Innehållsförteckning för December 2016 - January 2017 från Country

We don’t have a fireplace in our home, and I sense it could become an issue one day. So before my son demands to know how Santa, or Saint Nicholas as we call him, is going to get into our house, I did a little online research and found tips for making a “magical” key. When the key is ready this year, we’ll tie a ribbon around it and hang it on our front door. Saint Nicholas will have no problem coming right in and leaving gifts and sweets for the kids (he probably prefers the front door anyway). The key will become another of many Christmas traditions in our family. Traditions help make the holidays special. Here at Country our staff celebrates in a variety of ways. On Christmas…

One of my fondest childhood memories of Christmas was my parents, Elvin and Hilda Melby, making lefse together on the old woodstove. Dad, of Norwegian heritage, and Mom, a German woman who adopted many of his traditions, made a wonderful team. Christmas didn’t feel complete without lefse on the menu. My husband and I raised three boys, now all married and in their 30s. Through the years they watched the lefse-making process as part of our Christmas preparations. The boys loved eating it, but I was never able to persuade any of them to be my assistant. My son Thor and daughter-in-law Sherah now live in Denver, and every year we mailed the package of fresh lefse that topped Thor’s Christmas list. So when they came to visit us in…

Classic Candy Cane Butter Cookies PREP: 45 min. + chilling • BAKE: 10 min./batch MAKES: 3 dozen 1 cup butter, softened 2/3cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 large egg yolk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2¼ cups all-purpose flour Red paste food coloring DIRECTIONS 1. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla; gradually beat in flour. Divide dough in half; mix food coloring into one half. Roll each half into a 6-in. square. Wrap each square in plastic; refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight. 2. Preheat oven to 350°. Cut each dough into 36 squares. Working with a quarter of the dough at a time, keep remaining dough refrigerated. Roll one piece of plain dough into a 6-in.…

Christmas lights and pristine snow add a quiet and peaceful mystique to the season, which begins as soon as Thanksgiving dishes go back into the cupboard. I’ve lived in the Green Mountain State all my life. Whenever I visit with a new Vermont resident, I tell them that what they’ll remember most about winter isn’t the degree of cold or the amount of snow but the length of the season. We won’t see bare ground until the second week in April. As a rough estimate, winter is 18 weeks long, which is about one-third of the year. With a population of around 626,000, our state is rural. Vermont is bordered on the north by Canada, on the east by New Hampshire and the Connecticut River, on the south by Massachusetts,…

1. CORNING & HORNELL, NEW YORK Dotted with delightful settlements between stretches of magnificent forest and all that deep blue water, the southern Finger Lakes region transports visitors back to a simpler era during the holidays. Hornell is transformed into Whoville starting on Dec. 2, with a Grinch-themed parade and townsfolk dressing as their favorite Dr. Seuss characters; there’s a Whoville Hair Contest on Dec. 3. Also on Dec. 3, the nearby town of Corning hosts Sparkle, with free carriage rides, carolers and photos with Santa in his Crystal House. corningfingerlakes.com 2. CEDARBURG, WISCONSIN This enchanting historic town is like a Norman Rockwell painting come to life during the holidays. Santa’s Cedarburg Workshop, open during December, gives kids the chance to meet Mr. and Mrs. Claus inside a gingerbread house.…

Spectacular winter landscapes enticed us to venture on. There’s an old cliché that in California, you can visit the mountains, beach or desert within a two-hour drive, and that’s certainly true of our little town of Tehachapi. While we love to explore all of our state’s diverse landscapes, my partner Suzi and I most often find ourselves drawn to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. And our favorite destination is Sequoia National Park. In any season, it is hard to beat the majestic forests there. But the park is very busy in summer, and winter offers a completely different atmosphere. Facilities are limited in the off-season, and as a result the crowds that distract your attention and challenge your efforts to find solitude are gone. The land reverts back to a…

1. CHURCH STREET MARKETPLACE Browse the shops in Burlington for the perfect Christmas gift, then stay to watch the light parade. churchstmarketplace.com 2. MONTPELIER The smallest state capital in the U.S., Montpelier sits in the foothills of the Green Mountains. On Wednesdays the Vermont Legislature hosts Farmer’s Night, an evening of cultural events, at the state house. Musical performances, historic reenactments, exhibits and more are free and open to the public. legislature.vermont.gov 3. MOUNT MANSFIELD Known for its many trails, Mount Mansfield in Stowe is a popular destination year-round. In winter, skiers, snowmobilers, dogsledders and snowshoers explore the pristine beauty of Vermont’s back country. gostowe.com 4. BILLINGS FARM & MUSEUM Visit this working dairy farm and journey back in time to 19th century Vermont. See vintage decor, enjoy holiday treats…

PRECIOUS ANGELS “My grandchildren Everett, 10 months, and Madison, 3, were excited to help decorate the tree,” says Linda Price of Sykesville, Maryland. POP GOES THE PUPPY “This sweet surprise delighted my friend’s grandkids, Karson and Karoline,” says Wanda Thompson Scarboro of Swainsboro, Georgia. THE GREATEST GIFT “After I left paper within reach, I found my grandson Levi wrapping up his sister Taylor,” says Marianne Fosnow of Tega Cay, South Carolina. NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS “Cousins Emilee, Alyssa, Katie and Brittany look so festive in their homemade pajamas,” says Carol Carson of Oxbow, Saskatchewan.…

Snow Angel Inherited two farm dogs from Dad. Snow delighted the collie mix, aptly named Happy. Her winter coat made her comfortable in the cold, like a sled dog. When she got cabin fever during the winter, it was obvious from her melodramatic sighs. When I’d open up the doors, she’d rush outside and immediately drop to make snow angels. She would roll on her sides, digging into the snow with her feet, grinning the whole time. Sometimes she’d pause for a minute to take it all in, as if she couldn’t believe what a lucky dog she was. Then she’d take a bite of snow and get back to her angels with a new burst of energy. One wintery day, a couple feet of new snow accumulated over a…

MORE THAN 50 YEARS AGO, my dad planted an evergreen tree. He watered it and cared for it, and when it grew to approximately 3 feet tall he placed its first set of Christmas lights. Thus our tradition began. Every Christmas since, this tree has lit up our neighborhood corner. The tree grew up along with us three kids. Mom and Dad planted a garden around it in spring and created an ice skating rink nearby in winter. Dad passed away in November 1991. With all the emotions of his passing, Thanksgiving came and went. When the topic of the tree was raised, Mom said, “Not this year.” But my brother, sister and I said, “Dad would want it to be done,” so that following weekend we decorated the tree…

In the tiny village of Angelica, New York, the post office is more than a place to get mail or send packages. There you’ll find the heart of this charming community. It’s where residents meet and greet friends. So when Angelica’s post office was threatened with closure in the 1980s, resident Pat Kaake came up with a plan to save it. Angelica already had lost its neighborhood school in favor of a modern building a few miles outside of town, and the nearest hospitals were 15 miles away in either direction. In Pat’s mind, it was paramount to keep a functioning post office. So she turned to the angels for help. “At Christmas time I would hear on the news about towns named Snow or Bethlehem having celebrations,” says Pat,…

It’s Christmas—the time of year that brings families together around the tree and in front of the camera. Enter your best holiday snapshots (high-resolution JPEG digital files, please) in Country’s Christmas Photo Contest, and you might win $250. You have until Jan. 31, 2017, to enter, so start snapping! Enter as many as you’d like. For a complete list of rules go to country-magazine.com/contests. Here’s how to enter: 1. Go to country-magazine.com and click on Contests & Sweepstakes. 2. Fill out the submission form, upload your photos and tell in at least 75 words what is going on in the picture and why you picked it. 3. Click Submit. 4. To enter another photo in the contest, repeat the previous steps.…

For Pets and Priests One Sunday morning, I was standing in the back of the chapel with the priest when a family came in with two small boys. The younger one could not take his eyes off the priest’s collar. The priest reached up and pulled the white plastic collar out of the front of his shirt and asked the boy, “Do you know what this is?” Without hesitation, the boy said, “My puppy has one too—kills fleas for up to three months.” James Blaine CHILLICOTHE, OHIO Name That Car Our daughter-in-law Lara took her girls Elise, 12, Claire, 8, and Lucie, 3, and their cousin, Elcie, 4, to Disneyland. After a long day, they all piled into Lara’s Honda Odyssey and started for home. Elcie told Lucie, “Auntie Lara…

In 1950, my parents went to visit relatives over the holidays. My older brother, Glen, and his wife, Doreen, were in charge of caring for the milk cows and farm chores. Although at age 22 I was an unskilled cook, I bravely offered to cook Christmas dinner. The day greeted us with a blustery snowstorm. When the cows came in from the pasture, one that was due to calve soon was missing. Glen and Doreen bundled up for the search. I would have felt more at home in their shoes than tied up in my apron strings. Most of the morning passed before they found the cow and calf alive and well. Things were not going well in the kitchen. The homegrown pumpkin, given to us by a neighbor, would…

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Tell Us How to Find You: Whether you send us your submission via mail or email, please include your full name, daytime phone number, email address and mailing address. Help Us Sort Things Out: Include the name of the department your submission is for (Just for Fun, Family & Community, etc.) on the first page of your submission or in the email subject line. For any photos you submit, please identify the people, city, state and year the photo was taken. We reserve the right to use submissions in any section of our magazine, or elsewhere. What You’ll Get: For stories we publish in the magazine, we’ll make a one-time payment of $100 for a full published page or more of your submitted content. Contributors whose jokes and…