“The above picture was taken circa 1950 by my uncle Sam Tibbetts Sr. at the Carver farm on  [504] Youngtown Rd. My grandparents, Russ and Jennie (Hardy) Carver and five of their children and grandchildren. were present. Aunt Lucille Masalin and her family [husband, Reino, and children Joan and David] were the only ones missing. We all enjoyed a large Christmas dinner of roast pork and chicken, with lots of gravy, and Grammy's butter freshly churned the day before. Grampa Carver raised all of it, the pork and chicken, veggies and potatoes, on the farm. Grammy Carver’s pies were the dessert. She baked for several days prior to Christmas and made venison mince meat pie, squash, apple, and blueberry, all grown on the farm or gathered nearby, and canned the previous summer.

“The adults sat around the big circular oak kitchen table, and the smaller children sat at several card tables set up to one side. Grammy and Grampa had little money, but every grandchild had a present under the fir tree cut up back in the woods by Grampa. We all got a bag filled with bulk hard candy and usually some knitted mittens or stockings. The tree was not like those carefully groomed ones we purchase today, but a wild fir, empty in places where more limbs would have made it look better. Strings of popcorn, from popcorn grown by Grampa, decorated the tree. The popcorn was hanging in the loft over the kitchen to dry, and we children would bring down an ear or two each and pop them in the wire basket corn popper on the cast iron wood stove in the kitchen. Grammy gave us all needles and thread and we strung the popcorn for the tree. A fair amount of the popcorn never made it to the tree. Grampa liked his popcorn and an apple in the evenings, so he had a pretty good supply of both. Some antique bulbs, a string of big electric lights, lots and lots of tinsel, and a big shiny star at the top completed the tree decorations.

 “My uncle Sam Tibbetts recorded Christmas proceedings using a record making machine, and the entire family could be heard gathered around the piano in the front room singing carols to work off the heavy Christmas meal. I am on the record being asked what Santa brought me. I was probably four years old at the time. As usual, I still have that record, along with some other artifacts like the first dollar I ever earned.

“Great memories of days long ago. We've all gone our separate ways now and the older folks are gone. My younger brother is a great grandfather and our cousins are scattered from here to Florida. I'm living on the Carver farm on Youngtown Road now, dredging up tales for our grandchildren and their children and theirs too.”

Christmas is a week and a half away, and I just spent 10 minutes, slowly and meditatively scraping orange and grapefruit peels down to their citrusy essence, the outer skin. Christmas music was playing on WERU, and I felt no anxiety whatsoever. When I have a bagful of peels, I’ll boil them in sugar syrup  to make candied peels. Sandy’s story and this quiet moment in the kitchen, reminded me of how far I’ve come, Christmas-wise, since the years I was obsessed with producing the perfect Christmas.

     A to-do list with a dozen or more items haunted my every waking hour in the weeks leading up to the big day: Write cards; shop for gifts (a separate list, with a big ? after most names); wrap the mountain of gifts; mail them; get tree; gather brush; make wreaths; bake fruitcakes; finish knitting (fill in the blank — a sweater, hat, mittens, Christmas stocking, scarf); bake cookies (another separate list — five kinds of family favorites); clean the house (especially if my parents were coming); decorate tree.

My one treat to myself in those crazy years of holiday mania was managing to be in the kitchen Christmas Eve morning, stuffing a turkey or whipping up eggnog or something, when MPBN’s A Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols came on at 10 a.m.

     Some years even that little indulgence was beyond me, as a last minute errand pulled me out of the kitchen. I know I wasn’t alone in feeling this compulsion to make it “perfect”. But like all productions, only the director sees the mistakes and omissions; the audience; i.e. your family, never notices that the candles don’t match, or that the stuffed dates didn’t get made this year.

Making the perfect Christmas is a decidedly female endeavor, although one of my sons does seem to have inherited some of this trait from me. Anyway, I’ve happily crossed over into new territory; now I only do the parts of our traditions that I truly love, or that I know the family loves. And I’ll certainly be in the kitchen Christmas Eve morning, tuned into King’s Chapel, Cambridge, maybe sipping a cup of eggnog in the rocking chair.

The Lincolnville Library will be a busy place this week starting with Tuesday, Dec. 16, 6 p.m., when all are invited to “Share the Magic of a Good Book” with the library’s Book Group. The library is starting a reading journal where people can share their thoughts about their favorite books and make book recommendations. There will also be a bookmark exchange on Tuesday for those who’d like to participate — bring one you already have or get creative and make one. And, Librarian Sheila Polson promises, there will be yummy refreshments!   

      The next night, Wednesday, will be the annual Christmas Show at 7 p.m. The program will feature local storytellers, a singalong, an array of local musicians, a special puppet show of The Night Before Christmas by Susan & Jack Silverio, and best of all, Christmas cookies! If you have young children, they will love the puppet show, which will be in the first part of the show; There is no admission and reservations are not required. According to Rosey Gerry, bringing cookies would be nice — Santa would remember that!

     Also on Wednesday, 5-7:30 p.m., Crossroads Community Baptist church is holding a Drive By Nativity Scene in front of the home of Pastor Dave & Marian Pouchot, 2266 Belfast Road. Starting as it does in the late afternoon, it’s a great chance for parents to show their children this depiction of the Christmas story, 
“the reason for the season”.

      Then on Friday, Dec. 19, 10 a.m. Midcoast Music Together Director Jess Day will offer a free family music and movement program at the Library. Children from birth to age 5 and their siblings may come to sing, move, shake and explore musical instruments. Jess stresses that parents do not have to be skilled musicians—enthusiastic participation and having fun with children is all that's required.

      Finally, to wrap up the week, everyone is invited to decorate holiday cookies at the Library on Saturday, December 20 from 10 a.m. to noon. All the cookies and decorations for this fun morning are being generously donated. Come be creative and enjoy a cookie or two! For more information on any of these programs, call 763-4343 or email. 

Have you ever seen the Rock Coast Rollers, the midcoast’s own female roller derby team? Well, here’s your chance: the team are holding their season-opening benefit at Point Lookout, 67 Atlantic Highway, Northport Saturday, Dec. 20; the doors open at 5 p.m. Admission is free, though donations for Hospitality House are welcome. Check out their website for needed items.

      Rev. Kate Braestrup will be the guest speaker Sunday, Dec. 21 at United Christian Church, 9:30 a.m., part of a monthly series of sermons by the author of Here If You Need Me and several other books. Kate, who lives in the Center, is the Chaplain of the Maine State Warden Service.

      Sunday afternoon, Dec. 21 at 4 p.m. the Mount View High School Chamber Singers will perform their popular "Carols in the Round" at United Christian Church in the Center at 18 Searsmont Road. This wonderful program of music for the winter season is performed by the Chamber Singers, surrounding the audience, singing in candlelight, and progressing ahead one  place throughout the program. As you sit in the audience a different singer is by your side on each song, a really lovely experience. The United Christian Church, built in 1821, is the perfect venue for this unique format with its double aisles. Following the program a reception will be held in the Community Building next door.  All are welcome to the concert and the reception. Doors will open at approximately 3:30 p.m., and the audience is asked to be seated by 3:55 p.m. Late arrivals will need to sit in the balcony. The church, with the exception of the balcony, is handicapped accessible. There is no admission fee. Donations will benefit the Mount View Chamber Singers who will also have their cd's available for purchase. For further information call 785-3521.

       With a Lincolnville byline, Jennifer Mitchell, whose voice MPBN listeners are familiar with, visited Josh Gerritsen and Marya Gelvosa recently, at their farm on Van Cycle Road, Donkey Universe interviewing them for a piece on young Maine farmers. With the average age of a farmer in the U.S. 58.3 years, and rising, Maine’s farmers under the age of 35 have increased 40%; nationally, the increase is just 1.5%. Read Jennifer’s piece for interesting analysis. Lincolnville is certainly seeing this trend!

The Taste of Christmas: My Mother’s Fruitcake

Ruth and Mae Holyoke, my mother and grandmother, made fruitcakes every year, light fruitcake my mother always emphasized. And it is light, actually more like a pound cake. My granddaughters pitched in after school the other day, helping me make this year’s batch. One did the butter/egg/sugar mixture, another sifted the flour and stirred some into the candied fruits, those containers of improbably-colored fruit you see stacked in the supermarket this time of year. The third girl prepared the pans. This recipe makes three bread pan size cakes.

Ruth’s Fruitcake

3 sticks butter, softened

1 1/8 C sugar

6 eggs

4 1/8 C flour

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

3 T orange juice

3/4 pkg. golden raisins (or regular raisins)

1 8 oz container mixed candied fruit

1 small container green cherries

1 small container red cherries

1 C walnuts

Prepare 3 bread pans: butter the pans, then line with waxed paper, allowing some to hang over. Preheat oven to 275º.

Beat the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well. Sift the flour, baking power and salt together. Set aside about 1/2 a cup of the flour. Then add the rest of the flour mixure, to the egg/butter/sugar, alternating with the orange juice, beating until it’s smooth.

Set aside 3 or 4 cherries of each color for decoration. Dump the fruits and walnuts into a bowl and sprinkle the reserved flour over it. Mix with a wooden spoon, then add all to the batter. Mix the fruit into the batter until it’s evenly distributed, smoothing the tops. Bake for two hours. Cool pans on a rack for a bit, then, tugging on the wax paper overhangs and gently loosening where necessary with a knife, remove the cakes. Brush the tops with warmed corn syrup, then cut up the reserved cherries and stick them onto the corn syrup, forming flowers or holly berries. Finally, dribble more corn syrup over the decorations to make them stick. Store the cakes in tins; they’ll keep for several weeks. We usually eat our last fruitcake of the season sometime in January.

With only a week and a half left until Christmas, what better place to do your shopping than Lincolnville? How about a gift certificate for a car detailing? Sam Dyer’s the guy to do it in Lincolnville. He’ll do an interior or exterior detailing or both. Dyer’s Detail is located just off Atlantic Highway (Route One) on Dyer Road, 236-9743, just before the Camden townline. Follow the signs up the road to his place. And as an added bonus, Sam’s got a wonderful collection of vintage toy trucks lining the walls of his garage; bring the kids when you stop in; he’s got some they can play with.

And how about Western Auto? The Hickeys – Loren, JoAnn, Dan & Susan – have a great selection of auto accessories – how about a set of jumper cables for the upcoming dead battery season? – knives, tools, and lots, lots more: stocking stuffers galore. I know in our house, after the kids left home, we’ve continued to do stockings for each other, and love finding items small enough to fit into our (quite roomy) stockings. According to Susan, their gift certificates are quite popular…

Finally, Rose Thomas at La Dolce Vita Farm  (323-1052) on Beach Road near Youngtown Corner is taking orders for holiday baking. Give her a call and see what she can make for you!