Tags: Published On: Friday, December 18th, 2020 Comments: 7
Hi guys!
I hope you are hanging in there.
For the December newsletter, being that the holidays and all the feelings connected to them can easily fall into the cliché, I thought about giving you a simple update, and also a little bit of an explanation for why I love this time of year.
I have always been fascinated with the history of all religions, and I have grown to be increasingly fascinated with the similarities they share. The winter solstice, for example, and the days around it, are a time that most religions, monotheist and pagans, consider and have considered, in a way or another, sacred.
I find the winter solstice magical; it’s the shortest day of the year, a mystical one when light and darkness connect on a deeper level: one gets closer to death, the other one gets closer to life, all in the same instant, when one becomes the other.
Solstice comes from the Latin solstitium (sol, which means sun, and the past participle of sistere, meaning to make stand). The position of the sun in the sky, on December 21st, appears to stay immobile. The mystery of what this might have represented for the people who lived this planet before the modern astronomical discoveries is fascinating to say the least.
I like to stay still as well during this time.
For me, this is the most wonderful time of the year.
Now, let’s get to the updates:
– Catherine turned 3 (on December 16th), and I made for her a unicorn cake. It was my first time making a layered cake: seven layers of genoise sponge soaked in orange and raspberry marmalade and pastry cream, all covered in orange blossom Italian buttercream. She loved it.
– I haven’t found an agent for my cookbook yet. I have contacted several, I was really hoping to be read by Kari Stuart, but no response. However, Sam Sifton, food editor of The New York Times, was so kind and emailed me back to tell me that mine was a great idea for a story (the one that inspired the book). The NYT is not publishing either freelance material or autobiographical stories as of now, but his words encouraged me.
– The kitchen is almost finished and I finally love it. We also painted the front door and finished the entire fencing around the house.
– This year, I bought all my presents from small and local businesses and restaurants, both here, in California, and in Italy. They are not luxury items, and I have found so much happiness in looking for them, in wrapping them, and in thinking of the joy those opening them will experience. I think that through the pandemic I have rediscovered a sense of community, the value and joy in shopping small, in person, in getting to know the people who make my community unique, and the freedom of giving up Amazon and the like.
– Mark Bittman is following me on Instagram (!!!)
– I emailed Alice Waters for advice, and one of the things she said to me was that she wouldn’t be where she is hadn’t she had friends by her side along the journey. So I look around me, and I realize that I am surrounded by the most amazing and loyal friends, something I had always longed for in my previous life, and that I never thought possible.
– I don’t have many resolutions for the new year, but I do want to go back to re-learn French, I want to go to Italy and spend a few months in Europe as soon as it is safe to do so, and I have a lot of hope for the change that 2021 can bring. I do…I do have hope.
Thank you for being my loyal tribe. Thank you for sticking with me. Thank you for muddling through somehow…
Happy Holidays,
Love,
Alice
ps. the featured image is the view from my office, with no filter. I took the photo at 5:30 pm on December 17th. Catherine saw the moon, and the beauty was breathtaking.
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Alice, thank you for this beautiful note. I too love this time of year. We just had a beautiful snow fall the other day….it was so peaceful. As a animal lover and having 2 kitties myself, i even see them more calm and relaxed in the winter.
Thank you for sharing your personal feelings with all of us. Although this has been such a challenging year, I find myself more grateful and blessed at the same time. I am looking forward to better times for everyone…..and we will get there. Some may take longer than others, but we will get there.
This pandemic has made me understand that the most important thing to me is health and happiness.
During Covid , i have come to peace that I am blessed for my education, my family, and the ability to touch someone’s life as a nurse.
I am sorry I am sharing my personal thoughts in this comment section..but it helps. Please know you have inspired me and provided me a outlet during this difficult time during Covid. I never liked cooking, now it is my Joy! I am not as good as you but trying hard each time to improve
Thank you for everything. God Bless and God Speed
Eileen
Alice, thank you for this beautiful note. I too love this time of year. We just had a beautiful snow fall the other day….it was so peaceful. As a animal lover and having 2 kitties myself, i even see them more calm and relaxed in the winter.
Thank you for sharing your personal feelings with all of us. Although this has been such a challenging year, I find myself more grateful and blessed at the same time. I am looking forward to better times for everyone…..and we will get there. Some may take longer than others, but we will get there.
This pandemic has made me understand that the most important thing to me is health and happiness.
During Covid , i have come to peace that I am blessed for my education, my family, and the ability to touch someone’s life as a nurse.
I am sorry I am sharing my personal thoughts in this comment section..but it helps. Please know you have inspired me and provided me a outlet during this difficult time during Covid. I never liked cooking, now it is my Joy! I am not as good as you but trying hard each time to improve
Thank you for everything. God Bless and God Speed
Eileen
Hi Alice ,
I enjoyed reading this and always feel I can relate to what you say. I like this day and time of year because the days start to get longer. Daylight and longer days means Spring and new life and GREEN is on it’s way here on Long Island.
Your cake came of fabulous. I hope Catherine liked the flavors. I was pickie with cake flavors when I was young. Only buttercream and chocolate or vanilla cake for me…ha ha…
See you Monday and enjoy your weekend.
Lu Ann ( lugold1010 on instagram)
The Unicorn cake is so cute. I’m impressed with how you
decorated it. Catherine must have been thrilled. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!
I think one of the things that I am most proud of is my friends always using the world loyal when they speak of our friendship. I have friends that I still keep in my heart from the time I was 12. I really don’t know why they feel like that but I am most certainly glad they do. It is possible to continue to be yourself throughout your life it’s sometimes hard, because life wants to make us hurt and angry suspicious and distant. I feel you are that way with your friends loyal and loving. You know if you hold on loosely you are going where you want to go and being what you want to be, It might seem like along time but it isn’t. Those dominoes you have lined up for your life path sometimes stop and you have to give them a little push. It is coming you will turn to look behind you and every goal you have set for your life will be there because you are the master of your fate.❣️And I’m a corny old lady 😊
Alice I don’t get IG only FB. So I haven’t heard from you in quite a while. I look forward to your updates. Please share here more often. Thank you. Blessings on your family US and abroad and may everyone remain healthy thru this pandemic. Love you. Rosalie