Christmas

Cinnamon Candy

1 Comment / Christmas, Daily Dose, Family Funk, Foodie /

My mom made some cinnamon candy, just like she and my grandmother used to make when I was a kid – and it was amazing. It looks pretty bad but it tastes SO good. Folks asked for the recipe and I realized that my copy in my very first handwritten recipe book is very faded … so I’m putting it here, in case my kids want it some day.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 cup Pet Milk (lol)

1/8 teaspoon Cream of Tarter

1 tablespoon Butter

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Vanilla

Cinnamon

Directions:

Mix Sugar, Pet Milk, Cream of Tarter, Butter, and Salt in a pot. Cook to boiling – stirring continuously. Once it boils, cook to soft ball stage, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and cool til lukewarm or until your hand can be held comfortably on the bottom of the pan.

Add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat til creamy & stiff. Roll on waxed paper sprinkled with cinnamon. Cut into slices.

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Lord, I’m Tired

1 Comment / Christmas, Daily Dose, Day to Day, Family Funk /

Cookies were decorated. An iPhone was taken apart and not repaired. Presents were wrapped. Stockings hung. Pizza was delivered, though the vegan pizza I ordered wasn’t vegan. Pajamas were unwrapped. Giggling took place. Lola and Skeeter got into a fight. Buster is still hiding, though he did tolerate pets from Michelle Belle. Packages did not arrive when they were supposed to arrive — even Amazon let me down, sigh. All of the laundry is done. My finger may or my not be infected. There are a lot of baked goods, vegan, gluten-free and non-vegan and gluten-filled.

I really hope the bathwater I hear running is for me… my back is killing me. It was a pretty good day.

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Almost…

2 Comments / Christmas, Daily Dose, Day to Day, Family Funk /

Chris’s flight was right on time this morning. Michelle’s is only an hour delayed, and she’ll be here in a little over an hour.

I wrapped another dozen Christmas gifts. Realized I forgot to buy something that I always buy and will have to do that tomorrow.

Buster is terrified. Really terrified. I mean really really terrified. He hasn’t eaten anything he shouldn’t have eaten all day — but that’s because he’s pretty much just cowering in corners. Poor little guy. There is no yelling at Buster going on right now. Just lots of soft encouraging whispers.

I made my sugar cookies today, in preparation for the kids’ decorating them tomorrow.

TW and RJ baked a ton of things. Skeeter ate a lot of macaroons (not macarons) and Buster took a nibble of one off of my finger.

They demolished a brand new toy and Lola nicely brought each squeaker to me as Skeeter removed it from the toy.

I’ve run three loads through the dishwasher and have another half load ready to go, tomorrow after we eat the yummy cinnamon rolls my brother and sister-in-law (yes I have a brother and no Christine is not my sister, she is my sister-in-law) sent.

All of the laundry is DONE. All of it. It’s even put away – except for TW’s mom’s stuff and the little kids’ things but since I don’t put their clothes away, my work is DONE. Done I tell you. ‘Til tomorrow when I’ll have a load of towels to do.

I think I’ll go read or maybe just watch Chris read. He loves it when I do that.

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Happy, Merry

3 Comments / Christmas, Family Funk, Friends & Family /

In September, right after JMP and Jenn went home, I happened to click in to read Dooce’s blog. That rarely happens now that she feeds partial feeds. I don’t know what it was that caused me to click but I did. And what did I click into? Her post about Paul Ferney’s Commission Project.

I’m pretty sure if JMP hadn’t been here and just left, that I never would have shelled out the money and taken the chance on ordering a painting from Paul but I did it and thought it would make a great present for my mother who often complains that she never has a photo of JMP to hang on her wall or whatever.

And then I mostly forgot about it. I mean I didn’t. But I did.

So when I was ordering gifts from Haldecraft for all of the people, I did not have it in my head that I’d bought my mom’s Christmas gift already and I ordered her some orange yarn. Then, she saw the sock monkey yarn that I sent sassymonkey and said she wanted some — and since I happened to have ordered two skeins of sock monkey yarn, I figured I’d just give her both skeins.

Flash forward a couple of weeks and the portrait I’d ordered from Paul Ferney arrived and it hit me — I have too many presents for my mother. Oy. What to do.

I opened the package, thinking — maybe it won’t be very good and I will just keep it. Or maybe I’ll send it to Jenn and Teddy. Or … and it was good. Really good.

I set it on the grandma cubby in my bedroom and I just loved looking at it. I thought I’d just keep it… or maybe hold it til Mother’s Day and send it to my mother then.

I took a picture and posted it on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter. My mother commented — asking if that was her Christmas present. I ignored her.

Time passed and TW moved the furniture in the bedroom around and her medicines were moved to the cubby — which means every time she opened the cubby cabinet, she knocked JMP’s painting onto the floor. It made me INSANE.

I was either going to have to move it, hang it or… send it to my mother.

I moved it to my desk.

Two days later, I wrapped my mother’s Christmas gift. And Ken’s gift. And as I was getting ready to tape the box closed… I reached over and grabbed the painting and shoved it into a bag. It almost didn’t fit in the bag, and I started having second thoughts… maybe that meant I was supposed to keep it, for at least awhile longer?

But no. Really. I bought it for my mom. I wanted her to have it. And hell, I’ll get it back eventually, won’t I?

When she sent me a text saying she got her box… I told her to just open the bag.

She didn’t answer.

I buzzed her on WWF, she didn’t answer.

I sent her another text. She replied that they were at Haley’s performance…

When she finally got home, TW and I were pulling into the mall parking lot and the darn woman opened the gift that was not in the bag. Sheesh. Which she was happy enough about (no mom, Buster has not eaten my socks or my gloves) and I told her to just open the bloody bag already.

She did.

She said she cried.

Which is pretty much what I wanted because I kind of cried when I mailed her the box. lol.

Happy Christmas, mom.

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A Fake Readathon Day

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Christmas, Daily Dose, Day to Day, Family Funk /

The kids are gone, all five of them, and it’s quiet now. I’m not quite ready to say it’s too quiet, that will happen sometime tomorrow. Except, we’re going to celebrate the quiet and regroup from the holiday mayhem with a fake readathon day.

We stopped at Fresh Market this evening and spent too much on specialty junk food, (mmmm cheese straws), and we’ve got stacks of library books to read. We’re not getting dressed tomorrow and we’re going to lay in bed with books (and the darn dog) and just read — and nap — and take long, hot baths.

This seems like a really good way to end a fun, but very loud, holiday and keep the “gosh, it’s quiet… too quiet” thoughts away.

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Deck the Halls and Stuff

7 Comments / Christmas, Family Funk /

It has begun, officially.

Chris and Michelle are here. The Little Kids are here. The tree has too many gifts underneath it, and Santa has not yet arrived.

We all Facetimed with my mom, which led to TW’s mom asking us HOW we’re able to do that… we said, “You press the Facetime button” which was not what she meant. She seems to want to know HOW it works. Or what magic allows it to happen. Or the science around it. Or something.

Skeeter has finally decided that Christopher is OK. Probably. She’s also decided that she might like this Christmas thing. The peoples keep saying YES! and giving her treats. There are many hands to give belly rubs. People leave their mail out where she can get it and she really loves eating Christmas cards.

We just have a few gifts left to wrap, which feels really nice — every time I think about it.

The first batch of Christmas cookies have been eaten completely — The Peanut Butter Blossoms. RJ is messing up my kitchen, making Jim Bars. The Mint Sugar Cookies that Saved My life have been baked. We’ll decorate them tomorrow, which is when the fun really happens.

A perfect holiday is in full swing. The only things missing are Jenn, Teddy and JMP… and Michelle’s “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament. I bet one of her siblings found it and hid it from her. Wanna bet?

See? Perfect Christmas.

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Breaking with Tradition

5 Comments / Christmas, Family Funk /

Michelle Belle arrives tomorrow. Chrissy arrives Sunday. I’m very excited about both of these things. VERY excited.

The little kids come home on Sunday, too. I’m also looking forward to that, though it will mean things get really loud and even messier than they are now.

On top of the wood particles and shredded paper and dog toy stuffing scattered around the house by Skeeter, we’ll have kid stuff everywhere (at least until Skeeter starts shredding it) and there will be food messes. Lots and lots of food messes.

I’m going to be very busy enjoying the mania. And I really do plan on enjoying it. Just sitting on the sidelines watching and listening and even yelling at them all to “CLEAN THAT UP!” or “STOP EATING FOR GODSAKES!” or “TURN THE TV DOWN!” will be a joy.

As I sit here in anticipation of all of that fun, I’ve come to a decision. I’m going to break with tradition and…

I’m going to wrap the bulk of the Christmas presents tonight, before the kids come home, rather than doing it all on Christmas Eve.

For 30 years I’ve wrapped Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve, staying up late into the night to do it — not this year. Nope. I’m going to get the bulk of it down now and relax on Christmas Eve. That’s gonna be weird. Really weird, but the very idea of it is making me feel all warm and sparkly inside.

Do you wrap gifts as they arrive? Or wait until the last minute to do the wrapping?

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Next Year, I’m Doing It Better

4 Comments / Christmas, Family Funk /

I’ve never been good at staying organized for Christmas. Gifts get tossed into closets or drawers or cabinets or corners and I always think I know where everything is — but I never do.

I always have to go searching for some elusive something that arrived at an odd time so I tucked it away… somewhere.

Or I’m sure I put THAT in the PLACE where I keep ALL of the gifts but on Christmas Eve, that thing is MISSING and I’m tearing up the house in search of that thing I know we bought and gah! So stressful.

I’m usually pretty good at finding all of the things that need to be mailed to family members and this year I was pretty sure that was going to be the easiest part of Christmas. Because I decided not to send a lot of gifts that I had to wrap and ship. I ordered fun food gifts for my mom and dad and brother and sister. I sent a package to my mom that included her missing birthday gift (See, it was already going downhill in October!) and a gift I never managed to mail months ago that turned into a good Christmas gift anyway. And of course, JMP’s stuff. Easy because I was putting it all in Prince J’s room because Prince J is in college and nobody is using his room (except the stray kids who stayed for one night.)

But no. Apparently I didn’t put all of JMPs things in there.

I found the Christmas stocking in the laundry room, the day after I mailed two huge boxes that cost a zillion dollars to ship to Hawaii.

Yesterday, I found a Christmas ornament for JMP and his parents hiding in the bottom of the K-mart bag of stuff we bought on Thanksgiving.

I’m a little afraid to dig around in THAT place where I keep the gifts to see what else I’ve forgotten to ship.

I’m also really afraid of Christmas Eve. This is going to be the year that I can’t find a bunch of really important things — I can feel it.

Next year, I’m going to have a better strategy for keeping gifts organized. It’s gonna take me six months to figure out what that strategy is — it might involve spreadsheets — but I’m going to do it.

Damn it.

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Thankful for the Internets

1 Comment / Christmas, Family Funk /

The internet makes holiday shopping so much damn easier. I’m so close to being finished — or finished except for a few odds and ends — or finished except for a few odds and ends and any gifts at all for one child who shall remain nameless (Joseph).

This weekend I’ve visited:

– Amazon
– Kmart
– Lolshirts
– Etsy
– Urban Outfitters
– Threadless
– Buy.com
– Gap
– Target
– PacSun
– A variety of one-off odd online shops for extremely odd items… because I have some extremely odd kids (Chris. Elly. Michelle.)

I’ve still got some items in a cart, waiting for a coupon code or a price drop or to find a couple of things just a wee bit cheaper and I’m ordering CHEESE tomorrow for some very lucky people (I might have to order some for myself, actually, heh.) I will be ordering a photo album for JMP tomorrow, too.

Now if I just knew what to get for the Prince who has everything… I could be DONE by 12/1. That boy lives to make my life difficult. I’m not going to finish by 12/1, am I?

Bah humbug.

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The Best Laid Plans … Get Shot to Hell

4 Comments / Christmas, Family Funk, Holidays, Kid Talk /

I woke up this morning with a good long list of things I was going to accomplish before the little kids showed up at around 11am-ish.

1) Fold laundry and get more laundry into the washer/dryer.
2) Unload/load the dishwasher.
3) Get some work done.
4) Take some stuff out to both cars (a bag of odds and ends from my old car — things like lip balm, bandaids, pens, notepads, etc. and the battery charger & emergency kit for the Funhouse car.)
5) Dump the dead pumpkin on the porch.
6) Get the Flamingo Santa to stop blowing off the porch.
7) Move the Gazelle into Prince J’s room.
8) Get some odds & ends out of the living room/dining room so there’s room for the tree and Christmas decorations.
9) Put the rake and hedge clippers into the garage.
10) Make the surprisingly good salad and deviled eggs for our Thanksgiving dinner.
11) Get the tree put together in the stand and the box carried out to the garage.

I did all of those things, except #s 10 & 11 by about 10:15 (except the rake/clippers were in front of the garage, waiting for me to open the garage and put the Christmas tree box in there…)

At 10:15 I told TW I was going to make the surprisingly good salad and deviled eggs but first I was going to put the tree together. She laughed and said she’d been thinking about doing that, too. So we got to work on that together. All of the pieces were out and TW got the first piece into the stand. As we’re both reaching for the next pieces, I noticed my piece had some fur stuck to some branches. “Oh. Someone made a nest in our tree…”

I went into the kitchen to get a plastic bag and a towel to clean that up and as I was cleaning it, TW said someone had nested in her piece, too. About that time, I noticed not only nesting material but the creature that nested had snacked on some of the wires (it’s a pre-lit tree.)

Hell.

I said, “I guess if we plug this in we’ll either short out the whole house or catch the house on fire, right?”

TW said, “Right.” and suggested we just put strands of lights on it and not use the pre-lit strands. This caused me to roll my eyes. We really want a tree with six strands of dead lights and six strands of live lights. That will look awesome, won’t it? No. Not happening.

I wondered whether we could strip the pre-lit strands off… TW said it would take a long time. I fiddled with one and realized she was right.

Hell.

It was 10:25. I jumped online to see who had trees on sale… everybody has trees on sale, but would they have the size/type we want? No way to know except to get in the car and find out.

Target is closest so we jumped in the car and by 10:40 we were checking out but we did not have a tree. They only had a tiny tree with multi-colored lights. (I impulse purchased a couple of things and since there was no line to check out, I went ahead and bought them.)

We dashed across the street to Lowes. They had trees but nothing we loved that wasn’t $400. I convinced TW that we should get the 6′ multi-colored tree for less than $100 since we have a puppy who eats everything. We’d be a lot less annoyed if she ate a cheap tree than if she ate a $400 tree. TW reluctantly agreed — she had little choice since we had to get the tree done TODAY before Prince J goes back to college.

We got it home and it was TINY and we were all getting really depressed. I sent RJ up to Elly’s room for the LACK table to stand it on, thinking if we made it look like it was taller, we’d like it better. And we do, but it’s still tiny and not full and not a tree we love. We only put about 1/3 of the normal ornaments on it because it’s just so small.

And, we have to figure out how to keep the tree on the table with a hyper puppy around. So far, she’s been relatively good but as soon as we turn our backs, I know she’s going to go for the tree. It’s a lot more interesting than slippers or the couch or any other things she consistently chews on when we turn our backs.

I did manage to get the surprisingly good salad and eggs done while Prince J and TW drove across town to pick up the annoying, evil 14 year old who refused to go to breakfast with the rest of her family this morning so was not dropped off here when her dad dropped her siblings off. (I hate 14 year old girls.)

We managed to celebrate Prince J’s 19th birthday (he got his first iPhone, yay!) and celebrate Thanksgiving and get everything cleaned up from the tree decorating, birthday celebrating and Thanksgiving celebrating in record time.

I even found the missing reindeer stocking for Johnny Mac Pippin.

Let’s call today a win, even if it wasn’t as perfectly managed as I had planned.

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