Christmas 2024

 Hello all,

Not sure if or how you mark Christmas, but however you do - or don't - keep yourselves safe and calm.

PH and I had our Christmas weekend with the kids and grands on the 21st and 22nd. That's how we always do it, we get the weekend before Christmas.  They all come at noon on Saturday and stay till noon on Sunday.  Our son and his family are 2 hours away and while Australia miles don't think this is much, here, in winter it can be. We were lucky again this year with dry roads, sunny but cold weather.

They are all getting so tall and old!  Things aren't like they used to be when they were little and this weekend was one long, wild time.  Now they are calm almost adults and were very respectful about staying off their phones and actually visiting with us adults.  Especially if I gave them the evil eye.  I was button popping proud of them.

We had LOTS of food all day and a table full of cookies to nibble on.  I cooked and cooked and baked and baked.  And when they left it was with grocery bags full of leftovers.  

In the evening instead of little kid chaos we played a couple of card games.  Adults know the game as Screw Your Neighbor but our son's kids know it at Quarters.  Even their dog had a seat at the table! 

But this is what I loved the most.  After we all went to bed....we adults, that is, the kids all sleep in the living room on the floor and couch except for Charlie who gets a bed, decided to roast marshmallows in the fire. I didn't think anything of it when they fed and stoked up the fire just as I was going to bed.  I think this was project probably Elizabeth's idea.  She comes up with some good ones.

We never heard them as they found mini marshmallows in the cupboard and used cake pop sticks ( I don't know why I had those but there they were...) and they threaded minis onto the sticks and roasted marshmallows for a midnight snack.  I know it was a midnight snack because I went to bed at 11:30.  I don't even know for sure if it worked and they actually roasted those minis or just tried to.  

Elizabeth and Adelaide have grown up as part of our lives here.  They know what they can and can't do at our house and we've never squashed their creativity.  We trust them implicitly.  So when Elizabeth showed me the pictures she took of their midnight marshmallow adventure I loved it and told her so. This was complete pure cousin time with no adult around to tell them what to or not to do.  They don't get this kind of alone time together.

So while I bask in the glow I hope you all have a peaceful holiday season. 

Chookshed Challenge

 

Deana has launched another Chookshed Challenge for 2025.  We are supposed to choose ten projects, one a month, to focus on for this coming year.  I made a list last year but had to abandon it in June when Elizabeth asked for a Baltimore Album quilt for her high school graduation THIS June.  Well, I stayed on my self imposed schedule and the quilt is now pin basted and waiting for Christmas to be over before I start actually quilting it.   

So. My Chookshed list from 1-10 is to quilt that project.  Like last year, I have to completely focus on it till it's done (hand quilted.)  When I give it to her I will post a photo but not until. If I can squeeze in a project or two in the meantime you will be the first to know.  

So. Am I joining the challenge?  Yes, sort of. There will be time for more projects once we get to June first or I finish the quilt.  

Last of the Christmas books

 OK, last of the Christmas books with a little departure, too. 

You all know how I feel about Ryan T. Higgins' work.  His books are genius and his illustrations are hilarious, even for adults.   Bruce is a VERY grumpy bear who loves eggs.  He robs nests for them and cooks them in interesting ways.  One day he robs a goose's nest, takes the eggs home, puts them on to cook, gets distracted and when he returns the eggs have hatched.  You all know about imprinting, right? Well, Bruce the bear has now become Mother Bruce to a small flock of goslings. Exactly what Bruce does not want.  

This is the first in the Bruce books and what really launched Ryan T. Higgins.  He followed Bruce through many adventures and responsibilities with other woodland creatures.

How about this for a grumpy Santa?  But grumpy as he is he is still caught in the enthusiasm of Christmas. 

If you have any chance to find the Mother Bruce books, do.  But start with Mother Bruce, it introduces the characters that stick with the stories throughout the other books.   

Christmas books

 

This book is one of my favorites (actually, I don't own or read them to kids if they are NOT a favorite) because it gives a sweet explanation for why there are so many Santas around at Christmas.  Apparently, one little sparrow didn't fly south for the winter and ended up stuck in the cold.  Santa invited the bird to warm up in his beard and then stay the winter. But an unforeseen laying of eggs just might derail Santa on Christmas Eve.

Yesterday for the first time a little guy said, " Nah. Uh uh."  So cynical for six years old! Teacher and I looked at each other and then I said, "Well, look, these are actual photographs, not an artist drawing pictures.  Real photographs."  And I left it at that.

This one is new to me this year.  Yes, I still buy picture books but they have to be original, great art and I have to love it.  Santa has been doing this for years.  He comes home - finally - on Christmas Eve and collapses from exhaustion, allowing himself an extra half hour of sleep in the morning before getting up and starting to make toys all over again for next Christmas.  Polar Bear finds out from one of the elves that Santa doesn't do nor has ever done Christmas and sets out to change all that.  The elves take Santa out to find a tree and they have to explain to him WHY.  Then they decorate, make cookies, etc. The whole package.  Even a visit from SANTA! In the end Santa has so much fun he suggests they do this every year.  And so they do.

 

Doings

 It's busy times this time of year. Our calendar is exhausted. It's all good stuff, all keeping in touch with friends and family and baking and wrapping (though I've gone to bags - much easier) and hoping it doesn't snow...much. 

Here are the books from this week's read to the first graders:

This one is an oldie.  First printed in 1963 it keeps on giving its charms.  Mr. Willowby has a huge tree installed in his house but the top bent at the ceiling so Mr. Butler cuts it off and delivers the cut piece to the upstairs maid for her room.  But it's still too big, the top gets cut and Bear takes it home. It's too big for their space so the top gets cut and on it goes, the journey of that tippy top of the tree.  It is a charmer.

I always ask the kids, "Have you ever heard someone say 'be careful what you wish for, you just might get it?' and 'do you really, really want everything you ask for?' "  Well, of course they do. They always look at me like I'm crazy for asking that.  After a couple of years of disappointments in not getting exactly what he wants, Joe finally does. So, yes, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

We've been doing our annual meeting with Friends Richard and Marilyn at the most holidayish place we know

We start with the pretzel and move on to the biggest burrito and tallest burgers around. There is no supper cooked after a lunch like this. 

We all have a rosy glow because every single inch of this place is decorated and lit and making some sort of noise.  The tables are all lined with dancing whatevers making noise, the televisions are playing Christmas movies - not the same ones at the same time, the animated characters are animated, there are swags, garlands, baubles, signs, lights, and one waitress for the whole place.  But we tell her we don't care, we are there to have fun so when she gets to us, she gets to us. Reservations start in September.  We go between the lunch service and dinner service so we can always get a seat and are ok to stay as long as we are gone by 6.  Not a problem. 

The next day we met Friends Marge and Harry at the Christkindl Market, new to Grand Rapids and in its second year.  PH and I went last year and thought it interesting and fun and different so this year asked M & H to meet up with us.  It was cold this year.  A storm was moving in later that day so we went early with all the other old people.  Last year it was a huge success so they expanded the vendors by double this year.  That kind of works in some ways but not others.  More vendors means sales are spread out more and one vendor said last year was busier because it was a new thing and people were interested but now they know.  It is expensive, too.  We had fun strolling and had a really good waffle sandwich for lunch.  PH chose a sausage sandwich.  

Today's lunch was postponed because that storm came through bringing high winds and very cold temperatures meaning icy roads. We didn't get but an inch of snow here but it's icy and every single school in West Michigan is closed.  

I finished Elizabeth's BA quilt top, I will layer and pin it today.  I can't believe I was able to keep to the schedule I had.  It's beautiful and makes me smile when I look at it.  I'm pretty sure she doesn't see this blog but I really can't take any chances.  I think I will maybe post for one day a photo of it and take it down just to be sure.  But not today.

"That's how my mother always did it"

    This fall I discovered a Facebook group called For the Love of Pie.  It's been quite interesting to learn from this group that there are about 897 million ways to make a pie crust, an obsession with this group during apple pie season in knowing how to get a flaky crust. And, of course, everyone had an opinion and the veteran bakers all decreed theirs was the best.  Foolproof.   Novice bakers were panic stricken. It was kind of fun to watch. 

     As apple season morphed into pumpkin pie season the advice changed remarkably.  Most everyone, and I mean MOST, use the recipe from the can of Libby's pumpkin but NOT the can of "easy" pumpkin pie mix.  Just the can of straight up pumpkin and their recipe on the label. 

    The one constant refrain, the one thing 99% of the people said, the one bit repeated over and over and over:  "that's how my mother always did it."

    My mother never made a pie.  She had opinions and decreed making a pie was more trouble than it was worth.  She enjoyed EATING pie but would not make one. So when it was time to learn how to make a pie I watched my grandma.  

     I volunteered to make the pumpkin and pecan pies for Thanksgiving this year but I've only ever made one of each in my whole long life.  I didn't have to go far for advice, that FB site was full of it. But I did call Friend Marge for her take on pumpkin pie because she makes them for HER family.  She went through the check list, it matched the thousands of people on the FB site and even said a few times, " that's how my mother always did it."  

      

I volunteered to make the pies but really, it was going to be the girls learning to make a pie. They are with us for the two days before Thanksgiving every year so I put them to the learning task.  

One thing one of the women on the FB site said made ALL the difference to her Libby label pies was to add an extra egg. That meant for one pie cutting one egg in half.  Hmmm.  Elizabeth came up with the solution.  Scramble the egg and then using the kitchen scale, weigh it and measure out half of it.  Voila! 

It. Was. Perfect.  

 

So was the pecan!  Even though I told the girls "Thanksgiving is not the time to experiment.  Thanksgiving wants tradition"  I didn't have dark corn syrup, just light. I didn't have dark brown sugar, just light.  We used what I had and I added some pure maple syrup.  Maple syrup can't hurt anything! 

Thanksgiving reads

 This week's books are Thanksgiving dinner books.  It is in two days, so they are timely.

The Tappletons are gathered for Thanksgiving dinner and each element of the meal meets a ghastly beginning or end.  Mom drops the turkey and it slides out the door and into the pond, dad is responsible for the pies, Kenny the salad, Jenny the potatoes.  But by the time everyone is gathered around the table they all have to confess. Grandma has been waiting to say grace and as everyone is feeling quite sad she saves the day with her message.

We all know the old lady who swallowed the fly...and myriad take offs on that rhyme.  This is another one.  This is also one you have to watch the pictures very closely.  For that reason it's better as a lap book. But after today I realized kids don't watch the Thanksgiving Day parades on TV anymore.  When I was a kid that was mandatory.  We had to get out of our mother's way so she could cook and we'd watch the parades on TV because it was the only thing available.  Now I guess with so many streaming options kids just don't.  I think next year I'll choose another book.  But this one is such fun!  Sigh.

Update on the BA quilt.  I have all four borders done, two are attached, two waiting.  In a few minutes the girls are coming for two days and then it's Thanksgiving so I won't get back to it for a few days.  But I am SO on schedule all angst is gone and I can feel good about leaving it for a couple of days.  Gives my hands a rest.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.