Chestnuts Roasting

 Granddaughter is home from college for a few weeks and spent her first day home with me making peppermint bark (first time, experiment, I didn't much taste the peppermint but she did) and seafoam candy. 

She loves this and it's really nice handing off the pies at thanksgiving to Adelaide and the candy at Christmas to Elizabeth. They don't need me for anything but the ingredients and conversation during the process.  

Just making memories, just making memories.

This is what happens to all of those chestnuts we talked about a couple of weeks ago. Daughter orders 20 pounds from the u-pick chestnut grove we picked at.  What we picked was daughter's family's own personal stash, then she orders more for the museum's booth during the city's Christmas night at the showboat.

 Elizabeth said she knows how to do it right, meaning it's her job and we all get out of her way.

People smell them cooking and line up for a cup full of free samples, we show the first timers how to peel them, advise them to eat them warm and off they go. One little guy had never tried them and wanted to so I peeled one for him, he ate it and declared it was delicious!  I praised him for taking that "no thank you bite" and his dad was standing there nodding his head.

A "no thank you bite" is a try-it-before-you-say-no-thank-you bite.  We used to tell that to the kids at school when something new was put on their plate.  Now I use the phrase when reading to the first graders and the book is about food. You have to at least try it, then if you don't like it you can say "no thank you" but at least you have to take that bite.  I will never forget the little girl who said, "I tried broccoli no-thank-you-bites 11 times and discovered I like it!"  

But many - most - return to purchase a bag of uncooked chestnuts to take home for themselves. 

Set against the fresh snow the showboat is so pretty at night and Santa was on board for the kids, but it was SO COLD.  

There were carriage rides around the neighborhood.  There were carolers, miniature ponies, free hot dogs, chips, cookies and hot chocolate in addition to the chestnuts. 

And a hand warming fire, which I used, but couldn't get close enough to stick my hands right in there, which I wanted to do badly.  It was very cold but no wind but very cold.