as a good sign. We're blooming too, in our new home.

The cactus wasn't the only one celebrating Christmas. This past weekend, Don and I celebrated Christmas by traveling to see Older Daughter at her apartment.

Before leaving, I wrapped some presents.

These were not only for Older Daughter, but also for Dallas and Susie, some beloved neighbors from our old home. We've spent every Christmas since moving to Idaho with these fine people, and it was good to continue the tradition.

These are the neighbors who lost their home last summer in a fast-moving wildfire that decimated our old neighborhood.

We engaged in some fundraising efforts to help them get back on their feet. And you, dear readers, responded with unbelievable generosity. Thanks to your prayers and help, they're recovering. They're overwintering in an apartment a few miles away from their old place, and hope to rebuild in the spring.

To say Dallas and Susie were grateful for the help is an understatement. Shortly before taking down the GoFundMe page, Susie posted the following message:

This couple has been through so much in the last few years. Dallas lost his bladder to cancer. Susie got breast cancer (thankfully caught and treated very early). They got COVID. Their house burned down. In short, it's been a rough few years for them. But the response from friends and strangers alike when the fire came through was so overwhelming that even now Dallas – a big strapping cowboy – chokes up when he talks about it.

Anyway, thankfully the weather held so we all met up at Older Daughter's apartment. She had set things up charmingly.

We brought Mr. Darcy with us, of course. It takes several hours to get to Older Daughter's apartment, and we couldn't leave him alone all day. Besides, he was absolutely giddy with excitement at seeing everyone.

We had such a fun celebration! We talked nonstop for three solid hours. Older Daughter's hospitality was wonderful – elegant yet informal. The only thing that tore us away was the nearly three-hour drive we had ahead of us.

I got a picture before we left.

We got home shortly after dark. Mr. Darcy was so worn out by the excitement of the day that he lay flat on his side for hours, sleeping it off.

If this past couple of years have done nothing else, they've illustrated how uncertain life can be. We're beyond grateful we still have the opportunity to celebrate holidays with the people we love.

(This is the commemorative "dumpster fire" ornament Older Daughter gave Don. Very apropos, I'd say.)

Plants everywhere

I don't normally like having houseplants (I have something of a black thumb and tend to kill them), but the Christmas cactus I indirectly inherited from my grandmother (who passed away in 1979) is one I cherish.

But for awhile now, the house has been chock-full of plants. What seemed especially numerous were the the Brussels sprouts I planted in February from the seeds I collected last fall.

I also have 77 (out of 100 seeds planted ) cayenne peppers growing, though I gave seven away to a neighbor.

On March 25 I also planted 25 basil seeds (incidentally, from five-year-old seeds) and 20 have sprouted.

Today I hope to get red bell pepper seeds and tomato seeds planted.

Right now we're having almost hot weather (although it goes up and down in typical spring fashion)...

...so I decided to take a chance and plant the Brussels sprouts in the garden. They were getting too big for the house anyway.

To do this, of course, they needed to be hardened off.

I put them on the hood of the car, starting in the shade for just an hour or so, then gradually working up to most of the day in both sun and shade.

Yesterday I trundled the flats out to the garden, where I already had a row of tires ready for them.

I deliberately overplanted the number of Brussels sprouts (36), figuring some would die (remember, black thumb!), but in fact 34 survived. With Younger Daughter's help, we got them all in the beds.

Despite what it looks like, the drip irrigation system isn't set up yet, so I gave all the current garden plants a good watering with the hose -- not just the Brussels sprouts, but also the blueberries, strawberries, the over-wintered carrots (going to seed), herbs, raspberries, garlic, etc.

I was ridiculously anxious about the Brussels sprouts, hoping they'd make it overnight. My thought was if they survived the transplant shock for 12 hours or so, they'd be fine. This morning at dawn I went out and took a peek.

They looked fine.

In fact, more than fine. They looked positively cheerful at their new digs. I imagine it must be nice for them to be able to stretch out their roots and leaves, instead of living in the cramped crowded indoor conditions.

The call of the garden is strong now. I find myself using any excuse to go do something, anything, even if it's five minutes here or there of yanking weeds.

Christmas goodies and Christmas flowers

We've been swimming in eggs lately. All our young hens are now laying, and we're getting between eight and a dozen eggs a day. They tend to add up quickly.

Besides giving a bunch away, what better way to use a whole lotta eggs than by making homemade Irish Cream?

I found the recipe for Irish Cream in the wonderful book Cheaper and Better.


Irish Cream only has six ingredients: eggs, sweetened condensed milk, instant coffee, chocolate syrup, vodka, and cream (in that order). I tell ya, this recipe is better than Bailey's! I multiply the recipe by ten in order to have enough on hand for friends and neighbors, which uses up twenty of my eggs. Instructions for making Irish Cream are here.

With a 10x batch like this, I start off using my largest mixing bowl...

...and finish up using my biggest stock pot.

The bottles must be dark for the Irish Cream to ripen properly. But here's the thing -- I ran out of dark bottles. So...

...I recycled two of the three empty vodka bottles. But since the bottles are supposed to be dark, I wrapped them in duct tape. Don called this "Redneck Irish cream." Clearly these won't be gift bottles -- we'll keep these for ourselves and toast in Christmas with the contents.

For our non-drinking neighbors (and we have many LDS neighbors), I make giganto-batches of shortbread cookies. Here's some of the mess.

By the way, the paperwork you see on the table is Older Daughter's application for nanny school. We submitted the paperwork on Wednesday evening (by email), making her eligible for a small financial scholarship.

Here's the first batch of cookies. I still have many more to make to have enough for friends, neighbors, and some service people in our community.

Oh, and my Christmas cactus is blooming. Read this to understand why this little plant is so significant. Just had to throw in a photo.

Christmas cactus

I don't "do" houseplants. I have something of a black thumb, so I don't dare keep the dear things around or I'd kill them for sure.

But a happy exception is this Christmas cactus. Thankfully cacti are tolerant of people like me with black thumbs.

The reason this houseplant graces our home is because it belonged -- in a way -- to my grandmother, who passed away in 1979. It's quite a tangible link to the past.

How did this happen? Well, my aunt (who is now in her 80s) took my grandmother's Christmas cactus after my grandmother passed away. (My grandfather died in 1982.) The plant was huge when my aunt took possession of it, but apparently her "thumb" is comparable to mine when it comes to houseplants, and the cactus was suffering.

At any rate, a few years ago my parents went back east to visit my aunt and other relatives. When my mother (whose thumb is staggeringly green) saw my grandmother's Christmas cactus in such distress, she gave my aunt some pointers on how to revive it. She -- my mother -- also nipped a few of the lobes off the cactus and brought them home, where she potted them and sprouted several new plants.

She gave me this one about three years ago. To my pride, I haven't killed it yet.

So there you have it. This humble plant is a link to my beloved grandparents, who left us so many years ago.

Ain't that something?