Cioppino

There's a folk-lore that Cioppino came about when Italian fishermen would come in at the end of the day and pool their resources, a bit of this kind of fish and a bit of that, to make into a communal stew. They would tell one another to "chip in". When it came time to make dinner tonight....that's what I said to the freezer ..."chip in". So in went a bit of scallops, a bit of shrimp, a bit of crab, cod, and mussels. The birthday girl ate all of hers, and liked it, minus the mussels. She dearly loves clams in the shell, but not mussels. There was french bread to sop up with.
After dinner we gathered in the snug and watched Netflix Instant: Christmas Story, a different folk story, a movie from Finland about St. Nicholas. I loved the costumes, Ada's blue wool cape with embroidered braid trim, the Nordic knit scarves and sweaters, the grey mittens with white embroidery. The wood workshop was intriguing too, with it's old fashioned lathe and candlelight. It all fed into my winter nesting instinct, home-fires, candlelight, warmth of wood, and knitting, knitting, knitting. Last week I knit another fashionista scarf like Josie's for Tori, and a red ribbed scarf for our church Christmas outreach. Just getting warmed up........have to see what my yarn stash can "chip in".