Those of you who know me, know that I am not a crafty mama. Those of you who know me well though know that I do more crafts with my kids than I'll admit. I think it's kind of like cooking. I cook pretty much every night, and it's from scratch and healthy, but I don't consider myself a cook. Basically every month I get a new issue of Cooking Light, and try most of the recipes. The ones I like I save, and everything else gets tossed in the recycling bin. Next month I do the same and use some of the saved recipes from previous months as well. I think like with crafts, it's because it's alright to do, but not something that I would like to be defined by. Also much like cooking, with crafts it depends just exactly how complicated the project is.
Every year up until now I have bought Valentine's cards from the grocery store. You know the ones that cost a couple bucks particularly if you wait until the day before your child's preschool Valentine's Day party? That would be the ones. One year I even bought them on clearance after Valentine's Day and saved them. Time is money though and the amount of time I spent trying to find them the following Valentine's was not enough to justify the dollar or two difference!
This year my older son (OS) announced he wanted to make Valentines. What?! I smiled and said sure confident that in another day or so this crazy idea would pass particularly when he saw the boxes of cards at the store. Unfortunately for me it did not and instead it turned into him nagging me to take him to get supplies. Monkey see monkey do and my younger son (YS) was also clamoring to make his own.
Here's what I came up with also to be cross-posted at Crafts for the Clueless.
Set your own definition for homemade. Mine was that it's made in your home not that every single aspect has to be your child's own original work.
Buy a container of heart shaped foam stickers.
Buy a package of construction paper. Yes, you would assume that parents of small children would have this, but hey this blogger gives her kids computer paper for drawings. I personally recommend nipping the idea of only pink and red in the bud and focusing on how surely someone would love a valentine made from the black paper that always comes in packs of construction paper
Buy a pack of Valentine's stickers. I got a huge pack for $1.
Glitter pens add a nice touch. Do not however buy glitter unless you want to be finding traces of it for the next ten years. This is one aspect of crafting I have always remained firm about with my kids. I swear my parents are still finding glitter in the cracks of their kitchen table from my brother back in the 80's. Sure kids should use glitter...at preschool and at someone else's house
Try not to think about how much more money your "homemade" cards are costing than the cheap-o box of Valentine's at CVS even with a coupon.
Use the base of the foam container to trace Valentine's. Ours happened to be heart shaped which worked out great, but honestly the kids would have been happy with squares or circles
Cut out enough for each kid in the class. Place them on the table with crayons, markers and your new supplies and let them loose*. Tell them to make sure each paper is decorated.
Drink a cup of coffee and just relax. No really, don't try to tell them how to decorate their cards. It's their project after all. Just be glad you used construction paper instead of computer paper because it's sturdier for all the decorations aka glitter glue.
I really did let them do whatever they wanted and other than help them start a few new glitter pens and peel a couple more complicated foam stickers at the beginning, I was able to sit back and relax. There really wasn't much to clean up either. I have to say it occupied them for over hour and the results were pretty impressive. Now of course I just have to fight the urge to write a note on the back of each Valentine telling the recipient they better treasure the Valentine because it was handmade after all!
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: The term homemade is defined by the creator of the craft.
*Normally I would have used this as an opportunity for practicing cutting, but I was worried that it was just too much for them to do; in other words, they would cut out the shapes but I would end up decorating them! Seeing as OS does fine with scissors and YS is only 3 I decided to go ahead and cut out the shapes by cutting 4 pieces of paper at a time to speed up the process.
I entered the last year of my early thirties yesterday. Oh come on! 34 is still early thirties. At least that's what I've been telling myself! Some birthdays are obviously better than others. This one takes the cake, so to speak, for being one of the best ever. Yes, it was really that good!
It started on Thursday. Sally HP had previously IM'd me to tell me that she would be picking me up at 6:45. No questions allowed. I tried to inquire whether or not I should eat dinner and was accused of fishing for information. I ate a PB&J at 5 pm.
At 6:45 she and my triathlon training buddy picked me up. Solely because they needed directions, they told me where we were going: The Citizen in Worcester. It's a restaurant that specializes in cheese, chocolate and wine. It's like going to a Chinese restaurant in that the more people you go with, the more different types of dishes (in this case cheese and chocolate) you can order to share. Three friends met us there. I had a fabulous time! Chocolate, cheese, wine and friends. It doesn't get much better than that! Yeah, I know I'm supposed to say some sort of motherly line about how if only my family could have been there, blah blah. Not happening! Needless to say, I didn't work out on Friday!
Once a year my moms group has a spa day. Usually that's my birthday present although it isn't necessarily on my birthday. This year it happened to fall on Saturday. After I worked out and the Big Giraffe and I took the boys to swim lessons, I headed over and spent a few hours totally relaxing. I had a facial* followed by hanging out with friends and having fruit, more cheese and of course wine. Hmm...that's a lot of cheese (not wine though)!
Sunday was my actual birthday. I got to sleep in and than after a lunch where no cheese was involved, we had birthday cake and I was able to run some errands sans kiddos. CVS was irritatingly slow, but again since I was without children, it wasn't such a big deal. Later on in the evening, I discovered that a pricey restaurant that I had always wanted to try had a Sunday priced fixed dinner. The Big Giraffe had already arranged a babysitter and was able to make reservations at the new restaurant. We had a fantastic time. Later on that night I put on my new anti-aging night cream. No, I'm not kidding about that. My skin has been unbelievably dry lately. The Big Giraffe was disturbed when I first told him about it because he was envisioning cold cream. Lotion, as in it dissolves into your skin! Of course there were phone calls and emails from family and friends, not to mention Facebook.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: 34 is a great age, even if it does require night time lotion!
*Since I am now the mature age of 34, I decided not to go with a boob massage again at least for this year!
Glad that you had a happy birthday, and I'm sorry that I missed you. By the way, I totally want to go to that cheese and chocolate place next time I come up to see. And you'll have to let me know how that chocolate sea salt caramel bar is.
Back in November my aunt had offered to let us use her time share in New York City for the New Year. Not the whole year, silly, from December 30th - January 2 at the Manhattan Club which is located just north of Times Square! This was right around when Merlin got sick though and so while we really appreciated the offer, we couldn't accept it. A little while after he passed away though I called her to see if it was still available. Those of you who know me in real life, particularly those of you who actually saw me this week, will not be surprised to learn that it was.
We got there on Wednesday, and the boys were beyond excited. After we checked into the hotel, we met Suzanne, her husband and another friend for dinner. After rejecting the opportunity to wait an hour for two disparate tables at a pricey but excellent diner called the Brooklyn Diner, we went to a different diner. I took great delight in eating gyros since I enjoy them so much and they're hard to find around here. Afterward we went back to the hotel where I fell asleep; the boys did continue to stay up incredibly late. I think I had a slight fever that night, as I was coming down with a cold and sore throat.
The next day we made it to the Brooklyn Diner for breakfast. As expected, the food was great, but it ended up being $100 for the four of us! I do have to say that we had been warned that the portions were huge and that we should have the boys share. The upside is that we got three meals worth of food and didn't have to buy breakfast the next day! The Big Giraffe and I traded off working out at the otherwise empty gym and then took the boys to FAO Schwartz. Being New Year's Eve and being FAO Schwartz made it super crowded. The boys were overwhelmed. We had told them they could each get a small souvenir. It was all just too much for YS and he couldn't make a selection. We told him he could get something at the M&M store.
After getting a snack, we took the boys to Rockerfeller Center to see the Christmas Tree. The Big Giraffe and I were quite taken with it. The boys were quite taken with the pigeons eating soft pretzels and couldn't have cared less about the tree. In fact when the Big Giraffe was trying to take their picture in front of the tree OS wanted to know if he could get his picture taken with the pigeons instead! Sadly though I said no and am now regretting it.
We watched the ice skaters at Rockerfeller Center and even saw a marriage proposal there (or two brazen people willing to lie to get the ice to themselves)! Then we headed off to the M&M store. Given that it was just past 4pm on New Year's Eve in an area filled with a captive audience of cold pedestrians who had almost eight hours to wait for the ball to drop, we were surprised to find the store closed. YS was pretty upset, until we stopped in a dinky souvenir shop where he fell in love with a stuffed animal frog. It was actually nicer than a collection of stuffed animals, including a frog, sewed to a toy boat that we had passed at FAO Schwartz, and cost a lot less so everyone was happy.
Later on that evening we got together with Suzanne and hubby and 3 other friends for a New Year's Eve dinner at a Turkish restaurant. Those of you who know me will not be surprised that I ordered gyros again! The food was great, and the conversation was even better. The boys both enjoyed the food and drawing pictures on multi-colored post-it notes. They became ecstatic on our way out when a couple gave OS a really nice velvet hat with streamers that lit up and YS a light up necklace/noise maker. We then headed back to the hotel. Three of us fell asleep just before midnight. The Big Giraffe made a literal eleventh hour (and forty-five minute) attempt to walk outside of the hotel in sight of the ball, but could not get an elevator. He watched the ball drop on TV in the room, same as he used to when he lived in New York City.
After breakfast the next morning, we headed to the Museum of Natural History, which also happens to be the Big Giraffe's favorite museum in the world. All I can say is that it is one large museum! We were there for several hours and probably only saw about a third of it. The boys had a great time, particularly with the taxidermy, ocean section, and dinosaurs. I do wish I had listened to myself and left earlier instead of trying to milk their attention span for all that it was worth. Our departure included temper tantrums.
Suzanne's hubby and YS made deep dish pizzas for everyone while Suzanne and I went to an Israeli cafe to get real hot chocolates with actual melted pieces of chocolate added to steamed milk The boys watched Disney's cartoon Robin Hood...three times over the evening. During the third showing after dinner, a few of us went to Magnolia Bakery to pickup cupcakes. It shouldn't come as any surprise that I was up for a large part of the night with horrible stomach pains.
After a final breakfast with friends, we took the boys to see a gingerbread house exhibit made up of creations from several famous bakeries. I am sure they were beautiful when first crafted, but they did not stand up well to a couple of weeks in a hot and dry hotel lobby. I would even go so far as to say that the one the boys made last week with a gingerbread house kit from last year looked better. Then we hit the road.
OS is named after a friend of ours who passed away at 30 from colon cancer. We had originally planned on driving to northwest New Jersey on our way home to visit his parents. After hearing about an alleged blizzard hitting New England, the Big Giraffe conducted an extensive analysis of weather.com's hourly predictions throughout our route. He concluded that the trip to New Jersey should be fine and that the trip home was predicted to be equally bad no matter when and from where we attempted it. If weather.com was right, we could stop at a hotel on the route for one more night. I had planned ahead and brought an extra change of clothing for both boys and me.
We not only had a great time in New Jersey (hey, stop snickering, I lived in the Garden State for two years and I like it) but we found a gap between internet and reality. Yes, there was a lot of wind, but there was no traffic and no snow in New Jersey, New York, or Connecticut. Wind blew a light dusting of already fallen snow into the windshield a few times in the last half hour as we approached home, and there was slush coating the road in the two minutes from leaving the highway through pulling into our snowy but passable driveway. Maybe it was part of their New Year's resolution, but the cats didn't even pee on our beds when we were gone!
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Bringing extra clothes is a great way to ensure an easy road trip, and choosing New York City and seeing friends is a great way to ensure fun at the destination.
Sometimes there's nothing to do, but laugh, right? The Big Giraffe and I do not have the same last name. Here's the honest truth about it. It really annoys me when people call me Mrs. Giraffe although not as much as when they call me Mrs. Big Giraffe and use my husband's complete name. If your name is Susan would you want to be called Jane? Probably not. You would probably correct the person and explain that Susan wasn't your name.
That being said, there are places where I make allowances. One is the pediatrician's office because they see a gazillion kids a day. I also understand that my kids' teachers have enough of a challenge keeping track of 20-40 kids' names, without needing to worry about potentially doubling the number of last names. Of course in that case, I would actually prefer to be addressed by my first name anyway, when that is realistic.
Things do go in the other direction as well. The Big Giraffe is used to being called Mr. Elliot at the vet's office and when getting our cars serviced, for example. He does hear less Elliot than I do Giraffe, however, particularly at this key time of the year, when we get to play...drum roll please...the annual holiday card edition of "What's my Name?"
The rules of "What's my Name" are simple. Our family and friends send us Christmas cards addressed to some sort of representation of our family's identity, and the Big Giraffe and I look at the envelopes and laugh. For the mischievous amongst my readers, I want to be absolutely clear. I would far, far, far prefer to get properly addressed cards than to gain a gratuitous laugh at your expense. Please don't try to make up something funny for next year's cards. For the more nervous amongst my readers, I would rather get a humorously addressed card than no card. Please don't not send me a card because you are worried about offending.
For this year, however, I can share what we have learned from studying the results of "What's my Name" games played to date. We have noticed a correlation between the years that people know me and the tendency to completely screw up my name. If it's addressed correctly we know it's a newer friend (or one of the Big Giraffe's colleagues). Let's say you met me last week and for whatever reason wanted to send me a card. I can pretty much guarantee that you would address the envelope correctly. I don't know if it's the more you know me, the more you know that I'm married and I have kids and thus start to play around with my name or what. The second worst offenders appear to be friends from before I was married who have taken their husbands' last names. (The Big Giraffe keeps threatening to send next year's holiday cards addressed to their maiden names.) Unfortunately, the very worst offenders appear to be family!
This year has seen:
Mr. and Mrs. Big and Alex Giraffe
Mrs. Alex Giraffe (which would be appropriate if I had taken the Giraffe's last name, gotten divorced, and kept the Giraffe last name)
Mr. and Mrs. Big Giraffe
Mr. and Mrs. Big Elliot
Mr and Mrs. Big and Alex Elliot
The Elliot-Giraffe family (which is my preference)
Big, Alex, OS and YS (no last names)
So how on earth do you know how to address an envelope to friends with different names? Let's go back to Susan and Jane. It's is the responsibility of the person to tell you how they want to be addressed. After all you aren't a mind reader. That being said, most people will put the name they want to be called on their return address label. Tis the season to be looking at the return address labels on the cards you receive. Or if you're like me and have a neighbor who you know doesn't know your name, stick a return address label on a post it and give it to them.
And now for my favorite addressed envelope of the season: Alex Elliot and The Giraffes. Doesn't it sound like a rock band? I love it!
Mrs. Big Giraffe's A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: A giraffe by any other name still has a long neck.
I run into this when I address cards and I always try to get it right. This year I had to make my husband email one of his friends to find out if his new wife was taking his name.
I usually do the Elliot-Giraffe family, or I do Alex Elliot, Big Giraffe and Family (or and OS and YS).
We're having a different issue now, although we have that one, too - but now that C is becoming college-application age, many colleges are sending him materials, but some of them are having a horrid time with his rather simple, straightforward, British name. We never know who we have living with us these days! ;-)
It's no secret that I hadn't been feeling too much in the Christmas spirit this year between Merlin and the my surprise procedure that I had last month. In fact the Big Giraffe was the one who did all the Christmas shopping this year because honestly mental state aside, I just physically felt crummy.
Christmas can be a tough time for me anyway because I tend to get homesick. As much as I enjoy living out here, I find myself especially sensitive around the holidays to the fact that everyone around here seems to have lived here for so many generations that they can practically trace their roots back to the Mayflower. Hmm....I detect a little bit of snideness on my part.
In all honesty, New Englanders do have a reputation for keeping to themselves. That being said, it's not always such a bad thing. Part of keeping to yourself is keeping your opinions to yourself, and I feel pretty confident that no matter what my kids are doing, no one will comment on it, no matter what they may think. Still, if you're not from here, it can just get tiring after a while to try and make conversations. Don't believe me? Try coming to a youth soccer practice and notice how everyone tends to keep to themselves. Based on the number of conversations I've had about it in the past few weeks...not even initiated by me, I think that this time of year tends to raise this awareness within all New England transplants.
Last year we had my MIL visiting us for Christmas which was great. It was also the first time we've had a relative with us for the holidays. For various reasons, our families do not travel for the holidays. We've traveled to visit family, but honestly with two little kids, it can be pretty draining. Thus for the most part we've ended up staying here and making our tradition that we really don't have any traditions; every year we seem to do something different.
After hearing stories from people about the fun Christmas gatherings they were having with their families, and fantasizing about moving, I decided that I too wanted to have a Christmas party. But who to invite without splitting up the descendants of pilgrims? Other New England transplants of course! I joked around with the Big Giraffe that this was operation Take Back Christmas.
I had already decided I wanted to get deep dish pizza this year. Ever since my older son (OS) was born, my aunt and uncle have sent us a Chicago meal for Christmas. We usually have it on Christmas or right around it. I invited three families to join us at the last minute for Christmas Eve. Only two could make it. I had already ordered deep dish pizzas from Gino's East in Chicago, so I went ahead and ordered more. A little insane? Perhaps, but there wasn't really anything I wanted for Christmas this year. This was like a present to myself. And yes, in case you're wondering, the ordering is handled by an on-line group that works with several restaurants in Chicago. The food arrives on dry ice via Fed Ex.
One family brought homemade Christmas cupcakes. Another brought a couple bottles of wine. My aunt and uncle had sent up Garrett's Popcorn, which we regretfully broke open to share with everyone.
The kids ran around, ate, and then ran around some more. The adults drank wine, ate food and hung out. As for me? Well, I may have had a glass of wine...or four...and had a fantastic time. In all seriousness, it was the best Christmas Eve I've had since moving out here and definitely one of the top Christmas Eves ever. Wine aside, it was great to be able to hang out with friends. My kids loved having other kids to play with them. Perhaps in the Giraffe household we have a new tradition.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Deep dish pizza, wine, and friends make for a wonderful Christmas Eve.
Alex, I had EXACTLY the same reaction to living in MA. It was tough. I think especially for those of us from places like the Midwest. (Even though I'm originally from NYC, I'm truly a Midwesterner at heart).
I'm so glad you had such a lovely time and found a solution! We've done that sort of thing many years as we're transplants out here.
Today is the winter solstice and my younger son's half birthday. He was born on the summer solstice, June 21.
As Unitarian Universalists, we hear about the winter solstice in the winter pageant the kids in our church put on every year. We talk about the physical and the historical aspects of it. There's one family though in our church who actually celebrates it, and it's such a neat story of creating your own traditions that I thought I would share it.
It started out when their kids were small. Christmas time would roll around, and they would schlep presents, stockings and luggage to a grandparents house. They would spend a designated amount of time with each grandparent. Santa would visit whichever house they were at. Sometimes he would visit multiple houses.
As much as they enjoyed spending time with their families, all the schlepping and various Santa visits were starting to take a toll. Plus they realized that never really got to start their own traditions. Yet at the same time, they didn't not want to spend the holidays with their families.
What to do then? Thus the winter solstice celebration was born. Stockings were hung up for the winter solstice and stayed there instead of visiting the grandparents houses. Santa made one visit on the eve of the winter solstice. They had a big fancy dinner on the winter solstice, and each of them got to choose the type of food they wanted. Gifts were exchanged at this dinner. When Christmas itself rolled around, there was no more schlepping. They could just go to the grandparents house and have a Christmas celebration. Yes, an overnight bag might get packed but there was no longer any pressure to have to wake up there Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought.
Their kids are now in their late 20's and early 30's. To this day they still come home for the winter solstice which has now turned into a nice family dinner where they exchange gifts.
I like this story because first of all I think it's just fun. Second though, the holidays can create a lot of pressure, and I like hearing empowering stories from people about what they did to overcome it. Who knows, maybe some year we'll be celebrating the winter solstice. We already celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah!
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: The shortest day of the year has a lot to celebrate.
family traditions are fun and good whenever they are celebrated.
but exchanging gifts on the 20th instead of the 25th...doesn't that simply put the "gift shopping" pressure earlier?
we stopped exchanging gifts in our "larger" family a few years ago and Jan and I give each other something sometime in the coming weeks if we've found something for each other. Not much pressure there. And all my friends already know not to hope from any card from me before mid january.
so really I don't feel any pressure, I'm just enjoying the season!
Did we really light the last candles of Hannukah tonight? Is Christmas really next week? The holidays seemed to pop out of nowhere...as they do every year. Seriously have you ever had a year where you felt completely prepared and unrushed?
Our younger son (YS) finished his last day of school before break complete with a holiday party with terrible looking hair. Somehow I never got around to getting his hair cut and now and forever more all our photos will have a 3 year old Rod Stewart in them. Or perhaps they would if I had remembered to bring my camera. Mom of the Year over here. Fortunately one of the other moms took pictures for me.
We participated in a class gift for his teachers. Alright really I organized it because it was a lot easier for me to organize one and get them a gift card to get something that they will hopefully like than to try and come up with individual gifts that they would like. The room parents in my older son's class organized a class gift as well. Phew! That's all taken care of. Or is it?
I forgot about my nemisis: the bus driver. Before you assert that nemesis may be a strong word, let's review the history:
She was annoyed that I didn't know where OS was on the first day of school when he had been put on the wrong bus at school
She decided that he was no longer riding the bus home on Fridays because I picked him up for school for one Friday doctor's appointment
She was annoyed that I didn't know where OS was on the second occasion when he had been put on the wrong bus at school
She shot me dirty looks and muttered under her breath on the day that I went to school right after OS was picked up to do some volunteer work and arrived just behind the bus
She has been plain snarky several times
In all fairness, we haven't had an episode of snarkiness recently. In fact, lately she and I have gotten around remarkably well. She even asked me onto the bus last week with some questions about a new pickup who was supposed to be added to the route. Perhaps one day we will get together for coffee.
This made me start to think about the etiquette around gifts and bus drivers. Do I need to get her anything? I posed the question my moms group and people responded with suggestions of homemade baked goods which would be great if I were planning on doing any baking. That's not likely to happen. We made ginger bread cookies last week during a snow day and that for me was like the Mt. Everst of baking. It took hours by the time the cookies were made, cut, baked, decorated and the frosting dried. It has to be a pretty special person for me to do any baking. Plus with my luck she would get diarehhea from the cookies, and it would worsen our relationship. I think we will be going with a $5 gift card to Dunkin Donuts.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Don't miss the bus and don't forget the bus driver.
It's been a week now since Merlin passed away. We're OK. OK of course being said in a hesitant shaky voice. Let's just say the we, more specifically I, have been better. I wrote a little bit about it over at the New England Mamas on Monday.
It's hard to loose a pet and it's also a hard time of year. The kids seem to be alright. My older son came home from school very angry with me on Thursday for not allowing him to give Merlin a goodbye hug which is not true. He then burst into tears. He had another burst of anger and confusion on Friday, but for the most part he seems to be handling it well. His teacher let him bring an album with pictures of Merlin to school and they talked about Merlin in morning meeting. My younger son (YS) is only 3 and doesn't seem to have understood what happened. That's not too surprising. Yesterday he told someone that Merlin had died.
I was talking with a friend who's also an animal lover and she said that she actually thinks it's harder to loose a pet as an adult than as a child. Kids don't process time the same way that we do and they don't tend to have a comprehension of death. They also are always looking forward to the next exciting event. When you're 6 and 3 your whole life is one exciting event after another. I have to agree. I remember being upset when my childhood pets passed away but also being very excited to get another puppy. In fact I was OS's age when my first dog passed away and I remember asking if we could get a girl puppy. It's now as an adult that I really get what a pet's death means.
I find it very quiet around here. Too quiet. I didn't realize how many little rituals Merlin and I had. Like giving him the last bite of a banana or lick of a yogurt when I get back from working out in the morning. When it is just him and me and the whole house is still asleep...was just him and me.
YS was laughing in his sleep the other night. The next morning he said he had dreamed about Merlin. OS said he too had had a nice dream about Merlin. The Big Giraffe said he felt his presence that same night. I didn't have any of those experiences although I really wanted them.
Yesterday though I took YS to the library. Picture meltdown followed by big time parental cave in and you'll have the background. I didn't really want to be there. As we were walking through the parking lot I saw a golden retriever sticking his head out of the car window. The owner was on her cell phone. YS and I went over to pet the him. He was so excited to see me. He licked me and made excited sounds. I scratched his ears and asked how old he was. He was eight. The same age as Merlin. I looked at Doug and could really see the difference between him and how Merlin had been particularly these last couple weeks. He was so energetic and of course full of life. It really had been Merlin's time. I felt a sense of peace and happiness.
I know there are people who can wonder why I can be so upset over losing a pet. To me, it's a member of my family. A family member who I saw every single day and was always excited to see me. He was there when I needed him and my life was so much better for having him in it. To those people I say that this Thanksgiving when they're around the uncle that says something obnoxious, the great aunt that comments on their weight, and any other relatives that upset them I leave them this lesson learned:
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: You can't pet your relatives, but you can pick your pets.
Merlin was a good doggie. I remember the first time I visited you in MA when he slept on the floor in the guest bedroom. You warned me that I might hear something that sounded like burglars were breaking into the house but it would just be Merlin running in his sleep on the hardwood floor:) Anytime I think about losing Benny, I get teary-eyed and have to stop and catch my breath. I'm so glad to hear that the kids are having nice dreams about Merlin and that Brian could bring photos to school. Just wanted to let you know I'm thinking about you... -Steph
Tonight the Big Giraffe made gyros in the rotisserie. I absolutely love gyros and they're impossible to find around here. Good ones that is. I don't eat a lot of meat so that fact that I like gyros so much says a lot. A few years ago as a celebration for finishing organic chemistry for my post-BA program I decided to celebrate by feasting on a gyros. The BG was out of town so I ordered a carryout gyros platter for myself and one for the dog. Unfortunately the gyros was all beef and all gross as far as I was concerned so the dog got an extra big feast.
The gyros were cooking and smelling fantastic. I set the table and got the boys to wash their hands and sit down. They munched on carrot sticks while waiting. The gyros came out. Everyone really liked them. However, despite our feast, eating with the boys was like eating with a three ring circus or perhaps a bunch of cats. There were weird noises, funny voices, insults, temper tantrums, attempts to get up from the table, attempts to eat backwards so as to avoid eye contact with a sibling, tears, timeouts and singing. The last one would be from the BG when he decided to transport himself to another place and began singing Christopher Cross's Sailing. I was not impressed.
Once I brought the Big Giraffe back from never never land, he and I looked at each other in disbelief. What was wrong with our kids? It's not like we never eat together as a family. Then it dawned on me: it was the anticipation of the feast and the fact that it took longer to prepare than anticipated. As a result, we ate a little later. Then I had another realization: this is what Thanksgiving will be like. On second thought, Thanksgiving in the rotisserie may not be so great an idea.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: PB&J for the kids and a glass or two of wine for the BG and me may be critical to preparing for a Thanksgiving feast.
How are the holidays almost here?! Seriously weren't we just installing our air conditioners for the summer? Within our home, the holiday tradition seems to be that every year we do something different. We've had dinner here, eaten out, gone to friends, had friends come over here, gone to NYC and PA, and gone to Chicago.
This year we realized that Thanksgiving was quickly approaching and we had no idea what we wanted to do. I for one don't particularly like Thanksgiving Day food. Or perhaps I should say that I don't like the implication of Thanksgiving Day food. It's fine for one meal and maybe as a leftover meal the next day. However, that's about it. No matter how you disguise it, by Saturday you are eating dry, leftover turkey and soggy, leftover stuffing, possibly poorly disguised as a new dish. All the good foods, mainly the pies, are long gone. I suggested to the Big Giraffe that if we really wanted to celebrate family and good food, we should throw a couple frozen pizzas in the oven and serve them with a big bag of Halloween candy. I can guarantee given a choice between turkey and pumpkin pie or pizza and candy the boys would choose the latter. Frankly so would I.
I also get incredibly homesick on Thanksgiving. On top of it, as a college freshman, I developed viral meningitis when flying home to celebrate Thanksgiving. While I'm not a germophobe by any means, I have a really hard time flying around Thanksgiving. Even for those who haven't gotten sick, Thanksgiving is the busiest travel time of the year.
The question became how to make this holiday that I don't really enjoy a fun holiday for the kids? The BG agreed to be in charge of dinner this year. Okay. He made a dinner reservation for us. Fabulous...except that it could mean an argument with the boys who believe that major holidays should be celebrated by enjoying pajama days at home. Hmmm....an argument can be easily avoided if I am out of the house when they wake up. I decided that I wanted to do a 5k Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. I specifically chose one where the proceeds go to a food pantry. Seems like that's in keeping with a holiday about food.
Yesterday my parents sent us up a rotisserie. I suggested to the Big Giraffe that this offered him additional options, such as cooking a small turkey or turkey breast in it! The BG immediately began perusing our new cookbooks, and he made a fabulous roast chicken tonight!
So, I'll be running, the boys will get to have a pajama day, and the BG will get to cook. Unfortunately the times don't quite work perfectly. Unless he is planning on making the dinner at 8 am, I will be home long before he begins his preparations, which means he and I may have an argument if he is not open to the insightful observations I like to share while he is cooking. He describes them as micromanagement. I don't want to fight during the holidays, so clearly I should nap while he's making dinner.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Pajamas, rotisseries, and naps are all things for which one can be thankful.
I've never really understood why it's such a given that Thanksgiving and Christmas have with a fairly big certainty turkey on the menu.....that must get boring no?
we don't have thanksgiving but for Christmas we put anything on the menu that we feel like (and that's a bit festive): turkey, fish, wild, fondue, ......
Costumes, sugar high, glow sticks. What's there not to like about Halloween if you're a kid? Needless to say my kids had a terrific time. Unlike previous years, though we actually went trick or treating outside.
Much like the Dodo bird, sidewalks appear to be extinct in the fine Commonwealth of MA. Alright, there are some. Perhaps they are rather rare like the panda bear. While neither endangered nor extinct, other kids are also not to be found in our neighborhood. We have therefore taken the boys to the mall in past years for trick or treating. That way they can run around and not worry about getting hit by a car when they are the sole trick or treaters wandering the streets.
This year a friend invited us to go trick or treating in her neighborhood. Although there are only a few additional sidewalks, there are a lot more kids, thus discouraging all but the most overzealous Massholes from speeding. My two boys had a blast. My older son (OS) went running ahead with the big kids. They ran up to each door, trick or treated and then headed on to the next house while my younger son (YS) and his two year old friend toddled up to the original house.
This is more of an athletic endeavor than those of you from outside of New England might think. It's not flat here. (Yeah, I know it's not the Rockies either.) There are a lot of steeply sloped driveways. In fact I was more tired from the trick or treating than I was from yesterday morning's spinning class. Trick or treaters really earn their candy. Parents really earned their candy. Or didn't they? That's right they didn't because the system is broken! Broken I tell you!
I walked just as far as my kids yet no one offered me candy. Sure I wasn't wearing a costume, but with the humidity and touch of rain my hair poofed out making me look like the Bride of Frankenstein. I explained this all to my kids. It was a joint effort to get the candy therefore I was just as entitled to the candy as they were. They didn't even pause from eating their candy to look at me.
I have now drafed a new tax proposal for our house to be approved, ratified and signed by yours truly. There will now be a candy tax imposed. 40% of all candy earned from trick or treating will be handed over to me. And no this does not mean I get handed all the gross candy that no one wants. It's 40% of the good stuff.
Of course, every dentist will warn you that there are unfortunate consequences to eating too much candy, and sure enough OS did lose his second tooth this morning. In fairness, it actually was loose long before Halloween candy.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Parents are entitled to 40% of the gross take on Halloween, not 40% of the gross candy.
The Big Giraffe and I always give each other chocolate for Valentine's Day. When I did Weight Watchers I remember the leader describing alternative gifts for Valentine's Day. Sure those sounded great. Who wouldn't like flowers or a new book? To me though, Valentine's Day is about one gift: chocolate. Now move over lady so I can make a beeline to get home and eat some.
Not too far from us is a candy mansion. It's basically a very large home, aka mansion, where they make and sell chocolate. What can I say except that Massachusetts is the land of petting zoos with zero depth pools and Dunkin Donuts practically every five feet. The Big Giraffe and I have always liked the candy mansion, not only because we love chocolate but because we find the idea of a mansion filled with chocolate pretty cool or perhaps I should say wicked cool. There was some saga where the owners got divorced and the quality of the candy seems to have gone down, but we still like going there.
On Friday I took the boys there once I gave up on my younger son (YS) taking a nap. After having a talk with the boys about how we were going to buy Daddy candy and no, they couldn't get something for themselves we headed out to the candy mansion. They whined the whole way about the injustice of being denied candy. When we got there, we carefully investigated all the choices. I carefully watched YS who seemed to be developing an early tendency towards kleptomania. Not suprisingly this oversight caused a great deal of squawking from both YS and me. Thus when YS started shrieking about Daddy I assumed it was round 504 of "Why does Daddy get candy and we don't". I turned around to see the Big Giraffe standing right there. Apparently he left work early to buy the boys and me candy. What can I say except that great minds think alike? And procrastinate alike. Since we both waited so long they only had little boxes, big boxes and giant boxes of candy. No medium sized ones were left, so we got one big box of candy and split it.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: A cry for Daddy may sometimes be a cry of recognition rather than a cry of jealous outrage.
I don't like Valentines though. Never gotten a Valentine present, never given one either. I simply let that day go by like any other. i'm not romantic on command.
Happy holidays to you all! It's been a busy but fun week here. The funny thing is that I can't even tell you exactly what we've been doing except that I've laughed more this week than I have in a really long time. Don't get me wrong; I love to laugh much to the Big Giraffe's chagrin because there might be a slight tendency to have it be at his expense. Such as right now while I'm watching him trying virtual step aerobics on the new Wii Fit we got as a gift for Christmas.
Christmas Eve day the Big Giraffe ran a few errands while my MIL and I made cookies with the boys. I even made them from scratch and pulled out my cookie dough press. I have an itty bitty problem every year: operator error. The first several cookie sheets worth of cookies I make always look like a two year old got a hold of the cookie press. I master the cookie dough press by the last dozen cookies. Satisfied that I have put the cookie dough press back in place and made lovely cookies I then pack up the press and put it away for next Christmas Eve. We all found my cookies to be quite funny to my chagrin. The Big Giraffe told me in all seriousness that theis year's batch not only tastes better than last year's (thanks to the William Sonoma on-line recipe!) but also looks better. I like to think it's because the boys are better at decorating them, but the Big Giraffe has clarified that my technique with the cookie press has gotten better.
Christmas Day itself the boys were up bright and early. We opened gifts and then the Big Giraffe made us our traditional, delicious eggs benedict Christmas breakfast. We spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon playing with the kids and of course setting up their toys. We also set up the Wii and had a great time playing with it. All of us bowled together even my MIL. The Big Giraffe and I had a ton of fun competing in tennis. Then it was dinner time.
After much thought (on my part as everyone else said they really and truly didn't care) we bought a HoneyBaked Ham and a couple side dishes. This worked out perfectly because I was able to make homemade rolls (yes, from scratch!) and a homemade au gratin potato sidedish. We also had the Christmas cookies and a cake. The ham was already cooked so I had full use of the oven for my sidedishes. I was quite pleased with it. Then it was time to beat up the Big Giraffe at boxing to engage in some healthy sporting games.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: A Wii offers more than a wee bit of fun.
The Big Giraffe only began to celebrate Christmas when we began dating. He's only had a Christmas tree since we've been married. Since this is our eighth Christmas as a married couple, you can do the math, right?
In our older son's (OS) preschool newsletter, there was a blurb that a local church was having a Santa and cookie event. We took the boys and they loved it. Let's just say that Santa definitely earned his cookies this year. He had the kids looking out the window for the reindeer he said were on the church's roof. This church was also selling Christmas trees in the parking lot as a fundraiser. We didn't have the cash on us yesterday, but we promised the boys we could come back today and get a tree. OS was quick to remind us of our promise first thing this morning.
Although today is only Dec. 7th and we have a tendency to wait until the last minute to get a tree (my friend Balex Melliot got a crazy cheap and gigantic tree one year on Christmas Eve), we set off to pick out our 2008 tree. OS immediately fell in love with on tree. I do have a vague recollection of the Big Giraffe saying that he thought the tree was too large. However, it was only a couple inches taller than he is, and he's 5'7". We paid for the eighth Christmas tree in the Big Giraffe's life and loaded it up. Immediately I had visions of a happy tree trimming. Why had we always waited so long to put up our tree? This wasn't stressful at all?
In fact the more I reflected on it, the more I realized that the closer to the beginning of December that we put up our tree, the less stressed out I get about it because we're not trying to cram it into an already filled holiday schedule. Sure, the longer we have pine needles on the floor more annoying I find it, but compared to all the needles we had upon entry to our house the year that we Balex Melliot got the tree on Christmas Eve since it was so old, it really wasn't bad.
We brought the tree into our house. The boys were eager with anticipation. The Big Giraffe picked up the tree and I tried to gently guide the trunk into the Christmas tree holder. It didn't fit. I tried to shove the tree into the trunk. No dice. I even tried to shove the holder onto the Christmas tree. Nothing was working. I was determined to remain calm and zen-like. Let's just say others, one other actually, in the house was losing it. Particularly when I informed him that I thought we needed to saw a little more of the tree off. I thought perhaps the knots were keeping it from fitting.
The Big Giraffe grudgingly dragged a hand saw up from the basement and laboriously sawed away while the two boys looked on with delight and I tried unsuccessfully to keep from laughing. Then I pointed out that we needed to saw off some branches from the bottom of the tree. The Big Giraffe gruffly informed me that he already knew that. For some reason I don't think he appreciated my rendition of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". We tried getting the tree into the tree holder once again. It still didn't fit. Even worse, while throwing the thing around, we dragged it against the ceiling, leaving what looked to the parents of a potty-training child like tire tracks.
I came up with what I thought was a plausible solution: exchange the tree. The Big Giraffe looked even more annoyed particularly when I pointed out he really should go right then because otherwise the volunteers would have changed over. After all, the only thing weirder than seeing someone you helped before come back to exchange a Christmas tree is seeing someone whom you've never seen before claiming that they bought the Christmas tree hours earlier and now need to exchange it. In fact thinking back on all my years of Christmas celebrations, not only had I never exchanged a Christmas tree, but I don't know anyone who ever did. But this was for a church fundraiser and the people there seemed incredibly nice and filled with Christmas spirit...The Big Giraffe looked less filled with Christmas spirit.
One of the Big Giraffe's arguments against returning the tree was that he had cut the original twine taking the tree down and thus had no where to secure the tree to return it. Not only did I remember that we had a ball of twine in the house, but I actually found it so that we could tie the tree back onto the car. At this point I wasn't even trying to hide my laughter.
The Big Giraffe returned a short while later (after I did the reasonable thing and shared the story by phone with a friend laughing so hard I could barely speak) with his ninth Christmas tree. He was quick to point out both that he had brought the tree holder with him to be sure that this tree would fit and that if we had listened to him before we would have gotten this new tree in the first place. I pointed out it was basically the same height, and when he said the first tree was too big, he hadn't mentioned the width of the tree. He argued that he had not been specific about what constituted too big. I still couldn't stop laughing. I briefly wondered if there are stats on the number of divorces triggered by conflicts over a Christmas tree.
Fortunately, all is well that ends well. We have a lovely decorated tree. We worked together to scrub the sap off the ceiling. Many years from now both the Big Giraffe and I will both be able to look back at this Christmas tree and laugh. Hmmm...the Big Giraffe just asked me if he's going to be really mad at my blog post. Now I'm wondering again about those stats...
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: You should figure out the maximum Christmas tree height and width that will fit in your home before exchanging it.
Wow. I think my husband would have dropped the tree off at the side of the road and then would have been it. At least it ended well and what a funny story you have now.
hmm I should go back to your facebook pictures as I'm totally confused about the "tree holder" concept? are you trying to fit the trunck in some kind of frame?
We always plant our tree in a huge bucket of earth. Preferably we bought a tree with roots (to plant it in the backgarden and attempt reuse for a couple of years) (real living trees don't loose the needles as easily if you don't forget to water them :) ). Unfortunately nowedays you can hardly find any Christmas trees with roots anymore in Belgium. What a shame.
since I hate the idea of a dying tree in the room (that's basically what a tree without roots is doing), we have already for 3 years an artificial tree now. I love it. It's a bit insane to be matching branches in a trunck with color codes, but once decorated it looks really good. No needles on the floor ever!
The holidays are always a funny time for me. I suspect that the Big Giraffe would say that they are a somewhat crabby time for me. I absolutely love Christmas. Plus right after Christmas is my birthday. I enjoy the Christmas lights, the cheesy Christmas music, and the awful decorations in the mall that go up way too early but make the mall look bright and cheerful. Every year I'm determined that it's going to be the best Christmas ever.
However, with family living so far away, this festive season can bring on bouts of homesickness not to mention shear fear. Fear of what you might ask? Let me explain the holiday dinner transition theory that my husband hears about every year.
When you grow up, your family prepares your big holiday meal. As you get older you begin to help with the meal. Gradually you work your way up to making a dish or two all on your own. Then one day, you have your own place and you actually cook that dish in your own home and bring it to your parents' house (or whoever hosts the family meal.) Then over time you host the meal, but it probably starts out small. Perhaps you cook the main dish and family members bring over side dishes until one day (in my homesick mind it's about 20 years later) you host the whole thing on your own and if you have kids they are also in the beginning stages of the transition.
The problem is that I went from making dishes at my parents home (I have lived out of state since college) to making the whole meal. This tends to cause major stress particularly because I am not one of those people who finds cooking relaxing. Plus I really like relaxing and playing with the kids on Christmas, and I have no desire to spend hours in the kitchen preparing a meal. On the bright side, the Big Giraffe and I are free to come up with whatever holiday menus we choose.
This year my MIL is coming for Christmas. It's the first Christmas that a relative has ever celebrated with us since we got married. While it's her first Christmas celebration, and she doesn't care what we serve, her presence causes the backup plan of frozen pizzas stashed in the freezer just in case to lose their appeal. The past couple of years we've done fondue which has been a lot of fun, but the boys don't particularly like it, by which I mean they don't like it at all. Plus I'm a little nervous about them being around the fondue flame. For several years, relatives have sent a meal on dry ice from a famous Chicago restaurant for Christmas Eve. That has been fantastic and is another idea that we are considering extending on our own for Christmas this year.
My question to you is what do you serve for the holidays? Or perhaps I should ask, if you could start holiday meal traditions from scratch, what would you serve?
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Without traditions, holidays offer a blank slate of opportunity.
Lasagna or homemade spaghetti and meatballs are good dishes that everyone will like - including your boys - but can still be made to feel special. Add some good wine, salads, cheeses and crackers (for appetizers), and a special dessert. The boys could help you make meatballs and you could prepare the sauce early and let it simmer all day.
One of my friends' family has filet mignon every Christmas dinner because it doesn't take a lot of time and is luxurious. Pop some potatoes in the oven and make a good side dish like mac and cheese with really quality cheese (Martha Stewart has a great recipe).
A few years ago when I hosted my first Christmas Eve for the whole family, I made a huge pot of chili and set out shredded cheese, sour cream, guacomole, and corn chips. It was a lot of fun.
we were thinking of cooking a turkey of xmas eve, eating some of it, and then using the leftovers to make m's dad's ragout - which is basically brown gravy full of shredded turkey and pork meatballs, all poured over traditional tourtiere (old-fashioned quebecois meat-pie).
and the best part is, here in ontario, you just BUY the meat pie (and don't tell anyone).
so, yes, meat, meatballs, brown gravy, all over ... meat in crust.
yum.
it's our first xmas on our own, so we are looking forward to doing our own thing!
Super easy - roast a chicken, boil the potatoes while the chicken is roasting (peeling is Big Giraffe's job), use some packaged or canned gravy (there are some wonderful ones in gourmet stores), steam green beans in the microwave, heat up parker house rolls that you got from the supermarket, and serve a bakery pie for dessert. If you don't find cooking relaxing, you should be able to spend the day with the kids. This dinner can be brought to the table in about 20 minutes active time and an hour and a half total time (I have a great, easy chicken recipe I can send you).
Alternative - serve Christmas day brunch, instead. Buy a stollen, heat it, make scrambled eggs and chicken sausage. Voila! Mimosas for the adults.
I do a brunch menu on Christmas (usually stolen from Williams Sonoma) and then on New Year's misc appetizers, keeps us full and happy all day. A great start to the year. Best of luck!
WOW, I'm really bad at advice on this subject. My husband is the cook in my family. And I usually end up at my sister-in-laws for holidays and the most we have to bring is like a pumpkin pie or something.
We don't have any Christmas traditions. My parents (still the hosts, their won insistence) sometimes have ham, or beef, or turkey. Except when they don't--one year we all made Chinese dumplings with my Taiwanese SIL, yum. The traditions are more a simple brunch after presents (egg casserole and coffee cake), lavish Christmas stockings for the kids. The last few years there have been Christmas crackers, a la Britain. It will be great! And less pressure than Thanksgiving, where it's all about The Meal.
I've told you before about the waffle feed Christmas Eve, which is SO fun! But also, on Christmas Day we have sticky buns in the morning and then a ham dinner later...my mom makes her rolls and we have all kinds of fun salads, but the main meat (the ham) is a Honeybaked Ham so just needs heated...I think your "on ice" idea sounds like lots of fun!
My mom suffers from a lot of cooking stress as well, but my best holiday meals I remember are fondue or fondue (bourgignonne) or raclette.....nothing to prepare except for salads etc , everyone cooks during the meal himself. It's very cosy, it's very festive (with the heat glowing from the table), and it's often done in Belgium during the holidays. You can order special meat/cheese fondue dishes at all buchters.
oh and the best thing is that most butchers give you "crepe/pancake batter" along and then you make crepes in your little pans after the meal!!!!! mmmmmm, with hot apple sauce or chocolate sauce or ....
Our older son (OS) is the age when both my husband and I were taken to see The Nutcracker. I remember back when OS was a baby. The Big Giraffe's cousin told us to treasure these early Christmases. For the fond memories? No. The cute Christmas outfits? No. It was another reason: cheap toys. At this early age, toys are relatively cheap. Glancing at OS's Christmas list confirms this. The most expensive item he wants is $10.
The Big Giraffe and I decided tickets to The Nutcracker would be our "big gift" to OS fully realizing that he's five and thus still expects gifts to come in packages with wrapping paper. The notion of ballet being a gift is purely for us at this stage. However, we did feel it would be a fun outing and plan on further disappointing OS by subsequently taking him out for a nice dinner (read: not McDonald's or Friendly's).
OS seems pretty excited about it. As excited as can be expected considering he had no idea what I was talking about, even before I delivered a somewhat rambling version of the story, covering the fact that it was about a dancer named Clara who wears a nightgown and a crown on her head and dances with a nutcracker who becomes a prince after he fights off rats. We headed out to the library to get a book about it as well as a CD of the music. We do own a Nutcracker CD, I think, but it's buried in the Big Giraffe's Celine Dion CD collection CD collection, including a Celine Dion CD.
We found four books in the children's library, and the boys curled up around me on the library's couch so we could read them. As I read story after story, I realized that I had never fully understood the story line behind The Nutcracker. After reading the boys the book that we ultimately checked out of the library, the Big Giraffe told me that he had felt the same way. Furthermore, I had no idea that the person identified in one of the books as Clara's cousin Nicholas "bears a striking resemblance to the Nutcracker prince." (Yes, the prince who chose her to be his princess.) Hmm...I missed that one. Fortunately the other two stories identified Nicholas (or in one case Nathanial) as being her godfather's son leaving me with the hope that he may not have been her cousin. We won't think about about the tendency for parents to pick their siblings as godparents.
I'm really looking forward to The Nutcracker. I can't wait to see OS's face as he watches it. Plus now that I actually understand the story I probably will enjoy it even more. No, not the Nicholas part! I mean the part where I thought there were rats not mice because that makes it much less scary. I'm totally kidding. More importanly I think I finally understand who all the characters are!
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Even children's stories include some strange happenings.
Good one, taking the kids to a wholesome show with incestual undertones...nothin's says holiday love like that! :)
Enjoy the show! I think it's one of those that saw when I was little and didn't really get and then never have seen it since...I'll have to check it out as well!
i took MQ last year when she was 5 - and we did the book thing, too, which helped. Still, she only made it through 3/4 of it (but admittedly, it was a pretty poor production)
Before I had kids, I decided to do Weight Watchers to shed a few pounds before trying to get pregnant. It worked although not all of the tips were as great as I had hoped they would be. One of them was to only buy candy that you do not like. That sounds like a good plan. If you don't like the candy then you won't eat it, right?
Fabulous! I had debated the whole idea of handing out stickers, goldfish crackers, or playdough. I realized though that the problem was that we only get a handful of trick-or-treaters so I would end up storing all the extras. Alright really I would store the extras then proceed to forget about them and then buy new ones the next year etc etc. By the time we would be ready to move, I would be discarding old Halloween treats left and right. I used the tip and it actually worked and I've been doing it ever since.
This year not so great candy once again sounded like a good comprise. That way the Big Giraffe could take the leftovers to work the next day like he's done in years past. Phew. Except that little trick might not work when Halloween is on a Friday...or when your husband is telecommuting for the week following Halloween particularly when you have a grand total of one trick or treater. I tried to convince him to take the whole bowl, but I think he thought I was a crazy person and got scared. I saw him glance at his dad a couple times. Plus I was eating one of the pieces of the candy as I was handing him the bowl to him. Yeah, the end result may just be that you end up eating a lot of Halloween candy that you don't like while trying to convince yourself that it tastes like a Snickers. Yeah, that just doesn't work well either. Nor does asking your kids to bring back a Snickers bar for you. Next year I'm either getting better candy or digging up a costume for myself so I can trick or treat at the neighbors!
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Eat a few pieces of Halloween candy that you really like on Halloween or you may eat many pieces of Halloween candy you don't like.
I buy just a few full-sized candy bars to give out since we only have a few trick-or-treaters each year. At least then I'm not stuck with a half a bag of candy that I'll eat.
Although my kids brought home a ton of candy that I'll probably dip into anyway.
Buy generic non-edible treats that can be used for birthday parties. I.E. instead of spider rings and ghost stickers, do Spiderman stickers and pencils. If you DO buy Halloweenish stuff, though, just put it in a bag with any Halloween decorations you put out, or with your sons' Halloween buckets for next year. It's better than eating candy you don't like. That? Is a waste of calories.
I love the Diet Coke and Snickers suggestion. Hee hee.
Husband bought two 5.6 pound bags of candy at Costco. We put two bowls of candy outside the door when we left for the evening around 5:15, and found nothing when we returned around 1:00. I bet this would work on the other 364 days of the year, so ship your candy to me. Maybe it is the only benefit of living in the lobby of an apartment building...
I always buy candy w/ peanut butter b/c I hate, hate, hate peanut butter. Except that Michael now has a hug bag of candy in the house with lots of yummy candy I like. And it's calling my name
We were hoping for a downpour so we'd hit maybe 3 or 4 houses and call it a night... It was raining but gave way during trick or treating, and my oldest went crazy. He was way ahead of us and we stopped at every house on the street. We have lots of candy calling to us.
I bought one bag "just in case", we got zero trick o' treaters and now I'm stuck with a bag of Health bars that I don't really like but find myself dipping into anyway. I hate when it sticks to your teeth.
I'm looking for a couple more bloggers to review Jooners. Please leave me a comment or email me if you're interested.
Speaking of the Jewish holidays, I had a little bit of a whoops moment yesterday. My older son's (OS) preschool follows the local public school's calendar. I had heard friends discuss plans for what to do during Rosh Hashanah since their children had the day(s) off and they don't celebrate it. In fact I remember that when growing up we had both days off from school. Thus, when I was invited to take my kids to the zoo with a couple other friends and their children, I happily agreed.
The kids had a wonderful time. OS in particular was excited to be included on a fun outing since he's convinced that his little brother has all the fun while he's at school. The zoo was fairly crowded. You can imagine my surprise then when I checked the on-line preschool calendar to find out if OS's school gave both days or only the first day off. I found out that not only did he not have the second day of Rosh Hashanah off, but in fact he was not supposed to have the first day off. Whoops!
It's preschool. It's not like he missed his SATs or anything. However due to a cold I've had since Friday that seemed to be getting worse instead of better, I went to lie down while the Big Giraffe, who does take both days of Rosh Hashanah off to observe the holiday, took both boys and dropped OS off at preschool. He got to explain why OS wasn't in school yesterday. The teacher thought it sounded reasonable.
OS had a fun day, the Big Giraffe got to do the explaining, and I woke up feeling much better.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Just because some members of your family take certain religious holidays off does not mean that schools will close for other members of your family.
That is totally something I would do. My school actually has Weds and Thurs off next week, which is sorta strange since it's a non religious private law school and it doesn't take any of the other Jewish holidays off. But I refuse to complain any time someone wants to give me time off.
Tis the time of year that the Big Giraffe and I get the usual question: what holidays do you celebrate? Don't get me wrong, I am more than happy to answer questions about it. My husband is Jewish, and I was raised Catholic. We are part of a Unitarian Universalist church, and our children are being rasied as UUs. However, sometimes the sarcastic side of me wants to say that we celebrate Festivus. Seinfeld anyone?
My Catholic upbringing explains the several years of Catholic school and CCD. My dad is Jewish, but we did not celebrate the Jewish holidays. This always seems to lead to a complex question and answer session.
Random Dude or Dudette (RD0D): Why did you not celebrate Jewish holidays? Alex Elliot (AE): Because I'm not Jewish. I was raised Catholic. Judaism is passed through the mother not the father. Thus, by Jewish law I am not considered Jewish. I was baptised in the Catholic church and confirmed. My brother, mother and I celebrated all the Catholic holidays. For a time in high school, I was actually pretty religious, although when I was in high school, we had dinner with another family with a Jewish father and Catholic mother and children on Passover.
RDoD: So you did celebrate the holiday when you were there?
AE: No, my dad and Mr. C celebrated the religious holidays and we participated in the festivities. Brace yourself for this one, but aside from the dads, we were all Catholic.
RDoD: So do you celebrate the Jewish holidays now?
AE: I do not. My husband is Jewish. He celebrates the religious holidays in the religious sense. The boys and I join him at the meals, and he explains the rituals to the boys.
RDoD: Do you celebrate Christmas?
AE: Yes. The boys and my husband join in the meals and festivities. I teach them about why people celebrate Christmas and the other Christian holidays.
RDoD: This sounds confusing.
AE: Perhaps, but I grew up in a household with parents from two different faiths, so it's all I've known.
RDoD: Was it confusing to you growing up?
AE: It wasn't confusing for me as a kid, and I doubt my kids are confused by it. When I was little my friend's mother explained that God just reaches everyone in different ways. This made sense to me at 8 because I viewed choosing a path to appreciate God the same way I choose a dessert. We all like different flavors of ice cream, and some of us even prefer sorbet.
RDoD: So what exactly is a Unitarian Universalist?
AE: We believe that everyone creates their own relationship with God, a spirtual being, the world around them, their fellow human beings, a sense of justice or a combination of all five. It is basically the grown up version of my 8 year old ice cream theory. The kids learn about all the major religions. You do not have to convert, and there is no one creed. There are people in our congregation who are Catholic, Jewish, Humanist, Atheist, Wiccan, and Buddhist, for example. Our minister is a Buddhist UU, and her late husband was a Jewish UU minister. Some people just identify as UUs. It's up to each person to define themselves. I identify as UU.
RDoD: But you said you were going to church to celebrate the Jewish holidays?
AE: Yes, UU churches observe the holidays of all major religions holidays, but not necessarily on the actual day of the holiday. We tend to dedicate the nearest Sunday service to the holiday. For example, our Yom Kippur service is next Sunday, even though Yom Kippur actually starts on the following Wednesday night.
RDoD: So are you Jewish?
AE: No.
RDoD: Are your kids Jewish?
AE: No, they are UUs.
RDoD: Did you celebrate the Jewish holiday this evening?
AE: Yes, we had tacos, challah, and wine, and my husband said the blessings.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: There are many ways to enjoy a sweet new year.
That is oddly reminiscent of a conversation I've had with an acquaintance about Episcopal (me & kids) and Catholic (hubby) churches and the beliefs and will our children have their first communion (yes) at a catholic church (no), why (because they're not catholic) and will they be able to get married in a catholic church (uh, they're 4 and 3, that's not my list of concerns right now)...Very circular.
Under Reform Judaism, you are, in fact, also considered Jewish from the father's side if you observed the Jewish rites of passage as a child.
I'm from a very similar background, but I was the UU kid. Our UU church was not as ecumenical as yours, even though it was supposed to be. It was a horrible, confusing experience for me growing up, but it was such a different time (the 60s) and people who didn't fit into boxes were very confusing to others and were ripe for being teased (from my Jewish friends: You're NOT Jewish - you're not one of us; from my Christian friends: You're NOT Christian - you're not one of us).
It sounds like your family has worked all of this out well. I'm envious, in a way. ;-)
I agree with Jen. Just because the Orthodox are narrow minded and evil does not mean that you could not be considered Jewish because your mother is not one of the tribe. As an atheist Jew raised in the reform tradition, I believe that anyone who wants to consider her/himself Jewish can do so if they follow basic Jewish tenets. (What those basic Jewish tenets are, I have no definition for.) It enrages me that someone should be left out because his/her mom was not born to Jewish parents. We should respect a person's individual beliefs. Sorry for my rant, but this hits a raw nerve - intolerance in the Jewish community disgusts me.
We grew up similarly! My father was Jewish, my mother Catholic. My 3 siblings and I were raised Catholic. My father only attended Mass on Easter Sunday and Christmas Eve. Every other Sunday, he stayed home because someone had to "watch the house."
And now? We attend Pop Warner football games on Sunday morning, being the heathens that we are.
that's so interesting and so great. When Jan and I get children later on, we'll have a mixed situation too: catholic and atheist. I always fear that it'll get confusing for them
Happy 5th birthday! I can't believe that you are already five years old. It seems like my own 5th birthday was celebrated just the other day, never mind the birthday of one of my kids. I have been reflecting on your birthday for the past couple of days, not only because you would be turning five, but because the days of the week are aligned the same way they were when you were born, when Labor Day was also on Monday, September 1. I joked around that for me it really was labor day since I went into labor with you on September 1.
This year has brought about so many remarkable changes. Somehow you grew from being a toddler into being a true, little boy. Suddenly you became so much more independent. You learned to make your own decisions. You learned how to stand up for yourself. You made friends with kids in preschool and on the playground whom I hadn't met. I went from knowing all about your life because I was part of everything to listening to you tell me about it. Sometimes getting you to talk required bribery! Except when the subject was a little girl named M whom you just adored or two boys named M and J who were very outgoing and on a couple of occasions got into trouble. You were very impressed with these boys. Your own interests have really developed. They've run the gamut from princesses to sports to emergency vehicles. Yesterday you wanted to visit with a police officer in the parking lot at the beach so you could learn about his job, including whether he had ever rescued any cats from trees and how exactly his police car worked. You were so excited when he let you turn on the sirens and speak on the speaker.
This year was a first for you with parent/child t-ball where you amazed us all with your swing. Tae Kwon Doe has looked to be pretty impressive too. Your knowledge of ocean life this year impressed all of us, not only including your teachers but sometimes including employees of the aquarium. You were enthusiastic and happy with your swim lessons this year. You also very firmly told your instructor and me several times that you were fully aware of the swim lessons process, but you would not jump in the pool and you didn't care if you didn't move up the next level of lessons. I have to confess that I'm hoping you'll reevaluate that decision. What was I saying about making your own decisions? I'm also hoping you'll re-evaluate your decision to boycott milk and decide that you will at least attempt to drink it and some point in the future.
You spent a lot of time with H and C this year and have just loved it. You really look forward to your playdates with them. Daddy and I are thrilled with what great friends you and your brother are. We love that you stand up for each other. You politely but firmly told the little boy at the beach yesterday to stop splashing your brother because he didn't like it.
These past five years have been wonderful. Happy 5th birthday little one. May all your dreams come true. As Cinderella says, "A dream is a wish your heart makes."
Love, Mommy
Cinderella's Lesson Learned: A dream is a wish your heart makes.
My Earth Day Post-Written by a Purchaser of Disposable Diapers
As you hopefully know, tomorrow is Earth Day. I thought I would write a post about what we do at the Elliot household.
We're not tree huggers in this household. My older son (OS) wore and my younger son (YS) wears disposable diapers. When I was in college and later living in my first apartment, I would go through periods were I would be totally green, and then I would swing right back. To me trying to become greener is like trying to lose weight. I'm sure many of you are wincing at that analogy, but to me it's true. In both cases, I'm doing something to become healthier (or make the earth healthier) and they both involve trying to find ways to substitute healthier products, whether reusable grocery bags or turkey dogs on the grill, to become healthier. Most importantly, if I fall off the wagon, I can get right back on again.
That last part was huge for me. I was completely all or nothing. However, since I've comes to terms with the fact that every little bit makes a difference, I feel better about trying to go green. Diapers are a really good example. Yes, we do use disposable diapers. Actually the Big Giraffe and I did talk about using cloth diapers numerous times, but decided to go with disposable. However, we do have the maximum number of recycling bins our town permits (hey if you saw how little our neighbors recycle you would probably think it's a big deal) and we try really hard to buy in bulk, reuse Ziplock bags when appropriate (not bags that have held a dirty diaper), use plastic containers, and try and use mainly real water bottles instead of disposable. I just bought Sigg water bottles this week for our family! We changed most of our cleaners to environmentally friendly cleaners as well as our liquid dish soap and hand soap.
This is not to say that I don't ever use bleach. Yes, whenever I host a playdate or playgroup where someone has pet allergies, I do use bleach on the counters. I will use Lysol on the kitchen floor because we have two cats and a dog and I don't want to mess around with that. That's only about once a month though. Yes, there are times when we run out of soap and I will grab whatever is on hand so to speak at CVS, and it's not green. Or times like this past Halloween where they had really cute handsoap in a pumpkin shaped dispenser that encouraged my 4 year old to wash his hands or a nice scented soap that I really like just for the very rare treat. There also are times when I just don't have a plastic container to spare so I use ziplock baggies and throw them out if they contained something messy and we're out for the day. Likewise, I haven't found a container or insulated lunch box that is compatible for my son's lunch at school, so one day a week I do use a ziplock bag. I remain on the look-out for something that will work and allow his lunch to keep cool.
In our household, there's definitely lots of room for improvement, but I feel by focusing on what we can do instead of what we can't do or aren't doing, we are striving to become greener.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Every bit of green helps.
You know, I really think anything that we do to cut back is worthwhile. Aaaaand I think there's a strong case for doing things the easy way at times too.
like everything in life...it's about balance. We do disposable and cloth diapers. We recycle as much as we can, but since we have to DRIVE out of our way to the recycling place, it seems a bit strange. I don't reuse small ziplock bags. I do reuse big ones. And I have finally broken my 1984 addiction to aqua net ;)
We buy bottled water, but I reuse the containers so it takes forever before I throw one out. I've always reused plastic baggies until they are repulsive. My lunch bag is whatever shopping bag a store gave me, until it gets torn, and then I take another one from my bag stash. I also reuse gift bags. (Is that re-gift bagging? Ha!) Grocery bags are used to dump the rabbit's dirty litter. We recycle. Hmmm... I do a little more than I thought I did. Yay!
Also, I take public transportation or walk everywhere. Of course, that's just about the only way to get around where I live, so there's no real bragging rights in that.
i think what's important is to keep the green that you have and make efforts to add new way to be green to your life style.
Your analogy of weight loss is entirely appropriate. Going Green is a lifestyle change, just like eating healthy and exercising are life style changes. What's important to remember is that even after you've dropped the weight you don't go running out to the store and buy a box of HoHos.
Same with living Green. Now that you have the initial step down in your house, choose something else to implement.
Here's a secret confession of mine: I love buying Peeps. You know those sugary marshmallow type chicks? I don't actually like eating them, but I really enjoy buying them. I think it's because when I was little, my grandmother used to keep them in a big glass jar on her coffee table at Easter. Normally she wasn't the type of grandma who baked cookies or played dolls with me, but she did have an endless supply of Peeps. They're just so cute. Plus rumor may have it that I just might have participated in a Peep experiment at work after college where a Peep was microwaved to see the effect. Rumor has it that the Peep just kept getting bigger and bigger like the Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not out of control with my Peep purchasing. I just like to buy a package every year. The problem is that since I don't like eating them, well they just sit there. After my husband, the Big Giraffe, and I got married and the Peeps had been sitting on the counter for months, he gently suggested I throw them out. I just couldn't do it. Plus Peeps taste the best when they're stale according to everyone in my family. Who knows, maybe if they were a few years stale I would like them. I moved them to the refrigerator so they were out of sight. That's where they stayed along with the Peeps from the next year and the year after that. My husband started to complain that he felt like the Peeps were being well, Peeping Peeps I guess and looking at him every time he opened the fridge. I never really saw them just like he doesn't see the recycling left in the kitchen sink. Finally we replaced our refrigerator, no not because of the Peeps, and he suggested a Peeps ban in our house.
My older son (OS) is really into anything that is sugary and artificially colored. You know what I was thinking when he was describing what type of Easter candy he hopes to get: Peeps! That is the exact description of a Peep. Plus the ban is really just for the Big Giraffe and me. The Easter Bunny was not included in the ban. It is possible that there may be some Peeps hidden from my husband the kids somewhere in the car house. I mean they're green after all, and we have never had green ones in our house.
If OS doesn't like them now, he very well may like them when they are stale enough. My only fear is that if they kids don't like them, that they'll end up in the toilet. No, literally I mean the toilet. Today's experiment, conducted while OS was allegedly using the bathroom,was seeing whether or not the washable dogs my parents got them for the bathtub will also work in the toilet. I can see them trying to decide if a Peep will dissolve in the toilet. That said, today's experiment has caused me to institute an "open door bathroom policy" until OS demonstrates a less playful approach to excretion. Unlike the dogs, I think the Peeps will end up in the trash and not the Saturday Box*.
*Box for toys that end up in the toilet or left out when I'm cooking despite numerous threats not to and are thus placed in a box to be redeemed on Saturday.
I think I like the way peeps look more so than how they taste, they are very cute but something akin to shoveling a spoonful of sugar in my mouth! :o) (Plus they shed sugar all over the house, who knows what they'd do to the toilet?!)
Sally HP invited the Giraffe family to watch the St. Patrick's Day Parade with her and her son. I have mixed feelings about parades. As a kid I loved them. However I hated being cold. Plus I have a distinct memory of having to wait and wait and wait...and wait and wait. All that being said, the St. Patrick's Day parade in Chicago was my favorite one. They dye the Chicago river green leading to the old joke that if that can be done, why can't the river be dyed blue the rest of the year?
The parade was, well let's just say not quite up to par with Chicago. More on that on Wednesday over at New England Mamas. It was pretty cold out, but we had brought blankets and the kids were dressed warmly. The waiting wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The parade started up and all I can say was there were a ton of bagpipe players. At first I thought there was just one marching band with bagpipers...and then two bands...and then three bands...then four bands... then we left so for all I know there could have been 100. (The Big Giraffe was pleased that 100% of the bands played in front of us, which is a statistic that he started keeping when he went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York City every year.) I commented that I didn't personally know anyone who played the bagpipes. Seriously, I know someone who grew up on a llama farm and had to take the llamas on daily "walks" on a giant leash, but as for bag pipers, well I've seen them play before, but I've never been friends with one. Given the number of bagpipers who apparently live near me, it would seem that there must be some sort of 6 degrees of separation game that would allow me to know one. Sure enough, one of the women at my college club meeting this afternoon plays bagpipes, and two of their daughters do as well.
After we had settled into the car and began our drive home, I asked my older son (OS) his favorite part of the parade. I was sort of expecting him to say the bagpipes. His favorite part was the donut we got for him at the Dunkin Donuts near where we were standing. His second favorite part was when one of the paraders gave him a handful of candy. We could have saved ourselves a lot of shivering by just going through a drivethrough and then giving OS a handful of the old Halloween candy that we still have.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: When trying to create fond childhood memories, remember to ask yourself whose childhood memories you're trying to create: your child's or your inner child's.
That's too funny. I'll have to remember that should I start to go crazy and think it's a good idea to stand in the cold and watch a parade. Skip it and hit the drive through. Good tip.
When I was a kid, I desperately wanted to play the bagpipes, and begged my parents for pipes and lessons. I got the mouthpiece (called a chaunter, if I remember correctly) and a book, and that was pretty much the end of that.
Having lived my entire life just outside of Chicago, I can honestly say that I have NEVER been to a St. Patrick's day parade... am I really missing out? It seems awfully cold to go sit on the side of the street for some candy and bagpipes...
Had to laugh, they had the "Un-official St. Paddy's Day Parade" on the South Side here in Chi-town yesterday, which was attended by, I think they said, 300,000 people. Next weekend is the "Official" parade, which is less of a crowd favorite, I guess. Which one did you go to as a kid?
Even if OS's favorite part of the parade was the donut and candy, I'm sure he'll remember the bagpipes and floats, too!
At the St. Patrick's day parades here in New Orleans, in addition to the usual beads, etc, they chuck produce at you: potatos, cabbage, and the biggest carrots you've ever seen. You have to be careful, because if you're not looking a well aimed cabbage could render you unconscious.
Thank you to Lara for providing such a wonderful start to the new year with her Blog Exchange post giving out "Best New" awards for 2007. I hope to continue the upbeat tone, by posting about how much fun my family has had over the last two days. (The Big Giraffe keeps claiming that today was the best day of the year, so far.)
Yesterday we went to First Night Worcester with two other families. They say pessimists are never disappointed. I don't want to call parents of small kids pessimists, but it is fortunately difficult to disappoint people whose only expectations is that their kids will inevitably have at least a half a dozen meltdowns. To describe us as pleasantly surprised would be an understatement! We really enjoyed First Night. We saw an animal show (not with giraffes), watched some ballet dancing, and listened to Caribbean music for kids. It was definitely worth the $20 that the Big Giraffe and I paid. That is not to say that my children did not have meltdowns, but they were manageable and they came between moments of great enjoyment. On a complete dorky note, we also got to use the Garmin GPS that my parents got us for the holidays, even though we already knew the route. We just wanted to try it out.
We then went out for an amazing meal!
Prime rib
Yorkshire pudding
Quiche
Green beans
Pecan, pear and Gorgonzola salad
Garlic mashed potatoes
Fruit salad
Chocolate cheesecake
Chocolate fondue with fruit and marshmallows
I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it! Of course there was also wine and pink champagne to toast in the New Year at 8:30 pm.
Where on earth could three families take five children on New Year's Eve for that kind of feast? Well, when I said that we went out, I didn't actually mean out to a restaurant. I meant out of our house. One of the families hosted and somehow put it together so well in advance that everything was ready to eat very quickly after our return from First Night.
In addition to the wonderful hospitality and company enjoyed at the home of friends, the other good news about not being at a restaurant is that there is a lot more room for kids to act up. The better news is that they again had far fewer meltdowns than I expected. Each child took his turn (yes not only were there five children, but they were all boys) causing some measure of trouble, but given the amount of time spent walking in the cold, the stimulation of all the shows, and the amount of excitement, I think they all did really well. However, we ended up turning the GPS off on the way home to let them sleep peacefully once we confirmed that we have been using the proper route when previously traversing the route.
It really was a fabulous way to end 2007...followed by a fantastic beginning to 2008!
This morning we headed out to meet a co-worker of the Big Giraffe's (whom he has been insisting that I would enjoy meeting for several months), her husband, and their three kids. (Yes out with five kids two days in a row.) We went to a theater where we were able to sit in very comfortable chairs, socialize for an hour over food from an extensive menu, and then watch Water Horse. This was not your typical movie theater.
Why didn't we watch Alvin and the Chipmunks, you might ask. Well for two reasons:
My older son (OS) and I really wanted to see a movie about an "underwater horse" and everyone else rode along
Alvin was sold out
More information on the venue and the experience may be found on my post at New England Mamas, but I will say that for this trip we really needed the GPS!
For the second day in a row, the children's behavior was far better than expected, and the Big Giraffe's prediction that I would like his colleague was correct. I really enjoyed meeting and spending time with the entire family. I also enjoyed the movie, but it was definitely scarier than I would have liked for my kids. That's not to say that they didn't enjoy it, but there were parts that did scare my kids, my older son in particular. It would probably be better on DVD where I could have fast forwarded through the scary scenes, like when the water horse was trying to bite people and when the soldiers were firing artillery at what they believed was an attack by the German navy. (The movie took place in Scotland during World War II.)
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Ending one year with pre-existing friends and starting another with new friends makes for an enjoyable and memorable transition.
It sounds as if you've started 2008 in a great way :) We thought about First Night this year, but thought it might be more trouble than it's worth, but I think we'll give it a shot next year. (Especially after your wonderful review!)
Thanks for stopping by. I've been a total flake about blog surfing the last few months - I'm glad I didn't lose you!
For all my frustrations with the holidays, we ended up having what I think was our best Christmas yet. A couple weeks ago, after after talking with my husband across the TV pondering and meditating on my deepest feelings about Christmas dinner to find inner happiness, I realized that one aspect of Christmas that has always stressed me out is trying to cook a big Christmas dinner. While my cooking has come a long way (pause as I give myself a pat on the back), it is seriously lacking in the roast/prime rib department. Unfortunately, the Big Giraffe's skills are on par with mine. The fact of the matter is that no one really likes any sort of roast that we make. (Yeah, I did make a great roast once, but that went, as it were to the dog.)
However, it seemed silly to throw up our hands and abandon making Christmas dinner to do something like order Chinese food or eat a frozen pizza like rumor has it I just may have suggested in the past. For all my joking around, both the Big Giraffe and I are capable of making at least a few tasty meals that won't give anyone diarrhea. Trying to find a meal that we both enjoyed making and both enjoyed eating might be a stretch.
That's when I realized that we could switch our Christmas Eve almost-tradition of fondue to Christmas day. The Big Giraffe and I do love making and eating fondue. We do it at least twice a year. I even taught my moms group how to make fondue a couple of years ago. I say almost-tradition because last year with a newborn and a 3 year old, it was just too much. Plus we were worried, probably rightfully so, about our older son (OS) being around an open flame. No, rest assured, we wouldn't have let him participate in fondue making. We would have, as we did this year, made him his own dinner.
A friend and her son were going to be our honored guests at Christmas dinner so I ran the idea by her. She seemed pretty excited about it too. Two days before Christmas, I sat down and did a bunch of searches for recipes. I wanted to try something new this year. I ended up finding the Melting Pot's recipe for a burgundy broth for cooking meats and vegetables and the recipe for their Green Goddess Dipping sauce. The big Giraffe and I had a wonderful Christmas Eve. After visiting the Sudbury Lights (which I wrote about over at the New England Mamas) we put the kids to bed and spent a relaxing hour chopping bread, veggies, meats and cheeses while I made 3 homemade dipping sauces, all accompanied by eggnog and Christmas music. It was a wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve. (I will admit that it was more relaxing because only one kids gift required assembly this year and the assembly was very miminal.)
On Christmas morning, we just lounged around playing with the kids and enjoying our Christmas gifts. I have learned some valuable tips about lubing up before triathlons courtesy of a triathlon book I really wanted that my BIL and Sil gave me. Then it was time to pick up Sally HP and her son. Since all the food was chopped and prepared in advance, setting up the fondue was stress-free. The boys had hot dogs and Mac n Cheese which they finished quickly and then they went off to play. We adults had a wonderful time eating fondue, talking and laughing. It was a wonderful Christmas.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Sometimes the best traditions come out of doing something that's not traditional but that you really love doing.
We just do a bunch of appetizers on Christmas Eve, then whatever my mom feels like making on Christmas Day. This year it was a hamburger bake and cheesy potatoes. Yum for cheesy potatoes.
Do you know the fondue rule? If you drop your chunk of food in the sauce, you must kiss the people on both sides of you. I think this was back in the 70s though.
When I was in third grade, we got to make "gingerbread houses." This involved each child bringing in a box of graham crackers, a can of frosting, and a bunch of different candies to decorate our houses. My dad was in charge of buying the candy for me, and I remember my decorations consisted of a giant bag of Good N' Plenty. We spent a couple of afternoons working on it. By the time we were finished, I had lost interest in the house, but I did enjoy eating construction materials throughout the process.
At some point, I learned that gingerbread houses were made out of gingerbread and not graham crackers. No, Big Giraffe, that wasn't today. However, I never attempted to build a real gingerbread house. It just seemed like too much effort. A couple of years ago, my aunt was participating in her yearly tradition of baking gingerbread for gingerbread houses. She gets really into it and has the special pans, makes the dough from scratch and carefully decorates each house with a theme. She mentioned that she also uses wrapped candy, so that people can pick out what they want when they want it without creating any worry about dirt or germs. I asked the obvious question: well, what about the gingerbread? My aunt explained to me that actual gingerbread houses don't taste very good. First of all, they have to be fairly sturdy, requiring a distasteful amount of molasses in them. Second, after sitting out for a couple days they get stale; a baked item that looks good but that no one actually samples to find out that it tastes terrible.
That's when I realized that I had missed my calling. Really, it's the ideal dessert I could bake. Can you imagine how relieved I would have been if I showed up at the cookie exchange carrying gingerbread houses with wrapped candy on them for everyone and told people that these baked goods were for display and candy grazing only? I might not have been less stressed out about the process, because let's face facts - making 8 gingerbread houses is a lot worse than making 16 dozen cookies!
So you would think then that this year I would make my own gingerbread. That would be a fairly reasonable assumption, except that it just seems like a lot of work when I could just buy a kit at the grocery store. I actually think that buying was the right choice. My older son (OS) loved decorating his house, and he was so proud of the finished product. What he didn't love was waiting the fifteen minutes for the roof to set. In fact, he found the delay torturous. That's when I realized that he couldn't care less that the house wasn't constructed out of real gingerbread. In fact, he was better off with a kit. There's no way he would have patiently waited for the gingerbread to bake.
Of course that's not to say that I won't some day make gingerbread. It's just going to be when we can make it together and more importantly when it's something that he wants to do. And if it just so happens that he never wants to do it, well I won't lose any sleep over it. Like I said, when I was little I loved the graham crackers and the canned frosting.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Many times the easy way out works out the best.
I am laughing my butt off at the idea of a Good and Plenty-covered gingerbread house.
And wrapped candies seem a little germ obsessive to me. But of course you're talking to a woman who drank cactus punch from a plastic bucket in a parking lot of a church in rural Mexico...
The blending of two people or of two families can be fun but can have a few bumps along the road to say the least. Although my husband is Jewish, Santa used to visit his house when he and his brother were young.
Our first Christmas together Santa decided to visit our house as well. Santa filled the Big Giraffe's stocking with candy and small items and left a couple of presents under the tree. (The Big Giraffe and I exchanged gifts as well.) Santa left candy in my stocking and nothing under the tree. The next year Santa didn't leave the Big Giraffe as much but he left me more. Of course there were also issues with how Santa would wrap one of our presents, but not wrap the other. I'll leave you to guess who got the unwrapped gifts. We figured we would sort out the whole Santa thing before we had kids. Then we realized that actually we had quite a bit of time before they really caught on, although this year our older son (OS) is keeping a keen eye out for any Santa details. Most importantly we have been able to try out different traditions and see what we like and what we don't and change it. One year Santa didn't wrap any of OS's presents. It worked out well for Santa because he was a lot less stressed. However, the next year OS disregarded his birthday gifts in favor of the wrapping paper so Santa decided to wrap his gifts. We haven't received word yet on what Santa will do this year. I do remind OS that I am a personal friend of Santa's so I expect I'll be hearing soon.
Of course there are other traditions that are still works in progress. Like any great work, there's a lot of mulling, pondering, discussion and yes even arguing. You know that song the Twelve Pains of Christmas? Well tonight we lived that song, or at least the day of Christmas about the Christmas lights. We have yet to work out a good system, much less a good arrangement for our Christmas lights. Because of where our outlets are placed, it's hard for us to do anything too exciting without creating a dizzying array of daisy-chained extension cords in front of our doors. We want our lights to invite warm holiday feelings, not vicious lawsuits. As such, it's hard for us to get really excited about our lights. However, we're usually pretty good about getting them up early.
Not this year. We were great about getting and decorating our tree early. The lights were another story. Normally when the Big Giraffe hangs the lights from our gutters, he does a final gutter clean. This year we waited until late December, in fact today. Due to the weather this past week, our gutter was completely frozen. This meant that not only was he not able to clean our gutter, but we couldn't even hang the lights from the gutter. Hence, our lights are on our bushes. No big deal except that today it warmed up and all the ice that was in our gutter somehow, and I'm exactly sure how yet, managed to leak through our living room window and onto our couch. Hence an emergency call (read expensive) to our friendly handyman who's swinging by tomorrow. Fortunately it's freezing outside, so the ice is freezing again, thus stopping the leak.
How could I forget to mention that it's also the holidays? So while the Big Giraffe and I are truly the best of friends and partners in life, we may just possibly have gotten into a slight tiff audible disagreement about all of this. Wouldn't you know that a friend of ours just happened to drop-off a plate of cookies during the fight?
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Buy curtains and soundproof your doors!
Nothing like Christmas lights to bring on the stress. That's why I decided to assume control of the process. Things are much more peaceful now that there's juse one of us involved!
I always knew that there would come a time when I would have to protect my kids from the dangers of the world. I know that I would walk across hot coals barefoot for my kids, but I just never knew when I would be called to do that. At some point my fencing skills from high school would be called upon to be used. Alright maybe not that last part.
On Wednesdays, my older son (OS) stays at preschool for lunch while my younger son (YS) and I are in playgroup. Since he not only views it as a special treat, but he will actually eat whatever I pack him, this arrangement works out well for the both of us. When YS and I went inside to pick up OS today, he told me that Santa had visited his classroom. (According to a note from the teacher, he asked Santa for a "surprise." He told me that he asked for a car just like mine that he can drive.)
When we were in the parking lot, YS started clawing at my neck, as if he were scaling me to try to get away from something. Unable to wriggle free, he started to bury his head in my neck. I couldn't figure out what was going on. Was there a coyote on the loose? Had one dinosaur escaped extinction and was coming out of hiding looking for his first meal in 62 million years? I tried to comfort YS, but all I could get was the silent scream. You know the one where the baby scrunches his face, gets all red, and opens his mouth but nothing comes out? You have approximately two seconds to brace your eardrums to protect them from being blown out. OS was alarmed too.
That's when I saw him. He was driving through the parking lot in a tan pick up truck, apparently on his way to visit the afternoon class. It was...Santa. OS was thrilled. YS still had the silent scream going, and he began clawing madly at me. Then Santa stepped over the line. He actually rolled down the window and...wished us a Merry Christmas. YS lost it. He began howling at the top of his lungs as we finished walking across the parking lot.
I had one kid tugging my hand wanting to follow the pick up truck as it parked and another one who isn't walking yet , but who would probably have jumped up and sprinted to my car if I had let go. My only question was how come the pickup truck wasn't red?
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Reindeer have a better union than Santa Claus; while Santa is driving around in a pickup truck scaring babies, they are resting in the North Pole until their single, annual night of work..
Yeah, I have one that LOVES Santa, one that is---just this year---able to get near him without panic, and one who is terrified. Makes for interesting photos.
Your walking over glass might impress everyone with your devotion, however it would do nothing to benefit your children. Half an hour a day playing Hi Ho Cherrio or tossing a ball with them might be of more value.
This is so common, sadly. I shared that with ys when I was little. Cable Girl at 42 wrote a funny post about it a week or two ago. Hugs to your little one!
12 dozen cookies later, here's what I learned, or better yet remembered, about why I don't like to bake:
All the washing! I had to wash down the counter tops for the millionth time today, tie back my hair, wash the new cookie sheets, wash out the stand mixer because it hadn't been used since the dark ages, wash out the cookie press and inspect to make sure that it hadn't been used unbeknownst to me for playdough, rewash the cookie press, wash the cookie racks, sterilize my hands, and make sure that I was "defurred" all before even opening the bag of flour.
I am a perfectionist, and it drove me batty when my cookies didn't look right. I made the worst ones by leaning on the cookie press too hard, doubling the width of the cookies. The next worst ones were missing a leaf that I had knocked off. Fortunately this didn't happen often. Unfortunately, I am neurotic so I would insist on redoing these cookies.
The smell of the cookies is now making me nauseated. Perhaps if I baked more I would get rid of my sweet tooth. Now there's a thought!
The cleanup.
I had this big image of cute little Christmas wreaths decorated with rainbow ball sprinkles to look like ornaments. All the better to nibble on when listening to Christmas carols on the radio. They would be the perfect size to dunk in a glass of milk or a cup of hot chocolate. You would look at them and be overwhelmed with the feeling of Christmas. Memories of your best Christmas ever would flood your mind. Maybe I'm getting a little too carried away here. Unfortunately, the wreaths proved to be incredibly fragile and instead of being worthy of a glass of milk, they were worthy of a gourmet baker. Since I'm not quite the gourmet baker, I used the cookie press's flower plate. I still put the sprinkles on them to make them look festive and therefore flood the minds of the consumers with memories of the best Christmas ever. Alright maybe so they would think "Hey I remember using these sprinkles to decorate cookies when I was a kid!"
One really great benefit of these cookies (unlike the recipe I originally chose) was that I was able to fit about 35 cookies on each cookie sheet. No, the official name of the recipe was not "The Lazy Cookie-Swapper's Cookies," but the recipe was clearly designed for the lazy person to make for a cookie swap! Of course I still ended up making 3 batches. I don't know what size cookies the recipe assumed when they said that each batch of dough would make 4 dozen cookies, because even though cookies don't get much smaller than what I made, I had to make three batches to get to eight dozen cookies. Alright that does include the batch that I burned. I was going to give them to the dog, but seeing as he's on special prescription low fat dog food, I decided to save them for the Big Giraffe. I'm kidding!
A Elliot's Lesson Learned:The point of a cookie swap is to swap for cookies that are better than yours.
I am laughing out loud here to your lesson learned! Too funny and too true :-)
But your cookies look yummy and I would be happy to get those in a cookie exchange.
I just posted the recipe and some pictures of nanaimo bar but I am guessing you won't be up for making that! It's pretty much fool proof though and oh so delicious
Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.
that all sounds like a very cool weekend!