Glacier County Honey Co.

It’s been a wild day at our house, to say the least!  After staying up till 1am to make sure our two-and-a-half-year-old’s Christmas was “perfect,” she took one look at the (awesome) John Deere “Gator” Santa brought and refused to go anywhere near it.  This, despite the fact that her “best friend” Axel has a similar John Deere ride that she is obsessed with.  Hmmm.  Instead, Maggie delighted in the many nail polish colors and fleecy purple jacket Santa also left behind, and also in his half-eaten cookies.

What do you want Santa to bring you, Maggie Rose? Purple presents!  And blue presents!

As the morning wore on, she did finally deign to sit in the darn thing, and once she did, it was true love.

We all speak of and delight in our traditions, but what I really love best about Christmas is that the sparkle of the lights in December’s blackness is ever magical, but the players are never quite the same.

Babyman, you’re my favorite new player.

Maggie Rose modeling the holly print dress Big Mama made for me over 30 years ago.

This year, we celebrated with most of Honeydew’s mother’s side of the family the weekend before Christmas.  Prime rib melted in our mouths, Jingle Juice flushed our cheeks, and the cacophony of the cousins made me wistful for a large family, and yet grateful for the occasional silence that does occasionally fall over our two kids simultaneously.  It was a wonderfully exhausting weekend.

For Christmas proper, we were lucky enough to be in our own home with our two tiny tots, and Brother Dear and my parents and Honeydew’s dad all came to us!  For the carseat/naptime set, being Home with your family is the greatest gift of all, I think.  Or at least it is for us after 30 solid days of Holiday Retail Insanity.  We put the “closed” sign up on the Glacier County Honey website on Friday, December 20, and although I’m sure we lost some sales in the last few days before the 25th, nothing we shipped after the 20th would have arrived by Christmas anyway, and the time with our family is priceless to us.

I love the aforementioned lights, I love the tinny carols pouring from the radio waves, I love wrapping the mailbox in fresh garland, I love picking out the perfect trinket for everyone on my list, and I love making lemon spice sauce, bourbon whipped cream, and shrimp’n’grits from scratch …….. but I am glad that it’s all over with now.

Time to pour a glass of bubbly, breathe deeply of Howard’s waning new baby scent, meticulously apply paint to each of Maggie Rose’s tiny nails, and lean against my husband on the couch.  We’ll clean up next year.

Taking the Snow Belle out for a spin!

The biggest hit of Christmas was probably the reincarnation of our old Brio train set.  Nan and Chuck added a few new parts for Maggie Rose and Howard, built a table for it, installed the whole shebang upstairs and I haven’t seen Maggie since.  

Merry Christmas, y’all!

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  Some photo credits to Nancy Stone. All Rights Reserved.

In a Radio Flyer!

And we’re feeling merry and bright indeed!

Somehow, someway, our children have managed to imbue us with the jolly Christmas spirit, and I’m personally feeling merrier than I have in a long while.  As I’ve written in years past, Christmas/Hanukkah/whatever-you-celebrate-in-December, is marketed as joyous, but the twinkling lights can be hard to bear when you’re grieving, or lonely, or just plain grumpy.  For me, the past nine years were somewhat dulled, stolen of the season’s sparkle, as the calendar turned to December, and I faced down my brother Howard’s looming absence.

But now I have a full on, walking, talking, singing, counting, tantrum throwing, cuddling, kissing, apologizing, hugging, dancing, cookie decorating toddler.

And she’s obsessed with Santa and his reindeer.  And suddenly Honeydew and I have not only cut down and decorated an enormous Charlie Brown tree for our house, we’ve strewn the porch in twinkling lights and added two smaller trees, garland tagged with Christmas cards, AND a wreath to frame the door.  In the bathroom, a snowman my aunt Sissy made years ago smiles next to the soap.  In Maggie’s room, the tiny tree that stood watch during the Advents of my youth glows on the nightstand.  In the kitchen, some of my mother’s Christmas Spode graces the table, and tinsel adorns a few random elk sheds.

Maggie whirls about the house in the kaleidoscope glow of the tree.  Howard alternates between beaming and gaping at it all, and tries to eat the sparkling lights.  And the dog’s fur.  And does eat lots of guacamole.  But I digress.

I know these magical, child fueled Christmases are very few, and it won’t be long before I look back on what sometimes seems to be an endless cycle of waking long before dawn to pour beeswax candles and ornaments under the cover of starlight, and running back and forth from the shop to the house to make hot chocolates, change diapers, kiss boo-boos, and running back out again to attempt to bottle honey with my youngest in the Baby Bjorn — I don’t recommend this procedure, for the record — and the constant labeling and boxing and shipping and printing and interruptions — baby is hungry, toddler needs a book, baby needs a nap, toddler needs a kiss, baby needs to be held, oh wait it’s dinnertime!  But there’s still 500 pounds of honey to go!  We’ll come back after bedtime and finish, okay?  Sigh.  Okay.

Yes, all is merry and bright around here.  And I am grateful for this season of my life, as exhausting as it is.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

Indulgent readers, my before-2014-resolution is to get back to writing about all the things that make throwing the covers back worth it: the Rocky Mountain Front, honeybees, precious children, charming Honeydew, and Kalispell Kreamery half-n-half in my Montana Coffee Traders coffee.  Or, if you’re like me, coffee in my half-n-half …

But for now, please allow me one more self-promotional post, as this is the busiest week of the year for our retail business, and we want to make the backbreaking hours worth it.

At the last minute, we accepted an invitation to sell the best-honey-you’ve-never-tasted-and-beautiful-beeswax-too at the Handmade Holiday show, and we’d love to have our Montana friends join us there.  We’ve never done this show before, but we understand there will be wine and munchies to nosh on as you peruse selections from Northwest Montana’s most talented artisans.  We were absolutely humbled to be invited.

Here are the details:

When: Friday, Dec. 6th, 5 pm – 9 pm
Saturday, Dec. 7th, 10 am – 4 pm

Where: Bohemian Grange Hall (behind Montana Coffee Traders on US Hwy 93), 125 Blanchard Lake Rd, Whitefish, MT

If you’re in Northwest Montana, please spread the word!  We’d love to see you.

End of self-promotional posts in 3, 2, 1 …. be merry, y’all.

2013.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.

We’ll keep this short, and sweet, of course.  Now through midnight MST on Cyber Monday 2013, any order placed on http://www.glaciercountyhoney.com will receive a FREE gift pack of raw honeystix – 20 stix plus a Glacier County Honey sticker!

In addition to the gift pack, any order over $25 will receive a FREE Glacier County Honey Co. beeswax ornament.

Thank you for your support, on Cyber Monday and throughout the year.

And remember, our website will calculate your order and email you an invoice that may or may not be correct, depending on discount codes, in-state v. out of state shipping, etc — hang tight and we’ll email you a 2nd invoice that will be correct, and will allow you to pay via credit/debit/check.  As always, please call us with any questions: 406-544-2818.

2013. Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.