Smorgasbord #9
Decorations, celebrations, and punch
Hello friends! This is Peregrino, a newsletter about the journey. Welcome to another edition of Smorgasbord, a self-service buffet of ideas. If you’re new here, welcome! It’s good to have you. If you haven’t subscribed, I will make it easy for you to do so.
This week, in bullet points
I finished reading A Christmas Carol, and I got a good chuckle out of Dickens referring to one of Fred’s wife’s sisters as “the plump one.” Also, Topper is kind of a handsy character, if I may say so. I told the kids about the “Yes and No” game, and we had a lot of fun playing it during dinner.
Costco isn’t selling fresh-cut trees this year—bummer, so we took the fake tree out of storage and set it up.
And by setting it up, I mean
did it. The plan was to wait for Gaudete Sunday to put the lights on and the fourth Sunday of Advent to decorate it. The kids had other plans. They took all the ornaments and decorated the tree on their own while we were busy doing something else. It was adorable. They demanded we put the lights on the tree, so we obliged.
My two older boys are close to being promoted from a white belt to a gray belt in BJJ, and it has been incredible to witness how they have grown in discipline and focus. This piece from
made me reflect on my own BJJ journey and gave me an idea for an essay that I started outlining.- and published Chanting the “O Antiphons,” a primer in chant for anyone interested in getting started singing square notes. I would also recommend Floriani’s Chant School Podcast, where they break down a piece of Gregorian Chant per episode and provide the PDF to follow while you learn to sing!
All my kids have a little performer in them, but my six-year-old has been extra good at memorizing Christmas songs and singing his little heart out around the house. So far, his repertoire includes “One More Sleep ‘Til Christmas” from The Muppet Christmas Carol (I’m so proud) and “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” except he only sings from the five gold rings part downwards.
We celebrated our Lucy with cinnamon rolls and, of course, coffee.
Books and Bourbon sounds like a good theme for a bar. I can get behind this idea, especially if coffee and chocolate are involved.
Mixing
Since I just finished reading “A Christmas Carol,” and keeping with the holiday cocktail theme, let’s talk about The Charles Dickens punch. Apparently, Charles Dickens loved punch, and this recipe comes from a letter he wrote to a friend's sister.
I made this punch for Christmas Eve last year, which was delightful. It has pineapple rum, cognac, demerara sugar, lemon and black tea. The process is a little involved, so instead of writing the steps to this, I’ll share the video where one of my favorite YouTube bartenders, Anders Erickson, makes it.
Even though you could make your own pineapple rum, I bought a bottle of Plantation Stiggins Fancy Pineapple Rum, inspired by another Dickes character, the Reverend Mr. Stiggins. As for the cognac, I like ABK6 VS Cognac.
Let me know if you try it. Cheers!
Sobremesa
When do you decorate your Christmas tree?
Have you watched The Muppet Christmas Carol yet?
Would you try The Charles Dickens punch?
I'll probably get the tree out this coming week. I have a new set of nativity figures so will do that this week too. The old set is being retired to my office desk where I can look at them while I work. I have quite a lot of alcohol ( wine mostly, including sherry and port) ready and purchased the Christmas chocs this week from my local, real life chocolatier. Handmade chocs are the best.
Congrats for the kids! Hope they are having fun and developing a really good mindset for life. <3