{"id":1347,"date":"2010-12-17T19:24:26","date_gmt":"2010-12-18T02:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/?p=1347"},"modified":"2010-12-20T21:15:23","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T04:15:23","slug":"fruitcake-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/?p=1347","title":{"rendered":"Fruitcake Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My holiday fruitcakes are in the oven right now, filling the house with their deep, rich, spicy aroma. I love fruitcake. When I was growing up, my mom&#8217;s aunt Louise sent us a wonderful, intense, rum-soaked fruitcake every Christmas, and it was always received with great delight. A few years ago I set out to try and make similar fruitcakes of my own (the dry, storebought versions with their lurid cherry toppings in improbably day-glo colors are <em>no comparison<\/em>), and I found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foodnetwork.com\/recipes\/alton-brown\/free-range-fruitcake-recipe\/index.html\">Alton Brown&#8217;s recipe<\/a>, which is entirely satisfactory. I&#8217;ve made it every holiday season since.<\/p>\n<p>Now I understand that there are people in this world who like to scoff at fruitcake, but I&#8217;m pretty sure that these people have simply been eating the <em>wrong fruitcakes<\/em>. The real thing is fantastic.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Robin is on his stomach watching his toy train (an early Christmas present from his Uncle Bobby) going around our tree:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"frame-outer  \"><span><span><span><span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/siduri\/5269193617\/\" title=\"christmas train by Jo Shannon Phillips, on Flickr\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5049\/5269193617_98197cc68c.jpg\" width=\"375\" height=\"500\" alt=\"christmas train\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Our stockings have, with all due care, been hung by the chimney:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"frame-outer  \"><span><span><span><span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/siduri\/5269507931\/\" title=\"stockings by Jo Shannon Phillips, on Flickr\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5169\/5269507931_6dc2124c01.jpg\" width=\"415\" height=\"311\" alt=\"stockings\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Our advent calendar (a gift from Robin&#8217;s Nonna and Pappy) is up-to-date:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"frame-outer  \"><span><span><span><span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/siduri\/5269509685\/\" title=\"advent by Jo Shannon Phillips, on Flickr\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5083\/5269509685_33b73bc620.jpg\" width=\"375\" height=\"500\" alt=\"advent\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>And generally we are feeling pretty festive. We&#8217;re just back from seeing Pops and Mo and all of my siblings except for the boys&#8217; Uncle Jesse (who was missed) in Arkansas&#8212;it was a lovely visit, although unfortunately we all developed the sniffles on the way back. Stupid plane germs! But even that&#8217;s not all bad&#8212;Sam stayed home sick today, and so was able to perform Valuable Cuddle Services while I worked on my holiday baking.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"frame-outer  \"><span><span><span><span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/siduri\/5269505759\/\" title=\"naptime by Jo Shannon Phillips, on Flickr\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5044\/5269505759_8701894db7.jpg\" width=\"415\" height=\"311\" alt=\"naptime\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My holiday fruitcakes are in the oven right now, filling the house with their deep, rich, spicy aroma. I love fruitcake. When I was growing up, my mom&#8217;s aunt Louise sent us a wonderful, intense, rum-soaked fruitcake every Christmas, and it was always received with great delight. A few years ago I set out to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1353,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions\/1353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shannon.users.sonic.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}