Christmas tree hunting

On the Saturday before Christmas, we went Christmas tree hunting with my family in Idaho. It is one of my favorite family traditions but I have missed it for the past 12 years. They typically go on Thanksgiving weekend, but this year they decided to wait for me even if it meant not getting a tree until three days before Christmas.

We drove out to Targhee National Forest, stopping for square ice cream in Swan Valley along the way (another family tradition). The Forest Service issues Christmas tree permits that allow the adventurous to cut their own trees in the National Forest.

We were lucky and had clear roads but plenty of snow for snowshoeing. The poor dog did not have snowshoes and wore herself out swimming through the snow.

Starting the expedition (Hendrik, Nancy, John, Joyce, and Bacardi).

It was Hendrik’s first time Christmas tree hunting with my family and he had the honor of spotting the winning tree. We selected a small one this year (only about 7 feet) but they always look bigger inside than outside. Once we got it home, we set it up and decorated it that same evening so we could enjoy it for as long as possible before heading back to Oregon.

The successful explorers hauling their Christmas tree home (John, Joyce, Amy, and Hendrik).

Christmas Baking

We’ve been doing quite a bit of Christmas baking recently. With all of the Holiday parties, Hanukkah parties, Christmas parties, cookie exchanges, gingerbread house building contests, holiday brunches, and holiday tea parties there are plenty of opportunities to make and eat goodies. So far we’ve made a loaf of gingerbread, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip banana bread, and gingerbread people.

The proud cookie baker.

Thanks to the cookie exchange, we’ve sampled pretty much every Christmas cookie you can think of. Thanks to the Hanukkah parties, I’ve scarfed more than my fair share of latkes. Good thing Hendrik had been extra enthusiastic about running and inviting me along so we can burn off some of the holiday calories.

Gingerbread folks!

Symphonic Dances

We had another great evening at the Symphony. The main attraction was Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. To our surprise, we also greatly enjoyed a contemporary piece, Anders Hillborg’s Exquisite Corpse (inspired by surrealist art in the 1920s – in particular, the parlor game of taking turns adding sentences to a story without reading the preceding one). I think the delightfully energetic Scandinavian conductor helped.

Hummingbird Oasis

From the time we moved in in March until November, we had the joy of discovering new plants blooming in the yard every week and our local hummingbird had a new feast every week. We enjoyed watching it flit around the yard so much that once all the flowers were gone, we put up a hummingbird feeder. Now we have two hummingbirds, a little green one and a tiny brownish one. They are such hungry little birds who are always eating, providing many opportunity for photos. However, they are very camera shy so I can only get close enough that they take up a few blurry pixels in my photos. I think the green one has doubled in girth since we put out the feeder though, so maybe he is getting easier to capture.

While researching how to make sugar water for the hummingbirds, we learned from the Audubon Society website that we should only use refined white sugar because organic and raw sugar contain too much iron for the little birdies and honey can promote fungal growth. I also learned that not only do they eat nectar from flowers, they also eat insects!

Hungry, hungry hummingbird. I swear those blurry pixels are a hummingbird.

Holiday Ale Festival

Oregon’s brewing scene is full of creative beers and the brewers go out of their way to make interesting holiday ales, both in taste and name. Yesterday after work we went to the Holiday Ale Festival with Cam and Bethany to enjoy some creative beverages.

Some of the best names were Sugar Plum Cider Fairies for cider with plum puree from Anthem Cider, 5 Golden Rings for a golden sour ale from Crooked Stave Brewery, Santa Quad is Coming to Town for a holiday Belgian quadruple from Gigantic Brewing, Hansel and Gretel’s Revenge for a spiced imperial stout from MadCow Brewing, Whack and Unwrap for a chocolate orange dark ale from Ninkasi, and Mrs. Claus’ Nutty Desire for a white chocolate macadamia nut blonde ale from Three Mugs Brewing.

One of my favorites in terms of taste was the Deschutes Ginger Cookie Imperial Porter which was delicious and tasted as described! I was also surprised to discover that I liked the Mele Kalikimaka, a tropical IPA from Sunriver Brewing, even though I’m not typically a huge fan of IPAs. The name is the Hawaiian pronunciation of Merry Christmas and also the name of a Christmas song from 1949.

Drinking beer by the Christmas tree in Pioneer Square.

In general the deliciousness of the beverages was not necessarily correlated with the cleverness of the names, unfortunately. I also learned that after living next to Belgium for three years, I will only be disappointed by American-brewed “Belgian-style” beers. Lesson learned.