We began preparing for Yule at the end of November, and made lots of crafts and great food! I have been blogging about everything as we went along and you can see all that we did and ate in the following posts:
Preparing for Our Yule Countdown (Making a Yule Log)
Our nightly candle lighting and Yule activity was such a lovely and peaceful experience that we plan to do it every year!
Yule Countdown Nights One Through Four
Yule Countdown Nights Five Through Eight
Yule Countdown Nights Nine Through Twelve
Yule Countdown Nights Thirteen Through Sixteen
Yule Countdown Nights Seventeen Through Twenty
Our Yule Eve ritual was beautiful, and we will also be making our fir branch spiral path a yearly tradition:
On Yule morning, we got up before dawn to watch the Winter Solstice sunrise. It was really cold out, but so worth it to ring our bells to greet the returning sun!
https://animoto.com/play/Rm1DhaqIgF1vmvB8sADUiQ
After the sunrise, we went back inside to warm up with a mug of hot cocoa!
Our good friend, Kim, was coming over later so I made cranberry buns with an orange glaze:
They were delicious with some vegan cream cheese, and Kim loved them!
Kim helped us make birdseed ornaments to hang on a tree outside:
Later, I made a gingerbread bundt cake!
Another close friend was coming to dinner a few days later, so we decided to wait to have our fancy Yule dinner until he was here. So, we made pizza on Yule night:
I made the sauce and the crust, and we tried the new Daiya mozzarella style shreds:
I love how well the shreds melt, and they taste great too!
We had the gingerbread cake for dessert:
The next day, I made cranberry orange baked oatmeal muffins and more vegan eggnog!
I also made pecan shortbread cookies to send to my dad for his birthday:
They were so good and we ate way too many!
A couple of days later, I made our official Yule dinner. We had mushroom Wellington, roasted sweet potatoes, mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes, and “beef” gravy!
It was all so good!
I made a delicious vegan cheesecake for dessert!
With the one exception of being apart from family that lives far away, this Yule was perfect! We did so much more than we could have done if we had only celebrated for a few days, and it was a very relaxed and joyous time. Brightest Yule Blessings to all!
WONDERFUL; beautiful & joyous***
Thank you!