Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Wishing everyone a peaceful and wonderful night together with family and friends!

April

Be Beautiful, Live Beautiful, Feel Beautiful

Finishing Touches: Printable Gift Tags & Place Cards

As we wrap our presents and wrap up the to-do list for Christmas you might find that you are in need of a few finishing touches. Do you have gift tags for your loved ones? Do you perhaps need place cards for your wonderfully prepared table?

I have just the thing for you! You can print and cutout these simple, yet gorgeous, last minute necessities.

Links:
Holiday Gift Tags
Festive Place Cards


Enjoy!

April

Be Beautiful, Live Beautiful, Feel Beautiful

The "Killer" Eggnog Recipe

From spur of the moment visits for afternoon tea to carefully orchestrated, elegant New Year's Eve galas, social gatherings, in all their many forms, are the joyful heart and soul of the winter holidays. We connect in special ways with family and friends to share long-cherished traditions to celebrate significant events in our faiths and cultures.

Entertaining presents a multidimensional palette for our creativity and imagination; it enfolds the ways we decorate our homes, the favorite foods and beverages we offer, and the festive fashions we wear.

A party quickly pulled together is as much fun as a long-planned, complex affair. Any great gathering can be helped with a stellar traditional recipe - that guests will be talking about for months to come!

My recipe for traditional Christmas or "Killer" Eggnog as my friends like to call it. Enjoy it now, you may have to wait until next year to enjoy it again!

April's Traditional Eggnog

* 18 eggs
* 2 cups extra-fine granulated sugar
* 1 cup cognac
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 4 cups light cream (or table cream)
* 6 cups heavy cream
* Grated nutmeg

1. Separate eggs, placing yolks in a large bowl and white in a second large bowl.
2. Add sugar to the egg yolks, beat until fluffy. Stir in bourbon, cognac, vanilla, and light cream. Chill several hours or until very cold.
3. Beat egg whites until they stand in peaks. In large bowl beat heavy cream until stiff. Fold beaten egg whites and whipped cream into egg-yolk mixture. Pour into a very large bowl. Sprinkle with grated nutmeg.
4. Ladle into punch cups.
Serves 24.


In the mood for more Eggnog? King Arthur Flour (also based in Vermont) has many fantastic recipes, but this one is certainly fitting for season - while being a great twist on a common baked good:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/easy-holiday-eggnog-muffins-recipe

You can find more entertaining tips newly posted on my website: April's Entertaining Tips

Or find more holiday recipes like this one in my Recipe's section on my website: April's Holiday Recipes


April

Be Beautiful, Live Beautiful, Feel Beautiful

Lee Cornell: I Remember...

Many of you will traveling soon for the holidays, perhaps your children are on their school break, relatives are coming to town or you'll be visiting them. We all come together to celebrate the season together. Each and every one of us has different experiences...some may be more interesting than the next - which can be good or bad when trying to just make it home - but the important part is that we make it home. Here's an experience from my son a few years ago.

Lee Cornell, my son recounts on a particular trip home for Christmas

I remember...

It was December 24 and I was flying into what looked like a snow-covered village. The small propeller was descending, and I could make out the frozen rivers and lakes that seemed to be everywhere.

Soon they were big brick buildings. Most of them had smoke pouring out of their aging chimneys. More and more houses appeared. The roads became wider and the traffic heavier as we made a sharp turn around the modest houses and prepared to land on the icy runway.
The pilot had to be good because heavily falling snow made visibility suspect at best. There were also large mounds of snow on both sides of the landing strip, not to mention icy patches. The captains hand was true, and we skidding harmlessly until we finally came to a stop and made a turn to head back to the heart of the airport.

It was late and it had been a long day of traveling. This was the third flight of my journey, and total travel time was somewhere around 12 hours. I had come from one end of the country and was rather exhausted at this point. I shuffled out of the plane and was met by my parents. I grabbed my luggage and we ventured out into the snow.

The night seemed even darker than usual because of the terrible weather. People were scurrying around in oversized winter jackets. Their faces were hardly distinguishable, even up close.
The cars in the parking lot were dark, too, and not necessarily due to their original color. It was more because of the spewing mixture of dirt and snow that shot out from their spinning tires in attempt to grip the slippery roads.

We quickly hopped into the shelter of a waiting car and started off on the last leg of my trip. Because of the dangerous storm, traffic had become sparse; cars drifted toward the middle of the road, where there was less snow.

We drove delicately down the steep hill; at the bottom we could see a massive lake completely covered by ice. We made a left turn and drove past a college campus that was eerily quiet. A small group of people struggled against the harsh, blowing snow, probably walking home after a neighborhood gathering.

We were almost there now. We pulled up into the driveway, and huge pine trees all around made it seem as if we were in the middle of an epic forest. Outside it was almost complete blackness.
My dad parked the car and we trudged through the snow into the house. Candles were lit and there were colorful blankets and pillows all about. Beautiful placemats also had been painted in a fantastic new color. It was a sharp contrast from the harshness of the bitter weather. There was a fire burning and my family, including my two brothers, gathered around the warmth. We talked, smiled, and reminisced, retelling favorite old stories. We also caught up on new adventures taking places in our lives. The couches were comfortable. The pictures along the walls were captivating, even after all the years I had looked at them.

I had a hot coffee and let my mind wander into the future of the next day's celebrations.
I was finally home. It was Christmastime.
--Lee


May you all be safe while traveling from home to home!
April

Be Beautiful, Live Beautiful, Feel Beautiful

Mistletoe Musings - Did you know...?

Quite possibly one of the most famous holiday plants, here's a fun article all about mistletoe and its surprising history written by a friend, Moralea Milne.


"Most people know little about mistletoe beyond the delightful Christmas-season tradition of "kissing" beneath the mistletoe." Did you know the proper procedure requires that you remove a berry for every kiss, until there are no berries left and there's no more kissing to be indulged?

In Norse mythology Frigga, goddess of love, proves the power of a mother's love when her tears raise her son, Balder, from death caused by an arrow poisoned with red mistletoe berries. Her tears change the berries to a pearly white and rehabilitate the mistletoe's reputation. She kisses everyone who walks beneath the mistletoe plant, in gratitude for all the did to protect her son.

Revered by Celtic Druids as a sacred plant, which they called "all-heal," mistletoe was considered a potent substance that could cure illnesses of many descriptions; serve as an antidote against poisons; ensure fertility,; protect against witchcraft, lighting and a death in battle; and perform as a divining rod to rind burial gold. Apparently if opposing groups found themselves in the forest beneath mistletoe, they would call a truce for a day (kiss and make up?).

Although mistletoe is known to cause gastrointestinal distress and can be potentially fatal, its properties have been investigated for use in cancer research to stimulate the immune system, kill cancer cells, reduce tumors, increase survival time, decrease pain, and improve quality of life.

The word mistletoe, from the German mistel, for dung, and the old Anglo-Saxon tan, for twig or - dung on a twig - refers to the perception that birds would leave behind voided mistletoe seeds on host tree branches, ensuring successful germination. However, that view has been proven false because mistletoe germination actually decreases with passage through a digestive tract. In fact, mistletoe berries have evolved a much more remarkable dispersal tactic, ejecting their single sticky seed at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour!

In an undisturbed natural environment, the hemiparasitic (semi-parasitic) mistletoe utilizes the tree for food but is also able to photosynthesize. Although disparaged by lumber companies as a destructive pest, mistletoe is an important component of woodland ecology, contributing to diversity in the forest. Mistletoe causes the host tree to develop dense clusters of branches, often evocatively referred to as witches' brooms, which provide well protected roosting and nesting sites and effective cover from predators.

From its place as a natural component of the forest ecology, to sacred plant, to medicinal cure all, reviled as lumber pest or fondly associated with holiday fun and romance, mistletoe has long been a part of human culture."

Now you know! Perfect for Holiday party trivia.

April
Be Beautiful, Live Beautiful, Feel Beautiful