Not so Merry Christmas

This holiday season has been a rough one for me. It started with my grandpa passing away after Thanksgiving. Then my daughter moving home because her roommate became violent. Then my grandma falling and breaking her hip. I have tried very hard to hold onto the holiday spirit, but when Christmas day finally arrived, I was not only homesick for Idaho friends and family, worried about my grandma, but incredibly sad. It was all I could do to keep my chin up, make Christmas magical for my sweet little family of 5, and push through the day. We were supposed to go have dessert with friends, but it rained and snowed, then froze solid. In Portland, no one knows how to drive in slick conditions and they don't have the resources to take care of the roads. It would have been a bad idea to trek out 45 minutes away just for a couple hours for dessert. So we stayed in. I think my children had a merry Christmas. I hope they did.

Apple-palooza

Here in Oregon, there is a thing called Friends of Family Farmers. Every year they do a "Fill Your Pantry" event in Portland. This event is for small farms to sell their wares. Much of it is organic. Much of it is family owned and operated. All of it is local. Last year we were living in a condo and I had no place to put anything, should I buy anything. So this year I was really looking forward to this event as a way to stock up my freezer and pantry. I bought meats, grains, apples and onions.

This weekend was all about the apples. I bought a 25 lbs box of mixed apples. I made 5 quarts of applesauce and 5 quarts of apple pie filling. Using the last 3 quarts of applesauce I canned a couple years ago, I made apple butter and canned those in smaller jars.

Lots of apple-y goodness!