Our Family Michaelmas Party
It’s been a crazy-busy weekend and our Michaelmas celebration at home was both postponed and rolled into a little birthday party for Ian. Change is the name of the game, and we adapted well to suite our circumstances. All day on Saturday, Ian and I were at Tough Mudder in Patterson, California. (He participated; I was support crew and spectator.) The boys were with their besties and the dog was with grandma. We spent Sunday preparing our home for the party …
… and making Dragon Bread. Here are my sweet bakers. This year we used a maple oatmeal bread recipe and I rolled in brown sugar and dried cherries, blueberries, and plums inside the dragon’s body. The boys wanted a sweet dragon. Next year, I might try a savory bread. We use a different recipe each year.
They like adding bits of dried apricots, cherries, and almonds on to the bread to make it fearsome.
Here it is still in progress. Lucas did the eyes and teeth. Of course, it got puffier during the second rise. We wanted a nice big dragon bread to share with our guests.
It’s a good thing we already had some decorations out. We cleaned to make everything just so. Poor Ian was a bit sore from the previous day, but we got our home presentable. Lucas did some homework.
We served “fillet of dragon” and the dragon bread. I baked a honey and vanilla yogurt birthday cake and made blackberry sauce to top it. One of the legends of St. Michael is that when he cast Lucifer out of heaven, the fallen angel landed in a blackberry bramble patch and spoiled all the berries for the year. So you should only eat blackberries before Michaelmas and not after.
Here’s our pretty table, with mismatched plates and napkins, and our homemade Michael’s sword napkin rings. Grandma Syd and Papa brought a gorgeous green salad to share. Grandpa Glen and Mimi brought a wonderful potato salad with tarragon and hard-boiled eggs. It was yummy. The fillet of dragon came out perfectly. (Thanks, Ian!)
Then we visited and shared stories about recent and not-so-recent trips to France and Amsterdam. We discussed the Tough Mudder event, the Michaelmas festival in Waldorf schools, the Bayeux Tapestry, and the Battle of Hastings, and art and other interesting things.
It was a warm, lovely gathering and we are grateful that we were able to share our Michaelmas celebration with extended family this year. I hope Ian didn’t mind too much sharing his family birthday celebration with Michaelmas. Sometimes the only thing that makes sense is to combine occasions, ya know?
Blessings of the Michaelmas season,
Blessings of adaptability and courage in the face of change and the coming darkness,
Blessings of abundance and a grateful harvest,
Blessings of strength and inner resolve to you and yours.
October 1, 2012 at 3:30 pm
what a wonderful weekend. such a great dragon bread!
October 2, 2012 at 8:54 am
Thank you, Heathermama. 😉 It was a great time. Thanks for saying hi!
October 1, 2012 at 4:31 pm
Happy Michaelmas! What a fun gathering. Are you entering your dragon bread in the Little Acorn fb contest? Looks to be a great group of scary breads.
October 2, 2012 at 8:55 am
Happy Michaelmas to you Becca! Yes, our photo was entered. Great dragon breads in that Little Acorn Learning album. What a sweet, funny community tradition we are all co-creating!