"A child, a child, shivers in the cold. Let us bring him silver and gold."
NO! Bring him a blanket!
I’ve been shivering in the cold here at the Little House by the Vineyard, but nobody brought me any silver and gold, or a blanket either. Ben Bohlen, however, did come by and unfreeze my pipes, which was certainly what I needed most. Ben is Greg’s youngest and tallest son, and 2025 Landlord of the Year in my book.
Anyway, there is a warming trend heading this way, and what I want for Christmas is for it to continue through the holidays and into the happy new year.
Speaking of the New Year, there is much excitement about 2026 here at Union Grove Farm. Our own brand of grapes, SuperHero Grapes, will hit the market. These will be freeze-dried thin-skinned muscadine superfruit, grown regeneratively. Union Grove is literally redefining super healthy delicious snacks. The delicious part I can attest to myself, having had the pleasure of test-driving some prototypes. The super-healthy part comes from actual scientific testing, which showed that one SuperHero grape is packed with antioxidants and nutrients equivalent to (among other things) TEN regular Thompson table grapes.
How ‘bout them apples! Er, grapes!.
Last year, in my Christmas column, I included a scintillating discussion of Christmas movies, featuring Christmas in California which follows the hackneyed Christmas chick flick plot to the letter. In that case, there is a dairy farm and the way the heroine is saved from bankruptcy and allowed to kiss the hero is when he comes up with a plan to stave off foreclosure by turning the dairy farm into …wait for it…a vineyard!
How very Union Grove-like.
I also sang the praises of the 2006 classic The Holiday, which I thought at the time might be the best Christmas movie ever. But I have discovered a better one, and it couldn’t be more different. It’s called Feast of the Seven Fishes. It was released in 2019, but is set in 1983 in, of all places, West Virginia. It’s got the classic rom-com boy-meets-girl, boy-loses=girl, boy-gets-girl plot, but you really care about these kids, because what sets it apart from all other Christmas movies is its authenticity, Gritty West Virginia snow, gritty West Virginia Italians and an authentic portrayal of the ritual Christmas Eve home-cooked (by the men in the family) meal, featuring seven different sea food species..
You want true grit? Count the number of times Juke gets thrown up on in the movie.
Netflix has it.
That concludes the movie review section of this column, so to get back to reality, I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying two outstanding seasonal musical performances this year. – Mark and Maggie O’Connor’s wonderful An Appalachian Christmas, which is a splendid presentation by one (or two) of the greatest violinists in the world, and the Christmas concert presented by the First United Methodist Church in Cary, North Carolina, a dazzling performance by a huge choir and full orchestra.
To top off the season, my elder daughter, Amy, and various members of her family, will be spending Christmas with Dear Old Dad at the Little House this year. Among other things, that will mean some really good food I don’t have to cook myself.
So here’s wishing you a Merry, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, too. And any other holidays you treasure in your family.
