are things complicated yet?

2011

(Read 2010 here and 2009 here. This list of questions originates with the fantastic Linda at All & Sundry.)

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?

I resigned from my job with no intention of getting another job right away. (Yes, yes, yes, being a mother and runner-of-the-house is a job but I think we all know I'm talking about a pays-cash-money job.)

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I am not a specific resolution-y type person but I do have some things for 2011 that I am desperate to do and achieve and accomplish. There are websites I want to launch and businesses I want to create. Closets to organize, relationships to give more attention to, projects to complete, and moments to create.

Like every year, all of my ideas about self improvement reside firmly in the category of Time Management. It's an upward slope, getting better all the time, but far from perfect.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Uh, ME! Charlotte is pretty awesome, seven months in. 

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Jake. I really miss him. 

5. What countries did you visit?

Does looking at countries on Google Maps count? No? Well, then, no new countries for me this year. Again. But you know what? I am not really feeling like I missed out what with the Euro garbage and terrorism and pilots that can't recognize when their trans-Atlantic plane is stalling, even when the stall warning sounds more than 75 times. Nope! My living room is awesome! No need to leave! We've got Netflix, we're good for the next hundred years.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you didn't have in 2011?

A new project that I find creatively fulfilling. The closet under the stairs organized. New linens in my bedroom. Curtains in the kitchen. A new light fixture in the dining room. More nights of uninterrupted sleep. 

7. What dates from 2011 will be etched upon your memory, and why?

These kinds of questions are always really easy to answer when you've had a baby recently. I will always remember with an odd amount of clarity that night before Charlotte was born when I was convinced I was not in labor.

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year?

Well, the giving birth part was kind of a big deal but that's pretty much the answer to all these questions, isn't it? (BABY! I HAD A BABY! IN CASE YOU WERE NOT AWARE!)

I also had a refluxy baby (which makes the entire BABY! situation far more dramatic) and I had to to pay cash for her medications because they were not covered AT ALL by my insurance which did not add to the stress of the situation in any way.

(It totally added to the stress of the situation.)

($5 per solutab! FIVE DOLLARS! A DAY! CASH! FOR SEVERAL MONTHS. OMG WHAT A SCAM.)

(Wait, that's the same scam Starbucks is running.)

9. What was your biggest failure?

I wonder if a lot of parents do this, but I failed to recognize how hectic and irregular life is with a newborn. (And it was even my second newborn.) I mean, I KNOW that it's wild, but looking back now can I see that I should not have beat myself up about not returning a string of emails or wearing my pajamas all day or any of a thousand other things because HELLO I HAD JUST HAD A BABY. (With reflux!)

So, I failed to give myself credit for a lot of difficult and taxing and time-consuming things I was doing and instead focused on the things I wasn't doing. The little, unimportant, silly things. Which is stupid and so, so, so very me.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I lived a pretty clean 2011. No new scars, which I think is a first for me. (I scar and bruise like a banana.)

Oh wait, no, this isn't true. I burned my arm with the steam from a Beaba Babycook and while it did not scar (miraculous!), it hurt like hell.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

My iPad2 and I are very much in love.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

My mother. Oh my gosh you guys, my mom is AMAZING. She stayed with us for three or five weeks before and after Charlotte was born and she was a total LIFESAVER. She cleaned and cooked and managed Claire and she was just incredible. Things would have been very, very ugly if she hadn't been here.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

The entire Penn State abuse story. All of it. Disgusting.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Taxes. Medical bills. 

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

It might be too obvious to say that I was really, really, really excited to give birth, but dudes I really, really, really wanted to not be pregnant any more. My babies come after 40 weeks and I can say with some authority that all of the days after 40 weeks are pretty awful in their uncomfortable-ness. Sleeping on my stomach continues to thrill me and I'm not sure I'll ever stop appreciating that simple luxury.

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?

I don't know. I am not very cool since I don't listen to music a whole lot. Old MacDonald?

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?

Happier: Two cute kids and shedding the 9-5 stresses have been amazing for my mood.

Thinner: Not being pregnant and having a whole other human inside of me really helps on this metric.

Richer: The years continue to be kind and generous to our family.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

I wish I had spent more time nurturing my creative and professional side after Charlotte was born. There's still time for this, I know, but it feels like it will be more diffuclt to jump back in when I'm ready.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Disciplining the three-year-old. Being unable to fall back asleep in the middle of the night after the baby went back to bed. Dishes. Sweeping remnants of meals from the floor. 

20. How did you spend Christmas?

At home, with my family. It was lovely, lovely, lovely.

21. Did you fall in love in 2011?

I fell in love with Charlotte. I fell in love with my little family of four.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

Nightly News with Brian Williams is still #1 one my list for obvious, very handsome reasons.

I watched a lot of Sesame Street. I haaated The Office with Andy in charge, hello BORING. I got really into Storage Wars at one point and watched ten episodes in one night. (The things people leave in storage are FASCINATING.)

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

Gosh, "hate" is such a strong word and I read these memes every year where people are like, "I don't hate anyone! That's a terrible question!" Well, there are things I hate. I'm not so high and mighty that I won't tell you that yes, yes I do hate certain things and people and processes and I let these ideas occupy my brain and sometimes I really sit and stew about them.

Most of my stewing time in 2011 centered on the idea that I hate the people responsible for the colossal fuck-up of health care in America. I know it's not the worst in the world and I'm thankful for what we have, but it's a systematic and layered problem with the blame spread upon many shoulders and generations and industries and I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. 

HATE.

24. What was the best book you read?

I didn't read all that much this year. I only read a book if someone I trusted told me I should read it. Here, let me just list the books I read:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Steve Jobs biography (my favorite, by a long mile)

Game of Thrones

New Sookie Stackhouse book: Dead Reckoning (YES, I READ THESE BOOKS, SHUT UP.)

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

I really wanted to like Mumford and Sons, truly I did, but I DON'T. I don't even like them a little bit. So, perhaps this is not a musical discovery in the spirit of the question but I think this is definitely noteworthy that I have discovered that I do not care for Mumford and Sons, against an enormous tide of popularity and repeated suggestions from Pandora.

26. What did you want and get?

A healthy baby. An iPad2. A good hair cut. The opportunity to stay at home with my kids. Health insurance.

27. What did you want and not get?

A swimming pool. (Hey, I dream big.)

28. What was your favorite film of 2011?

I liked Super 8. That one was cute in a Goonies kind of way. Suspenseful, but not TOO creepy which is good because even scary movie previews give me nightmares. I also liked 172 Hours (the arm cutting off movie) a lot, even though there is the whole part about how HE CUT HIS ARM OFF (but it wasn't scary, just suspenseful). Last night we saw the new Mission Impossible and it was really good.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 32 in 2011 and honest-to-God I can't remember what we did. Oh, wait, now I remember. We went to New Orleans and I ate everything in the city. Oh man, that was a great trip. Beignets every morning. MMMMM.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

I will use the same answer as last year: A giant pile of tax-free cash. Isn't that everyone's answer to this question? I know money doesn't buy happiness but dude, it sure does fix a lot of immediate problems.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2011?

Part I

"I'm pregnant but I won't be for much longer and I don't feel like buying any maternity clothes so I will just pretend like this non-maternity skirt fits and this shirt covers my belly. Okay fine, I will go buy whatever Old Navy is selling in the under $20 range and hope it looks like work clothes. GAH."

Part II

"Can I nurse in this? Is it basically disposable, so that when Charlotte barfs on it and ruins it, I am not too upset? Does it go with shorts, because this is the hottest summer on record? Yes? Okay, I'll buy it. Actually, I'll buy TWO. Because, you know, BARF."

Part III

"Hey! This is something I haven't been able to fit into in a long time. I'm going to try it on. HOLY CRAP IT FITS! Also? It is very dated, why am I hanging onto these pants from 2002? I am donating these. But then...I won't have any pants that fit. Dammit."

32. What kept you sane?

The internet. You. I don't know how people parented before the internet. Really, I have no idea. Pioneers must have had a short lifespan because there wasn't any internet and their children drove them insane and then they died. That is what "threshing accident" really means. (Cap Garland must have had terrible children.)

Also, the YMCA. Discovering the YMCA was a total lifesaver for me. I am really fortunate that there is one very close to the house. It's only $60 a month for a membership for the entire family, there is free childcare and the facility is nice. The people are nice. Group exercise classes are included and it has truly made the difference for me in working out and not working out. I once did this whole day where I dragged my kids to every gym in a five-mile radius and the Y is the only one that didn't creep me out or make me feel like a less-than-worthy person because I wasn't already a stick-thin kickboxing power bitch.

33. What political issue stirred you the most?

Health insurance and health care, which is kind of annoying as it did not really make any significantly positive movement policy-wise in 2011.

34. Who did you miss?

Jake. Jake, Jake, Jake.

35. Who was the best new person you met?

Charlotte! (She probably doesn't count though, since she was a baby. I have a feeling the spirit of this question is more intended towards a new adult human that I met.)

36. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.

Just when I think I've hit my limit and I'm done, really done, I'm not. I can keep going. I can do more. I can handle whatever hard thing is ahead of me.

37. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. 

 

Merry Christmas!

These are the first few moments I've had alone in a few days and, of course, they come at 5 am with a baby struggling to eat this laptop while I type. A baby that just barfed on me, oh yes she just did.

But, I did want pause (With barf on my pajamas! I really love you!) to wish everyone a lovely Christmas, if you're the kind of person that celebrates it, and a very Happy Holidays if you don't.

Merry Christmas, from our family to yours!

You know what will derail an Advent activity calendar pretty fast? A plague, that's what.

So! I've spent the past few days doling out one teaspoon portions of Motrin to my oldest and whatever the middle hash-mark on the tiny medicine dropper is to my youngest. Then Chris picked up The Hacking and he didn't feel like doing much so it's been a blur of attending to sick people on the sofa.

Day 15

I think we watched Barney all day. Again. I don't really remember, Claire was still pretty sick.

Day 16

Claire did a Gingerbread house with her friend Emory today. I am told they both enjoyed it and wanted to eat all of the candy immediately. I wasn't here for it; I went to afternoon tea downtown with my best friend. 

 

It was nice. The last time I went there, they had someone playing a baby grand piano in the restaurant and this time there wasn't, although there WAS a lady playing a harp in the lobby of the hotel, which was really weird as NOBODY was in the lobby and EVERYONE was in the restaurant having tea. Why they didn't move her into the restaurant where we could all enjoy the music is beyond me.

I remember the food tasting better, but perhaps I have been spoiled ever since attending Afternoon Tea at The Palmer House in Chicago last year. (Or maybe it really WAS better in years past. The last time I went to tea at The Ashton was in 2007.) I mean, it was edible and everything but for my afternoon tea I don't want vegetables and red pepper dip, I want something FANCIER. Other things were okay but none of it was really gooooooood except for the gingerbread button cookie. I dunno. Seems to me that they could invest a little more in a pastry chef or explore the world of mini quiches. (The pastries had that terrible problem where they look nice but taste like sand.) The "sandwiches" were more like tiny crackers and I get that at tea the sandwiches are tiny but it was like a wheat thin type of size/consistency/quality and they felt like they'd been assembled hours ago and weren't aging very well. Perhaps if the tiny faux-sandwiches had tasted better I would be more forgiving on the format but they were just kind of...MEH.

It sounds like I didn't have fun, but really I did. I had a lot of fun. The food was just not my favorite. I went for the time alone with my friend and without our children and I got that too and it was GLORIOUS.

After dinner that night we test-drove the Gingerbread martini recipe and it was good. Very ginger-y, pretty to look at. I might not drink two or five of these but one might be really festive. 

Day 17

Claire opened a book: The Sweet Smell of Christmas. When I told her it was a book that smelled like cookies she was very dubious. Everyone on the internet remembers having this book as  a kid and I can't recall it at all. Were we a strange family that didn't have this book? I mean, we HAD Christmas books, just not this particular one. 

I made word garlands from Christmas carols. Or, perhaps more accurately, hymns? I don't know. I was thinking about what phrases to use and "O Little Town of Bethlehem" seemed far more interesting to read and reflect on while it hangs in my entry than "Jingle Bells." 

They were pretty simple to make: I freehand cut the letters from old scrapbook paper (and since I don't scrapbook any more I had zero guilt about slicing it all up) and then I taped them onto red and white baker's twine. At first I was less than impressed with the overly obvious homemade nature of their irregularities, but now I really like that part. 

Advent Days 13, 14: The part where we all get tired of each other

Claire is enjoying a 101.5 fever this morning and Charlotte is working on her second tooth. Funsies.

Teething for Charlotte seems to be worse than it was with Claire, or perhaps it is the simple difference in being a SAHM now and getting to fully experience all twenty-four hours of teething for day after day after excruciatingly long and screamy day, instead of enjoying an eight hour break five days a week. Or maybe I don't remember it being quite as screechy because it was three years ago and time has a way of dulling noise.

Anyway. Fever. Tiny teeth. I'm already plotting my evening cocktail.

***

Day 13

This one said "Buy Poinsettias!" We usually go to Costco on Monday and I'd seen the gigantic, gorgeous poinsettias there and I knew Claire would like choosing one or three and arranging them in the house. I also knew that she'd enjoy the added bonus of watering them with a watering can. But, we didn't make it to Costco because we went to Walmart first where I proceeded to buy the entire store. I had my holiday eating shopping list and anything non-perishable went into the cart. It took us a while and we ran into a neighbor and by the time we got home everyone was a hot mess. 

1. Charlotte was overtired and had fallen asleep in her carseat on the ride home. I put her in my bedroom to finish her nap while I unpacked groceries. "This is great!" I thought. 

2. Claire threw a royal fit about four minutes later and woke her sister up. "Dammit!" I thought.

3. Claire was sent to her room where she took a nap.

4. Charlotte screamed at me for 45 minutes (overtired!) before finally calming down enough to eat some food and then she stayed awake for another two hours. And then I died.

After all of that? There was no way in hell we were going to Costco. Claire ended up going to bed at 5p, completely of her own volition. (FORESHADOWING!)

Day 14

This one is blank. I left it empty so I would have room to shuffle activities or swap or add in a new one if I thought of it. But then Claire woke up hot and fevery this morning and the baby just woke up from a ten-minute "nap" (HA HA HA) so maybe we'll take a break from Advent Activities and lay low, drink applejuice, and watch movies. 

Advent Days 7, 9, 10, 11, 12

Hmm, so we are a little out of order here but I am sure you can still follow along just fine.

Day 7: Stamp and Mail Christmas Cards

I thought Claire would be better at this than she was. She treated the stamps as stickers and I nearly had a heart attack because stamps are so freaking expensive and I hate buying them and I LOATHE wasting them. She did all of the self-inking return address stamps and it took every bit of self control I have to shut up the OCD correspondence person inside of me because they came out all crooked and some are doubled-up because she didn't push it all the way. My poor college roommate, Sarah, her card is totally f'd up because the ink wasn't dry and Claire touched it and ran her fingers through it and there's ink alllll over that one. But, she has young twins so I feel like of all people on my list, SHE WILL UNDERSTAND.

(Sorry you got the crap card this year, Sarah.)

Day 9: Open a present

Claire opened her very own copy of Elmo's Merry Christmas. We read it every night. She adores this book. I like "open a present" advent days because they require no crafting or making a mess or going anywhere. 

Day 10: Was originally "See a Christmas Concert" but then we decided that was a terrible idea (it was at 7pm, Claire is usually in bed by 630) so we decided instead to go to the local Christmas parade.

This was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. It was just our little town's Christmas parade and the floats were flatbed trailers behind a truck, but it was cute. Two marching bands, the boy scouts, girl scouts, the local dance schools, a bunch of real estate agents, even more churches and living nativity scenes (in the back of a truck, walking, on a trailer, dancing, kids, adults). The weather was very pretty and even though it was cold, we had fun. 

Here I am in my Piper and Paisley hat that I love-love-love oh my God I love this hat far more than is reasonable.

The parade started and the first guy that came by gave Claire a mini candy cane. I thought, "Oh, that's nice! A candy cane!" Then more people gave her candy. "Hmmm," I thought. "This is kind of weird...everyone is giving away candy." Claire started keeping it in her stroller. People started throwing it into her stroller.

Then she started hoarding some of it in her paw.

Meanwhile, the local Jeep club cruised by.

After an hour, Claire had about fifteen invitations to church, five referral cards for real estate agents, a few coupons for local plumbers/electricians, two Frisbees, and more than a gallon of candy. A GALLON OF CANDY! And then, as children do in the presence of candy, she became completely obsessed with her candy and could not stop talking about the candy and when can she have some candy and can she hold the candy and which candy can she have and CANDY CANDY CANDY.

As a parent that was completely unprepared for a Candy Conversation I was a little caught off guard. Normally I might prep her with, "We will only keep five pieces of candy" or something like that. We got home and she lost her fool mind over the candy and I made her take a nap. I packaged up the candy for Chris to take to work. When she woke up she never asked me about it so...I guess that's the end of that.

Day 11: Look at Christmas Lights

There is another town near us that has a cute downtown area that is all Christmas'd up and kind of crazy and probably seizure-inducing. We were going to go over there and get cookies and walk around and marvel at the display of electricity.

But then Claire kind of lost of her marbles and I sent her to bed at 530 so that nixed the Christmas lights. We might give this one a do-over later on.

Day 12: Wrap Presents

Claire used some pinking scissors to cut the paper and she wrapped scotch tape around her fingers but by gosh we sure did wrap the heck out of some presents tonight. She enjoyed it more than I did.

In the past, she hasn't really understood the concept of a surprise and how we don't tell the recipient what is in the gift. For her father's birthday we wrapped the presents and when he walked in the door she marched him over to the gifts and pointed out what was in each one, as if she were some sort of Gift Tour Guide. ("This one has the book in it!")

We'll see if she can keep the contents of some of the boxes to herself.

Double take, 7 months

Oh my goodness, I am really tired of talking about Advent activities so, uh, I'm not going to talk about that today.

Here are Charlotte (top) and Claire (bottom) both at about the same age (seven-ish months) and wearing the same footie pajamas. While they don't look quite as identical as they did when they were newborns the similarities are still pretty significant (well, at least I think they are.) 

Again with the same pajamas/different kid. Claire is the top one, Charlotte the bottom two. Claire's face looks longer and Charlotte's more full but they pretty much have the same hair and eyes.

That last one is a pretty weird picture of her, and I wouldn't even say it's a terribly good capture of her face or expression but you can see her eyes nicely and that's why I included it. A lot of people tell me, unprompted, that they look a lot alike, now but especially as babies. I have to say, Charlotte looks a lot more like Claire in my brain than these pictures illustrate and I wonder if it's because I don't have photos that are really the same shot/different baby to tell the proper story or if, in my head, I see more similarities because I'm the mom? Huh.

At this point Claire could have cared less about solid foods and Charlotte is all "MOAR PLZ." (Seriously, she'll eat anything. She's like a goat.) The only way to get Claire to sleep was to nurse her and Charlotte just sort of...falls asleep in our arms. They both started sleeping through the night at about the same time, also both incredibly unreliable about how often they perform this feat of baby strength. Charlotte has a tooth and Claire had two at this point, so I'm sure we have another week of Hellacious Baby Teething coming up soon. Woo.

(Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas are easy, overnight, painless teeth for my baby, Love, A'Dell).

These cheeks! I love them. (Charlotte.)

The Christmas Eating

December 23, Cookie Day, up to 50 guests including littles, open house

We will have my parents in town plus lots and lots of friends and their kids. It's a cookie decorating and hot cocoa party. My plan is to serve coffee and cocoa with a crap-ton of add-ins to customize your drink. I'm also going to do one specialty cocktail. (Yum! Specialty cocktail!)

Drinks

Coffee, served in a giant urn/coffeepot thing my mom has. It makes like fifty cups of coffee at one time! Awesome. I will not have to make pot upon pot of coffee.

Cocoa, served in my slick thermal carafe I got last Christmas. It doesn't hold a whole lot so I will probably have to make pot upon pot of cocoa. Actually, no. I just decided to buy another carafe to make this problem go away because I have actually been stressing about it quite a bit. (Yes, I'm the kind of person that stresses about cocoa at a cookie party, WHAT?) What if people want cocoa but they have to wait? Oh no! Nobody will have cocoa and that is the frakking POINT of the party! I know, I'm insane. (I got a red one.)

Cocoa and Coffee toppings/mix-ins (I plan to have five or six "recipes" set up for guidance on how to combine and mix/match for those that are intimidated by DIY cocoa.)(Although really, what kind of person is intimidated by DIY cocoa?)

Peppermint Schnapps

Butterscotch Schnapps

Scotch

Bailey's

Vodka

Soft peppermint sticks

Crushed Candy Canes

Mini Marshmallows

Big Marshmallows (These are the ones I like.)

Mini Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Peppermint Whipped Cream

Crushed Toffee Bits

Crushed Butterfinger

Mini M&Ms

Sprinkles

Red Hots

Crushed peanuts/pecans (Whatever the ice cream topping mix is made of.)

Something else savory I haven't identified yet. (Nutella? Peanut Butter? Reese's?)

Ground Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Dark Cocoa Powder for sprinkling. (I need to get some slick little sprinkling can type things.)

Cream, Sugar, Splenda (More for the coffee but if someone wants to sweeten their cocoa then...okaaay.)

Gingerbread Martinis (Am planning to simply make a pitcher of them and perhaps when they are gone, they are gone. Not sure I feel like cocktail mixing during the party. I also have six darling coupe glasses that I never use and these would be perfect for that.)

Apple Juice (For the kids that won't drink cocoa) (Perhaps in a pitcher, perhaps juice boxes for simplicity. Haven't decided yet.)

Sweets

Fudge (From a box. Because that's how we make it around here.)

Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookies with icing in a variety of shades and sprinkles in a variety of shapes/colors.

Espresso Crinkles

Double Chocolate Biscotti

Chai Shortbread

Something else I haven't decided on yet. Maybe two somethings. Ideas? I want little finger food type candies or baked goods.

Snacks (not sweet)

Chex Mix

A version of vegetables and a dip that is not as boring to look at, eat or think about as vegetables and a dip. (Still noodling on this one.)

Some kind of sandwichy pinwheel roll up things. Perhaps catered because that sounds like something I don't want to make.

Dinner that evening, after the party people go home

HA HA NO I AM NOT COOKING AFTER ALL OF THAT ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Black Bean Soup (From a kit at Central Market. Already made and sitting in a gallon bag in my freezer.)

Bison Chili (My mom is making this and bringing.) (Thank you, Mom!)

Add-ins, for both:

Sour Cream

Green Onions

Diced Tomatoes

Diced Purple Onions

Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Grated Monterry Jack Cheese

Crushed Tortilla Chips

Cilantro

Diced Avocado 

Cornbread with butter and honey (Local honey! Local, $13 honey that I have to keep in the fridge or the ants will get it, which is so gross and disgusting, I know.) (It is amazing honey.)

Dessert: Um, cookies? DUH.

December 24, Christmas Eve, 10 people (Including Claire and Charlotte and let's be honest, they do not really count when setting a formal table.) (Especially Charlotte.)

Snacks

A variety of cheeses and crackers (Will definitely include: Havarti, Gouda and something really, really stinky.)

Baked Brie

Antipasti Platter: Salami, Roasted Red Pepper, Kalamatas, Prosciutto, etc.

Maybe something else, if I feel like or if someone else makes it.

Dinner

Dry Brined Beef Tenderloin (You bet your ass I'm making it again. I already have the meat in the freezer.)

Mashed Potatoes (Uncomplicated, I can make and freeze them in advance.)

Mac and Cheese (Need a recipe for this. Holly Burns' mother, I am casting my eyes in a hopeful manner in your general direction.)

2 vegetables (I am thinking roasted asparagus and a salad but I am open to your suggestions about favorite holiday vegetable preparations.)

Rolls and Butter (I am thinking about making the rolls, because I am obviously high and feel there is not enough to do.) (Also am thinking about a fancy compound herbed butter. Recipes, anyone?)

Wine. Lots and lots and lots of wine.

December 25, Christmas Day

Breakfast Casserole that I made last year because holy hell was that DELICIOUS. Same tweaks/adds: 

Added a red bell pepper, used a mix of monterrey jack and sharp cheddar, used chorizo instead of regular breakfast sausage and only 8 eggs instead of 12. I served it with flour tortillas, sour cream and hatch chile salsa.

Cheese Grits (My grandmother makes them.)

Cinnamon Rolls (I'm going to make PW's again, even though I was kind of MEH about them last year. They tasted good I just wanted them bigger and fatter, so I'll make that adjustment when putting them together. Will make and freeze well in advance.) (Which means that, uh, I should make some cinnamon rolls tomorrow, CRAP.)

Bloody Mary Bar (I completely failed on this last year so I am determined to make it happen this year.) 

Mimosas (Champaaaaaagne!)

Coffee

Rest of the Day, Lunch and Snacks

Leftovers. Holy cow the leftovers will be AWESOME. Also? I am so OVER dishes by this point. Someone take me to a movie. No, seriously, someone watch my kids so I can finally go to a movie for the first time in seven months.

Dinner

Since we had our big meal the day before on Christmas Eve we'll do a simple dinner tonight. My guess is that it will be something like lasagna, tamales or maybe even more leftovers.

Advent Day 8: Make handprint ornaments (Also, bonus questions that I need your opinion on)

I tried doing handprint ornaments three years ago when Claire was a baby, and I remember being kind of flummoxed by the entire process. When I discovered that it's flat-out impossible to get a two-month-old to open her hand enough to get a hand print? POW! That project was over.

So, naturally, in 2011 I decided to try again. I don't know why I thought it'd be different. 

The instructions I found three years ago instructed me to use plaster of paris and a cottage cheese container (or similar) with the top two thirds cut off so it formed a shallow, round mold. Because I am not very good at reading a calendar and seeing what Advent activity comes next, we had to go to Hobby Lobby to buy plaster of paris this morning. 

We got home and I mixed it up and....it didn't really work. I mean, it set up and everything but I could never mix it to a state that wasn't either a very pourable liquid (too liquid-y to set a palm in to make a print) or it was waaaaaay thick and gloppy, like clay. I tried pouring it and letting it set to a semi-solid state and THEN doing the handprint but that never worked either. The plaster of paris didn't shift to allow the handprint. It cracked and big chunks were displaced. It didn't look good. It needed to be more dough-like but it was more like...mud? I think? 

After we'd made a giant mess and tried it a few different ways, I declared that this just wasn't going to work out. AGHHH. I think maybe tomorrow I will try a do-over and we will visit one of those paint your own pottery studios and do some handprint art there. Maybe a platter or something. Do they have ornaments at those places? Now, THAT would really be ideal. Hmmm. I've never been to one of those places before, but I bet Claire would dig it. I'll report back.

So, um, Day 7 was kind of a failure as we did not produce a single handprint ornament. (But, we tried! WE TRIED!)

***

IN OTHER NEWS! 

This posting every day thing is kind of fun, but kind of exhausting. This is why I never do NaBloPoMo. GAH. 

Yesterday at Style Lush I asked some questions about curling wands.  Do you have one of these newfangled thingys? I am thinking about getting one. Because, you know, I have lots and lots of time to spend on my hair and I am looking for ways to spend MORE time on my hair. (Not really.) The comments over there are pretty positive and there is even a YouTube video link in the comments to an 18-year-old girl instructing people how to use a curling wand. It has 1.2 MILLION VIEWS. ABOUT A CURLING WAND. (Also, I am not sure I have any business using the same styling tools a high school girl does, OMG HOW OLD AM I AND WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?)

(I am totally buying all that hair product crap she used in the video.)

(More than a million views! Holy crap! I am in the wrong business.)

I am almost finished Christmas shopping. I think I have about four more things left to identify and buy, which is pretty good, I think! It's certainly satisfying. I have been taking a page from the Elizabeth school of Christmas and if I see something I like? I buy it! And I'm going to wrap it up for myself or put it in my stocking. It is very fun to buy yourself Christmas presents. You should all give that a try.

After much internal discussion I bought the silver reindeer at Target. (Two of 'em!) They look awesome on my mantle.

I want a new lens for my DSLR. I have a Canon Zoom Lens EF 28-105 mm 1: 3.5-4.5. I have no idea what those numbers mean but they are on the lens and maybe they are important? I don't know. I like this lens. I got it in 1997 as a high school graduation gift for my 35mm Canon Rebel (also vintage 1997). The problem with this lens is that 1) It's really HEAVY and 2) I would like something that is good for macro, close-up purposes and I have no idea where to even really start looking or what Google keywords to use or what blogs or websites to visit to find out. Anyone care to help me out? If you just tell me what to buy that would be best as research on this topic sounds incredibly boring. 

I am thinking about buying some fabric for Claire's bedroom window and I can't decide. What do you like best for the Land of Nod Circles quilt? Her walls are light pink.

Here's the quilt and this is pretty much what it looks like in her room, but her walls are very light pink.

Here are the swatches I'm considering. I won't tell you which is my favorite becuase I don't want to influence you. What would YOU buy?

 

Advent Day 6: Donate a toy to a needy child (Unexpected drama! You might want to read this one!)

As soon as Claire heard the phrase, "today we are going to buy a toy" she was all over today's activity. Even after I explained we would not be keeping the toy, she was still enthusiastic.

I told her we were going to buy a toy for someone else (two toys actually, one from her and one from Charlotte, but Claire would get to choose both of them) and then we were going to take it somewhere and put it in a box and later on a person would come get all of the toys and make sure they went to a little girl just like her, that maybe wasn't going to get any toys or presents for Christmas unless we donated one for her. 

She struggled with the idea that some kids don't have toys. I repeated that some children don't have a lot of clothes or toys and some kids don't even have enough snacks or warm coats to get from getting hungry or chilly. Her face got very sad as she mulled this over.

"Some kids don't have toys, Mommy? No toys? And how do they keep from getting chilly without a jacket?? And what happens when they get HUNGRY?"

(I think we're going to make our volunteer activity something with the local food bank. Still working on that one.) I was really surprised at how she seemed to get the idea, in very simple terms, that some people don't have things that they might want and need. Not everybody has everything and she seemed to have a great deal of empathy, for a three-year-old.

I considered ordering our donation toys online and just doing the drop-off with her, but I knew it would be important for Claire to pick out something SHE liked and physically put it in the box herself. We went to Target after lunch and she was pretty jazzed about the whole thing.

"We are going to pick a toy and doooo-nate it! It will be for a little girl that doesn't have a lot of toys."

She quickly chose a set of ring stackers as a gift from Charlotte. In the bigger kid toy section she hemmed and hawed for a long while. I suggested: a doll house, a doll house farm, a Tinkerbell doll (Claire LOVES Tinkerbell right now), a doctor kit, a vet kit, blocks, various games and baby dolls. Each was considered and rejected. She was taking it really seriously. She finally settled on a Play-Doh set that had about a dozen colors and a bunch of Play-Doh accessories. I thought it was a good choice because a boy or girl of almost any age would enjoy it and you don't need anything special to play with it beyond what's in the box.

Claire proudly told the cashier we were buying the toys for another little girl. The cashier asked if it was for a birthday party and Claire said "No,we are going to donate them!" My heart beamed. She invited the cashier to our house to look at our Christmas tree. (The cashier wisely declined.) (Although, my tree does look pretty spectacular.)

In the car Claire was quick to ask where we were going to donate the toys.

"Where is the box?! I want to go donate them today! Oh! Mom! I have an idea! Maybe we can just leave the toy in the street and the guy will come pick it up for the kids that way. Or maybe the sidewalk? We should probably just leave the toy on the sidewalk." (She can't be a genius all the time.)

I had to do a bit of internet sleuthing to find a Toys for Tots donation box. There are some other donation spots around here (Salvation Army, local charities) but I really wanted to stick to Toys for Tots because of their Marine Corps connection and it's who I've donated with before and I just LIKE them. We drove a little bit beyond Target to a local mall where a Toys for Tots donation point is at the Build-a-Bear shop. Fine.

We find Build-a-Bear and Claire proudly and happily puts her toys in the box. We're done! We donated toys to needy children, she did it all on her own, hooray! We both feel really happy about this.

And then.

THEN.

I turned away and started walking. The baby started doing something weird so I paused to fix it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman and her daughter approach the box.

"Oh! they're going to donate a toy too! I'll show Claire how other people donate as well!" 

The woman looked in the box and sort of walked around it. She put her arm in and moved some toys around.

"What in the hell is she doing? Is she trying to see what kind of toys people donate? Is she....getting ideas of what to buy?"

No. Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. NOOOOOOOO.

After pilfering through the toys for a few moments, she picked one out, gave it to her daughter and casually walked away.

I was stunned. Shocked. Horrified! That lady just...stole a toy! From the donation box for needy children! SHE FLAT OUT STOLE A CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR A KID.

I managed to stutter out, "Hey! Those toys are donations! They're for needy kids!"

But she walked away and didn't offer any recognition to what I said. She didn't even hustle, actually, she just turned around and sauntered off rather lazily with her daughter in tow, toy in hand. The mall on Monday at 2pm is a lonely place. There were no other shoppers to witness it and be outraged, few store clerks and certainly no mall cops or real cops. Completely stunned into silence (rare for me), I let her walk away after my outburst. (Also, my kids were getting restless.) The whole thing probably took no more than a minute.

The thing is, I hear a lot about how donation boxes or the Salvation Army kettle are often pilfered from by the people that attend to them, but I don't hear about horrible people that straight up STEAL TOYS FOR KIDS OUT OF THE BOX. I'm going to make a blanket judgement based on her appearance, but she didn't LOOK like a person that needed to steal a toy to give her child a happy Christmas, which makes it even more strange and disconcerting. It certainly wasn't a Christmas gift since she put it into her daughter's waiting arms right then and there. It appeared to be an act of utter selfishness and entitlement and just....shitty human behavior. She was so sure and confident. Deft and unaffected. (As if she'd done it before...)

I wasn't so much steaming mad as completely disturbed that a person would do that, would feel like it was okay or something she could simply get away with.

Then I felt shitty about MY donation. Like someone was probably just going to STEAL it and it won't even get to a child that really needs it this year and ugh, people. They suck. THEY SUCK. And it was very obviously Toys for Tots. It did not look like the dollar bin or clearance bin or anything. (Which, not an excuse as it would STILL BE STEALING OMG.) I keep trying to think of ways that she was confused about the purpose of the box and the toys within and I just can't invent something plausible that makes it okay. (Probably because it wasn't okay and she's actually just a terrible person.)

That is how "Day 6 of Advent, Donate a toy to a needy child," turned into "I have no faith in people to do the right thing, even when doing the right thing requires no action."

***

As irate as that woman at the mall probably makes you, let's switch gears and talk about a kind thing that didn't go awry. A kind thing that is a wonderful thing.

My dear friend Manda is doing something amazing. She has raised more than $1,000 since last Friday, (yes, in just a few days!). The money is destined to provide clean water for people living in Africa. It costs $50 to provide clean water to someone in Africa for the rest of their life. THE REST OF THEIR LIFE. She is running a marathon and a half marathon to raise money to provide water.

I am not running because I'm one of those Runner Moms. You know the ones. You see photos of them on their blogs balancing small babies on their chiseled bodies with medals around their necks. You see their Facebook updates about the "Awesome, amazing, easy ten-miler" they did at 5 am! WHEE!

No.

This is not me.

I am the slobby mom who barely showers. Who barely keeps the house moving forward. Who is constantly lost in the swamp of dirty bathrooms and laundry and keeping kids from hurting themselves by flinging themselves head first off of the couch (I am looking at YOU, Sydney). I am the mom who runs errands constantly while her three-year-old is at preschool. Who barely makes it to pick her kid up on time and runs right back out again or home to vacuum or cook dinner. I can't keep up with it all. And now I'm adding RUNNING MILES to the mix? DUDE. Clearly I have issues.

And yet when I lace up my shoes and push the jogging stroller a sad three miles while grunting and groaning most of the way? I wonder why it took me so long to just buck up and DO IT. I spend the first fifteen minutes of each run practically yelling at myself about how freaking NOT HARD this really is. That it's ok for me to take the time to do something that ... just takes up time. That the laundry can wait. And the floors? They are just going to get dirty again. And when I run there is a payoff, see. And it's not just that I'll be able to run a 13.1 mile race and then a 26.2 mile race (OUCH) without looking like a total idiot. If I run these races? It might change someone's life. I'm not just going to meet my own goals ... there will be a provision for someone else.

The thing is, I need help. I will run the miles. I will push the stroller and I will pray for Peter Paulo in Tanzania and Kareman in Kenya. But I need people to journey with me. I need you to pray for me as I struggle through each mile and I need you to pray for these people who literally have nothing, not even clean water to drink. I need you to join with me as sponsors. My goals are this: To personally raise $655 for the half marathon and $1300 for the full marathon.

Manda is one of the kindest, most generous and most determined people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting because of this website. She will run those miles and she will change lives because of it, I'm certain.

If you have some money earmarked for donations this holiday season, please consider contributing towards her goal and providing such a simple, necessary, life-changing thing to someone who desperately needs it. It's so easy to not think about people in other countries. But the truth is that Africans are proportionally more likely to get malaria and contract HIV. They are victim to unspeakable crimes and most don't ever (ever!) have the simple necessity of clean water. And because they are far away and not in our faces, it is our privilege to not consider and experience these awful facts of life each day, as they do. I lived in Kenya for a year and I can verify what you suspect: The continent is an enormous mass of problems that we can't solve with blog posts. We just can't. But maybe we can solve some problems, for some people. That's something important, too.

I get it, though. To try to change Africa is an impossible goal. Impossible! Why bother trying? It's easier and more personally fulfilling to contribute to small scale projects, to things that make an individual impact, where you can see how your money was used to make a difference and improve a life. I did that today: I bought two toys and I donated them so that two children would have a better Christmas and I (selfishly?) wanted my daughter to experience the tangible act of giving. 

Two birds with one stone: Contribute to Manda's races and know that you're helping her reach a goal. Sponsor her Team World Vision races and know that you're providing clean water to someone far away. World Vision gets four stars from Charity Navigator and the money never touches Manda's hands - it goes directly to World Vision on her behalf. Donate and read more about Manda here.

That lady at the mall today, stealing the toy? She sucks. Let's do something nice, together.

Advent Days 4 and 5: Make Christmas cookies, put lights in the front yard

I had Sunday slotted for making Christmas cookies. I knew that I needed to make a lot of cookies well in advance of Cookie Day because last year when I made four dozen Christmas cookies the day before? Oh hell no, I am not doing that again. I had this big idea to make the cookies in advance, maybe a few batches at a time and freeze them.

Except, as it turns out, making rolled out cookies is not my favorite thing to do in the kitchen and I was reallllly dreading it. It's just so much WORK. We did it anyway, (after I sent Chris to the store for sugar) and I'll probably have to make two more batches but at least one is out of the way. I was supposed to start making these dumb cookies in November and now it's already December 6 (SIX!) so I'll probably be making another round before the week is out.

Making the cookies with Claire went just fine. She enjoys sitting on the counter and helping measure and pour and dump. She does remarkably well with the baking powder and leveling it on the little shelf in the can. She did end up letting an egg roll into Charlotte's high chair (while Charlotte was in the chair) and it cracked (but didn't actually break open) and that was the only casualty of Claire Helping In The Kitchen, which is honestly pretty good for her.

I wish I had more to tell you about making cookies or some metaphor or a Magical Mother Daughter Moment but it was just cookies and we had fun and they were delicious. (This is why I don't blog every day. Sometimes, life is just BORING.) I froze most of them and we decorated six and ate them almost immediately.

This afternoon a post goes up about my favorite sugar cookie recipe over at Food Lush. (Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookies! Yum!) Highly recommend you try that one this year.

***

Monday's activity was "Put lights in the front yard with Daddy." But then it rained all day and it was gross so, uh, we didn't do that. We'll roll that one into today or tomorrow, weather permitting.