Preserving the Spirit of Christmas

Those who regularly read this blog know that I sometimes struggle with being able to speak in a way that is understood by those around me. We may speak the English language but there are many words that are used differently depending on where we are at the time we speak.

In my native New Zealand a couple of generations ago the kitchen enthusiast bottled fruit (and more) in times of plenty (I'm thinking of the delicious peaches) to be available in the months when fresh produce was much harder to come by. We called this kitchen art "preserving". Here in the USA, as I understand it, the same process is called canning.

Last year I set out on a very active blogging course in November, December and into the new year. For November I posted using the theme of Color Me November. For December it was the Trees of December. And in the opening months of 2016 I alternated with Winter White Wednesday and a specific color on the weekends until winter was officially declared "over".

Please humor me this year with a less ambitious plan. For the month of December I'm setting out to preserve the spirit of Christmas and will take liberal license to use the words "spirit"and "preserving" borrowing from the vernacular of the several countries I have lived in where English is the common language. In January? Who knows what it will be - why don't you offer up your suggestions.

Before I launch any further I want to include one last (??!) fall themed photo of my little white pumpkins. I had a lot of fun and creative moments with these this season.

Three little pumpkins preening.

Blurring the seasons.

I need to give credit to my friends Jill and Randy - when I went to their house a couple of weekends back they had paired a white pumpkin with a white poinsettia and I thought it was a brilliant combination. The variety of colors in poinsettias this year is amazing to me. You can expect to see more posts featuring these plants which are integral to the spirit of Christmas.

Oh, I forgot to add that the plan is to post every "even" date in December.