Christmas PJ's

Know what? I just figured out how come it's okay for some stores to have their Christmas stuff out on the shelves a couple months early. It's for those of us that have a relative/loved one far from home. I mean, how can we give, say, our missionary son, a piece of home, if those particular Christmas tradition-type items aren't in the stores when it's time to send our packages? So, in a way, I'm grateful you can buy candy canes and chocolate oranges in October.

My boy isn't overseas, but I still had to ship his package out before December had hardly begun. This meant I had to get busy and get his usual Christmas pajamas sewn up.

I had the fabric. I had measurements (taken before he left). I just needed to make the time to get them cut out and sewn. When I finally forced myself to get it all out, I discovered the fabric was just a smidge shorter than what I needed for his tall self. I mulled it over, and finally decided I'd add a strip of plain black flannel to the bottoms of each leg instead of hemming them. It works.

For the top, I dug up some random remnants of black knit, and more of white knit, and figured out which pieces would work. I ended up cutting the sleeves (in white) on the cross-grain, again due to a shortage of fabric length. Lucky for me, both knits I used were 2-way stretch.

I like how the whole thing came together, in the end. I sure hope he's happy with them, too.

(He'd better be! I even gave him pockets this year! I almost never do pockets.)

Come on over!

Hey, all! I just wanted to throw this out there, in case there was anyone that I didn't talk to, or who doesn't already know:

Everybody is welcome to come watch the fireworks from Stadium of Fire on my front lawn, Sat, Jul 2.

We're having a BBQ at 6pm (come if you want to - potluck - there should be plenty to eat - I'm providing burgers, hot dogs, and the fixin's), on the lovely patio:

photo from last year - after the party

and then we'll gather out on the front lawn (whenever they start the show, after dark, or whenever it is) for snow cones and such, while we watch the fireworks.

You may think it's odd for me to throw the invite out into the world, but that's how we roll for this one. Anyone and everyone is always welcome, and there's always someone new at the party. So come on over - we have a GREAT view!

Need the address? email, leave a comment, or call. I'm here.

Christmas with Teenagers

 Decided not to get a real tree this year - save myself one more errand, and a little cash...you know how it is. Our first time using this tree. The branches are, apparently, too weak to hold ornaments. Getting the star to stay on top? Yeah - that was...fun.

 All the gifts, wrapped, ready for the Christmas morning rush. Or whatever. I was a zombie by this time. (I do all this stuff Christmas Eve. It's tradition.)

I think this just about sums it up.
(Teenagers can be really hard to impress.)
But I totally dig Twin2's pj's - don't you? Those are monkeys, wearing sailor caps, in banana boats! I had to go to 3 different stores to find knit fabrics to match the flannel, and it was totally worth it. Now if we could just find him some banana-shaped slippers...
Twin1 is sporting his new Plushalicious, which hides his plain black flannel pj pants. He tells me he overheated himself wearing it to bed Sunday night.

Hope your Christmas was everything you wanted it to be!

A Pie for Everyone

Fabulous 4th (er, 3rd?)

Here's the full-on-decorated patio, all gussied up for our BBQ:

Didn't my SIL do a fabulous job with the lights? I love the way they swag along the bunting on the fence.

I wish I could always have my patio looking this cute!

(note: in the back, to the left, yet another piece of furniture with new cushions! made by me, of course)

late night snack

Last night, as I reached into the cupboard for my non-stick spray, in preparation for making the pound cake for the trifle (for the BBQ Saturday), I saw this half-empty bag of medium pasta shells,

and I was seized with a mostly irrational desire to eat them. NOW. I say irrational, because it was 10pm, the dinner hour long past.

I tried to resist, but as I shut the cupboard, my eyes drifted down to the counter, and came to rest on this very pretty bowl that my sister found for me at DI, which I had just picked up from mom's earlier in the evening.

(I had set it by the sink, so I could wash it before I put it away.)

Suddenly, I HAD to have medium shell pasta, in my very pretty bowl.

So, I did.

Yum.

I love pasta. I love pretty dishes with platinum trim. And I love when my sister thinks of me like that.

Thanks sis!

Summer is now, officially, here!

how to make the most of your Christmas tree

step 1: select (or cut your own) a fresh tree of a good-smelling variety. Wait until the week of Christmas to do this, so you can get it cheaply, and have the pleasure of staying up all night to decorate it and wrap presents.
step 2: decorate the heck out of it, to the point that your family complains about how bright it is, and could we please not put every decoration we own on it?
step 3: water at least twice daily, but only until New Years Eve. You'll want to let it dry out a little before you take it down, so as to cause the most discomfort to those assigned to remove decorations and lights. Also, it will shed more needles this way, leaving them underfoot to be crushed with every step, releasing again that wonderful smell.
step 4: wait until you have guests coming before you start to take it down. it should be brittle and dry by then, so taking the lights off will release that heavenly scent, and you will get needles in your hair, your clothes, poking you in the arms. well, not you, so much as the child/children assigned to this job. I keep each string of lights in a separate baggie, so the kids know how many they have to remove beforehand.
step 5: before removing the newly naked tree from the room (did the tree shrink? I could have sworn it took up more space than that when I brought it in), clear all rugs, pillows, boxes, furniture, etc., from the path to the door, and sweep or vacuum everything. You don't want to scoop up dust bunnies with your pine needles when you put them away for later.
step 6: search the house fruitlessly for a suitable pine-needle container. realize you just used the last empty ice cream bucket to store your sisters wedding cake top in the freezer (hoping nobody thinks it's ice cream before she's back from her honeymoon and can take it home with her. you did label it, didn't you? go make sure you labeled it, just in case). Find another bucket, wash it out (it had packets of soup in it, they can go somewhere else). wait for it to dry while you try to get the kids to please take all their Christmas presents out of the living room.
step 7: drag tree out front door, across porch, yard, driveway. make sure you scrape it past everything you can, maybe even run into things for good measure. you want to leave a nice thick trail of pine needles. pine needles are great for making your pathways less slippery. don't put the tree in the garbage or on the curb for pickup just yet - you might want more pine needles.
step 8: on your way back in the house, pick up any larger branches from path, and sweep the porch. don't worry about these pine needles - they will make a great mulch for your flower beds, so just sweep them off that direction. toss the branches in the yard waste bin. sure, they won't pick that up again until spring, but they won't hurt anything by being in there.
step 9: back inside, sweep up the heavy trail of pine needles and put them in the now-dry ice cream bucket. you'll use them later to stuff sachets or pillows or something. probably. get a crumpled paper lunch sack to put the rest in when the bucket is too full. set these aside, without putting a lid on or folding over the sack.
step 10: remove any other traces of Christmas from living room, knocking over bucket and/or bag of pine needles at least once, to enjoy that heavenly scent all over again. start tossing stray pine needles in fireplace instead of crumpled paper bag, to avoid tipping bag again. they'll make it smell nice if/when you next light a fire in there.
step 11: store bucket and bag of pine needles somewhere logical, so when you finally decide to make those sachets or pillows, you'll know where to find it. try to locate last years bucket, and the one from the year before, so they can all be together. after about an hour, give it up, and promise yourself that next time you come across one of those buckets, you'll immediately put it with the other one. really.
step 12: after a suitable time has passed, preferably after your city's tree pickup has long since ended, giving you no other option, get out that trusty (rusty?) chain saw, and cut up your Christmas tree for firewood. the needles will be very brown by now, so you probably don't need to save them with the rest. but if you want to, make sure you put them in the same place, and label them clearly (where did I put that bucket?).
step 13: stack firewood neatly out of the weather. you don't want to be burning fungus later.
step 14: realize you only thought you did the last two steps, when you stumble across the now very dry and very brown fire-hazard of a Christmas tree, somehow hidden behind the fence (oh, yeah, I brought it back here when I was headed for the chain saw, but then I remembered I had clothes in the washer, and I went to take care of that. must have forgotten about tree.), and shove entire tree, tip first, into your yard waste bin instead.

and I will leave a trail of pine needles in my wake

Finally, now that the wedding fuss is over, I had the time to take the Christmas tree out of the house. I made the boys undecorate it Saturday, thinking we might need the strings of lights for decorating for the reception. But it stood bare, shed needles surrounding it and crunching underfoot (aaah, what a heavenly smell!), until last night. I should have gone back to work after picking the boys up from school, because it's tax season, but I stayed home and removed Christmas instead.
(As it turned out, we didn't need the lights. Mom brought hers, too, and dad seemed to think one strand was enough anyway. I talked him into two strands, but he wouldn't budge past that. I personally would have used more, but maybe I'm just like that. Got the tree undecorated, though, didn't it?)
I swear, it took me over an hour to clean up the needles, and make sure all other traces of Christmas were removed from the living room. You know, like the stocking holders on the mantel, the cards, my cute Christmas tree pen, the wreath on the front door, stuff like that.
Alas, I did not feel I had the energy to visit the attic, so all the Christmas stuff is piled up around the closet in which the attic access resides.
Correction: I didn't feel I had the energy to get my teenage twins to help me lug things up there. Because talking teens into doing something they don't want to do takes a whole lot of energy sometimes. More than it might have for me to go back and forth, up and down, all by myself.
But it's ready to go back up there, boxes packed, etc.

Anyone need some pine needles? Anyone?

Christmas Eve

I'm in the shower by 3am, and headed for mom's by 3:30am, for our annual Christmas Eve WalMart run. I can't wake mom, so I finally head to WalMart on my own. 4am, mom calls and asks if I'm coming. I tell her I'm already at WalMart. She's miffed, so I have to apologize and bribe her with breakfast to get her to come down.
We finish shopping around 7am, and head for I-Hop, just as the WalMart gets to feeling a bit crowded for my liking. Great breakfast! (I can see us adding this to the annual tradition.)
After breakfast, I run home, stash what I can in the house, out of sight, leave the rest in the car, and go to work. (Yes, work. Only 1/2 day, they'll kick us out around noon, but I have stuff that needs to be done, and I need the hours.)
About 3pm I call the boys to remind them we're going to a friends for dinner, and then I leave work, and run an errand on the way home. Once home, I see Twin1 is still in the shower, so I make some caramel & white chocolate apples and pears while I wait (yes, he takes that long. don't ask me how he makes the hot water last, because it's a complete mystery to all of us.) We finally get out the door shortly after 4pm, on our way to dinner. Dinner at friends is great, we head for home around 7pm, stopping off at mom's on the way to pick up/drop off various Christmas goodies and such, pausing in the driveway to listen to "the H street sledding record", which I've never heard all the way through before. We're home before 8pm.
I measure both boys, and head for my pj patterns. Theirs is missing. I finally realize it's in with pj tops I cut out 2 years ago (they've not grown much except in height since then), which is deeply buried in sewing room. Deeply. (Just what possessed me to put something I knew I'd need before Christmas in such an inaccessible place, I really don't know. Especially as I placed it there right around Thanksgiving, so no way did I think I'd reorganize that again before Christmas.) About an hour later, I've retrieved the pattern and restored order in the sewing room, and I start to cut out the pj pants. No problems there, and I proceed to sew them. I'm fast, so I'm not worried. I'm done within another hour, maybe a little more (it was 2 pair, after all), and send boys to bed in new pj pants.
By about 11pm, I'm putting lights on the tree. I think my boys engineer our holiday just so I can't put up the tree until Christmas Eve, because they really really really like how that feels Christmas morning. Whatever. I've got SheDaisy's Brand New Year on the stereo, and I'm feeling pretty good.
Lights take me forever. (Christmas with the Rat Pack, Alley McBeal Christmas, Barenaked for the Holidays, maybe more)
I put on a few ornaments, tuck in some holly and poinsettias, put on a few more ornaments. Finally I give it up, put the star on top, tuck the rest of the ornaments behind the tree (you can still add some later - the tree will be up for at least a week more, right?)
About 1am, I start wrapping presents. I mentioned before how the twins like to get their cereal, ramen, and whatever else, right? All this must be wrapped. Because at their age, what's the fun if it's not wrapped? By 3am, I am cursing myself for not having wrapped the other stuff I've had for a while, because I'm still not done. I don't know how I'm still awake.
It's probably 4am before I finish. Luckily, I have teenagers, and they won't be up early. I grab a book, and settle in to sleep on the window seat, next to the Christmas tree, just so I can enjoy it a little longer.

Santa: real or not?

I had a typical "Santa" upbringing, I think. My parents would shoo us off to bed on Christmas Eve telling us if we didn't go to sleep, Santa couldn't come. We would all get in our pajamas and take a drive up in Indian Hills to see all the fancy Christmas lights on the big houses, and generally see at least one Santa arriving at someones house. Really. As in, an actual person, dressed in the red suit, carrying a big sack, knocking on the front door and booming out "Merry Christmas". For real. I even recall one that was up on the roof - we stopped the car and watched that together. (Them rich folks will do anything, it seems.) The drive was intended to put the younger kids to sleep, as well to get the entire family together for one more relaxing Christmas activity. The Santa sitings were an unexpected bonus.
As we got older, we would graduate to Christmas Eve helpers (another reason a large family is a good thing - helping to make that Christmas magic for my younger siblings is something I remember fondly). I don't remember ever having that moment of disappointment, or thinking my parents had been lying to me.
I'm not saying I believe there's some guy that lives at the North Pole making toys all year. Because that's just ridiculous. My personal concept of Santa includes the idea that he's a representation of how we should all behave - giving without expecting anything in return, because we see a need, or want to let someone know that someone does care. (Santa is Spanish for Saint, so it's not even totally at odds with the Christian side of the Christmas celebrations.) Add to that, there were, historically, in various countries, if you believe the legends/stories, some mysterious generous individual who left gifts anonymously, in honor of the Christmas season.
I can't honestly tell my kids he isn't real, because we've been recipients of someones kindness and generosity more than once, without having any idea who had left us the gifts. I'm happy not knowing who it really was, because it doesn't matter. It was done in the spirit of Christmas, therefore, Santa left the gifts.

One year, when the boys were in grade school, they did confront me with "there isn't a Santa", I responded with a quote I like: "When you stop believing in Santa, you get underwear for Christmas". And then proceeded to take down the stockings, since they wouldn't be needing those. The remark was quickly rescinded, and Christmas continued as per usual. Since that time, we have discussed the "Santa concept" many times, and I think my boys have come to think of it in a similar way. (There was that one discussion in which one of them was mocking me for thinking there was really some guy in a red suit that traveled around the world in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, but I explained my reasoning as best I could, and I'm pretty sure that twin stopped thinking mom was cracking up. I think.)

By far the funniest Santa explanation I've heard comes from Bil Lepp (my hands-down favorite story teller ever). He was driving around town with his young son in the car, and passed a house that had one of those huge blow-up Santa's, of the variety that has a fan blowing the air in all the time, in the front yard. It was daytime, though, and the Santa was splayed out flat on the lawn, because the fan was off. His son asked if Santa was dead. He's a good dad, he couldn't let the boy believe that, so he said "no, he comes back to life at sundown", which is generally when folks will turn on their fan-blown yard ornaments. It was real quiet in the back seat, for a bit longer than Bil was comfortable with, and he was starting to worry about what his son was thinking. His son finally says, "dad, is Santa a vampire?" Well, like I said, he's a good dad, so of course he said, "yes, son, Santa's a vampire." Bil claims this works like a charm for getting good behavior, and getting the child to go to bed early Christmas Eve. He just goes in the bedroom with some garlic and starts putting it in a circle around the child's bed, assuring him that it will protect him, as long as he stays in that circle.
To tell the truth, I can see the merits of that explanation. He never ages, despite being around for hundreds of years. The cold doesn't seem to bother him. He "moves impossibly fast" delivering toys in record time all over the world, and seems to know what we most want to find under the tree, as well as being irresistible, drawing us to him just by being who he is. I don't know about you, but I see some parallels here.

One last argument for allowing your sweet children to believe in Santa (and other fantastical creatures): a family I babysat for in my teens had done the bit about raising their kids without Santa, on the grounds that it was a lie. They now regret that decision, because they realized, after the kids were grown, that they had taken some of the magic out of their childhood. All the kids, at some point in their teens, had asked their parents why they had done that, and said they'd wished they'd been allowed to believe.

I think we could all use a little magic in our lives. But you can make your own decision.

Best Christmas Ever

The first year I got a Grand Fir, the kind that smells so heavenly, I didn't get it until a few days before Christmas, due to finances being rather low (my boys were very understanding about this, and had not complained at all, despite the obvious lack of Christmas in the house), and I hid it in the back yard until Christmas Eve. I spent the next couple of days clandestinely gathering white and silver ornaments for the tree. Anything in white or silver was game. A tiny white teddy bear, silver doilies (rolled into a cone shape and glued), crocheted snowflakes given to me by a friend years ago, tiny silver balls intended for a tiny tree, dozens of mini ornaments in pearl and white, bought years ago on clearance somewhere, and sheer white ribbon with silver trim. After the boys went to bed on Christmas Eve, one of my brothers came over to give the tree a fresh cut and help us get it in the door, and my baby sister stayed up with me to light and decorate it. All in silver and white, it looked magical.
In desperation, with my limited funds, I had gotten each boy their own box of cereal, case of ramen, and some mac-n-cheese, and wrapped these up so they'd have something more to open Christmas morning. It felt like a lame attempt. At the same time, having come from a large family (8 kids), I appreciated the value of having food that was only yours, so you didn't run the risk of "hey, who ate all the ramen?" if you didn't happen to have gotten your share.
No one can remember what any of the other gifts were, but if you ask either boy about his favorite Christmas, both of them, without any hesitation, will immediately say "that Christmas with the silver and white tree, when we went to bed with almost nothing, and woke up to that beautiful, magical tree."
I keep expecting them to tell me how lame it was/is to wrap up cereal and ramen for them, but every year, they remind me I need to get them their usual Christmas groceries, and make sure I wrap them up. And every year, they try to get me to hold off getting the tree. They always want me to wait and put it up Christmas Eve, so they can wake up to that same feeling. Sometimes, they get what they want.

it's really, really big

The tree is mega bushy. It sort of is this humongous thing, dominating the room, and hitting your nose with a deeply piney scent that almost makes you sneeze, but not quite.

I like to choose my trees by scent, due to one year in which I happened across one of this variety and enjoyed the scent for weeks (and still have some of the needles, which put off a great scent when you crush them or shake the jar). So now I'm addicted to having this particular scent, though some years I can't find one.
When I stopped at the tree lot last night, the guy knew exactly what kind I meant when I mentioned the scent, and, though he was out of them, knew where I could find one. It's called a Grand, and the smell is out-of-this-world heavenly, They look like this close-up (wish we had a scratch-n-sniff feature on here - it would knock you out, seriously)

I did not get so far as putting lights on yet. I know, it's getting a bit late in the month for that, but that's how it goes. It will get done.

chili pepper cookies

Made these for a Father's Day Fiesta, which my BFF puts on each year. My first experience with "flooding" icing, and with using the newish Wilton icing-in-a-glue-bottle. You microwave the bottle full of icing, do an outline around the cookie, let that set up, then reheat the icing and "flood" the centers. I used regular stuff for the leaves, since I wanted a little dimension on them. One small disappointment: the next day, the frosting had lost it's glossy look, and had streaks. So do them the day of, not the night before.