Happy holidays, everybody --

I'm missing my family more at this time of year than other times. I hope you are all well, happy, and relaxed enough to enjoy your holiday season.

Mostly, though, I feel this little sense of panic when I think I may not have anyplace "good" to go for the holidays. Being a guest in a strange house, or partying with twenty-somethings who could care less about their families, is a toss-up. But having no plans at all would tend to make me feel very sorry for myself, in an almost panicky way.

So I've made plans .. vague ones, with latitude for improvisation, but plans nonetheless.

Christmas Eve, I play Santa and get the rest of my postcards, gifts, etc. sent -- or as many as I can get properly stamped by closing. They won't arrive in time, of course, but it's a half-day off work and as good a time as any for such errands.

Christmas Day, I am invited to Christmas Dinner both at the backpackers' lodging, and at my employers' house (they've been taking me around to sightsee locally, and taking pictures of me to put on a CD for me to take home -- treating me a bit likie a guest, or maybe just as a sort of foreman/assistant; they have me acting as a back-up supervisor in the packhouse when things get busy.)

I'm going to attempt to make a pumpkin pie for them. It's a bit of a challenge, because pumpkin pie is regarded with more scepticism here than pumpkin soup is at home they have meat pies, and fruit pies, but pumpkin is regarded as a vegetable and they're not at all sure what it would be doing in a custardy crusty thing.
Not to mention, it is the local equivalent of June in a place that doesn't really have true sweet pumpkins even in autumn; they import the jack-o-lantern variety for a few weeks around Halloween. And forget canned, pre-spiced pumpkin. So I'll be experimenting with their "pumpkin," which is a sort of winter squash, the orangest ones I could find, and see how it turns out.

I've bought a dessert wine that should go well with pavlova, just in case. (Pavlova being the Kiwi traditional Christmas dessert: fruit & whipped cream on a crisp merengue base, optionally layered, lovely sweet summer fare.)

Just looked up Pumpkin pie recipes on the internet; did my usual scan of two or three recipes, calibrating myself to options and baseline necessities, so I can improvise with the materials at hand.

Happy, happy holidays -- stuff yourselves silly, and remember me with a bite or sip of the most delicious thing at your table.

Love,
Erica