In mid October I moved all my Christmas crafting supplies into an empty bedroom at Matthew’s house. My goal was 2 part, #1 to create 25 days of Christmas day drinking and crafting videos. which I have. Goal #2 was to go through and organize the crafting chaos and maybe pare down some of the clutter so that after I completed the project, instead of 3 carloads of mess, I could combine it all into a few well organized tubs of supplies.
Goal #1? At the point of this writing I am at 23 videos, I have 2 solid idea plans for 2 more videos, plus a tentative agreement from Matthew to help me with a video for day 25. Mission accomplished.
Goal #2? Well… Matthew has more than once politely asked if I could try and contain the glitter to just that room. Now, it is not like I am sneaking into other parts of his house, yelling “Christmas miracle” and tossing handfuls of glitter and then running away. Although, let us be honest, it is always a possibility. But if you know glitter, you know, it is insidious, a tiny, conservative, tasteful application of glitter in one room means you will be finding piles of glitter in the corner of your garage decades later. I do not make the glitter crafting rules, I am just bound to them.
All of that preface is to say, one unexpected benefit of this plan is I have had the privilege of having multiple conversations with my son. It is not as though we don’t talk all the time normally, but typically he has stopped by my house on the way to something, so conversations are rushed and often interrupted. When we all gather as a family, everyone has things to share so I don’t always get the chance to listen to him one on one. So this gift of Matthew time has been a blessing in disguise.
I love to hear him share his thoughts. I love how satisfied he is in his career path. This last year, Fairweather Friends, the artisanal wood fire pizza kitchen and brewery he was running the kitchen at closed down. Sad face. He went to work for a fancy upscale members only supperclub downtown. Think Soho house. So exclusive that while he regularly fed the owners of the Thunder basketball team, there was no chance his parents could eat there.
Every kitchen has its own learning opportunities. What Matthew learned there is that there is a difference between male dominated cocky trash talking super competitive professional kitchens and Toxic male dominated cocky trash talking super competitive professional kitchens. It did not take him long to figure out he knows what his boundaries are and what he will and will not tolerate. While that is a hard lesson to learn, I am proud of him for figuring it out, and being able to say “I love what I do, but I don’t love doing it in this place, for these people.”
He is currently working at Harvey Bakery and much much happier. He has said he is in his “Bakery Era” and really loves it. I think for all the flash and sizzle of being a sous chef, or chef de cuisine and being on top of the kitchen hustle, and the way that appeals to his competitive nature, Matthew has a deep love of baking. I love to see him thriving.
This is all the preface for the Christmas point of this entry. Recently we have had conversations about the role of “fun” Christmas activities, like tree decorating, or santa stories, in the life of christians celebrating the true meaning of Christmas, and whether that serves as a distraction from Christ. I made the point that certainly, one can eschew the secular trappings of Christmas and spend the season in quiet contemplation and prayer. He countered that it seems like people who argue against the “fun” Christmas stuff are more interested in other people not having fun, than they are in their own "spiritual" celebration. Then he summed his point up by saying that christmas fun is the dutch baby to the lemon curd of christmas joy.
Think about that. A dutch baby is essentially a plain baked pancake. On its own, it is, well, a plain baked pancake. However when you add lemon curd? It transforms into an amazingly delicious brunch dish.
This season, I wish you all the biggest helping of lemon curd dutch baby Christmas Joy.
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