Wintering

We’re still on on our annual winter rest. We ate Christmas cookies, baked sticky gooey cinnamon rolls, and made a flaky apple galette. We went to Preservation coffee as many more times as we could before they closed up, ending an era for downtown Modesto . We made Japanese okonomiyaki (a savory cabbage pancake showered in bonito flakes and seaweed) and made some Vietnamese coconut waffles which come out a bright green color and have a mochi like texture due to a portion of rice flour. I hope you’re eating well and staying cozy in this in between hibernation liminal space of the year. We’ve a yearly tradition of staying at a cabin up towards Pinecrest each winter to play in some snow. I was parked by a woodstove reading an entire book and drinking hot tea over a few days while the boys made and crushed snowpeople and snowballs. On new years eve in that snowy cabin we watched the movie “Hugo” directed by Martin Scorcese. It’s based on a book for kids and has youthful protagonists, but it’s one of my favorite meditations on the power of art, and cinema specifically. It’s been a year of the arts for me, as Sophie turned 18 and I retraced a lot of the things that captivated me when I was that age. At age 40, I traced a second adolescence as we went to see groundbreaking movies and documentaries in theatres, and watched a lot of the best movies of the past 50 years at home too. We went to many museums, author talks, rock concerts, and rode public transit. There is still plenty to see and think about and learn anew, I’ve spent 15 or so years pacing the boards of kitchen-bakery and the realms of my greatest concern was fitting in reading to the kids enough between the breads and some other nourishment. I read more books and went on more hikes this year too, so in a way I feel I’ve been thrust back into the great wide world. I’m curious about this next phase of life and what it may bring, and curious about yours too.