Tag: pixie (page 1 of 1)

It’s Beginning to…

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our little cottage. The candles are lit, the decorations are hung, Christmas music is playing and my little lady’s risengrød is almost ready for the Nisse.

Risengrød is Danish for “rice pudding”. Eating rice pudding as part of your Christmas meal and making a bowl as a gift for your Nisse is a Danish tradition. My friend R.’s sister lives in Denmark and around this time of year we would always talk about leaving out our little bowls of risengrød for the Nisse.  I think R. might have been a pixie himself, there was always a twinkle in his eyes.

You want to keep your Nisse happy you see, especially at this time of year, or they’ll play all kinds of little jokes on you. Nisse love to tease! Our Nisse is usually very well behaved, but I know he’s been up to some kind of magic in the cottage lately. I heard laughing the other morning and came down to find that he had been feasting on a bowl of Christmas candy I had set out. A pile of foil wrappers littered the floor and a little trail of chocolate crumbs was leading away from it.

I’ve been very lucky this year because my little lady is making us a big patch of risengrød to put up in the attic for him. I prefer keeping him happy as I don’t want him to get up to too much mischief! 

Pixie Girl

As I sat down at the kitchen table today to work on writing out our Christmas cards, I noticed sugar cookie crumbs everywhere. I couldn’t figure out where they had come from. I brushed them off and carried on going through my card list.

But my mind kept turning over and over where those golden little crumbs had come from. Maybe Mr. Michie munched on a few cookies last night while working and I didn’t see him? Maybe some crumbs whisked off my dessert plate as I took it back into the kitchen to tidy up?

I got my answer this afternoon. While making a cup of tea, I heard a tiny giggle and the rustling of branches. I got out of the kitchen door just in time, to see my pixie girl nestling down in her little spot with a star shaped sugar cookie tucked into the folds of her skirt.

Now, I know where those crumbs came from! I don’t mind. You have to look after your house pixies, especially this time of year as they are reporting back to Santa, himself! And, I for one, would like a good report!

Eglantine, Eglantine!

“Eglantine, Eglantine, Oh how you shine!” This little ditty was playing in my head as we carefully hung our Christmas pixie up last night. She was named after Angela Lansbury’s character in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Mr. Brown sings this song to her after they go back to the house he has moved into in London. It is one of my favorite movies and it somehow fits this little gal.

This year we decided to fill her elfin sized pockets and hands with candy. I am going first this year, so when Mr. Michie gets in tonight I am going to reach in her pocket and see what surprise awaits me!

I can’t believe it is December 1st! Where has this year gone? I want to enjoy and savor this month. The time spent together, the time spent with family, it all goes by too quickly and I want to capture it all in my memory.

1st Day of Advent

Today is the first day of advent! We put up our little pixie last night, she is our first piece of Christmas out (besides our Advent wreath); Eglantine as she has been dubbed, is proudly tied up with a gingham ribbon.

As, you know, I have a thing for pixies and gnomes and all of our little Christmas pixies have names, I have smaller versions of her in the cutest little knitted sweaters and dresses!

We always try to do something different each year, I don’t mind getting chocolate, but I like being creative with my advent calendar.  This year we have decided to fill her little pockets with messages of LOVE, in the form of poems, quotes, movie lines… I can’t wait to see what has been written for me!

When I was little we always had the old-fashioned paper advent calendars from Germany.  One year, we were given a calendar that contained vintage looking wooden ornaments.  My mom put a little tree, strung with lights into a brass drum base and each morning we would run to discover what elfin sized ornament waited behind those doors to be put on our miniature tree.

I thought about making one of our own this year, as well as Eglantine and remembered that Jenny B. Harris had a pretty felt calendar tutorial on her blog, Allsorts.  It would look so sweet strung along a mantle or around a door.

allsorts adventAnother inventive idea I came across was a calendar made out of a spool on “Just Something I Made“.  What a cute idea, especially if you, like us, live in a little cottage and space fills up quickly, you could easily hang the spool rack on the wall.

spool advent calendarThe first day of Advent, we are now officially counting down to Christmas, where has the year gone?