Very Happy Holidays

The days are getting longer again. The sun has decided to come back, hooray! A little factoid for you: Last year while doing research on Christmas, Enrico learned that the Chinese yin-yang symbol is actually a visual representation of the changing length of the days. It is created by tracking the length of shadow cast by an 8-foot pole in the ground throughout the days of the year. I'm a little unclear on exactly how these measurements were taken, but through it the Chinese figured out the length of the year and all about the solstices and stuff. So the yin-yang is a literal symbol of the balance of light and dark, and also of seasons and change. Pretty cool, huh?

Our holiday festivities are underway, and the first night of the film festival was a great success. All week long, I had a great time going down to the public market and stocking up on Mediterranean supplies for the film festival. My office is just a block from the market, and every day I went and got a few things. I bought a block of fresh feta from the cheese stand, and some freshly baked whole-wheat pitas from the Greek market. I bought imported Italian olives and artisan-made orzo from DeLaurenti's Italian market. From various produce stands I selected some pomegranites, as well as rutabegas, turnips, leeks and celery root for a winter couscous. My most exotic purchase was a bag of Ras El Hanout, a Moroccan spice blend made up of various ingredients, including Damascus rose petals. The regular spice vendor on the main level of the market didn't sell Ras El Hanout, but they sent me through the bowels of the market to another spice vendor that I'd never even noticed before, a store so full of exotic smells that I didn't want to leave.

One of the nice side benefits of the film festival is that it gives me a reason to start the new year with a clean house. Thursday night and Friday we cleaned and cleaned, and now the floors shine and the clutter has all found a home, and the furniture covers are as free of dog hair as we can get them.

And so here we sit, with our Christmas lights and our sparkingly clean house, and enough hummus and pine nuts and fine olives to get us through the weekend, and bottles of Sambuca and port to keep our insides toasty. And a little bit more daylight each day. Life is good. Merry Christmas!