I put away our Christmas ornaments today and disassembled the tree; I packed up the lights around the window, the “candles” in the dining room, and the gingerbread tea light holders. Because we’re not quite finished burning through this year’s Frasier Fir candles, I’ll keep our new Sagaform votive holders out a little longer. The spot where the tree was looks awfully bare now, but it’s nice to get things put away and to look forward to next year.

I pack all of our mostly-flat ornaments in an old chocolate box in layers of tissue; the more dimensional ones are stowed in a larger box cushioned with crinkle-cut paper. For added protection, any ceramic or glass pieces are clad in bubble wrap. As if that wasn’t enough, a very few of the ornaments (not pictured) spend the better part of the year obsessive-compulsively stored in their original boxes for maximum security.

All these smaller boxes fit into two plastic totes with locking lids to protect against the periodic flooding our storage space is prone to—the cause of which has thus far not been discovered.

And so, comfortably enough past Epiphany, we close up the boxes of Christmas until next year.

Every Christmas my father prepares buñuelos for the family on the mornings of the 24, 25, and 26 so that all can have their share—no matter their arrival time. A round Colombian cheese bread, buñuelos are made from corn starch, shredded queso campesino, milk, and a little salt and sugar (we first mentioned them here). They are made from a very wet dough, as you’ll see below, and fried to perfection. The dough-balls turn naturally in the hot (but not too hot) oil, and can be helped along with the tap of a chopstick or the end of a wooden spoon. They’ll be firm to the touch when ready to be removed from the oil, and are best eaten warm. As kids we’d sometimes have them with peanut butter and milk. As a lover of sausage biscuits, this year another idea occurred to me…

Enjoyed for the first time today, “Buñuelo Sliders” proved to be a very repetible experiment.

Update: For the recipe, see comments below.