Happy Solstice! Today marks the official beginning of Winter and the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Going forward, our days will slowly become longer as we begin another transit in our elliptical orbit around the Sun. Did you know that we are, in fact, approaching the closest point in our elliptical orbit to the Sun? It’s true! We’re actually closer to the Sun on the day of the Winter Solstice than we are on the day of the Summer Solstice. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s cold now because we only get indirect rays of light from the Sun due to the tilt of Earth’s rotational axis. Most people mistakenly believe it is Winter right now because we are at the most distant point from the Sun in our elliptical orbit, but that’s not the case.

As such, I thought today’s Midweek Martini should celebrate the intriguing mechanics of our solar system. What could be more appropriate for a Winter Solstice celebration than a drink called Fire & Ice? It is a layered drink featuring Hot Damn (i.e. cinnamon schnapps) and Bailey’s Irish Creme. Cinnamon is one of those wonderful warming spices, which makes it ideal for a cold Winter’s day, and represents the warmth of our Sun. The Bailey’s Irish Creme represents the ice and snow of Winter.

Making a layered drink can be tricky, so I’ve included a video on how to perfect the art of the layered shot!

INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS:

You may have noticed that I don’t make many posts during the holiday season. Unlike many food & decor bloggers, I’m not into over-the-top holiday decorations or shopping for and meticulously wrapping a bunch of presents. This probably makes many people think I’m a Grinch.

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

This isn’t the case. I don’t begrudge anyone the joys of the Holiday Season. Believe it or not, I enjoy the innate tackiness of garish holiday decorations. After all, my bird totem is a Party Crow, and crows love shiny things! I just don’t have the initiative to spend the time and energy decorating my own home and taking endless pictures of it to post on my blog. I typically slap some lights and two burlap bows on the blue spruce trees flanking my front door and call it a day. That’s not exactly blog-worthy holiday decorating!

However, I have fond memories of my own childhood and decorating the live tree we always had. Yes, we were one of those freaky “hippy” families who didn’t enjoy cutting down a tree. We always got a live tree with a root ball, and then we planted the tree after the New Year. It was a fun way to extend the holiday a bit, and I always looked forward to getting my hands dirty and planting a live evergreen.

Live Tree With Root Ball

If I return to my childhood neighborhood, I can see many of those trees today, grown and beautiful. We even planted a few in neighbors’ yards when we didn’t have a good spot in our yard! It was a wonderful holiday tradition.

Now I’m married to someone who is culturally Jewish. We own a menorah, but we don’t bother with that, either. Instead, we spend this time making our home cozy with a nice fire in the fireplace and hanging some mistletoe around the house. We make treats together to give away as gifts since we don’t like to be part of the materialistic “competitive shopping” during the Holidays, and we’ve been known to indulge in a pile of fried potato latkes or two. We also celebrate our wedding anniverary on the Solstice, which is December 21st, by treating ourselves to a really nice gourmet dinner at our favorite restaurants, and we exchange small but thoughtful gifts. Overall, it’s a very relaxing time of year for us, the recent upswing in work notwithstanding. I wouldn’t have my holiday any other way! It’s our time to recharge and appreciate the subtle beauty of Winter: the evergreens, the colorful red cardinals in our yard, the holly trees with their bright berries, the visible mistletoe in the tops of oak trees, etc.

Hungry Cardinals

If anything gets me down at this time of year, it’s the hateful behavior of “Christians” who whine about “The War on Christmas” and get their panties in a wad over “Happy Holidays.” It really upsets me that some people are so egotistical and self-absorbed as to think the entire world should bend to their whims and celebrate “Christmas.” If you say “Happy Holidays”, you offend them. If a town has a tree-lighting ceremony instead of a Christmas-tree-lighting ceremony, they accuse everyone of discriminating against Christians. I’m not really sure how it’s possible to discriminate against 83% of the population in the U.S., but that’s what they try to guilt the rest of us into believing. Somehow, the word “Holiday”, which is meant to encompass all Winter Celebrations including Christmas, is the height of rudeness. You know – because being inclusive is hateful! Basically, anyone not celebrating their Winter Holiday in the way they think it should be celebrated are told to leave the country or STFU, and that’s a pretty shitty attitude to pass around at this time of year. It’s no wonder I prefer to spend my holidays at home in quiet, subdued retreat!

War On Christmas - a.k.a. Christian Martry Syndrome

This is why you don’t see a lot of posts from me during this time of year. I certainly don’t want to end up with a blog full of hateful comments that say, “Why are you celebrating anyway, if you don’t believe in Jesus?!” (and yes, I’ve gotten those comments from people on Facebook and in email after responding negatively when someone sent a nasty email about non-Believers and the holidays)