Happy Christmas!

A little video for your holiday enjoyment.

Holiday Shop-n-Stroll in Silver Spring

This sounds like an adorable event: Handmade Mart, the indie craft fair, and FRESHFARM Markets teamed up to put together a holiday shopping event in downtown Silver Spring on December 5. There will be artisans and crafters selling handmade goods, produce and other items from farmer's market vendors, and a lighted Christmas tree.

It will take place along Ellsworth Drive between Georgia Ave. and Fenton Ave., near the Silver Spring Metro. Hours are 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Holiday Baking Classes

Fabrice Bendano shows students how to make macarons in his monthly class at Adour.

Gifts made with love in your kitchen are some of the best presents. Take a cooking class at an area restaurant, and your friends and family will receive delicious presents while you'll add new desserts to your recipe box.

Adour offers its next monthly macaron making class tomorrow, when Fabrice Bendano shows how to make pumpkin macarons and Emmental cheese gougères.

At Culinaerie, sign up for Gifts From Your Kitchen, a 1 p.m. class on Nov. 28 that teaches you to make scone mix, lemon curd, preserves and white chocolate bark.

Attend 'Tis the Season… for Baking at 1 p.m. on Dec. 5 at PS7's, to learn how to make Christmas cookies and more while sipping a cocktail.

Fancy Cakes by Leslie in Bethesda offers a holiday cake-decorating workshop on Dec. 7 from 7-9 p.m.

Visit each spot's web site to sign up.

Season's Greetings: Holiday Cards from the Archives of American Art

Get into the holiday spirit with a trip to see the Archives of American Art's new show on handmade holiday cards, which opens today at the Reynolds Center. The Archives staff found scores of holiday cards nestled within artists' papers, and decided to put together a show of cards that artists sent to each other, to their dealers, and to friends. They're located in the Fleischman Gallery, which now features blue walls painted with large snowflakes.

Alexander Calder, Dan Flavin, William T. Wiley (whose works you can see in a retrospective upstairs) and others all made cards. Demi and Arturo Rodriguez painted Santa onto a postcard of Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles, while dealer Leo Castelli was a frequent recipient of cards, some of which are from artists he worked with and some from artists hoping to work with him.

You can take a page from the artists' books and make your own cards this year. Local artist Ed Bisese, who has a card in the show, will be offering a card making work-shop on Dec. 12 from 1-3 p.m. at the museum. Or, just send an e-card of one of the cards in the show.

Season's Greetings is on display through January 10.

Noche Crist holiday card to Prentiss Taylor, ca. 1962. Prentiss Taylor papers, 1885–1991. Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution.

St. Patrick’s Day in D.C.

I generally don't care about St. Patrick's Day. I love corned beef and Irish soda bread (which I've been eating it for breakfast this week, recipe below), and everyone wears green, which is my favorite color. So while I won't be going out and drinking green beer tonight, I will share with you one of the more ridiculous press releases I've received lately. This "party" happened this morning, but the idea is so absurd, I can't not post it.

St. Patrick’s Day Party at the Great Ape House with the Smithsonian National Zoo’s Orangutans and Gorillas

The National Zoo has taken St. Patrick’s Day up a notch! In keeping with a “green” theme - all the food served at the “party” to the gorillas and orangutans will be green and given as enrichment; the keepers are painting shamrocks on giant brown paper bags that are then filled with goodies: green foods that include melons, grapes, kale, etc. Both the orangutans and gorillas truly enjoy the thrill of finding the bags (strategically placed throughout their exhibits) and retrieving the food out of these giant containers. In addition, the keepers also decorate their exhibit (inside where the gorillas and orangutans actually live) with more shamrocks and green decorations.

Though it's not "green" in conservation to the naked eye, all the products the Zoo uses for this party are indeed recyclable (brown paper bags, paper shamrocks) while the food is healthy for the animals. It's a tie-in with conservation, nature, and St. Pat's Day.

If you want to celebrate in a more traditional way, whip up easy Irish soda bread.

Irish Soda Bread:

1 egg
1 1/2 C buttermilk*
2 T oil
3 C flour
1/2 C sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 C raisins

*To make buttermilk add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to milk and let stand for 5 minutes.

Directions:

Beat egg slightly in the buttermilk. Put all dry ingredients
in bowl. Add liquid ingredients and blend well. Add raisins.

Lightly grease round cake pan. Spread dough evenly and cut a cross into the top with a knife. Bake at 350* for 50-60 minutes - check with a toothpick. Cool on rack.

Valentine's Day Coverage

As some of you know, Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays (in theory. Almost never in practice.). Last year I did a gift guide on the site, but this year I'm doing a countdown to the day, which kicks off February 1, and focuses on Valentine's Day related events around town — from cocktails to ballets. So PR folks, if you've got anything, send 'em along, since the 14 slots are already filling up.

Happy Hannukah!

Okay, not yet. But so you can plan accordingly here's advance notice of events coming up.

• Theodore Bikel stars in his one-man play Sholom Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears at the DCJCC's Theater J. It actually starts today in previews, but opening night is Sunday, and you can read my lovely piece on Bikel in next Wednesday's Express. Click here for more info.

• Spike Mendelsohn of Top Chef and Good Stuff Eatery is holding a latke-making demo at Sixth and I at 6 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $6 and available here. And this reminds me that I have a latke recipe I've been meaning to try.

Gift Guide

Now that Thanksgiving is over and it is full speed ahead into the rest of the winter holidays, it's time for my yearly gift guide. All are gifts that I would either give (though no one will actually be getting them, since all those who receive holiday gifts from me read this site), or are gifts that I'm secretly hoping to receive.

16MM One Row White Pearl Collar Necklace with Goldtone Clasp

Also called the "Michelle Pearls," this is the faux pearl necklace that Mrs. Obama has been wearing lately. $50, available at Carolee online.

Subscription to Intelligent Life

I've written about my love for the web site More Intelligent Life and have lamented that the print magazine is not available in the United States. Well now it is, though it costs $60 for four yearly issues.

Blood Orange Mika Room & Body Spray By Voluspa

I've never thought of wearing a room spray as perfume, but this blood orange spray, which I picked up at Anthropologie last spring works as both. $18.

Garden and Cosmos, The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur

My favorite fall art exhibit at the Sackler Gallery, Garden and Cosmos, The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur, features paintings with intricate, intoxicating detail. If someone can't make it to the gallery, bring them this book instead. Available online or at the Sackler Gallery.

New York City in a Bag

Because I love things you can play with, I'm drawn to this model city. Available at the Museum of Modern Art store or online.

Subscription to Today in Literature

For $25 a year, you can receive invaluable tidbits about books and authors in your email box. Need to know what day Hart Crane hosted a party for Harry Crosby that was attended by E. E. Cummings, William Carlos Williams, Malcolm Cowley and Walker Evans? December 7. Or the day Theodore Roethke was hospitalized for a manic-depressive breakdown? November 12. I keep signing up for free trials with my various email addresses, but am starting to think that the $25 would be worth it. Subscribe here.

Vested dachshund Cambridge tie

The world's cutest tie? Quite possibly. Available at J. Crew.

Holidays at the National Gallery

Starting today the National Gallery of Art will be decorated for the holidays — hundreds of red and white poinsettias, amaryllis plants, and twelve Christmas trees dressed up with sparkling white lights will be in the West Building Rotunda and Garden Courts.

In addition to decorations, the Gallery is holding some special activities.

• Screenings of the 50-minute BBC film The Private Life of a Christmas Masterpiece: The Annunciation looks at Jan van Eyck’s The Annunciation, which is in the Gallery's collection. Screenings are at 12:30 p.m. on December 10–12, 17–19, 24, and 26 in the East Building Auditorium.

• The Christmas Story in Art, a 60-minute discussion about paintings in the collection that contain (Christmas) holiday themes, will be led by Gallery lecturer J. Russell Sale on December 9, 11, 16, 18, and 23 at 11 a.m. in the West Building Rotunda.

• Visitors can go caroling in the West Building Rotunda with guest choirs and ensembles at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. on December 13, 14, 20, and 21.

• Holiday concerts will be held on Sundays in the West Garden Court of the West Building. Performances are from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

December 14, Norwegian Christmas Festival Concert

December 21, Holiday Concert

December 28, New Year Concert

• And if for some reason you don't make it to the Gallery, on its web site, there's a streaming slideshow that explores The Adoration of the Magi, a Renaissance painting by Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi.

• And for the most important part — throughout December hot chocolate and special gelato flavors — apple cider, pumpkin, caramel apple, and peppermint candy cane — will be served in the cafe.

View of the National Gallery of Art Rotunda decorated with Poinsettia plants
and holiday greenery
Photo by Rob Shelley © 2006 Trustees, National Gallery of Art

Happy Fall!

It's the first day of fall today, and I really hope that Washington's day-time weather starts reflecting that. The nights are already perfect, but I can't wait to start pulling sweaters and jackets out of their hiding spots.

Happy Fourth of July!

Walt Whitman records the scene in Washington in 1863 in Specimen Days.

July 4th.—THE WEATHER to-day, upon the whole, is very fine, warm, but from a smart rain last night, fresh enough, and no dust, which is a great relief for this city. I saw the parade about noon, Pennsylvania avenue, from Fifteenth street down toward the capitol. There were three regiments of infantry, (I suppose the ones doing patrol duty here,) two or three societies of Odd Fellows, a lot of children in barouches, and a squad of policemen. (A useless imposition upon the soldiers—they have work enough on their backs without piling the like of this.) As I went down the Avenue, saw a big flaring placard on the bulletin board of a newspaper office, announcing “Glorious Victory for the Union Army!” Meade had fought Lee at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, yesterday and day before, and repuls’d him most signally, taken 3,000 prisoners, &c. (I afterwards saw Meade’s despatch, very modest, and a sort of order of the day from the President himself, quite religious, giving thanks to the Supreme, and calling on the people to do the same.) I walk’d on to Armory hospital—took along with me several bottles of blackberry and cherry syrup, good and strong, but innocent. Went through several of the wards, announc’d to the soldiers the news from Meade, and gave them all a good drink of the syrups with ice water, quite refreshing—prepar’d it all myself, and serv’d it around. Meanwhile the Washington bells are ringing their sundown peals for Fourth of July, and the usual fusilades of boys’ pistols, crackers, and guns.

Happy Fourth, Washington. I'm off to the fireworks.

Mother's Day Gift Guide

My inbox has been inundated with ideas for Mother's Day dinners, brunches, recipes, flowers, gifts, cards, mimosas, etc. So what, I thought, my own mother lives five states away and I can't take her out to dinner or brunch or make her a blackberry champagne cocktail (but I CAN make myself one). Besides, her gift was ordered a week ago and the card is already in the mail.

So if your mother lives locally and you're lazy, here are some last minute ideas.

• Artisan Confections in Arlington is having a Mother's Day sale, with 10% off all purchases of $15 or more. Jason's chocolates are colorful and among the most beautiful I've ever seen.

• Saturday's 14th and U Farmer's market will have flowers, including salmon tulips, hesperis, and alliums. Please stay away from lilies. Please.

• If you're planning to take Mom out, check here for listings. It seems like every restaurant has special brunches and dinners planned for Sunday.

Happy Easter!

This year I made everyone Easter cards using vintage pictures, like this one.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! This is the first March holiday I'm spending in the US in four years, (the previous three being spent in Ireland, England, and Scotland), so it's a bit strange to be having corned beef and cabbage after a long hiatus.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day, so I bring you Julia Ward Howe's "Rouge Gagne" and Jeff Koons's "Hanging Heart."

The wheel is turned, the cards are laid;
The circle's drawn, the bets are made:
I stake my gold upon the red.

The rubies of the bosom mine,
The river of life, so swift divine,
In red all radiantly shine.

Upon the cards, like gouts of blood,
Lie dinted hearts, and diamonds good,
The red for faith and hardihood.

In red the sacred blushes start
On errand from a virgin heart,
To win its glorious counterpart.

The rose that makes the summer fair,
The velvet robe that sovereigns wear,
The red revealment could not spare.

And men who conquer deadly odds
By fields of ice, and raging floods,
Take the red passion from the gods.

Now, Love is red, and Wisdom pale,
But human hearts are faint and frail
Till Love meets Love, and bids it hail.

I see the chasm, yawning dread;
I see the flaming arch o'erhead;
I stake my life upon the red.

Valentine's Day Gifts

At pimmsoclock we love Valentine's Day, and have selected holiday-appropriate gifts for you, just in case you haven't been planning months in advance.

Declarations of Love Stationery
(excerpts from letters between US presidents and their wives)

Red Hot Valentine Tulips

Aerie Sunshine Lace Cami

Other People's Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See

Heart Petit Fours

Soul Mates Grapefruit Lip Gelato

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas devoted blog-readership! I hope your holiday is just like mine — filled with sweaters, lots of food, and snow.


Here's a link to Welsh poet Dylan Thomas's short story, A Child's Christmas in Wales.

Holiday Gift Guide

Here at Pimm's O'Clock we like to think that everyone knows just the right gifts to buy everyone else. But this isn't so, and there's no time when it manifests itself more than the holidays — we all know that someone who wears Bad Holiday Sweaters (without a sense of irony) gives gifts that are just as poorly considered as their choice of holiday garb, and sometimes buying for someone a generation removed can be a difficult endeavor. Below are suggestions for appropriate holiday gifts, and all deliver, so with a click of a button, good taste can arrive on someone's doorstep.



• Jewel Bud Vases, Red Envelope

Channel Venice with handmade, mouth-blown glass bud vases. They're sized for single flowers, at 2 3/4" high. The set of six includes amber, pink, red, purple, blue, and green, and are so cute you don't even need to fill them with flowers to make an aesthetic statement.

$40





• Traveling Martini Set, Barnes & Noble

One never knows when one might need to whip up a martini — made by Picnic at Ascot, this set is perfect to bring to picnics, family reunions, or anywhere a surreptitious drink may be in order. The hard case contains an 8 oz. cocktail shaker, double jigger, funnel, 3 oz. flask, two olive sticks and two 3 1/2 oz. martini glasses.

$59.95





• Herringbone Chesire Jacket, J. Crew

My love for J. Crew is no secret, and this jacket may just be the most perfect article of clothing I have ever seen from them. It comes in four colors, but the obvious choice is tomato — what better way to get in the holiday spirit than wearing this confection of a coat. The shape is adorable but the ribbon ruffle around the neck is the icing on the cake.

$225




• Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy, Amazon

I've written about this pair before — an American expatriate artist couple, the Murphys were friends with the Picassos, Hemingways and Fitzgeralds, among other luminaries. The book explores the Murphys' lives through pictures and text, and the well-heeled couple are inspirations for budding sophisticates. The Murphys' lives were not all fun and games, and Making It New, like the exhibit it is based on, balances the triumphs and tragedies they faced.

$34.95





• Cherry Blossom Thank You Notes, Crane & Co.

These Cherry Blossom notes from Kate Spade are ideal — especially for Washingtonians — to send to a gracious note to gift-givers. I compulsively buy stationery, since I think there's nothing better than a hand-written note, and Ms. Spade makes some of my favorite paper products. Not to mention one of the cutest web sites I've ever seen.

$25/10 notes



• D.C. Chocolate Tour, Après Peau

For literal good taste, with a Washington angle, these chocolate bars are perfect to send to out-of-town friends. There are two sets, and bars bear names like "Washington Monumint," "Key Bridge Key Lime," and "Rose Garden Raspberry."

$25/4 bars



• Edith Wharton, by Hermione Lee, Barnes & Noble

Ms. Wharton was an arbiter of good taste, having written books on home decoration in addition to her novels and travel books. Hermione Lee's autobiography, which I am reading, does justice to one of the great writers of the turn of the century. The Times (of London) calls the book "epic and definitive," and it's a must-have for any Wharton aficionado. Lee is also known for her biography of Virginia Woolf.

$35



• Flensted Mobile, Shop The Escape

These mobiles are made by the Flensted family on a Danish island, and are whimsical without being insubstantial. This one, Turning Leaves, is Calder-esque and beautiful. Their website offers a number of mobiles, from the most popular Elephant Party to sailboats to angels and Christmas trees.

$59.50





• Marc Chagall Illustrated Bible, Amazon

Since Christmas is — in theory, if not in practice — a religious holiday, why not pick up a copy of Marc Chagall's illustrated Bible? It covers Genesis, Exodus, and the Song of Solomon and features Mr. Chagall's beautiful illustrations. I saw a copy at the Papyrus store at Pentagon City, but it is also available on Amazon.

$19.95




• British Tea Sampler, Williams-Sonoma

Tea is a requirement for the end of any good dinner party, and therefore makes a terrific hostess gift during the holiday season. This tea sampler is a selection of earl grey, jasmine, darjeeling, and English breakfast blends, and the sixteen individual sachets come in a pyramid-shaped box. The teas come in a storage chest with the history of each tea printed on the underside of the lid.

$24.50

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving may not be my favorite holiday, but this article is starting to make me rethink that.

Washington Blade Holiday Gift Guide

The Blade's Gift Guide, which took up a great deal of my time over the past few weeks, is out today, so pick up a copy. Or, read it online. I wrote the children's and foodies' sections.