December 8, 2024 • 47 mins
It’s all holiday yards and tables in this episode of Yard to Table as Ellen and Trevor discuss their winter holiday traditions during the coziest season in Connecticut – Yuletide! They talk about their garden's winter preparations, the joy of decorating with greenery and family treasures, and honoring the winter solstice. And it’s all about bringing in the light for the holidays at Stonebrook House and they will talk about how they do that with the tradition of lighting Bayberry candles, making a Feuerzangenbowle, and burning a Yule log and share all their other Christmas Eve rituals. The episode concludes with their excitement for the upcoming holiday season and the joy of being together with those you love. Happy Holiday Yardists!
Message us at the link below for the our Glühwein recipe and for more info on any of our celebrations!
And to see what's happening with Ellen and Trevor at Stonebrook House follow @stonebrookhouse on Instagram today!
Questions? Ideas? Things you need to say? Message us!
Follow Yard to Table on Instagram at @yard_to_table_podcast 🌱🍽️ and see what’s happening with Ellen and Trevor by following @stonebrookhouse. And don't forget to follow, like and leave a review wherever you listen to the show! TY 💙
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Trevor (00:00):
Music.
(00:14):
Well, hello Ellen.
Ellen (00:15):
Well, hello Trevor.
Trevor (00:17):
Here we are back at the table for a winter episode of
yard to table.
Ellen (00:25):
Shall I say, Happy Holidays.
Trevor (00:26):
It is a holiday episode.
This is the good stuff we'regetting into some really fun
times.
Ellen (00:33):
Well, it's cozy season.
Trevor (00:34):
It is cozy. It's cozy sweater season, yes it is cozy
house season, yes
Ellen (00:40):
it is mittens, it's sweaters. It's, as our child
likes to say, it's cozy, cozy,cozy, cozy, cozy, cozy. Yes,
Trevor (00:49):
no, it's, it's soups, good food, getting in from out
from the cold. And it is cold.
It is very cold here in ourwonderful seven a Connecticut,
Ellen (01:01):
finally, yes, it's very cold, and the forecast has a
chance of snow tomorrow.
Trevor (01:07):
Yes, it does,
Ellen (01:09):
which is exciting.
Trevor (01:10):
It feels both late and early. Somehow, at the same
time, we've had kind of a mildfall, we have, and all of a
sudden, Ska-boom,
Ellen (01:21):
yeah, you felt a little underprepared for the shift. But
I'm here for it, 1,000%
Trevor (01:26):
100% here for it. We need it. It is necessary,
correct? It's interesting,because we have put our
wonderful gardens at Stone Brookto sleep, yes, to hibernate like
bears.
Ellen (01:37):
Beds are tucked in, literally
Trevor (01:39):
covered up with their little cover crops and their
little organic elements thatkeep them all happy for the
winter, for the winter, and keepthe soil healthy over the
winter. And I think it's welldocumented that we love
gardening based on theseepisodes,
Ellen (01:58):
And it is a big part of our life outside of the podcast
Trevor (02:02):
and but I'm also happy to take a little rest, a little
break. Well, it's
Ellen (02:08):
the natural cycle of things. Yes, you know,
obviously, we know lots ofpeople grow through the winter
and greenhouses and pots intheir kitchens and things like
that, but it is sort of whatyou're supposed to be doing
right now is taking a rest,
Trevor (02:22):
taking a rest, taking stock. Night comes early, very
early. That's very don't likethat.
Ellen (02:28):
I don't. Yeah, no,
Trevor (02:30):
you like it... You like it light late, and I like it
light late also. But what it'sthat middle period of time that
I'm not a big fan of betweenDaylight Savings starting and it
actually getting late, becausethen you're sort of in that
weird, well, it's, oh, it's 7amand it's pitch black outside,
Ellen (02:49):
or, like, it's, you know, five o'clock, and you
think it's midnight, yeah, yeah.
Berkeubane land of eternalnight, very difficult. But it is
what it is.
Trevor (03:00):
And then it comes and then, and then it comes up to
actually, because we're not evenin winter right now. Here we are
beginning of December, and it'snot even winter.
Ellen (03:11):
The days are getting shorter and shorter and shorter
until we get to December 21which is the winter solstice.
And then we're flipping around.
Night starts to come back. Daysget longer and longer and more
light. And I have to say, thatis happy times for me,
Trevor (03:28):
that is happy times, that is good times.
Ellen (03:31):
But the things that get us through this time is, for us,
we are big into decorating andcelebrating the holiday season.
Trevor (03:40):
That's right. And it's interesting because we've talked
about on the podcast before,having an urge for a thing, a
need for a thing. And it'sinteresting because this time
period, I think, Historicallyand traditionally, as people
decorate for this time of year,greenery is always a big part of
(04:02):
that, and that's happened formillennia. And it's interesting,
because it's almost like alittle Summer Fest in the middle
of winter, because you don't seegreen. You know, the trees are
bare, the fields are bare, verystark outside,
Ellen (04:17):
yes, and bringing in the Greens makes the House have that
warmth and color that you lovefrom from the summer, from the
warmer months. Yeah, absolutelywas it just it was a couple
years ago that our child startedwatching, we all started
watching Victorian farm,Victorian farm. It was old
Public Television. EdwardianFarm, Edwardian farm, it was so
(04:39):
monastery.
Unknown (04:43):
we were always so excited to watch the holiday
episodes and see what people didyears ago about celebrating
this, this time of year and theGreens was a huge part of it,
making big bowls of pottage, youknow, to eat.
Trevor (04:56):
I would say we're fairly close to those at. Episodes in
what we do. It's funny becausethe
Ellen (05:06):
we have turned the great room into like a great hall.
Trevor (05:09):
It is a great boughs of our boughs of holly and
greenery,
Ellen (05:16):
medieval Hall, bringing in the fresh greenery has always
been something that we've loved.
But obviously, now that we livein New England, it's a heck of a
lot easier. Oh yeah, we wereliving in Los Angeles, which I
will say even then, yes, peopleused to call our home the
Christmas cottage. It's
Trevor (05:34):
true. We went all out even then, when we were living
in the middle of beautifulStudio City with palm trees all
around us.
Ellen (05:42):
Yes, and we gotta, we gotta. We got enough coldness in
the air to put a sweater on, andwe were thrown sometimes,
sometimes, if it rained, we werehappy, but you walked in the
door of our house and it was theChristmas cottage.
Trevor (05:53):
Now we basically have the Christmas castle. A lot more
space. We've upgraded.
Ellen (05:59):
Unfortunately, we have so many collections. We are
collecting family. Yeah,
Trevor (06:05):
that's inherited. Yeah, that's more my side. Yeah,
Ellen (06:10):
our child has inherited that as well. But, but we do
have some really coolcollections.
Trevor (06:14):
And some of the collections are actually family
collections. That's things fromfamily. Have a lot of history. I
have a lot of nutcrackers? Youdo. Some of those are from my
childhood. Some of those arefrom things that I've been
given.
Ellen (06:27):
I have given you some nutcrackers. Our child has made
you some nutcrackers, which isreally fun.
Trevor (06:32):
Yeah, so it's a growing collection.
Ellen (06:35):
How many do you think you have?
Trevor (06:36):
Yes, probably 50. He's lying. It's maybe 60. It's a
lot, but there's a huge, giantplace for them above our
fireplace in the great room. Sothey kind of line up by scale.
The tallest ones are in themiddle, and then the smaller
ones go cascading down.
Ellen (06:54):
It's a bunch of happy soldiers. They're all in a row,
Trevor (06:58):
and they're from so many different countries and so many
different places. So I have onesfrom Hungary, and I have ones
from Germany, and I have onesfrom all over.
Ellen (07:08):
And you what's your favorite? Do you have a favorite
Nutcracker?
Trevor (07:12):
My child would make me say that the one that was made
by her for me and painted is myfavorite, and it has a wonder,
and it is a wonderful one. It'svery adorable. It's a little
it's a little Christmas elf, andhe's very, very cute. But I
think the way so many of us feelaround this time of year, you go
towards your childhood and yournostalgia of the things that you
(07:35):
had when you were a kid, andthere's a very small little
Nutcracker, only about fourinches tall, three inches tall.
And that was the first one thatI ever got. And he's just been
repaired multiple times. Thatmoves and things. You have a
little bit of a damage here anda little bit of a break there,
but he has, yeah, he hassoldiered on, as it were, so
(07:58):
that's probably my, one of myfavorites. There's a lot
Ellen (08:00):
Well, and the other collection that you have that's
pretty extensive came from, Imean, what our listeners don't
know is, growing up, yourparents traveled and lived
extensively all over the world,and so when your father was a
professional opera singer, yes,he was. And so and is, and is
correct.
Trevor (08:20):
I think in their 55 years of marriage, which is
pretty awesome, as it is veryawesome, they have moved 25
times, or some globally, bananasamount of times globally. They
don't like to stay put for toolong,
Ellen (08:34):
from Japan to Hungary to Germany all over. Yes, Nebraska,
Trevor (08:41):
oh boy, everywhere in between indeed.
Ellen (08:45):
But that collection is that you also have yeah
Trevor (08:47):
of creche that's from a lot from my dad, things that he
had when he was a kid. And forsome reason, I got into it as a
just a unique art form, to seehow all these different artists
have created all of thesedifferent small creche scenes.
And
Ellen (09:06):
for people who don't know whichever what is a creche?
A creche is a
Trevor (09:10):
small visual representation of the birth of
Jesus and all of the trimmingswith the three kings and Mary
and Joseph and sometimeselephants, elephants or
Ellen (09:25):
camels coming to the party.
Trevor (09:27):
Yeah, the fun, the fun elements that are that surround
that story.
Ellen (09:32):
what I love about the collection is exactly what you
said. It's the global aspect ofit. It's so wonderful to see how
different countries interpretedthe vision of that creche and
the artistry. I mean, there'ssome beautiful pieces that you
have in that collection, and I,my family, even contributed one,
(09:53):
because we have an old GermanBakelite, Bakelite creche, right
from what I
Trevor (09:58):
was growing plastic.
Kind of formed. It was, it's
Ellen (10:02):
The angel has fallen off. And I think there's like a
one arm donkey. No, that doesn'tmake sense. One Legged, one
legged.
Trevor (10:10):
There you go.
Ellen (10:11):
But it works in that.
And again, this is somethingthat our child has, really. We
have a bookshelf in our greatroom that we because we are, we
produce everything at a veryhigh level in our lives. This is
a kind of a superpower and asickness, but we take everything
out of those shelves, and we putall of the collection of crushes
on those shelves, and it's justbeautiful again to see this
(10:33):
global art represented. And ourour child has taken taking it
over, really. She set everythingup this year. Beautiful. Watch
the work that she did. It looks
Trevor (10:43):
from Guatemala and Peru and Germany and Austria and
literally, Mexico, every part ofthe globe has contributed to
this unique art form. Some aremade of clay, some are pierced
tin. Some are carved out ofwood. They're all hand painted.
(11:04):
They're handmade. Some arestone.
Ellen (11:06):
And we have a beautiful one that was painted by your
grandma. Louise, right, yeah. So
Trevor (11:10):
my grandmother did in the 1930s a wooden creche that
was all very Art Deco and veryspecific. They were both. My
grandparents were big artists,and so we have a lot of pieces
from them, in various ways,shapes and forms that also
extend into this holiday season.
And that was one that I actuallywe just found recently, yes and
and set it up and put ittogether. There
Ellen (11:34):
are a lot of boxes.
Thereare many family items, things.
Yes, that's true.
You're right to that listeningtoday what we heard, but we love
it. It's gorgeous, and I thinkit's so amazing because we have
both have this wonderfultradition of things that were
made by our families that wecontinue to use as part of our
(11:56):
holiday decorating. And I thinkwe have to talk about Christmas
stockings, since we were talkingabout your grandma, Louise,
Trevor (12:03):
and that is a very unique story. Yes,
Ellen (12:06):
so Trevor and I were dating. We lived on opposite
coasts. When we were dating, Iwas on the East Coast in New
Jersey, and he was on the westcoast in Los Angeles, and we
dated for about a year by CostaLee, got engaged, got married.
And when you know you know. Butthe first time we were together
(12:29):
for the for the Christmasholidays, and you came to my my
condo, what happened?
Trevor (12:37):
I was taken aback.
Unknown (12:40):
It was significant.
Trevor (12:41):
I remember turning around you closed the door, and
I saw the back of the door, andthere was this stocking that was
hanging. It was my childhoodstocking. Ellen's childhood
Christmas stocking that was donein a stitched felt custom style
with her name on it, and alittle angel brown hair and, of
(13:03):
course, naturally, and somelittle toys that were stitched
on and all done in sequins,
Ellen (13:09):
embroidered beading, yeah. Now
Trevor (13:11):
I had an almost identical stocking style
Ellen (13:15):
of stocking, yes, right?
Yours, yours is green, but minewas green too. Yes, that's
right. And
Trevor (13:22):
I was really blown away, because I'd never seen someone
else that had that kind ofstocking before, even if they
were it was if, you know, youknow, you know, you know, if it
was a stocking that had beenbought in the store or stitched
or, you know, there's a lot ofpeople have their names, you
know, embroidered onto the sideof the stocking. But this was
(13:43):
very different. This was a fullyhandmade stocking. And
Ellen (13:47):
you know, as you are, when you are in love, and just
we're like, oh yes, it's justanother sign. And then when I
finally, and it was, and when Ifinally got to see your family
stocking, so I was like, Okay,wow. It was very,
Trevor (14:02):
very similar, but your grandmother
Ellen (14:03):
had created the so there were. It's a felt stocking that
is handmade and cut out of feltwith felt characters on top, and
again, with that embroidery. And
Trevor (14:12):
she had done one for my dad back in the 50s when he was
a kid. Yeah, and then when mymom came along, she made one for
my mom. It's absolutelybeautiful, with shells that are
stitched very personal, verypersonalized. Cats that they had
at the time were hand cut. Andthen when I came along, I got
(14:34):
one too,
Ellen (14:34):
yeah, and it was so fun because, of course, I had them
growing up as well. And I savedmy mom stocking because she
wasn't putting it up as muchanymore, but I kept all the
family stockings. So that was mymy collecting. And so it was so
fun, because again, when ourfamily came together, putting up
my mom's stocking, and my dadhad passed away, but my my
(14:56):
stocking, your stockings. Andthen when our daughter came
along, my mom made. Her stockingin the same style, in the same
style. So plum fairy. It's soawesome to look at the mantle
and to see what
Trevor (15:09):
I think is funny is that your stockings, you your mom and
our kiddo, all face to the left.
My stocking, my mom stocking andmy dad stocking, all face to the
right. Actually works out. Itlooks amazing. It looks
fantastic. Three on one side,three on the other. But
Ellen (15:28):
it's fun every year, because our daughter will look
at the stockings and pop up.
Stocking is a little specialbecause it was built with a his
Trevor (15:35):
was built with essentially a pleat in the
bottom that would open up so itthat's a
Ellen (15:41):
major it is all huge stocking. Yeah, it gets it's
Trevor (15:45):
very hard to fill, by the way, because it's so
gigantic that you just there'sso it just keeps going. Is that
it's an endless stocking.
Ellen (15:53):
But we hear it because she's always like, that stocking
can hold more things. Oh,
Trevor (15:58):
yeah. But she does fine.
She
Ellen (16:01):
does fine. She does fine. By the way, Santa, Santa
takes care of her and mommy anddaddy, and the stockings are a
big thing. And you know, mymother also is an artist, and
from sewing to painting toceramics, she's made so many
things. And the things that Ilove, I think all of us feel
this way, is when you open upthose boxes at the holiday of
(16:22):
all the things that you've putaway, and you just go through
memories and that warm feelingof the memory of where that was
in your previous Christmas, orthe Christmas of your childhood.
It just is so lovely andconnecting us through time and
through our families. And mymother has painted so many
beautiful things I have, but theone that I really love the most
(16:45):
is our Santa with who is on ourmantel place. You know, he's
just,
Trevor (16:50):
it's amazing. Ellen's mom has done a specific sort
Ellen (16:54):
of in the format of toll painting, like German toll
painting,
Trevor (16:57):
and it's so detailed and it's so intricate. And some of
my favorite parts of Christmascome from things that your mom
has made and things that mygrandmother made. Yeah, and it's
these family heirlooms. I mean,that's the word for it. They are
family heirlooms. You cannotreplace these stockings. You
cannot replace Santa on themantle that is this beautiful
(17:20):
wooden, hand carved folk artSanta that is just every year,
it's so breathtakingly beautifulbecause it's so detailed. It's
Ellen (17:29):
joyful. He goes on the mantle in our our family room.
Yeah, you know, we, we havestarted creating garlands with
dried oranges that I put aroundit. It's just wow. It makes me
so happy to see it. And she'salso painted little sleighs with
hearts that we hang on the tree.
And I have a cute little Mr. AndMrs. Claus candle holders that
(17:49):
are in the kitchen and in thestyle of our stockings, this
incredible embroidered feltmobile that I hang over the
kitchen table, it's just makesyou happy. These are the things
that are, like you said,treasures that you can't replace
and are just priceless and fullof just wonderful memories and
love. I have
Trevor (18:11):
one more thing to add to that. Oh,
Ellen (18:12):
what else is it? The
Trevor (18:13):
other thing to add to the list is something that we
found in Ellen's mom's house inLas Vegas when we were moving,
yeah, from Vegas to here, yeah.
And it was in a pile of otherframes and other things. Oh,
you'll know it in a second.
Yeah, like, Oh, of course. Andit was a painted frame, sort of
(18:35):
long oval. And I said, What'sthis? Oh, I know what you're
talking and Ellen's mom said,Oh, that's no good. It just, you
know, you don't need to. That'snothing. And I and I look at it,
and it's this awesome, amazingpainting of Bob Cratchit and
Tiny Tim on his shoulder in abeautiful folk art pattern,
(18:58):
Germanic toll painting style,yeah. It's just with little
fruits around it, and it's justawesome. And it is we put it up
every year, and it's just sofunny how artists of all sorts
think about their work and seetheir work, because here this
amazing piece of art, and yourmom is
Ellen (19:17):
kind of self depreciating about it. I'm like,
please. It is so amazing. It'sso good. Yes, I know standards,
Trevor (19:25):
and so do we. And so I think we win, though, from a
from a who knows what's goodstandpoint, because that is
awesome.
Ellen (19:32):
Well, and you've made an heirloom for our child. Oh,
Trevor (19:38):
yeah, in in Los Angeles, I carved an entire mantle piece
because we did
Ellen (19:46):
not have a mantle in this just tells you how into the
holidays we are and how addictedto production we are. Our child
was born in October. Christmaswas coming in December, and
Trevor had this incredible,large wood that he had gotten to
make a. Mantle in our housethere, and it was once our
child, it was gonna be, it was,it's enormous, heavy. And I
(20:06):
think every we had so manyfriends that was a fun part for
those too much. We had so manyfriends that came over and put
some time in, because
Trevor (20:13):
I wanted to do finishing the mantle only so you could I,
you know, should I could hangthe stuff,
yeah. So it was all done with achisel and a hammer. And that
was always cool business. Thatwas that was hard,
Ellen (20:24):
but I was talking about the advent calendar. Ah,
Trevor (20:27):
yes, the advent calendar, yes, something that I
made for, something that wecould have for a long time. Our
kiddo loves advent calendar. Andopening, she
Ellen (20:38):
grew to love it. That's true. Her first Christmas.
That's
Trevor (20:41):
true. That was one of her first when she was
functional with fingers thatwould actually open and close
things. Yeah, maybe not thefirst Christmas, first one,
because she was a little bit ofa love for that one. He's a cute
lump, but this Advent Calendarhas a small scene on top of
Santa and some forest friendsthat that I built out little
(21:01):
houses, and it's just thisadorable little that's a little,
it's kind of big, yeah, and it'sgot 24 little wooden drawers and
with little red berry handles onthem, and and each evening, we
all sit around and open up thislittle music box. I did add a
music box to it. So that'sright, it plays the 12 days of
(21:22):
Christmas, and I wind it up eachnight, and we get a little, a
little musical accompaniment toopening the advent calendar.
Ellen (21:30):
Again. We we like production. We like traditions.
Everything is so busy this timeof year. There's so much going
on, but just even having thosefive minutes of connectedness
and centered around the AVIDcalendar. It's lovely. It's just
a breath in a crazy holiday day,I would say, Yeah, but it gets
(21:53):
us into the Yule of it, allright? The Yule tied, yes, Yule
tide season.
Trevor (21:57):
That's a lot of what we do is, is sort of Yule based, I
think, yeah,
Ellen (22:03):
I mean, I think people are not aware table,
Trevor (22:06):
it's Yule. Yes, it's gardens, it's the outside coming
in,
Ellen (22:10):
and it's about bringing light in from the darkness. Yes,
so I don't, I think, you know,we were doing some research for
the episode, just on ourtraditions and where they came
from. And I think this was sointeresting to realize that
1000s, millennia years ago, whenfolks started celebrating Yule
(22:30):
Germanic cultures nurse Norsecultures, it was all about
bringing light in in the winterand from the cold, and
celebrating with greenery andlight and so many of those
things have morphed into ourcurrent holiday traditions,
Trevor (22:45):
yes, and have been added to our current holiday
traditions. Obviously, historyis full of people trying to
connect in lots of differentways, and one of those is sort
of merging very old traditionsin with newer traditions, which
is how we get Yule and Christmason the 25th that was all really
(23:05):
based around the wintersolstice,
Ellen (23:07):
that's right. And Yule is a Norse word, and it was, I
had to look it up because Iwanted to know the orange, yeah.
Well, here comes the accentthis,
Trevor (23:16):
by the way, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna stop everybody
just a second here, from thispoint on in this episode, there
may be accents, no, no, no, no,no. There will be accents
because there's some Germanstuff coming up. There's some
business. So just move on,
Ellen (23:31):
continue. Well, Yule is a Norse word for wheel because
it reminds us of fresh starts,the cyclical nature of the
planet, and it's a time of year,where we naturally reflect on
what has passed and what's tocome. And it's our moment to
recognize, as the days getlonger and more light comes into
our lives, that all of thepreparation of you'll center
(23:52):
around this idea of light again,which is merged into our modern
holiday tradition, correct?
Trevor (23:58):
And a lot of what we do, especially on Christmas Eve. Oh,
Christmas Eve, for sure, isthere's a lot of fire in our
house,
Ellen (24:09):
a lot of light, lot of light of fire. Yes, we've
created
Trevor (24:13):
our own tradition, both before and during our time at
Stone Brook, where Christmas Evefeels like the right time to do
all of this. It's
Ellen (24:22):
my favorite night of the holiday. Yeah, it's everything
is decorated. It's quiet. It'sreally a time for closeness with
family. It's cold, andeverything is beautiful, and
you're just really taking amoment to take it all in.
There's
Trevor (24:39):
anticipation for what's to come. Love anticipation, but
we always start our ChristmasEve celebration when the sun
goes down. And one
Ellen (24:48):
of the traditions we've emerged from my family is the
lighting of the Bayberrycandles. And for those of you
don't know, Bayberry candlesstart in the colonial times.
Obviously, at that time, candleswere. Huge. I think the average
house used something like 400kilos, a lot a year, yes, and
the tallow that was used inthose candles was from
(25:09):
livestock, and it was very waxy,
Trevor (25:12):
and created a lot of a lot of smoke, a lot of a lot of
carbon.
Ellen (25:16):
And so what happened for Colonial folks that came to New
England area is that theystarted collecting the berries
of the Bayberry bush, and thatwas along the coastline of New
England. And they were able toturn these berries into a very
special wax that had a smallamount of tallow, and then it
produced a candle that had amuch nicer smell, and it burned
(25:38):
cleaner and slower withoutsmoking. And there was a lot of
work that went into them. Ithink it was something like 15
pounds of bayberries that takesto make a pound of wax. It's
Trevor (25:49):
kind of like maple syrup, right? You've got all of
this, 40 gallons of one jar, 40gallons of sap to one one gallon
of syrup. And
Ellen (26:00):
because they were so time consuming and expensive, it
became something that they savedfor things like a holiday, and
it was either Christmas Eve orNew Year's. And in my family, we
did it on Christmas Eve. So ourtradition with the bay berries
is kind of similar to what I'veread about with the colonial
tradition is, but we take italways a little bit extra. I can
(26:22):
remember this as a kid with mymom, when we had newspapers, we
had looking in the newspaper sowe knew exactly the time that
the sun was gonna set. Now weuse Google
Trevor (26:33):
correct less, less fun,
Ellen (26:35):
but faster. But I remember circling it in the
newspaper and putting it on thecounter so we had it because
that was a very big deal. Andthen exactly at the time that
the sun sets, you light thecandles. The youngest child in
the house, the youngest child inthis house, youngest person in
the house, youngest person inthe house, helps to light the
candles. The other importantthing before that is the
(26:55):
tradition of bayberries is theyare supposed to be a gift. And
again, I remember as a kid, mygrandmother would buy bayberries
for my mom, and my mom would buybayberries for my grandmother
and so and then as my mybrothers and I get older, my
mother would buy bayberries foreach of our households. It was
it's important. There issomething about the gift of it
that also brings becauseultimately, the bay berries are
(27:18):
to bring you luck and fortuneand good health into the new
year. So we would light them.
It's very important to make surethat you have a good candle
holder, that you trim that wick,because they have to burn out to
the very bottom in order for itto bring you luck into the new
year. Can't
Trevor (27:36):
blow it out. It's
Ellen (27:37):
not a birthday. Once you light it, it's got to stay and
so many times every year you'vegot to put those candles in the
sink, put
Trevor (27:45):
them in the sink, or you have the metal tray or
something, because what youdon't want is, middle of the
night the fire alarms to go offbecause the wax has dripped out
and caused them that's
Ellen (27:57):
not Christmas. Santa
Trevor (27:59):
may come sometimes on a fire truck, but you don't want
it to actually be to your house.
Not a good holiday, not a goodplan,
Ellen (28:06):
not a good holiday. And we usually take a moment when we
light those candles to make awish, to reflect and again, to
think about the things that wewant for ourselves and for our
family in the upcoming year. Andthere's a poem that goes along
with baby candles, which isthese baby candles come from a
friend, so on Christmas Eve andNew Year's Eve, burn it down to
(28:27):
the end. For a baby candleburned to the socket will bring
joy to the heart and gold to thepocket. It's so good.
Trevor (28:37):
I like that. That's adorable.
Ellen (28:39):
But that's not the only thing we light on.
Trevor (28:41):
This is just, I said, this is the beginning of a lot
of fire in our house,
Ellen (28:46):
and this tradition is when we started for our family.
We started it Yes, mostlybecause I like lighting things
on fire, exactly. And then wefound it had more meaning as
well. That's true,
Trevor (28:56):
but it also is just just about fire, and also delicious.
Yes. Here comes the accents, ohboy, yeah.
Ellen (29:02):
So what are going to talk
Trevor (29:03):
about German? We are going to talk about foyer, sang
and bola. Yeah, I
Ellen (29:10):
don't think you can say it without an accent. You
Trevor (29:12):
can't actually say Fauci and bola without an accent. So
here it comes. This is atraditional German drink that
served at Christmas, and
Ellen (29:24):
it literally means fire tongs, right? So
Trevor (29:27):
yes, now bola yes is actually you would think, Oh,
it's a foyer fire tongs. Bola isnot bowl,
Ellen (29:38):
no, it's punch. Fire tongue,
Trevor (29:41):
tongue, punch, delicious. It is delicious. So
it is a traditional Germandrink. It's 200 some odd years
old, so it doesn't date back asfar as Yule or a Christmas tree.
It doesn't go back that far. Butwe are glad that it was
invented. Because essentiallyit's a flaming pot of goodness
(30:07):
that tastes like Christmas. So
Ellen (30:09):
you take your variation of a traditional glue vine,
right, which is Christmas wine,Christmas
Trevor (30:14):
wine like a sweeter Christmas wine. And essentially,
how you make it is you take redwine the glue vine is a
traditional sweeter, spicyGerman mulled wine. And in order
to make that part of it, westart off with a nice Merlot.
That's usually what we use.
Bottle of Merlot, put it into apot, and you want to start
simmering that, getting the heatup on that. You don't want to
(30:37):
boil it. You want to just keepit in a nice, low simmer a slow
heat. Yeah, slow heat. Add a lotof orange slices, 678, orange
slices, lemon slices, cloves.
You can stick the clothes in thelemon slices. If you want to.
You can put the cloves indirectly, just fish them out
later. Not a big deal. Cinnamonstick. Better to use cinnamon
(31:01):
than to use powdered cinnamon.
You know, you want to use thestick so you get same thing, so
you can get it out. There's abold, it's a good seeping of the
flavor. You want to startgetting all of those Christmas
flavors in, right? Especiallywith the clove and and the
oranges.
Ellen (31:16):
Did you do star anise? I can't remember if that was No,
no, I did not you start, no staranise. Okay, no star anise.
Trevor (31:23):
But you could use juniper. You could put little
juniper berries in there. Youcould add a little bit. You just
go for whatever your whateveryou like. It's all, it's all
going to be acceptable. Cup anda half orange juice, half a cup
of lemon juice, and you justcontinue to heat that and make
it nice and delicious. Nowhere's the tricky part. It's not
tricky, but in order to makethis drink the fantastic thing
(31:46):
that it is, and there is atraditional, exactly, there's a
traditional cauldron called hotfor the Fauci bole, which is
essentially a could be copper.
You could there are glassversions of it that you can find
online. We have a copper pot.
Ours is copper with copper tongsand mugs, copper mugs, but you
can find a lot of differentversions. You can even use a
(32:09):
fondue pot if you have onekicking around. If you're
celebrating your 70s and youwant to have some cheese and
then pour some wine in there,all melted together. That's not
the right but once all of thatis hot and delicious, then pour
it into one of these cauldrons,these Fauci cauldrons, and then
(32:30):
on top of it we add, we're goingto add the zuka hut onto the top
of it, bless you. No, no, no.
This is not like a good type ofa no, this is not correct.
Azukahoot is also called a SugarLoaf or a sugar cone. And
everybody might not know about asugar cone or a Sugar Loaf, but
(32:51):
essentially, that is a driedconical shape of sugar you can
find them online. You can alsomake it yourself. You've done
that. I have done it. I wouldsay it's a little bit tricky
when you try to make ityourself, because it doesn't set
immediately. You need a coupleof days to let it all dry out.
But essentially, you would mix alittle bit of water, like one
(33:16):
teaspoon of water for every cupof sugar. Mix that together so
it kind of creates, like a wet,Sandy, kind of a feeling, and
then pack it really hard into aglass, like a pilsner glass, or
something like that, and thenyou have to let it sit for a
long time. When I first made myfirst zucchit, I didn't realize
how long it would take to dry,sorry, and I think I did it that
(33:38):
day? Oh, I'm sure you did itthat day. And I was like, Uh oh.
But what you can also do is adda I found out this is a pro tip.
You can add a heated fan rightnext to your zukahoot, and you
can blast it with hot air forthe entire day, and that will
essentially dry, hydrate and dryit out. There
Ellen (34:03):
you go.
Trevor (34:03):
I don't recommend that.
No, I don't recommend morestress. You don't. But for your
Fauci sangambola set, mostlikely it'll come with a little
sugar cone holder, which clipson the top of the bowl right,
goes right on the top of thebowl. Because the idea here is,
you want to coat this deliciouswith a high proof rum. See,
Ellen (34:26):
it's getting sacred ingredients getting better and
better every
Trevor (34:29):
minute of the day. So we use 151 it has to be a very high
proof. So you want to fire,drizzle all of that onto the
sugar cone, set the sugar conedown, and then light it on fire,
which
Ellen (34:42):
is pretty spectacular.
Is
Trevor (34:44):
very awesome to look at.
It is
Ellen (34:46):
and it's safe, because it's in the bowl
Trevor (34:49):
safe ish, we've had some high, uh, some high high flames
one year. But I think that'sreally where all the magic
happens, yeah, because then the.
Rum starts burning down thesugar. The sugar starts melting,
and it starts dripping hot,molten, delicious sugar, rum
sugar down into which soundslike a German word, but
Ellen (35:15):
I did not do an accent by the way. I'm
Trevor (35:19):
sure that's totally wrong, but that's really where
all the flavor comes together,is when you have all of this
deliciously warm sugar that'sall melted together with the
glue vine, and it's all comingtogether. And that's you just
Ellen (35:34):
label that and ladle it
Trevor (35:35):
into your cups, and we toast, we toast, and we drink
it. And it can be very potent.
Oh, yes. It also depends on howmuch rum I put onto the sugar
cone, because sometimes that canbe a little excessive. So then
you've got wine. And 151 is not,not fooling around rum. So
Ellen (35:55):
no. And I mean, so we, you know again, it's fire in our
house, it's Bay berries, it'sthe full its Ebola. And then we
do our yule log, which is alsomore
Trevor (36:06):
fire. That is a lot more fire, actually. And
Ellen (36:09):
we're not talking about the Yule log cake, obviously,
which is delicious and is inhomage to the traditional, I
guess consuming it brings youluck makes you
Trevor (36:24):
happy, because it's beautiful chocolate cake filled
with cream and deliciousness.
Yes, so all the good things,nobody, nobody's going to
complain about any of that.
Ellen (36:33):
But traditionally, the Yule Log was burned in a hearth
over the 12 days of Yule. Buthow do we do it at Stone Brook
Trevor? Or how we always doneit, because we did it in LA. We
did it
Trevor (36:42):
in LA too. And by the way, it is much harder to find
evergreens in LA than it is inConnecticut. Yeah, I'm just
going to put that one out there.
It's, I have a much widervariety of in
my own yard, in your yard herein yard to hearth, podcast
regard to hearth.
(37:03):
Yeah, this having a Yule Log,having something that you bring
in from outside, is traditionalall the way back to Celtic
times, and it so for us, the waythat we do it is, I go out with
the kiddo and we identify a log,traditionally, finding of the
(37:27):
log, the finding of the YuleLog. Traditionally, the Yule log
is Oak. That's pretty much thestandard, because it burned for
so long, and that was the goalto try to keep it burning for 12
full days.
Ellen (37:41):
I can't imagine the size of the medieval yo log in those
giant Hall, cars, hearths.
Trevor (37:48):
Big, big, yikes. Yeah, no. And also awesome, it took
three or four people to lift it.
It took three or four people toset it in. And it was a
constant. There was somebodythat would check and tend and
make sure that it would continueto burn. So for us, our Yule
logs are nowhere near that bigbecause they would not fit. So
I'll go out with the kiddo. Wefind a log, something that is
(38:08):
usually pretty gnarly, has lotsof knots in it. That's a
character, lots of character andlots of fun. It should be fairly
dry because it does need to burndown, much like our baby
candles, it also needs to burncompletely out entirely once we
found the log, then we go and wefind the greenery that we're
going to connect you dress it,we dress it up. And a lot of
(38:31):
that greenery has its ownmeaning as you go through so
Ellen (38:37):
and let's be real, when we first started this, it was
about greenery and it was prettyand then we started to research
the meaning of the greenAbsolutely. And
Trevor (38:44):
you find out that there's different things. So
when you add pine boughs on topof your yule log, that is about
prosperity and growth, or Hollyis about visions of the future.
So there's these different oldmeanings that are fun, that kind
of connect us to these ritualsthat we do, that we have done
(39:04):
for a very, very long time. Sowe wrap the Yule Log and end
those greens in little ribbonthat's either gold or red again,
trying to bring in those outside
Ellen (39:16):
colors from a present from the year before. Because I
like the same ribbon. Ellen doessay for him, and she has a an
extensive used ribboncollection, because I like to be
sustainable, yeah, in all that.
Trevor (39:29):
And then we'll bring that log in and it's with us
during the day, and then we putit on the fire. And that's a
moment that we all have whereeverybody's quiet, and we all
just sit and watch and listen tothe different evergreen boughs
catch in different ways with theshowers of sparks and color,
(39:51):
color and sound, and we're alljust very quiet. Sometimes it's
hard for our family to be quiet.
Sometimes it's hard for kids.
And parents alike to be quiet,but we do our best, and
sometimes I'll give a look. It'shappened before. Trevor
Ellen (40:07):
is the giver. Happen again,
Trevor (40:11):
but it is actually, in truth, one of the only times
that we are all together and aretotally quiet, yeah, and it's
just about trying to think aboutour intentions for the year, and
thinking about our intentionsfor each other, and just having
a moment with our family that isreally transports us to another
(40:32):
place of peace.
Ellen (40:33):
Yeah, a place of peace.
You know, again, as we gothrough sort of how our night
goes, It's so lovely, and ourfamily looks forward to it, we
know, and our and our kiddo, nowthat she's older, loves to make
sure we're staying on task forhow the evening is going to roll
out, and then what happens withthe log at the end after it
burns out. So
Trevor (40:55):
then for luck, the next day, more luck, we will take a
little of the ash and put it ina little jar that goes under our
bed.
Ellen (41:04):
And that's like an ancient that's an old tradition,
tradition,
Trevor (41:08):
yeah, for luck for the new year, so you have a bit of
that yule log. Now, it is weirdsometimes, if you're cleaning
and you're What's this jar ofdirt under the bed, but then you
Oh, yes, yes, nice, true. Andthen we tell stories around the
fire as the yellow log goes.
Ellen (41:25):
So much fun. We everyone picks a story or a poem. Again,
our kiddo is in on it too. Shereads The Night Before Christmas
or picks a different last yearshe read something new. It's
just everybody takes a turn.
It's so fun. It's always aholiday story of some kind, and
it's quiet. There's no TVs, nophones. It's just lovely. And
then we put some cookies andmilk out, because the big guy's
(41:49):
got to come. Oh
Trevor (41:51):
yeah for sure. And my mom has a sugar cookie recipe
that I don't even know by theway,
Ellen (41:59):
I would love to be able to share it. It
Trevor (42:00):
is literally a secret recipe, simple,
Ellen (42:03):
I'm sure, but it's so good.
Trevor (42:05):
It is hands, friends. I am a cookie connoisseur. I will
eat a cookie.
Ellen (42:13):
You and your dad are cookie monsters. We
Trevor (42:14):
are cookie monsters, for sure. I have met the real cookie
monster, and he thinks I'mpretty awesome, so from the
amount of cookies that I caneat, but I will say that my
mom's sugar cookies are prettyfantastic. They're they're the
best, and I think some of it isthe nostalgia of the flavor of
what I've always known. But theyare pretty there's a there's a
(42:38):
slight saltiness to them thatcomes through.
Ellen (42:42):
And she makes the very traditional icing with the
confectionery,
Trevor (42:46):
balanced flavor of sweet cookie with a little just a hint
of saltiness, which just bringsit all together. And they are
delicious. And
Ellen (42:55):
they're just so traditional and fun because she
uses all the great cookie cuttershapes, and it's all we've done
it as a family, decoratingcookies. You know, our daughter
has done it just with hergrandparents, with decorating
cookies. And those plates ofthese crazy colors cookies are
just everything you want to putwrapped up in a boat for
(43:15):
Christmas. So it's super fun.
And then we put that plate outsome milk, some carrots.
Trevor (43:21):
Magic happens, and
Ellen (43:23):
the magic happens. The
Trevor (43:24):
Santa magic occurs. And then the next day, we all have
fun with presents in themorning, and then we'll start
eating.
Ellen (43:32):
There is a sticky bun that we have on Christmas
morning that none of us make.
Again. Is a tradition from myfamily, which was not easy to do
on the West Coast, although Idid have a very good friend ship
them to us one year. It's a tinylittle bakery that is in
southern New Jersey, and theymake these honey buns. They call
(43:52):
them, which they're sticky buns.
And some come with nuts, andsome come without. And we buy
them over the summer, and wefreeze them, and we keep them in
the freezer, because this bakeryis about three plus hours away
from us, three or three and ahalf, yeah, but we have this at
breakfast time while we'reopening presents, which is so
fun. And then Christmas day forus, of course, then is about
(44:15):
playing with the things that wegot, spending time with our
family and making Christmasdinner.
Trevor (44:21):
We are big on Turkey.
For Thanksgiving, we had adelicious bird this year. Oh my
gosh, absolutely fantastic, yes
Ellen (44:28):
and but great, shining job. My love, my,
Trevor (44:30):
thank you, my, thank you. Usually we'll go more
towards a roast filet, or we'vedone porchetta in the past with
just that's an amazing, verydelicious, delicious dish.
Ellen (44:42):
That's a great recipe too, to share.
Trevor (44:44):
We'll do that this year.
Are
Ellen (44:45):
we doing Christmas Eve?
Yeah,
Trevor (44:47):
we'll do Christmas Eve anything with pork. I'm I'm
sold, sold American. And
Ellen (44:52):
then we each have a and it's very traditional mashed
potatoes and sides that go withthat. And we put out the good
china and sit around the table.
And really have a nice meal anddesserts. Cookies from Oma. We
make a traditional cranberrycake that we do at Thanksgiving,
but we call it the Christmascake at Christmas. And then I've
gotten very into our Christmaspavlova, and
Trevor (45:16):
it is a delicious I make
Ellen (45:18):
a wreath, yeah, with berries and pomegranates and all
mint and a little, you know,yogurt in the pavlova. And it is
just so pretty and delicious atthe same time,
Trevor (45:32):
I was very amazed the first time you made it, because
it came out so well. Yeah, itwas photographically perfect,
and you had never made itbefore.
Ellen (45:42):
I'm, you know, I say this all the time. I'm not a
baker, and
Trevor (45:45):
yet, every time you bake something like the turkey pot
pie that you just baked wasdelicious, leftover turkey, I
don't believe you anymore. I'mdone with that. I'm done
believing you.
Ellen (45:57):
I can, I know I don't really like following directions
when it comes to cooking is muchmore of like a science. You've
got to live to the recipe. Yeah,yeah. I do like the results, and
I'm very task focused when I'mfollowing the recipe so well
documented. So talking about allof this makes me excited. It's
(46:18):
coming up. The season is coming.
It's a year for the holidays tocome the solstice and
celebrating all our Yuletidetraditions and being together
and being together as ourfamily,
Trevor (46:31):
that's really why Stonebrook is such a special
place for us, because nobody hasto travel, nobody has to get on
a plane or a train or anautomobile, great movie, but we
all just get to be close andtogether houses and do a little
Christmas parade around eachhouse. We've done that on the
(46:52):
day, and everybody gets to havea little bit of time in their
house.
Ellen (46:55):
Yeah, it's really lovely. And for all of you
listening, we hope that thisseason brings you the light and
the love and the good health andhappiness that you want and all
of that as well that come to youin New Year.
Trevor (47:11):
Happy holidays.
Everybody. Happy
Ellen (47:12):
holidays. Thanks for being with us and having a seat
at our table.
Trevor (47:18):
Your to table is a production of macrocosm
entertainment. Don't forget torate us and subscribe anywhere
you listen to podcasts and fortips and more information,
follow us on Instagram atStonebrook house you
Music.
(00:14):
Well, hello Ellen.
Ellen (00:15):
Well, hello Trevor.
Trevor (00:17):
Here we are back at the table for a winter episode of
yard to table.
Ellen (00:25):
Shall I say, Happy Holidays.
Trevor (00:26):
It is a holiday episode.
This is the good stuff we'regetting into some really fun
times.
Ellen (00:33):
Well, it's cozy season.
Trevor (00:34):
It is cozy. It's cozy sweater season, yes it is cozy
house season, yes
Ellen (00:40):
it is mittens, it's sweaters. It's, as our child
likes to say, it's cozy, cozy,cozy, cozy, cozy, cozy. Yes,
Trevor (00:49):
no, it's, it's soups, good food, getting in from out
from the cold. And it is cold.
It is very cold here in ourwonderful seven a Connecticut,
Ellen (01:01):
finally, yes, it's very cold, and the forecast has a
chance of snow tomorrow.
Trevor (01:07):
Yes, it does,
Ellen (01:09):
which is exciting.
Trevor (01:10):
It feels both late and early. Somehow, at the same
time, we've had kind of a mildfall, we have, and all of a
sudden, Ska-boom,
Ellen (01:21):
yeah, you felt a little underprepared for the shift. But
I'm here for it, 1,000%
Trevor (01:26):
100% here for it. We need it. It is necessary,
correct? It's interesting,because we have put our
wonderful gardens at Stone Brookto sleep, yes, to hibernate like
bears.
Ellen (01:37):
Beds are tucked in, literally
Trevor (01:39):
covered up with their little cover crops and their
little organic elements thatkeep them all happy for the
winter, for the winter, and keepthe soil healthy over the
winter. And I think it's welldocumented that we love
gardening based on theseepisodes,
Ellen (01:58):
And it is a big part of our life outside of the podcast
Trevor (02:02):
and but I'm also happy to take a little rest, a little
break. Well, it's
Ellen (02:08):
the natural cycle of things. Yes, you know,
obviously, we know lots ofpeople grow through the winter
and greenhouses and pots intheir kitchens and things like
that, but it is sort of whatyou're supposed to be doing
right now is taking a rest,
Trevor (02:22):
taking a rest, taking stock. Night comes early, very
early. That's very don't likethat.
Ellen (02:28):
I don't. Yeah, no,
Trevor (02:30):
you like it... You like it light late, and I like it
light late also. But what it'sthat middle period of time that
I'm not a big fan of betweenDaylight Savings starting and it
actually getting late, becausethen you're sort of in that
weird, well, it's, oh, it's 7amand it's pitch black outside,
Ellen (02:49):
or, like, it's, you know, five o'clock, and you
think it's midnight, yeah, yeah.
Berkeubane land of eternalnight, very difficult. But it is
what it is.
Trevor (03:00):
And then it comes and then, and then it comes up to
actually, because we're not evenin winter right now. Here we are
beginning of December, and it'snot even winter.
Ellen (03:11):
The days are getting shorter and shorter and shorter
until we get to December 21which is the winter solstice.
And then we're flipping around.
Night starts to come back. Daysget longer and longer and more
light. And I have to say, thatis happy times for me,
Trevor (03:28):
that is happy times, that is good times.
Ellen (03:31):
But the things that get us through this time is, for us,
we are big into decorating andcelebrating the holiday season.
Trevor (03:40):
That's right. And it's interesting because we've talked
about on the podcast before,having an urge for a thing, a
need for a thing. And it'sinteresting because this time
period, I think, Historicallyand traditionally, as people
decorate for this time of year,greenery is always a big part of
(04:02):
that, and that's happened formillennia. And it's interesting,
because it's almost like alittle Summer Fest in the middle
of winter, because you don't seegreen. You know, the trees are
bare, the fields are bare, verystark outside,
Ellen (04:17):
yes, and bringing in the Greens makes the House have that
warmth and color that you lovefrom from the summer, from the
warmer months. Yeah, absolutelywas it just it was a couple
years ago that our child startedwatching, we all started
watching Victorian farm,Victorian farm. It was old
Public Television. EdwardianFarm, Edwardian farm, it was so
(04:39):
monastery.
Unknown (04:43):
we were always so excited to watch the holiday
episodes and see what people didyears ago about celebrating
this, this time of year and theGreens was a huge part of it,
making big bowls of pottage, youknow, to eat.
Trevor (04:56):
I would say we're fairly close to those at. Episodes in
what we do. It's funny becausethe
Ellen (05:06):
we have turned the great room into like a great hall.
Trevor (05:09):
It is a great boughs of our boughs of holly and
greenery,
Ellen (05:16):
medieval Hall, bringing in the fresh greenery has always
been something that we've loved.
But obviously, now that we livein New England, it's a heck of a
lot easier. Oh yeah, we wereliving in Los Angeles, which I
will say even then, yes, peopleused to call our home the
Christmas cottage. It's
Trevor (05:34):
true. We went all out even then, when we were living
in the middle of beautifulStudio City with palm trees all
around us.
Ellen (05:42):
Yes, and we gotta, we gotta. We got enough coldness in
the air to put a sweater on, andwe were thrown sometimes,
sometimes, if it rained, we werehappy, but you walked in the
door of our house and it was theChristmas cottage.
Trevor (05:53):
Now we basically have the Christmas castle. A lot more
space. We've upgraded.
Ellen (05:59):
Unfortunately, we have so many collections. We are
collecting family. Yeah,
Trevor (06:05):
that's inherited. Yeah, that's more my side. Yeah,
Ellen (06:10):
our child has inherited that as well. But, but we do
have some really coolcollections.
Trevor (06:14):
And some of the collections are actually family
collections. That's things fromfamily. Have a lot of history. I
have a lot of nutcrackers? Youdo. Some of those are from my
childhood. Some of those arefrom things that I've been
given.
Ellen (06:27):
I have given you some nutcrackers. Our child has made
you some nutcrackers, which isreally fun.
Trevor (06:32):
Yeah, so it's a growing collection.
Ellen (06:35):
How many do you think you have?
Trevor (06:36):
Yes, probably 50. He's lying. It's maybe 60. It's a
lot, but there's a huge, giantplace for them above our
fireplace in the great room. Sothey kind of line up by scale.
The tallest ones are in themiddle, and then the smaller
ones go cascading down.
Ellen (06:54):
It's a bunch of happy soldiers. They're all in a row,
Trevor (06:58):
and they're from so many different countries and so many
different places. So I have onesfrom Hungary, and I have ones
from Germany, and I have onesfrom all over.
Ellen (07:08):
And you what's your favorite? Do you have a favorite
Nutcracker?
Trevor (07:12):
My child would make me say that the one that was made
by her for me and painted is myfavorite, and it has a wonder,
and it is a wonderful one. It'svery adorable. It's a little
it's a little Christmas elf, andhe's very, very cute. But I
think the way so many of us feelaround this time of year, you go
towards your childhood and yournostalgia of the things that you
(07:35):
had when you were a kid, andthere's a very small little
Nutcracker, only about fourinches tall, three inches tall.
And that was the first one thatI ever got. And he's just been
repaired multiple times. Thatmoves and things. You have a
little bit of a damage here anda little bit of a break there,
but he has, yeah, he hassoldiered on, as it were, so
(07:58):
that's probably my, one of myfavorites. There's a lot
Ellen (08:00):
Well, and the other collection that you have that's
pretty extensive came from, Imean, what our listeners don't
know is, growing up, yourparents traveled and lived
extensively all over the world,and so when your father was a
professional opera singer, yes,he was. And so and is, and is
correct.
Trevor (08:20):
I think in their 55 years of marriage, which is
pretty awesome, as it is veryawesome, they have moved 25
times, or some globally, bananasamount of times globally. They
don't like to stay put for toolong,
Ellen (08:34):
from Japan to Hungary to Germany all over. Yes, Nebraska,
Trevor (08:41):
oh boy, everywhere in between indeed.
Ellen (08:45):
But that collection is that you also have yeah
Trevor (08:47):
of creche that's from a lot from my dad, things that he
had when he was a kid. And forsome reason, I got into it as a
just a unique art form, to seehow all these different artists
have created all of thesedifferent small creche scenes.
And
Ellen (09:06):
for people who don't know whichever what is a creche?
A creche is a
Trevor (09:10):
small visual representation of the birth of
Jesus and all of the trimmingswith the three kings and Mary
and Joseph and sometimeselephants, elephants or
Ellen (09:25):
camels coming to the party.
Trevor (09:27):
Yeah, the fun, the fun elements that are that surround
that story.
Ellen (09:32):
what I love about the collection is exactly what you
said. It's the global aspect ofit. It's so wonderful to see how
different countries interpretedthe vision of that creche and
the artistry. I mean, there'ssome beautiful pieces that you
have in that collection, and I,my family, even contributed one,
(09:53):
because we have an old GermanBakelite, Bakelite creche, right
from what I
Trevor (09:58):
was growing plastic.
Kind of formed. It was, it's
Ellen (10:02):
The angel has fallen off. And I think there's like a
one arm donkey. No, that doesn'tmake sense. One Legged, one
legged.
Trevor (10:10):
There you go.
Ellen (10:11):
But it works in that.
And again, this is somethingthat our child has, really. We
have a bookshelf in our greatroom that we because we are, we
produce everything at a veryhigh level in our lives. This is
a kind of a superpower and asickness, but we take everything
out of those shelves, and we putall of the collection of crushes
on those shelves, and it's justbeautiful again to see this
(10:33):
global art represented. And ourour child has taken taking it
over, really. She set everythingup this year. Beautiful. Watch
the work that she did. It looks
Trevor (10:43):
from Guatemala and Peru and Germany and Austria and
literally, Mexico, every part ofthe globe has contributed to
this unique art form. Some aremade of clay, some are pierced
tin. Some are carved out ofwood. They're all hand painted.
(11:04):
They're handmade. Some arestone.
Ellen (11:06):
And we have a beautiful one that was painted by your
grandma. Louise, right, yeah. So
Trevor (11:10):
my grandmother did in the 1930s a wooden creche that
was all very Art Deco and veryspecific. They were both. My
grandparents were big artists,and so we have a lot of pieces
from them, in various ways,shapes and forms that also
extend into this holiday season.
And that was one that I actuallywe just found recently, yes and
and set it up and put ittogether. There
Ellen (11:34):
are a lot of boxes.
Thereare many family items, things.
Yes, that's true.
You're right to that listeningtoday what we heard, but we love
it. It's gorgeous, and I thinkit's so amazing because we have
both have this wonderfultradition of things that were
made by our families that wecontinue to use as part of our
(11:56):
holiday decorating. And I thinkwe have to talk about Christmas
stockings, since we were talkingabout your grandma, Louise,
Trevor (12:03):
and that is a very unique story. Yes,
Ellen (12:06):
so Trevor and I were dating. We lived on opposite
coasts. When we were dating, Iwas on the East Coast in New
Jersey, and he was on the westcoast in Los Angeles, and we
dated for about a year by CostaLee, got engaged, got married.
And when you know you know. Butthe first time we were together
(12:29):
for the for the Christmasholidays, and you came to my my
condo, what happened?
Trevor (12:37):
I was taken aback.
Unknown (12:40):
It was significant.
Trevor (12:41):
I remember turning around you closed the door, and
I saw the back of the door, andthere was this stocking that was
hanging. It was my childhoodstocking. Ellen's childhood
Christmas stocking that was donein a stitched felt custom style
with her name on it, and alittle angel brown hair and, of
(13:03):
course, naturally, and somelittle toys that were stitched
on and all done in sequins,
Ellen (13:09):
embroidered beading, yeah. Now
Trevor (13:11):
I had an almost identical stocking style
Ellen (13:15):
of stocking, yes, right?
Yours, yours is green, but minewas green too. Yes, that's
right. And
Trevor (13:22):
I was really blown away, because I'd never seen someone
else that had that kind ofstocking before, even if they
were it was if, you know, youknow, you know, you know, if it
was a stocking that had beenbought in the store or stitched
or, you know, there's a lot ofpeople have their names, you
know, embroidered onto the sideof the stocking. But this was
(13:43):
very different. This was a fullyhandmade stocking. And
Ellen (13:47):
you know, as you are, when you are in love, and just
we're like, oh yes, it's justanother sign. And then when I
finally, and it was, and when Ifinally got to see your family
stocking, so I was like, Okay,wow. It was very,
Trevor (14:02):
very similar, but your grandmother
Ellen (14:03):
had created the so there were. It's a felt stocking that
is handmade and cut out of feltwith felt characters on top, and
again, with that embroidery. And
Trevor (14:12):
she had done one for my dad back in the 50s when he was
a kid. Yeah, and then when mymom came along, she made one for
my mom. It's absolutelybeautiful, with shells that are
stitched very personal, verypersonalized. Cats that they had
at the time were hand cut. Andthen when I came along, I got
(14:34):
one too,
Ellen (14:34):
yeah, and it was so fun because, of course, I had them
growing up as well. And I savedmy mom stocking because she
wasn't putting it up as muchanymore, but I kept all the
family stockings. So that was mymy collecting. And so it was so
fun, because again, when ourfamily came together, putting up
my mom's stocking, and my dadhad passed away, but my my
(14:56):
stocking, your stockings. Andthen when our daughter came
along, my mom made. Her stockingin the same style, in the same
style. So plum fairy. It's soawesome to look at the mantle
and to see what
Trevor (15:09):
I think is funny is that your stockings, you your mom and
our kiddo, all face to the left.
My stocking, my mom stocking andmy dad stocking, all face to the
right. Actually works out. Itlooks amazing. It looks
fantastic. Three on one side,three on the other. But
Ellen (15:28):
it's fun every year, because our daughter will look
at the stockings and pop up.
Stocking is a little specialbecause it was built with a his
Trevor (15:35):
was built with essentially a pleat in the
bottom that would open up so itthat's a
Ellen (15:41):
major it is all huge stocking. Yeah, it gets it's
Trevor (15:45):
very hard to fill, by the way, because it's so
gigantic that you just there'sso it just keeps going. Is that
it's an endless stocking.
Ellen (15:53):
But we hear it because she's always like, that stocking
can hold more things. Oh,
Trevor (15:58):
yeah. But she does fine.
She
Ellen (16:01):
does fine. She does fine. By the way, Santa, Santa
takes care of her and mommy anddaddy, and the stockings are a
big thing. And you know, mymother also is an artist, and
from sewing to painting toceramics, she's made so many
things. And the things that Ilove, I think all of us feel
this way, is when you open upthose boxes at the holiday of
(16:22):
all the things that you've putaway, and you just go through
memories and that warm feelingof the memory of where that was
in your previous Christmas, orthe Christmas of your childhood.
It just is so lovely andconnecting us through time and
through our families. And mymother has painted so many
beautiful things I have, but theone that I really love the most
(16:45):
is our Santa with who is on ourmantel place. You know, he's
just,
Trevor (16:50):
it's amazing. Ellen's mom has done a specific sort
Ellen (16:54):
of in the format of toll painting, like German toll
painting,
Trevor (16:57):
and it's so detailed and it's so intricate. And some of
my favorite parts of Christmascome from things that your mom
has made and things that mygrandmother made. Yeah, and it's
these family heirlooms. I mean,that's the word for it. They are
family heirlooms. You cannotreplace these stockings. You
cannot replace Santa on themantle that is this beautiful
(17:20):
wooden, hand carved folk artSanta that is just every year,
it's so breathtakingly beautifulbecause it's so detailed. It's
Ellen (17:29):
joyful. He goes on the mantle in our our family room.
Yeah, you know, we, we havestarted creating garlands with
dried oranges that I put aroundit. It's just wow. It makes me
so happy to see it. And she'salso painted little sleighs with
hearts that we hang on the tree.
And I have a cute little Mr. AndMrs. Claus candle holders that
(17:49):
are in the kitchen and in thestyle of our stockings, this
incredible embroidered feltmobile that I hang over the
kitchen table, it's just makesyou happy. These are the things
that are, like you said,treasures that you can't replace
and are just priceless and fullof just wonderful memories and
love. I have
Trevor (18:11):
one more thing to add to that. Oh,
Ellen (18:12):
what else is it? The
Trevor (18:13):
other thing to add to the list is something that we
found in Ellen's mom's house inLas Vegas when we were moving,
yeah, from Vegas to here, yeah.
And it was in a pile of otherframes and other things. Oh,
you'll know it in a second.
Yeah, like, Oh, of course. Andit was a painted frame, sort of
(18:35):
long oval. And I said, What'sthis? Oh, I know what you're
talking and Ellen's mom said,Oh, that's no good. It just, you
know, you don't need to. That'snothing. And I and I look at it,
and it's this awesome, amazingpainting of Bob Cratchit and
Tiny Tim on his shoulder in abeautiful folk art pattern,
(18:58):
Germanic toll painting style,yeah. It's just with little
fruits around it, and it's justawesome. And it is we put it up
every year, and it's just sofunny how artists of all sorts
think about their work and seetheir work, because here this
amazing piece of art, and yourmom is
Ellen (19:17):
kind of self depreciating about it. I'm like,
please. It is so amazing. It'sso good. Yes, I know standards,
Trevor (19:25):
and so do we. And so I think we win, though, from a
from a who knows what's goodstandpoint, because that is
awesome.
Ellen (19:32):
Well, and you've made an heirloom for our child. Oh,
Trevor (19:38):
yeah, in in Los Angeles, I carved an entire mantle piece
because we did
Ellen (19:46):
not have a mantle in this just tells you how into the
holidays we are and how addictedto production we are. Our child
was born in October. Christmaswas coming in December, and
Trevor had this incredible,large wood that he had gotten to
make a. Mantle in our housethere, and it was once our
child, it was gonna be, it was,it's enormous, heavy. And I
(20:06):
think every we had so manyfriends that was a fun part for
those too much. We had so manyfriends that came over and put
some time in, because
Trevor (20:13):
I wanted to do finishing the mantle only so you could I,
you know, should I could hangthe stuff,
yeah. So it was all done with achisel and a hammer. And that
was always cool business. Thatwas that was hard,
Ellen (20:24):
but I was talking about the advent calendar. Ah,
Trevor (20:27):
yes, the advent calendar, yes, something that I
made for, something that wecould have for a long time. Our
kiddo loves advent calendar. Andopening, she
Ellen (20:38):
grew to love it. That's true. Her first Christmas.
That's
Trevor (20:41):
true. That was one of her first when she was
functional with fingers thatwould actually open and close
things. Yeah, maybe not thefirst Christmas, first one,
because she was a little bit ofa love for that one. He's a cute
lump, but this Advent Calendarhas a small scene on top of
Santa and some forest friendsthat that I built out little
(21:01):
houses, and it's just thisadorable little that's a little,
it's kind of big, yeah, and it'sgot 24 little wooden drawers and
with little red berry handles onthem, and and each evening, we
all sit around and open up thislittle music box. I did add a
music box to it. So that'sright, it plays the 12 days of
(21:22):
Christmas, and I wind it up eachnight, and we get a little, a
little musical accompaniment toopening the advent calendar.
Ellen (21:30):
Again. We we like production. We like traditions.
Everything is so busy this timeof year. There's so much going
on, but just even having thosefive minutes of connectedness
and centered around the AVIDcalendar. It's lovely. It's just
a breath in a crazy holiday day,I would say, Yeah, but it gets
(21:53):
us into the Yule of it, allright? The Yule tied, yes, Yule
tide season.
Trevor (21:57):
That's a lot of what we do is, is sort of Yule based, I
think, yeah,
Ellen (22:03):
I mean, I think people are not aware table,
Trevor (22:06):
it's Yule. Yes, it's gardens, it's the outside coming
in,
Ellen (22:10):
and it's about bringing light in from the darkness. Yes,
so I don't, I think, you know,we were doing some research for
the episode, just on ourtraditions and where they came
from. And I think this was sointeresting to realize that
1000s, millennia years ago, whenfolks started celebrating Yule
(22:30):
Germanic cultures nurse Norsecultures, it was all about
bringing light in in the winterand from the cold, and
celebrating with greenery andlight and so many of those
things have morphed into ourcurrent holiday traditions,
Trevor (22:45):
yes, and have been added to our current holiday
traditions. Obviously, historyis full of people trying to
connect in lots of differentways, and one of those is sort
of merging very old traditionsin with newer traditions, which
is how we get Yule and Christmason the 25th that was all really
(23:05):
based around the wintersolstice,
Ellen (23:07):
that's right. And Yule is a Norse word, and it was, I
had to look it up because Iwanted to know the orange, yeah.
Well, here comes the accentthis,
Trevor (23:16):
by the way, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna stop everybody
just a second here, from thispoint on in this episode, there
may be accents, no, no, no, no,no. There will be accents
because there's some Germanstuff coming up. There's some
business. So just move on,
Ellen (23:31):
continue. Well, Yule is a Norse word for wheel because
it reminds us of fresh starts,the cyclical nature of the
planet, and it's a time of year,where we naturally reflect on
what has passed and what's tocome. And it's our moment to
recognize, as the days getlonger and more light comes into
our lives, that all of thepreparation of you'll center
(23:52):
around this idea of light again,which is merged into our modern
holiday tradition, correct?
Trevor (23:58):
And a lot of what we do, especially on Christmas Eve. Oh,
Christmas Eve, for sure, isthere's a lot of fire in our
house,
Ellen (24:09):
a lot of light, lot of light of fire. Yes, we've
created
Trevor (24:13):
our own tradition, both before and during our time at
Stone Brook, where Christmas Evefeels like the right time to do
all of this. It's
Ellen (24:22):
my favorite night of the holiday. Yeah, it's everything
is decorated. It's quiet. It'sreally a time for closeness with
family. It's cold, andeverything is beautiful, and
you're just really taking amoment to take it all in.
There's
Trevor (24:39):
anticipation for what's to come. Love anticipation, but
we always start our ChristmasEve celebration when the sun
goes down. And one
Ellen (24:48):
of the traditions we've emerged from my family is the
lighting of the Bayberrycandles. And for those of you
don't know, Bayberry candlesstart in the colonial times.
Obviously, at that time, candleswere. Huge. I think the average
house used something like 400kilos, a lot a year, yes, and
the tallow that was used inthose candles was from
(25:09):
livestock, and it was very waxy,
Trevor (25:12):
and created a lot of a lot of smoke, a lot of a lot of
carbon.
Ellen (25:16):
And so what happened for Colonial folks that came to New
England area is that theystarted collecting the berries
of the Bayberry bush, and thatwas along the coastline of New
England. And they were able toturn these berries into a very
special wax that had a smallamount of tallow, and then it
produced a candle that had amuch nicer smell, and it burned
(25:38):
cleaner and slower withoutsmoking. And there was a lot of
work that went into them. Ithink it was something like 15
pounds of bayberries that takesto make a pound of wax. It's
Trevor (25:49):
kind of like maple syrup, right? You've got all of
this, 40 gallons of one jar, 40gallons of sap to one one gallon
of syrup. And
Ellen (26:00):
because they were so time consuming and expensive, it
became something that they savedfor things like a holiday, and
it was either Christmas Eve orNew Year's. And in my family, we
did it on Christmas Eve. So ourtradition with the bay berries
is kind of similar to what I'veread about with the colonial
tradition is, but we take italways a little bit extra. I can
(26:22):
remember this as a kid with mymom, when we had newspapers, we
had looking in the newspaper sowe knew exactly the time that
the sun was gonna set. Now weuse Google
Trevor (26:33):
correct less, less fun,
Ellen (26:35):
but faster. But I remember circling it in the
newspaper and putting it on thecounter so we had it because
that was a very big deal. Andthen exactly at the time that
the sun sets, you light thecandles. The youngest child in
the house, the youngest child inthis house, youngest person in
the house, youngest person inthe house, helps to light the
candles. The other importantthing before that is the
(26:55):
tradition of bayberries is theyare supposed to be a gift. And
again, I remember as a kid, mygrandmother would buy bayberries
for my mom, and my mom would buybayberries for my grandmother
and so and then as my mybrothers and I get older, my
mother would buy bayberries foreach of our households. It was
it's important. There issomething about the gift of it
that also brings becauseultimately, the bay berries are
(27:18):
to bring you luck and fortuneand good health into the new
year. So we would light them.
It's very important to make surethat you have a good candle
holder, that you trim that wick,because they have to burn out to
the very bottom in order for itto bring you luck into the new
year. Can't
Trevor (27:36):
blow it out. It's
Ellen (27:37):
not a birthday. Once you light it, it's got to stay and
so many times every year you'vegot to put those candles in the
sink, put
Trevor (27:45):
them in the sink, or you have the metal tray or
something, because what youdon't want is, middle of the
night the fire alarms to go offbecause the wax has dripped out
and caused them that's
Ellen (27:57):
not Christmas. Santa
Trevor (27:59):
may come sometimes on a fire truck, but you don't want
it to actually be to your house.
Not a good holiday, not a goodplan,
Ellen (28:06):
not a good holiday. And we usually take a moment when we
light those candles to make awish, to reflect and again, to
think about the things that wewant for ourselves and for our
family in the upcoming year. Andthere's a poem that goes along
with baby candles, which isthese baby candles come from a
friend, so on Christmas Eve andNew Year's Eve, burn it down to
(28:27):
the end. For a baby candleburned to the socket will bring
joy to the heart and gold to thepocket. It's so good.
Trevor (28:37):
I like that. That's adorable.
Ellen (28:39):
But that's not the only thing we light on.
Trevor (28:41):
This is just, I said, this is the beginning of a lot
of fire in our house,
Ellen (28:46):
and this tradition is when we started for our family.
We started it Yes, mostlybecause I like lighting things
on fire, exactly. And then wefound it had more meaning as
well. That's true,
Trevor (28:56):
but it also is just just about fire, and also delicious.
Yes. Here comes the accents, ohboy, yeah.
Ellen (29:02):
So what are going to talk
Trevor (29:03):
about German? We are going to talk about foyer, sang
and bola. Yeah, I
Ellen (29:10):
don't think you can say it without an accent. You
Trevor (29:12):
can't actually say Fauci and bola without an accent. So
here it comes. This is atraditional German drink that
served at Christmas, and
Ellen (29:24):
it literally means fire tongs, right? So
Trevor (29:27):
yes, now bola yes is actually you would think, Oh,
it's a foyer fire tongs. Bola isnot bowl,
Ellen (29:38):
no, it's punch. Fire tongue,
Trevor (29:41):
tongue, punch, delicious. It is delicious. So
it is a traditional Germandrink. It's 200 some odd years
old, so it doesn't date back asfar as Yule or a Christmas tree.
It doesn't go back that far. Butwe are glad that it was
invented. Because essentiallyit's a flaming pot of goodness
(30:07):
that tastes like Christmas. So
Ellen (30:09):
you take your variation of a traditional glue vine,
right, which is Christmas wine,Christmas
Trevor (30:14):
wine like a sweeter Christmas wine. And essentially,
how you make it is you take redwine the glue vine is a
traditional sweeter, spicyGerman mulled wine. And in order
to make that part of it, westart off with a nice Merlot.
That's usually what we use.
Bottle of Merlot, put it into apot, and you want to start
simmering that, getting the heatup on that. You don't want to
(30:37):
boil it. You want to just keepit in a nice, low simmer a slow
heat. Yeah, slow heat. Add a lotof orange slices, 678, orange
slices, lemon slices, cloves.
You can stick the clothes in thelemon slices. If you want to.
You can put the cloves indirectly, just fish them out
later. Not a big deal. Cinnamonstick. Better to use cinnamon
(31:01):
than to use powdered cinnamon.
You know, you want to use thestick so you get same thing, so
you can get it out. There's abold, it's a good seeping of the
flavor. You want to startgetting all of those Christmas
flavors in, right? Especiallywith the clove and and the
oranges.
Ellen (31:16):
Did you do star anise? I can't remember if that was No,
no, I did not you start, no staranise. Okay, no star anise.
Trevor (31:23):
But you could use juniper. You could put little
juniper berries in there. Youcould add a little bit. You just
go for whatever your whateveryou like. It's all, it's all
going to be acceptable. Cup anda half orange juice, half a cup
of lemon juice, and you justcontinue to heat that and make
it nice and delicious. Nowhere's the tricky part. It's not
tricky, but in order to makethis drink the fantastic thing
(31:46):
that it is, and there is atraditional, exactly, there's a
traditional cauldron called hotfor the Fauci bole, which is
essentially a could be copper.
You could there are glassversions of it that you can find
online. We have a copper pot.
Ours is copper with copper tongsand mugs, copper mugs, but you
can find a lot of differentversions. You can even use a
(32:09):
fondue pot if you have onekicking around. If you're
celebrating your 70s and youwant to have some cheese and
then pour some wine in there,all melted together. That's not
the right but once all of thatis hot and delicious, then pour
it into one of these cauldrons,these Fauci cauldrons, and then
(32:30):
on top of it we add, we're goingto add the zuka hut onto the top
of it, bless you. No, no, no.
This is not like a good type ofa no, this is not correct.
Azukahoot is also called a SugarLoaf or a sugar cone. And
everybody might not know about asugar cone or a Sugar Loaf, but
(32:51):
essentially, that is a driedconical shape of sugar you can
find them online. You can alsomake it yourself. You've done
that. I have done it. I wouldsay it's a little bit tricky
when you try to make ityourself, because it doesn't set
immediately. You need a coupleof days to let it all dry out.
But essentially, you would mix alittle bit of water, like one
(33:16):
teaspoon of water for every cupof sugar. Mix that together so
it kind of creates, like a wet,Sandy, kind of a feeling, and
then pack it really hard into aglass, like a pilsner glass, or
something like that, and thenyou have to let it sit for a
long time. When I first made myfirst zucchit, I didn't realize
how long it would take to dry,sorry, and I think I did it that
(33:38):
day? Oh, I'm sure you did itthat day. And I was like, Uh oh.
But what you can also do is adda I found out this is a pro tip.
You can add a heated fan rightnext to your zukahoot, and you
can blast it with hot air forthe entire day, and that will
essentially dry, hydrate and dryit out. There
Ellen (34:03):
you go.
Trevor (34:03):
I don't recommend that.
No, I don't recommend morestress. You don't. But for your
Fauci sangambola set, mostlikely it'll come with a little
sugar cone holder, which clipson the top of the bowl right,
goes right on the top of thebowl. Because the idea here is,
you want to coat this deliciouswith a high proof rum. See,
Ellen (34:26):
it's getting sacred ingredients getting better and
better every
Trevor (34:29):
minute of the day. So we use 151 it has to be a very high
proof. So you want to fire,drizzle all of that onto the
sugar cone, set the sugar conedown, and then light it on fire,
which
Ellen (34:42):
is pretty spectacular.
Is
Trevor (34:44):
very awesome to look at.
It is
Ellen (34:46):
and it's safe, because it's in the bowl
Trevor (34:49):
safe ish, we've had some high, uh, some high high flames
one year. But I think that'sreally where all the magic
happens, yeah, because then the.
Rum starts burning down thesugar. The sugar starts melting,
and it starts dripping hot,molten, delicious sugar, rum
sugar down into which soundslike a German word, but
Ellen (35:15):
I did not do an accent by the way. I'm
Trevor (35:19):
sure that's totally wrong, but that's really where
all the flavor comes together,is when you have all of this
deliciously warm sugar that'sall melted together with the
glue vine, and it's all comingtogether. And that's you just
Ellen (35:34):
label that and ladle it
Trevor (35:35):
into your cups, and we toast, we toast, and we drink
it. And it can be very potent.
Oh, yes. It also depends on howmuch rum I put onto the sugar
cone, because sometimes that canbe a little excessive. So then
you've got wine. And 151 is not,not fooling around rum. So
Ellen (35:55):
no. And I mean, so we, you know again, it's fire in our
house, it's Bay berries, it'sthe full its Ebola. And then we
do our yule log, which is alsomore
Trevor (36:06):
fire. That is a lot more fire, actually. And
Ellen (36:09):
we're not talking about the Yule log cake, obviously,
which is delicious and is inhomage to the traditional, I
guess consuming it brings youluck makes you
Trevor (36:24):
happy, because it's beautiful chocolate cake filled
with cream and deliciousness.
Yes, so all the good things,nobody, nobody's going to
complain about any of that.
Ellen (36:33):
But traditionally, the Yule Log was burned in a hearth
over the 12 days of Yule. Buthow do we do it at Stone Brook
Trevor? Or how we always doneit, because we did it in LA. We
did it
Trevor (36:42):
in LA too. And by the way, it is much harder to find
evergreens in LA than it is inConnecticut. Yeah, I'm just
going to put that one out there.
It's, I have a much widervariety of in
my own yard, in your yard herein yard to hearth, podcast
regard to hearth.
(37:03):
Yeah, this having a Yule Log,having something that you bring
in from outside, is traditionalall the way back to Celtic
times, and it so for us, the waythat we do it is, I go out with
the kiddo and we identify a log,traditionally, finding of the
(37:27):
log, the finding of the YuleLog. Traditionally, the Yule log
is Oak. That's pretty much thestandard, because it burned for
so long, and that was the goalto try to keep it burning for 12
full days.
Ellen (37:41):
I can't imagine the size of the medieval yo log in those
giant Hall, cars, hearths.
Trevor (37:48):
Big, big, yikes. Yeah, no. And also awesome, it took
three or four people to lift it.
It took three or four people toset it in. And it was a
constant. There was somebodythat would check and tend and
make sure that it would continueto burn. So for us, our Yule
logs are nowhere near that bigbecause they would not fit. So
I'll go out with the kiddo. Wefind a log, something that is
(38:08):
usually pretty gnarly, has lotsof knots in it. That's a
character, lots of character andlots of fun. It should be fairly
dry because it does need to burndown, much like our baby
candles, it also needs to burncompletely out entirely once we
found the log, then we go and wefind the greenery that we're
going to connect you dress it,we dress it up. And a lot of
(38:31):
that greenery has its ownmeaning as you go through so
Ellen (38:37):
and let's be real, when we first started this, it was
about greenery and it was prettyand then we started to research
the meaning of the greenAbsolutely. And
Trevor (38:44):
you find out that there's different things. So
when you add pine boughs on topof your yule log, that is about
prosperity and growth, or Hollyis about visions of the future.
So there's these different oldmeanings that are fun, that kind
of connect us to these ritualsthat we do, that we have done
(39:04):
for a very, very long time. Sowe wrap the Yule Log and end
those greens in little ribbonthat's either gold or red again,
trying to bring in those outside
Ellen (39:16):
colors from a present from the year before. Because I
like the same ribbon. Ellen doessay for him, and she has a an
extensive used ribboncollection, because I like to be
sustainable, yeah, in all that.
Trevor (39:29):
And then we'll bring that log in and it's with us
during the day, and then we putit on the fire. And that's a
moment that we all have whereeverybody's quiet, and we all
just sit and watch and listen tothe different evergreen boughs
catch in different ways with theshowers of sparks and color,
(39:51):
color and sound, and we're alljust very quiet. Sometimes it's
hard for our family to be quiet.
Sometimes it's hard for kids.
And parents alike to be quiet,but we do our best, and
sometimes I'll give a look. It'shappened before. Trevor
Ellen (40:07):
is the giver. Happen again,
Trevor (40:11):
but it is actually, in truth, one of the only times
that we are all together and aretotally quiet, yeah, and it's
just about trying to think aboutour intentions for the year, and
thinking about our intentionsfor each other, and just having
a moment with our family that isreally transports us to another
(40:32):
place of peace.
Ellen (40:33):
Yeah, a place of peace.
You know, again, as we gothrough sort of how our night
goes, It's so lovely, and ourfamily looks forward to it, we
know, and our and our kiddo, nowthat she's older, loves to make
sure we're staying on task forhow the evening is going to roll
out, and then what happens withthe log at the end after it
burns out. So
Trevor (40:55):
then for luck, the next day, more luck, we will take a
little of the ash and put it ina little jar that goes under our
bed.
Ellen (41:04):
And that's like an ancient that's an old tradition,
tradition,
Trevor (41:08):
yeah, for luck for the new year, so you have a bit of
that yule log. Now, it is weirdsometimes, if you're cleaning
and you're What's this jar ofdirt under the bed, but then you
Oh, yes, yes, nice, true. Andthen we tell stories around the
fire as the yellow log goes.
Ellen (41:25):
So much fun. We everyone picks a story or a poem. Again,
our kiddo is in on it too. Shereads The Night Before Christmas
or picks a different last yearshe read something new. It's
just everybody takes a turn.
It's so fun. It's always aholiday story of some kind, and
it's quiet. There's no TVs, nophones. It's just lovely. And
then we put some cookies andmilk out, because the big guy's
(41:49):
got to come. Oh
Trevor (41:51):
yeah for sure. And my mom has a sugar cookie recipe
that I don't even know by theway,
Ellen (41:59):
I would love to be able to share it. It
Trevor (42:00):
is literally a secret recipe, simple,
Ellen (42:03):
I'm sure, but it's so good.
Trevor (42:05):
It is hands, friends. I am a cookie connoisseur. I will
eat a cookie.
Ellen (42:13):
You and your dad are cookie monsters. We
Trevor (42:14):
are cookie monsters, for sure. I have met the real cookie
monster, and he thinks I'mpretty awesome, so from the
amount of cookies that I caneat, but I will say that my
mom's sugar cookies are prettyfantastic. They're they're the
best, and I think some of it isthe nostalgia of the flavor of
what I've always known. But theyare pretty there's a there's a
(42:38):
slight saltiness to them thatcomes through.
Ellen (42:42):
And she makes the very traditional icing with the
confectionery,
Trevor (42:46):
balanced flavor of sweet cookie with a little just a hint
of saltiness, which just bringsit all together. And they are
delicious. And
Ellen (42:55):
they're just so traditional and fun because she
uses all the great cookie cuttershapes, and it's all we've done
it as a family, decoratingcookies. You know, our daughter
has done it just with hergrandparents, with decorating
cookies. And those plates ofthese crazy colors cookies are
just everything you want to putwrapped up in a boat for
(43:15):
Christmas. So it's super fun.
And then we put that plate outsome milk, some carrots.
Trevor (43:21):
Magic happens, and
Ellen (43:23):
the magic happens. The
Trevor (43:24):
Santa magic occurs. And then the next day, we all have
fun with presents in themorning, and then we'll start
eating.
Ellen (43:32):
There is a sticky bun that we have on Christmas
morning that none of us make.
Again. Is a tradition from myfamily, which was not easy to do
on the West Coast, although Idid have a very good friend ship
them to us one year. It's a tinylittle bakery that is in
southern New Jersey, and theymake these honey buns. They call
(43:52):
them, which they're sticky buns.
And some come with nuts, andsome come without. And we buy
them over the summer, and wefreeze them, and we keep them in
the freezer, because this bakeryis about three plus hours away
from us, three or three and ahalf, yeah, but we have this at
breakfast time while we'reopening presents, which is so
fun. And then Christmas day forus, of course, then is about
(44:15):
playing with the things that wegot, spending time with our
family and making Christmasdinner.
Trevor (44:21):
We are big on Turkey.
For Thanksgiving, we had adelicious bird this year. Oh my
gosh, absolutely fantastic, yes
Ellen (44:28):
and but great, shining job. My love, my,
Trevor (44:30):
thank you, my, thank you. Usually we'll go more
towards a roast filet, or we'vedone porchetta in the past with
just that's an amazing, verydelicious, delicious dish.
Ellen (44:42):
That's a great recipe too, to share.
Trevor (44:44):
We'll do that this year.
Are
Ellen (44:45):
we doing Christmas Eve?
Yeah,
Trevor (44:47):
we'll do Christmas Eve anything with pork. I'm I'm
sold, sold American. And
Ellen (44:52):
then we each have a and it's very traditional mashed
potatoes and sides that go withthat. And we put out the good
china and sit around the table.
And really have a nice meal anddesserts. Cookies from Oma. We
make a traditional cranberrycake that we do at Thanksgiving,
but we call it the Christmascake at Christmas. And then I've
gotten very into our Christmaspavlova, and
Trevor (45:16):
it is a delicious I make
Ellen (45:18):
a wreath, yeah, with berries and pomegranates and all
mint and a little, you know,yogurt in the pavlova. And it is
just so pretty and delicious atthe same time,
Trevor (45:32):
I was very amazed the first time you made it, because
it came out so well. Yeah, itwas photographically perfect,
and you had never made itbefore.
Ellen (45:42):
I'm, you know, I say this all the time. I'm not a
baker, and
Trevor (45:45):
yet, every time you bake something like the turkey pot
pie that you just baked wasdelicious, leftover turkey, I
don't believe you anymore. I'mdone with that. I'm done
believing you.
Ellen (45:57):
I can, I know I don't really like following directions
when it comes to cooking is muchmore of like a science. You've
got to live to the recipe. Yeah,yeah. I do like the results, and
I'm very task focused when I'mfollowing the recipe so well
documented. So talking about allof this makes me excited. It's
(46:18):
coming up. The season is coming.
It's a year for the holidays tocome the solstice and
celebrating all our Yuletidetraditions and being together
and being together as ourfamily,
Trevor (46:31):
that's really why Stonebrook is such a special
place for us, because nobody hasto travel, nobody has to get on
a plane or a train or anautomobile, great movie, but we
all just get to be close andtogether houses and do a little
Christmas parade around eachhouse. We've done that on the
(46:52):
day, and everybody gets to havea little bit of time in their
house.
Ellen (46:55):
Yeah, it's really lovely. And for all of you
listening, we hope that thisseason brings you the light and
the love and the good health andhappiness that you want and all
of that as well that come to youin New Year.
Trevor (47:11):
Happy holidays.
Everybody. Happy
Ellen (47:12):
holidays. Thanks for being with us and having a seat
at our table.
Trevor (47:18):
Your to table is a production of macrocosm
entertainment. Don't forget torate us and subscribe anywhere
you listen to podcasts and fortips and more information,
follow us on Instagram atStonebrook house you
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