Christmas, Winter Solstice and Chili pepper

Christmas is coming soon! Yesterday were spent the afternoon baking cookies and looking for some last minute presents. Every present is now wrapped and ready to pack. I still have some important things to do in the run up, like cleaning and a major overhaul of the bike(s), packing, cleaning the house etc., but with decent planning we'll be fine!
Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day (daylight) of the year! It is time to celebrate... From now on the days can only get bigger, although it can still get colder... brrr.... It is also the start of the Winter season! We already had the first snow fall in late November, but with only two centimeters of snow... maybe later it gets more interesting.
And now for something completely different...

Our indoor "three vase garden" has been going on. We planted parsley, basil and chili peppers in three vases before this spring. This year, Spring was actually quite warm but Summer was pretty lame, and although our plants grew and some flourished (basil and chili peppers) they did it quite late in the summer. Mid September I had to take the vases indoor as the conditions outside deteriorated. When inside I tried some hand pollination (as I have no bees or flying insects at home) with a cotton bud and as a result I managed to get some basil seeds and to my surprise, one chili!

This week it changed color! it has gone red! I have some projects to extend the light time and control the moisture in the earth, something similar to the garduino project ... but more autonomous and without a full blown arduino and minimal feedback to the user.