will you eat them here, or there?

Happy Saint Paddy's Day to all. We had Green Eggs and Ham for dinner tonight. I started with this recipe, but I'm a bit prone to making changes. I think I doubled the bread b/c I had some nice Challah that was already stale, and so I also used some milk to be sure the bread would soften. I know I added extra spinach, just 'cause. I probably put more cheese on it too, come to think of it. Oh, and I skipped the seasoning salt and put salt, pepper and nutmeg in instead. But I stuck to just eight eggs because CD is out tonight and it only needs to feed three of us. Other than that, (!) this is the recipe I used.  And it is very green.

Ingredients

• 8 eggs
• 1 cup frozen chopped spinach (thawed)
• 6 ozs ham (chopped)
• 1 cup bread (cubes)
• 1/2 tsp seasoning salt
• 1/2 cup swiss cheese (shredded)  

So, what I really cooked was probably closer to this:

Green Eggs and Ham breakfast casserole

• 5 slices thick challah bread, torn into bits
• 1/2 cup milk
• 8 eggs, beaten 
• 2 cups chopped spinach
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 8 oz ham cubes (could have gone with more, had I had more)
• 2 cups shredded swiss cheese

It sat for about an hour before cooking to let the bread get good and sogged. Then it baked for 30 minutes and was lovely and green and filling. We ate about half of it. We'll have it for breakfast another morning.

already

The time has flown. My little one! My baby! My Bug is a decade old. Double digits.

He pointed out to me, at my January birthday, that our whole family has significant 2014 birthdays: I am a prime number, his brother becomes a teen and his daddy turns fifty.

I would not have realized that I belonged in that crowd my dear. Thank you for including me. But I shouldn't be surprised. Even if I had been a totally nondescript age (was 46 less interesting?) you would have found a way to have included me. Because that is the way you are.

You already have the long, lanky limbs of a much older child. You like it when you're mistaken for a middle school peer (or twin!) of Pook. But you still fold up those long limbs to squeeze yourself into our laps. Anytime. After dinner laps, scary movie laps, nowhere-better-to-sit laps. I will cope with the numb legs for a while yet, because I don't know how long this will last. And then I will miss it.

You have so much to give. When your daddy and I were asked to describe you in one word, we chose "more." You've always been more, liked more, given more and needed more. Liking more action, more tickles and more spice to your food is fun, but you also have more worries, more emotions and more stress.  Giving 101% to everything can be exhausting, and sometimes you have a tough time shouldering it all. I want to be able to make it easier for you.  And so, whether you want it or not, I will always be nearby. Just in case.

Your energy draws people to you. So many people care about you.Your piano teacher adores you. (All your teachers adore you.) I'm so glad you talked us into letting you start piano so young. You were still four when we met her and convinced her to let you start lessons. You'd only been asking for two years. I'm waiting to see where you'll go with your new trombone. While I write this, I am listening to you play new piano music. No, you aren't required to learn it, but when it arrived in the mail you found you couldn't stop. For a while, sight reading fun music won over eating. That might be a first. You're pretty fond of eating.


Right now you're playing basketball for the winter and you'll join the swim team again for summer, but baseball is your passion. You even called yourself "Ball" when you began to talk. Pook loved it and gave you all the laughs you desired. You may take baseball seriously, but you take laughs any time you can get them. Your own laughs are so contagious! (Seriously, I should offer a prize to anyone who can watch this video snippet and not laugh aloud.)

I think I understand what they mean when they say that we are all ages at once. Just because you are turning ten does not mean that sometimes you aren't in need of the emotional support of a three year old and the time reading aloud with us like a five year old. And sometimes, you are so mature you are well beyond those ten years.You have been a challenge to me for all ten of these years. I can't rest on my laurels when you're around. But Bug, you make my life exciting.

I love you.  Happy Birthday.
~Mama

hopes dashed (and wet holiday stuff too)

And just like that, Bug ruined his future.  And possibly mine, because I'm kinda hoping at least one of these kids of ours will support us in our old age.


The conversation:

Bug: How long do I put the pizza in the microwave?

Me: You don't put pizza in the microwave. The crust gets all tough.

Bug: But I don't like it cold.

Me: You can't go to college if you don't like cold pizza.

Bug: Then I won't go to college.



*****

You'd think they'd sell fewer Christmas trees in the rain. But eventually you just have to give up and go get it because I'm not sure they deliver them. (Although, come to think of it, actually, they do. My cousin ordered one from somewhere like Maine and they delivered it to her in Florida.) I know we shouldn't complain about our rain, because we don't have ice or snow, but we've had both warm and rainy and cold and rainy and, really, neither is good for the Christmas Spirit.

Our tree is sitting in the garage, dripping dry a bit. We considered a hair dryer (probably not a great plan) and we considered the leaf blower (possible, but it seemed like work) and we went with drip drying. Maybe we can bring it in soon. We hope there will be time tonight to decorate it.  The remodeling of our house changed our Christmas tree location this year. I hope it works without being in everyone's way.

Last weekend we had a respite from the dampness and we did some yard cleanup. The leaves can still be mowed into mulch, even when wet. I put pine straw all around my new Swiss Chard plants, pansies and parsley. It looks pretty good.

We ate one meal of chard already. A bug crawled (spun?) to the top of the salad spinner, so I let the dizzy thing out. Then Pook peeked in the pan to see what was cooking and announced that there was another desperate bug. We let that one out too. So, no bugs were killed in the making of our meal. (Although later Pook did discretely mention a crunch he'd encountered. He didn't want Bug to know. Good kid. When I was their age I turned down a lot of garden grown meals because of the "extra protein" crawling around in it.)  

While we were doing yard work last weekend, the boys decided we should decorate an outdoor evergreen of the Christmasish shape. Pook hauled two long extension cords around to get power to the area. They checked all the bulbs for the non-working ones. Then they got a ladder. At that point CD and I abandoned our attempts at working to participate (and keep them from killing themselves). It isn't easy to lean a ladder on a slope in the mud up to an angled tree side. Eventually CD strung the lights and the boys lobbed dollar-store ornaments at it. It looked great. For one day.

The next day only the bottom strand of lights would light. Mind you, they're all attached and plugged in as one.  We still have no idea why it isn't working-- because it has rained every day since, and neither adult in this house is really eager to explore this electrical problem in the rain. So, the lights are off. Hopefully it will stop raining before Christmas.

The chances of me blogging again before the holidays is not great, so let me wish everyone a wonderful Celebration that you Celebrate, if you haven't already celebrated it. And a Happy New Year.

gallons for ghosts

While CD and I were in Asheville for our anniversary getaway, we took a culinary tour of the city.  We visited 6 different eating spots and had food and/or drinks at each. All were great, but the sangria we were given at one was just spectacular. My comparison is pretty weak-- I tend to refer to leftover red wine mixed with orange juice and a splash of bottled lemon juice as sangria.  The one we had was very hearty. I'd decrease the spices a lot to have it in the summer. This reminded me more of a mulled wine and was lovely on a cold evening.  Our tour guide said to email her for the recipe if we wanted it, so I did.

In return I received the recipe for five gallons of sangria.

I suppose I could host a big party, but most people I know would choose beer or wine and then I'd be left with 4 3/4 gallons of sangria.  Instead I hit up google for help. Did you know there are lots of recipe converters out there? I could swap from liters to cups and also decrease the recipe down to a single gallon. We might need to go even smaller, but if I'm buying all that booze I'd need a use for it!

Just in case you want to make sangria for everyone you know, or if you want to put it out for the parents of Trick or Treaters (you'd be very popular!) here is the handy dandy recipe.

Sangria, 5 gallons

1.5 liters white wine

1.5 liters red wine

0.5 liters dry sherry

0.5 liters port

0.375 liters brandy

3 c. simple syrup

4 c. orange juice

1 c. lemon juice

1 c. lime juice

1 cup chopped ginger

5 broken up cinnamon sticks

1/8 cup anise

2 Tbs cloves

2 each chopped: orange, lemon, lime

4-6 cups ginger ale or ginger beer to taste

If you think this looks as tasty as I thought it was, and if you were thinking of having me over, you could use the scaled recipe, here. I'm not sure if we could polish off even the smaller quantity without inviting more guests, but the more the merrier.

Sangria, 1 gallon

* Recipe rounded to nearest cooking fraction

1 1/3 cups white wine (1/3 liters)

1 1/3 cups red wine 

½ cup dry sherry (1/8 liter)

½ cup port

½ cup brandy

2/3 c. simple syrup (1/2 sugar, 1/2 water)

3/4 c. orange juice

1/4 c. lemon juice

1/4 c. lime juice

1/4 cup chopped ginger

1 broken up cinnamon stick

2 Tbs anise

1 tsp cloves

1/3 each chopped: orange, lemon, lime

1 cup ginger ale or ginger beer to taste

welcome in the new

Look what I found, hiding in my front yard. I will admire it as I say goodbye to the past year and welcome in the new.  May you all dream of daisies, whether you gaze upon snow, sand or dead leaves, as we do here in Georgia.  Happy New Year.

metaphorically

Do you have Laura Ingalls books around?  I shall quote from On the Banks of Plum Creek:

"Ma" (Laura) cried. "There is a Santa Claus, isn't there?"
"Of course there's a Santa Claus," said Ma. She set the iron on the stove...
"The older you are, the more you know about Santa Claus" she said. "You are so big now, you know he can't be just one man, don't you? You know he is everywhere on Christmas Eve. He is in the Big Woods.... and here. He comes down all the chimneys at the same time. You know that, don't you?"
"Yes Ma"...
"I guess he is like angels" Mary said....
Then Ma told them something else about Santa Claus. He was everywhere, and besides that, he was all the time.
Whenever anyone was unselfish, that was Santa Claus.
Christmas Eve was the time when everybody was unselfish. On that one night, Santa Claus was everywhere, because everybody, all together, stopped being selfish and wanted other people to be happy. And in the morning you saw what that had done.
"If everybody wanted everybody else to be happy, all the time, then would it be Christmas all the time?" Laura asked, and Ma said, "Yes, Laura."

So, this is my take on Santa. At our house we all fill everyone's stockings. Even when the kids were tots, they contributed "some pieces of money" to buy something to put in the stocking of each person who would be there Christmas morning. They get all excited about planning and executing this, which matters to me more than what they give. Bug likes to give mixed whole nuts, Pook goes for lifesavers candy often. One year Bug picked dried fruit to put in them.

We take turns Christmas eve just before we go to bed, each person in the room alone to fill them privately. After taking a turn as Santa, each person gets to ring the sleigh bells before heading up to bed.  We usually go by age, but I get to go last, which is good since by then things sometimes spill out onto nearby chairs.

Since all of us have been Santa for all of their lives I have hoped for a smooth transition. Last year the boys were still adamant that the big guy in a red suit living at the North Pole would be leaving gifts. This year we seem to have fewer gifts (perhaps each is bigger?) and I don't have anything easily left to be "from Santa."  And so, I'm not going to leave any out, unwrapped, on the hearth.  I have lots of fun gifts to cram into stockings but I think the big guy is leaving the room.  Metaphorically!  I'll keep all the unselfishness.

Merry Christmas to all. And to all, a good  night.

let's bake

Fruitcake cookie time!  Let's pretend we are reading a fancy cooking blog and it is going to introduce you to an amazing new cookie, invented at the House of Pook and Bug. You can follow along with the wonderful photos taken on the bloggers (husband's) new camera while your mouth waters and you decide when you'll have time to make them yourself.

You know you want to. I mean, look what's in them.  Relax at the word "fruitcake" in the label. These are no ordinary fruitcakes. First of all, notice that this is dried fruit, not that day-glo candied fruit, which is probably the reason no one likes fruitcakes.

Technically, this was three cups of dried fruit. I used dried sour cherries, apricots, pineapple and raisins. The first three are important. Raisins are a bit boring, but that's what I had.

Dried pineapple is just candy. You can't call this fruit anymore. Yum. Chop the fruit, but not too small; we love biting into chunks of fruit.

Now zing it up with some candied ginger. Your love of the taste should determine the chunk size here. It can be pretty intense to bite into large bits. If I measured (which I don't) I'd suggest using about two tablespoons, chopped.

You've got to put nuts in a fruitcake-ish dessert. Add in a half cup of chopped pecans.Toss the fruit, ginger and pecans together with 1/2 c. flour and a teaspoon of lemon zest. (If you have it, which I didn't. I faked it by putting some sprinkles of lemon juice on the fruit and nuts before tossing on the flour. I fake my way through a lot of recipes. But hey, I made this one up so I have all the license I need to alter it as I go.)

Time for the rest of the cast. I shop at Kroger. Can you tell? I'm a food snob in many ways. I grow my own herbs and I buy nice vanilla, but yeah, my spices are probably in need of replacing. My friends L and P toss out all their spices on January first and replace them with a set of basics, only buying weird ones when needed during the next year.

I left out some of the cast members. Let's take this from the top:
Cream a cup of butter. Real butter, two sticks at room temperature. (Or put frozen butter in the microwave on the power of one for one minute. It works here.) Add 1 1/2 cups brown sugar. None of the white stuff today. Get that all blended. Then add in two eggs, 1 teaspoon each vanilla, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda and a half teaspoon each of cloves, allspice and ginger. 


Once you have all that good stuff mixed together, take a taste. Oh, yeah. mmmm. I trust my source for eggs. His name is Keith.

Get out a cup of oatmeal and a half cup of apple juice. We always have apple juice around, but improvise if you must. You also need two cups of flour. Don't get all healthy now; use white flour.

The stuff is thick, so alternate dribbles of apple juice with the oatmeal so you can incorporate it all. Then, just when you don't think you can do anything else with the batter, add in all the fruit and nuts. Let your mixer do the work. It can handle it. Take all the tastes you want. The kids are at school and you get to lick the beaters yourself. (I might be talking about myself.)

Smear it into TWO pans (13x9") or drop them by the spoonful on cookie sheets. I have mixed feelings about these methods. Cookies are a pain in my tiny oven (I could only cook one of these at a time!) but I think they look better. The squares don't cut very neatly and get a bit crumbly in the cookie tin. Whichever.  Individual cookies should bake for 8-10 minutes and the bars take 25-30. Put the oven at 350° for either.

Do these look good or what? (I skip the booze part of the fruitcake. If you like it, I think that pouring something over the pan, hot out of the oven, would work well. Another option would be macerating the fruit in it.) When out of the oven, cut them into bars.

They're good. They're really good. They will convince you that fruitcake isn't a bad word. You will use them to convince others that fruitcake is alright after all. And then we will all eat.

music edition

There are angels harking and heralding here. The boys' piano teacher asks each student to learn a carol to share at a party together. Since they need lots of time to learn new pieces, this means that the holiday music started immediately after Thanksgiving. I am grateful to her for waiting that long.

Bug has come on a midnight clear. It is less than glorious without his forgotten B flat.

Pook has been the one harking. ("Hark!" Harold the Angel sings, "I have lost my purple crayon. I have fed a deserving moose. And a hungry porcupine. I have fallen off a mountain. Cuz I forgot to draw the other side.")

But, they don't want to be recorded and posted here, so to comply with A-L's blog chain, I must discuss a different piece of holiday music.

Once I was in a crowded school cafeteria which was suddenly transformed as a parade of white clad kindergarteners surrounded the room, singing Silent Night in their tiny five-year-old voices. I can barely write about it without tearing up.  But everyone loves Silent Night, so today I will choose The Grinch.

Someday I'd like to memorize all the lyrics; they're so wonderful. Dr. Seuss freed me to sing with my kids. He taught me that if I forget the words, I can make up new. If I don't have a rhyme, I can make one up.

You're a mean one, Mr Grinch
You really are a heel
You’re as cuddly as a cactus
You're as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch
You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel

You're a monster, Mr. Grinch
Your Hearts an empty hole
Your brain is full of spiders
You’ve got garlic in your soul, Mr. Grinch
I wouldn’t touch you with a thirty nine and a half foot pole

You’re a vile one, Mr. Grinch
You have termites in your smile
You have all the tender sweetness
Of a seasick crocodile, Mr. Grinch
Given the choice between the two of you I’d take the a seasick crocodile

You’re a foul one, Mr. Grinch
You’re a nasty wasty skunk
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Grinch
The three words that best describe you, are as follows, and I quote: Stink, Stank, Stunk

You’re a rotter, Mr. Grinch
You’re the king of sinful sots
Your hearts a dead tomato
Splotched with moldy purple spots, Mr. Grinch
Your sole is an appalling dump heap
Overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable, mangled up in tangled up knots

You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch
With a nauseous super naus
You’re a crooked jerky jockey and you drive a crooked horse Mr. Grinch
You’re a three decker sauerkraut and toad stool sandwich
With arsenic sauce! 

Each year, as a kid, I'd look forward to The Grinch Who Stole Christmas when it was on TV. We own it,  so our kids could potentially watch it anytime, but they keep it a once-a-year tradition too.  My favorite character isn't the Grinch; it's Cindy Lou Who, (who was no more than two) who is the only one to catch the guy in action and question him.


During this happy, festive, put-a-smile-on-your-face season, I can't help but like the Grinch. Charles Dickens personified the feeling in Ebenezer Scrooge, but we can't identify with him without really putting ourselves down. Scrooge is as financially stingy as emotionally stingy perhaps. The Grinch made being crabby during the holidays funny.  This weekend I will attend three different holiday parties on three different nights and I will smile. I will push down any inner Grinchiness and get into the spirit.



The blog chain is as follows. Come visit the rest of the list as they tell about their favorite holiday music too.

Harriet at spynotes
Hugh at Permanent qui vive
Jeanne at Necromancy never pays
Cranky at It’s My Blog!
Dr. Geek at Dr. Geek’s Laboratory
Lemming at Lemming’s Progress
Readersguide at Reader’s Guide to…
Freshhell at Life in Scribbletown
edj3 at kitties kitties kitties
My Kids’ Mom at Pook and Bug
joyhowie at The Crooked Line
Magpie at Magpie Musing
Dave at The Ideal Dave
and back to Harriet at spynotes

kringling

Yep, it is getting all Kringly over here.  Halls are decked. Rudolph night light is in the kids' bathroom. Front yard Christmasy looking tree is strung with as many lights as we had. Santa placemats are on the table. A little town has sprung up onto the mantle.

Although stockings are not yet hung with care and there is no tree yet, that will be taken care of this weekend.  We often wait a bit so the tree won't be quite so dry by New Year's  when we take it down traditionally. I'm not sure why I didn't get out the stockings, but it seemed wrong to hang them before getting a tree.

Holiday baking has begun. I neglected to send a gift to the piano teacher on the day she hosted a party for her students. I will remedy that as soon as I'm able. I've been Hershey's kissing lots of pretzels and topping them with M&M's in my traditional teacher/neighbor/oh-I-should-reciprocate-with-a-gift manner.  I'm not intending to go too crazy with the cooking this year. I want to make two types as well as some sugared pecans. I'll be giving much of it away as gifts.

Dear old dot.com was given two very large orders, and as per the usual, is sending it in a dozen different shipments. I do, I truly do believe in buying from independent stores, from Mom and Pop places, from individual crafts-people, I really do. But dang if December doesn't beat my butt every year and I just can't make it happen.  That big old Amazon in the internet sky calls to me.

This year, as I was looking at Lego, books and other-such-things, I multi-tasked, folding laundry. I tossed several holey socks in the trash and wondered if I'd have time to fit in a Target run to buy new. Then I remembered Mir and a Hanes sale she once gave me a tip to, and I impulsively checked out the Hanes.com website. $7 for 6 pairs of socks. Not bad maybe, but the shipping was annoyingly high. I went back to my Amazon tab, with the Very Large Order still in my cart. The price was slightly higher but there would be no shipping costs. Into the cart went socks. I probably won't wrap them up with the Christmas gifts... but you never know.

So, I'm in good shape. Most gifts are purchased. Halls are decked. Baked goods are planned. Stocking stuffers are not, but I can handle them. Both kids have shopped for each other. Oh, and I even wrote, printed and mailed a Christmas letter this year.  I'll post some photos of baked goods later perhaps.

braving it again

This year it was not Christmas, not haunted, and not eaten by critters.  This year I did not design it and our family did not eat it alone.

This year Pook designed a fancy, three room gingerbread house in order to share it at Grandma's house for Thanksgiving.  Although Bug, his Nana and I had made three pies, the gingerbread  house was nibbled upon by cousins, an uncle and Grandad (who nibbled off a whole row of candycorn when he didn't know anyone was looking!)  I've posted the recipe before but I'll include it at the bottom for you again.

I should send a thank you to Alpha for introducing us to this tradition.  The first years we made one house per family, all at his home. Each family brought candy to share. The big gingerbread men were decorated and eaten immediately, allowing the families to bring the houses home as decor for a few days before consumption.

Gingerbread through the years:

The first gingerbread house, 2006

Gingerbread house, 2007

Our haunted gingerbread house, 2008

Santa in the chimney 2009

Haunted again in 2010

The ill-fated gingerbread house of 2011

**********************
The recipe (in text) and traditional house patterns (pdf) are at www.merlab.com/gingerbread thanks to Alpha!

The dough is easy to make and it tastes great.  I use store bought icing in a tube because it sets up so fast.  The pick-a-mix candies vary, and the items made in the "yard" vary depending on what candies we have.  (Tootsie rolls make good woodpiles.)

1c. butter
1c. sugar
1/2c. molasses
2 eggs
1/4t nutmeg
1/2t salt
1/2t baking soda
1/2t cloves
2t ginger
2t cinnamon
5c. flour

Cream butter and sugar, add egg and molasses, mix in dry ingredients.  I chill it overnight but I'm not convinced it is necessary.  I roll it thin 1/8"? onto parchment paper, cut the shapes and remove the excess so I don't have to lift the house pieces.  It makes one house plus 24 large gingerbread cookies.  I lowered the oven temp to 300 this year and baked them about 10  minutes.  Keep a close eye on them b/c you don't want them to get dark but if the pieces are still soft they'll be more fragile. We use two tubes of white frosting to assemble and decorate.

the basement

"When we win the lottery we'll dig a basement."

This has been something I've said for years. We love our house, really we do. But it would be so nice to just have that little bit more space, that it-can-get-messy space, that "sure we can get a foos ball table" space, that guest bedroom space, that workshop space.

Our house is on a hill and I think we could have had a basement pretty easily.  The original builders were just cheap; all our neighbors have similar floor plans with a few more feet in every direction... and basements.

Once Pook and I even pulled out paper to design it. We measured the ground floor and drew it out, then relocated walls to design our perfect basement.  I'd put in a dumbwaiter to haul groceries up from the now-downstairs garage, a mudroom and a place for bikes. Pook designed a playroom.  There would be guest space (with a bathroom!) and still some left for CD to have a workshop.

All that was left was to win the lottery.

I told my mathematical child that one has the best chance of winning the lottery the first time you buy a ticket. Your chances go up 100%!

So, on my Friday the Thirteenth birthday, Pook bought me a lottery ticket.

It was fun to scratch it off together at least.

merry and bright

Our Christmases were all they should be. Kids and toys and food and family.

Pook gave me a big bag of Lindt dark chocolate and raspberry truffles and Bug gave me a pair of earrings and a drawing. He gave CD and me, jointly, a clay bunny he'd made in art at school.  Because I know they used their own money, I'm doubly impressed with their choices.  (Not that I didn't like getting my own bubble wrap.) CD gave me a Kindle. I've been reading Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante, which he gave to me also. All good.

Mickey did not show himself by eating more gingerbread and getting stuck in a mouse trap. BUT! I went into the storage room to get a paper bowl and picked up a plastic bag holding a paper tablecloth. Which sprinkled shreds onto my feet.  Shredded paper + gingerbread nibbling = not good. I will try to remember to mention the final results of this drama when they unfold.

We are hosting a South Georgia Islands New Year's party again this year. Simple menu of soup, salad, bread and dessert. There are a total of eight adults and eight kids (ages 5-11) who will be here. I'm looking forward to it. Gotta get to the dollar store with the boys to buy some streamers and horns to toot!

I doubt I'll be posting again this year, so have yourself a merry little New Year's Eve.

for the chestnuts on your open fire

Merry Christmas from the home of Pook and Bug!

one happy family

I agreed to do what?

Our devious music director came to me and asked if the boys wanted to be shepherds in the Christmas pageant again this year.

Is Bug too young to be a narrator?

Yes, maybe in a year or so.

Then sure, they'll be happy to be shepherds.

And would I be willing to be Mary to CD's Joseph?

(CD agreed to be in the pageant? Really?) Sure, I guess.

Apparently he had already asked CD if he'd be willing to be in the pageant as Joseph to my part as Mary.

Tricky guy.

But here we are, the happy family of Mary, Joseph, Shepherd Pook and Shepherd Bug.

I must go unearth a baby doll upstairs. We'll need a Jesus to pull this off!

butter, sugar and gifts

I worked both Monday and Tuesday this week, swapping out so I was home on Thursday. Liking it. Even making progress on a long to do list. Not that I was "home" much on any of these days. Yesterday the school had holiday parties and I was, of course, helping to organize one of them.

I came home and by 4pm I realized I felt ready to crash in bed for the night. Not just tired, but actually sleepy. I couldn't think of any good reason for my exhaustion, but I gave up on dinner planning and called CD to pick something up on his way home.

I revived just fine, not feeling sick or anything. Except I was starving this morning and at 10 am I had two leftover slices of pizza. That might have been the best leftover cold pizza I've ever enjoyed. Could be that it is just the best cold pizza I've had at 10 am in many years.

 The boys are finishing up their last day of school today. (Yes, holiday parties were Thursday and school ends on Friday. No, I don't get it.)

We've got a lot of activities planned. They want to go to the zoo, to the art museum, to ice skate, to see a movie and to bake cookies (x3, including a gingerbread house). I want them to get haircuts, to buy new shoes, and to start and complete a science fair experiment. We, as a family, need to get a Christmas tree and decorate it, get stocking stuffers, wrap presents and mail a couple of them.

Overall I'm in a good place. All but two or three gifts are purchased, many decorations are out, extra butter and sugar are bought Butter, sugar and gifts. That's about all anyone needs.

carpel tunnel candies

Where has December gone? Half through!  I think between the job and, of course, the holidays, I've been busy!  I have had time for these however:

Prepare your materials: mini pretzels, Hershey's kisses of all variety, M$M's

Peel/husk/disrobe the Hershey's kisses. Next time get the kids to help.

Pop a kiss on each pretzel, bake 3-4 min at 200', then place an M$M on each

My family likes the mint truffle and candy cane flavors best

hum along

If you have a memory as bad as mine, you never remember lyrics anyway.  It is much easier to make them up.  Most of the kids' bedtime songs have made-up lyrics.  I remember them so much easier.

In the car tonight the boys started picking on each other and Pook told Bug, "You'd better be good."  I added "because Santa Claus is coming to town."  Pook then began to sing the song, but he'd started with his phrase, "You'd better be good" instead of "You'd better watch out."  Recognizing that he had the tune right but not the words, he was undeterred.  (You'll absolutely have to hum along or none of this will make any sense.)  "You'd better be good.You'd better be good. You'd better be good. You'd better be good.  You-ou-ou-ou had better... be good."  I was about to call the song quits after he'd sung it four or five times and Bug had joined in, but then he decided on a new tune.  Not new words, just a new tune.

(Begin to hum "We wish you a merry Christmas" now, in preparation for this new, exciting song.)  "You'd better be good. You'd better be good. You'd better be good.You'd better be good." And then I gave in and joined them.  Let me tell you, a three part harmony-ish-like-thing of "Carol of the Bells" with the exciting lyrics, "You'd better be good" was pretty awesome.  

Bug decided we should be singing a Thanksgiving song because (I have him so brainwashed) it is too early for Christmas songs. That led to "We're thank-a-ank-ful, We're thank-a-ank-ful." (Pick a tune.)

Then Bug did something in the back seat that annoyed his brother into saying,  "Don't be a jerk." (You know where this is going, right?)  "Don't be a jerk. Don't be a jerk. Don't be a jerk. Don't be a jerk...."  It took the rub off the calling-of-names.  Bug joined in, so I did too.  That had Bug in gales of giggles, Mama singing  "Don't be a jerk." to the tune I think of Jingle Bells.  He was unable to giggle and sing at the same time, so Pook returned to the oldie but goodie, "You'd better be good."

I tell you, our Carol of the Bells was good.

she is not dead, but sleepeth

Here are the boys, Halloween 2011:

Bug chose to dress as a slice of Swiss cheese.

Pook dressed as his favorite thing- a Lego minifig

They'd chosen their costumes in plenty of time. My parents helped put them together with a good bit of cardboard this year. The yellow "cheese" is a thrift shop drapery.  The Lego head is made from a bucket, covered with paper and painted.

We had just the right route for Trick or Treating this year.  Our neighborhood isn't well arranged for this; the kids from their school who walk can't easily walk from street to street, making us have to choose since we live in the middle.  The loop we took included a nearby cemetery.  I've heard that the gravestones have never been identified so they can't be moved.  They're sort of between three cul-de-sacs up on a ridge. 

We visited on Halloween once before.  Every flashlight had either died or been lost by then so one dad lit the way with his phone.  This year I planned ahead and bought LED candles, which I placed on the gravestones while the kids were at school Monday.  I wasn't sure if I was making the place less creepy or more creepy, but I did think it would help us locate the stones in the dark.  I hope other neighbors visited also; we stopped on our way home and were alone there.

There are between two and five graves here.  I think.  There are enough pieces and parts of gravestones to be five, but I don't find writing on enough to be five.  In any case, the dates that are legible are of births in the late 1800's and deaths from the early 1900's, making the area just perfectly Halloween creepy.  Plus, that epitaph?  "She is not dead but sleepeth"-- yikes!

"Here lies one who in this life was a kind mother and fine wife.  She is not dead but sleepeth."

coming to a neighborhood near us

I bring it upon myself, I know I do.  In fact, in 2008 when Pook asked to be "just a bat, not a vampire or Count Dracula or anything" I think I was a bit disappointed. But!  I made him great bat wings and he looked the part and was pleased.

This year is no exception.  We have, coming to a neighborhood near us, a Lego minifig and a slice of swiss cheese.  Yes, we do.  And they will look fabulous!

I seem to have left photos out of the Halloween post from last year.  I wasn't sure how to best make Bug anonymous.  But I have done it now, so, for your viewing pleasure here are Pook and Bug, 2010.  2011 will come soon.  To get both boys in costume at the same time it will have to be time to leave on The Great Candy Run, so I'll just wait to show them later.

running, screaming with my ears covered

I heard the phrase:  "This Holiday Season."  Later, my mother in law called. She'd seen a toy in a catalog and wanted to know if I thought it was appropriate for the boys.  My first instinct was to say "for what?" but then I caught up with her and realized that she had Christmas shopping on her brain.

Up until then I was comfortable in autumn.  Really, summer lasts so long that we've only just started autumn here.  The holidays are in the winter, last I'd checked.  Or, at least the one which requires shopping, which is the one in the reference.  Winter is a long time away.

I am not there yet.  I am so not there.  I am in "the school year is well underway" mode.  I am in "this is the coasting, life is pretty simple" time of year.  I am in the "enjoy those last warm days" clothing.  I am not wearing sweaters.  I am not making my list and checking it twice.

We are planning for Halloween.  If the calendar doesn't cheat, it is still a few weeks away.  I'm willing to make plans for Thanksgiving, but only if it is necessary to make them so early.  Christmas?  No.  It is not on the horizon yet. 

But the family will need ideas for the boys. I will have about three ideas and I will give them all to the family members who ask first, and then I will panic. 

It is a good thing that my kids want so little.  It is a good thing that they have the things they need and understand that too much is not better.  Does this mean we can skip the retail portion of the holidays?  I could suggest that we give to charities instead.  I could suggest that we draw names and only buy for one person.  I could suggest that but it would never work.  The family members who buy presents for them want to buy presents for them.  The children who receive presents would not give up the opportunity to receive presents.  No, I can't skip it and I can't hide from it.  I will have to embrace it and start The List.