Day 85 of 365

Christmas is 12 days away. Hanukkah started yesterday. The holidays are upon us.

What's the first song that comes to your mind when you think about this time of year? I'm not sure why but The Christmas song, Chestnuts roasting on an open fire has been stuck in my brain for a few weeks. I'm generally annoyed by Christmas music before we hit December. This holiday season I can't seem to escape dogs barking to the tune of jingle bells. What does this really have to do with the holiday, I'll never know.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire brings up beautiful visuals for me. Today I wanted to experience the sight, sound and scent of this part of that song.

I pulled out the patio fire-pit and started a beautiful fire. It's a little cold today and some snowflakes were falling. It was the perfect setup for this experience. I put my cast iron griddle over the flames and in a few minutes it was smoky and the olive oil was dancing across the top. Everything I'd read suggested putting foil down so I did that and I'm so glad because when the heat hit those nuts they started to crackle and pop like breakfast cereal. I think your kids would love doing this.

It took longer to build the fire than it did to roast the chestnuts, but it was worth it. Once the shells started to split I just rolled up the edges of the foil and pulled the whole pile off the flame.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire... top notch holiday cheer.

Day 85 was a song come to life.

Love & Light