First, I have to carry all the boxes down from the attic and once again figure out where everything is. Even though all the boxes started out labeled with their contents, my wife’s desire to ‘just put everything away’ in mid January means the ornaments and decorations usually land in the first available empty box. So just getting things organized to the point where we can start decorating is a task in itself.

As much as I love my children (7 yr old twins right now), if I hear another ‘can we start decorating now’ or ‘when are you going to put up the lights outside?’, I think my head will explode. So the first order of business is to get their tree set up so they can start decorating with their favorite sports and Disney ornaments. This also allows me the time to assemble our larger ‘family’ tree (yes it’s artificial), checking to make sure all of the almost 3000 lights are working (and yes that’s ~3000 lights on a 7′ tree – it glows!). So while the kids are merrily trimming their tree, my wife and I go about sorting through the rest of the decorations, finding old favorites, and those more recently purchased. While the inside decorations are easy to set up, there are a lot of them, and then there’s the Village.

Our Christmas Village has evolved from being strictly the New England village series, to New England with a North Pole building (or two) to now being almost exclusively the North Pole series (all from Department 56). This transformation was the result of our children’s love of the various Holiday specials (Rudolph, Frosty, The Grinch, etc) which makes it easier for them to associate with a Gum Drop Factory, than a Village Hall. Also, once they realize that the Buffalo snow you’re using for the Village can double as a beard, you might as well just stop trying to decorate and enjoy the absurdity of it.

Once the inside of the house is completed, or almost, decorating the outside of the house still remains, but this requires the cooperation of the weather. As much as I enjoy Christmas, I don’t really look forward to climbing a 25ft extension ladder (sometimes in a rather chilly wind) to hand icicle lights on our house. But once completed, the lights on the house and bushes, the mini xmas trees, Candy Canes, and the large wreath hung over our front door always brings a smile to my face.

Now that all the decorations are up and the boxes are empty, it’s time to bring them back into the attic until it’s time to take it all down again. It’s a lot of work, packed into only a few days, that gets to be enjoyed for basically the month of December, and maybe a week or two in January.

So this year, to take some of the stress out of decorating, an dmake the Season a little longer, my wife asked me to start bringing down some of the Christmas items while I was in the attic putting away the Halloween decorations.

This naturally got me to thinking - is it ever too early to start putting up the Christmas decorations?

 Or, are you an ‘extremist’ who simply leaves their house decorated all year long? and if you do WHY?

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In order to keep up the Halloween atmosphere, what started as a few spooky faces taped onto the doors, has evolved into light up pumpkins, black wire trees, window decals and whatever my wife saw last year that we need to add to this year’s decorations. The one thing that doesn’t change is the fact that we need to have centerpiece for the table (the pizza or Chinese food just wouldn’t taste the same without it). Ours, as you can see below, is fairly simple.

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In the short time we’d been together, we talked about everything, and since at the time we were both living in our own apartments, we both cooked. I always loved to cook, bought cookbbooks, and read cooking magazines, to find new and different recipes to try. So when Christmas rolled around, Cathy already knew that I was pretty competent in the kitchen, so she asked if I would make a dessert (I’d already heard about the dozens of cookies she would be baking with her mom). Not wanting to pass up the opportunity to impress her, and her family, I agreed. I also immediatley knew what I would make, a Buche de Noel (Yule Log).

Now I’ll be the first to admit that baking is not my forte. But, when you’re in love, you want to do something special and out of the ordinary, and this was it. I found the recipe in a recent magazine, read it through a few times, prepared my shopping list and there was no turning back. The 2 days it took to complete were both stressful and fun. Stressful everytime something was mixing or cooking or setting, hoping I’d not forgotten to add anything (I tend to be a little obsessive when I cook). But then fun, once the ‘log’ was completed and the final decorating/presentation began. Mostly there was relief when it was all finished and I realized that it looked almost just like the picture. The only thing I didn’t know was how it tasted, but that would have to wait until Christmas.

Finally, we arrived at Cathy’s sister’s house. I had not taken more than two steps in when I heard “that looks fantastc!”. Everyone was followed me into the kitchen to see what I’d brought, and when Cathy informed them that I had made it – they were all very impressed. I have never posed for so many pictures with a dessert before (or after). Not only did it look good, but it tasted great.

Now that Cathy and I are married and have kids, everyone comes to our house for Christmas, so I no longer have two days to devote to a dessert. But they still ask “what no Yule Log this year?”. Now that the twins are 7 and able to help in the kitchen, who knows, maybe this year.

If you”re interested in preparing a classic Christmas dessert, want to impress someone, or just like tasty desserts, this ones for you…

Chocolate-Orange Buche de Noel

For filling
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 cups chilled whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For ganache
1/2 cup whipping cream
6 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur

Powdered sugar
10 to 12 purchased chocolate truffles

Bake until cake springs back when pressed in center, about 15 minutes. Transfer pan to rack. Cool completely. Sift remaining 1 tablespoon cocoa powder over cake. Line baking sheet with foil. Invert cake onto sheet. Peel off paper.

Prepare filling:
Place 2 tablespoons boiling water in small bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over. Let soften 10 minutes. Heat 1/4 cup cream in small saucepan over medium-low heat just until warm. Add to gelatin mixture; stir until gelatin dissolves. Using electric mixer, beat remaining 1 1/4 cups chilled cream, powdered sugar, orange peel and vanilla in large bowl until soft peaks form. Add gelatin mixture. Beat until stiff peaks form.

Spread filling over cake, leaving 1-inch border on sides. Using foil as aid and starting at 1 long side of cake, gently roll up cake, enclosing filling. Arrange roll, seam side down, on platter. Cover tightly and refrigerate until filling is set, at least 8 hours or overnight.

Next Day:

Unwrap roll and with a serrated knife cut ~2inches off one end, at a 45 degree angle. Place the angle side of the cut piece against the side of the log. Once coated, this will give the appearance of a branch protruding from the side of the log.

Make ganache:
Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolate, corn syrup and liqueur. Stir until mixture is smooth. Let ganache stand until cool and thick.

Whisk ganache just until soft peaks form (do not overmix). Spread ganache over roll. Using tines of fork, draw lines through ganache to represent tree bark. (Roll can be made 1 day ahead. Tent with foil and refrigerate.)

Sift powdered sugar over roll.

If desired, decorate with white truffles lightly dusted with cocoa (to simulate mushrooms).

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My mother, being Italian, always cooked (and in this case baked) to serve a crowd, usually a very hungry crowd. So it was not uncommon for her to increase the size of the recipe by 8X, yes that’s right 8X. If the recipe produced 2dozen cookies, we made 16 dozen. Add to that the fact that sehe usually baked 4 or 5 different types of cookies, and you’d think we were starting our own business. Even though we had the family over for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (nothing was better than Mom’s Lasagna), we were still left with enough cookies to enjoy well into March.

Every cookie was made as perfectly as possible, from the shape of the Almond Crescents to the branches on the Butter Cookie Christmas Trees. Once baked and cooled, all the cookies were stored in round, aluminum foil lined, tins and stacked in the den. We worked and worked while the much loved Christmas specials played in the background. Don’t get me wrong, it was a lot of work over several evenings, and Mom wasn’t always in the best of moods, but it was something to look forward to.

So every year, when those chilly New York December days rolled around again, my mother would buy pounds and pounds of butter, then break out the hand-cranked cookie cutter and we’d get start rolling, shaping, and decorating our way into another Christmas season. And now, since my own children are old enough to start helping, I get to do it all over – with them!

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