Tag Archives: Charles Dickens

December 17, 2007 · 2:08 pm

Christmas Traditions: Lights, Trains, Nativity…

We are about a week away from Christmas and great preparations are being made. Last weekend, John and Paul put up our house
lights. I worked on my living room Christmas train line (G-scale, eventually to be moved outside as pieces of my to-be-constructed garden railway), put together a candy cane flower arrangement shown in the December 2007 Sunset magazine, and wrapped presents. Jessica flies home from CMU tomorrow at midnight. We are in negotiations with friends and family as to who is coming with us to the The Great Dickens Christmas Fair at the San Francisco Cow Palace this Saturday. Christmas dinner menu offerings and logistics are being discussed…

Last night, John and I drove around Willow Glen (San Jose, CA) to see the Christmas lights. The new LED lights are very popular this year, as are the big lighted blowup figures, icicles, and musical light sets. Nothing shows off the taste of the neighborhood (or lack thereof) as what they do with their holiday lights. Here are some snapshots of our Christmas so far:

Our Bethlehem Olive Wood Nativity

(with extra camels and angels)

Candy Canes

and Roses

Tino posing for

icanhascheezburger

My ladybug G-scale

train engine

Living room

train line

Living room

train line

Our house lights

Victorian house

Willow Glen Christmas lights

Willow Glen

Christmas lights

Willow Glen

Christmas lights

Willow Glen – turkey in

Christmas lights

Willow Glen

Christmas lights

Sponge Bob, Snowmen, Nativity,

Deer, Santa, and just lights

Willow Glen

Christmas lights

Willow Glen

blow up Santa

Willow Glen

snowman in lights

Willow Glen

blow up Snowman

Willow Glen

simple icicle lights

Willow Glen front yard

home made Nativity

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Filed under Home & Family

Tagged as Charles Dickens, Jessica, John, Paul, San Jose, Willow Glen

December 23, 2006 · 9:45 am

Last 2 Fruitcakes in Oven

After decorating the Christmas tree, our family held its annual fruitcake assembly and baking party last night. My son Paul mixed pounds and pounds of dates and nuts and candied fruit in a big new gardening bucket I bought for the purpose. After much discussion, raisins and apricots were left out but dried figs were added. We have used the same recipe (from Mrs. Benziger of Knoxville, Tennessee) all of my life but the particular mix each year varies by the taste of the cooks. Everyone wore a tea cosy or Santa hat for the event.

My daughter Jessica and mother chopped and measured and mixed and discussed modifications. We baked one of the cakes in a rose-shaped Bundt pan this year. The tips of the petals are dry but otherwise it worked well. My daughter is brushing honey on the top now to moisten it. There is one big round fruitcake but the other 6 are loaf shaped. The last 2 loaves are in the oven now. They take over an hour to bake and no one wanted to stay up past midnight for two more to cook.

Today we visit the Dickens’ Christmas Fair at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Jessica has assembled a costume of sort-of Victorian clothes since she likes to dress up. My mother is looking forward to sitting down with mulled wine and listening to sea chanties and bawdy songs in Mad Sal’s Alehouse. I plan to spend some of my fair time shopping and some listening to the songs or maybe watching a play by Gilbert and Sullivan.

Silicon Valley Christmas

Christmas is only a few days away. It is raining and cool but not nearly so stormy as earlier this week. We have been working through our usual list of Christmas activities and events:

Advent Lessons and Carols service with tea after at church
Shopping in Chinatown
Christmas party with the Silicon Valley Lines model train club
Baba and grandkids making fruitcake
A day at the Dickens Christmas Fair at the Cow Palace
Christmas caroling with family and friends on the Cable Car in San Francisco with dinner after (we took the Powell-Hyde line to and from Ghiradelli Square). My Mother said she has been doing this for 50 years!
Wrapping and shipping presents to out of town relations and delivering presents to friends and neighbors
Finding little stocking stuffers and sneaking them into the stockings hanging from the mantle when no one else is looking
Decorating the house, putting up lights outside, buying a Christmas tree, putting lights on the tree and decorating it, setting up the model train line around the base of the tree
Christmas services at church

It is good that I am on vacation today so that I have time to do everything! We just finished decorating the tree. There are themes among the ornaments for each member of the family: fish, trains, Shakespeare, frogs, tea cups and tea pots, Hagrid and Norbert (from Harry Potter), cats, knights and ladies, and many other favorites. It is very bright and glittery.

Last night, I went to the ordination of the Rev. Ruth Casipit Paguio at Holy Child church in San Jose. Holy Child is one of the missions I work with in the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real. It calls itself the “First Filipino-American Church in Silicon Valley”. Ruth was ordained a Deacon by the Right Reverend Sylvestre Romero and the Right Reverend Bartolome Espartero. Most of the service was in English but some was in Filipino. It was very moving and a powerful and inspiring addition to this Christmas season.

Tag Archives: Charles Dickens

Christmas Traditions: Lights, Trains, Nativity…

Last 2 Fruitcakes in Oven

Silicon Valley Christmas

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