Merry Christmas from All of Us at The YinOva Center

By: Jill Blakeway, M.S. L. Ac. | Author's Archive | Bio

A very merry Christmas to you and yours from all of us.

I am with my family in upstate New York. It’s early on Christmas morning and everyone else is asleep. I am puttering around the house wrapping presents and preparing vegetables. The turkey is brining outside in a big bin. We brine our turkey according to a recipe in Nigella Lawson’s book Feast: Food to Celebrate Life. After trying out many different recipes over the years our family have settled on this one. The brine has orange, cinnamon, maple syrup, caraway seeds, allspice, ginger, salt, sugar, honey, cloves and star anise in it. The turkey looks and smells festive even before we start cooking.

I like my Christmases to be traditional and usually balk at attempts to change things. My late Mum loved Christmas and I reconnect to her and to my Gran by doing things the way they’ve always been done. So I’ll be making my Gran’s pork and apple stuffing and serving my Mum’s plum pudding. I’ll be singing along to Christmas carols whilst I make the gravy. There will be Christmas crackers (I think you call them poppers) and I’ll insist my family wear the silly hats inside them. I always get a little bit homesick at this time of year but all in all it will be a very English Christmas here in snowy upstate New York.

Happy Christmas to those of you who celebrate, happy 5th night of Chanukah to others of you (including my husband) and for everyone else whatever you wish yourself, consider yourself wished.

Love,
Jill

Illustration
— Pkruger | Dreamstime.com