Five Golden Rings

What is today, the fifth day of Christmas? With all the activity around here and the family coming and going, I’m having a hard time keeping track of the days of the week, much less the date or anything else. It’s been a whirlwind of activity, even counting the day I stayed in my pajamas in front of the fireplace until two in the afternoon.

Christmas started early for us on the 23rd when Trent’s family arrived. We had a great evening opening presents in our pajamas and then eating a scrumptious breakfast for dinner. We’re calling Rush’s Christmas pajamas his party clothes because it seems like every time he puts them on something festive is happening.

It really was a blessing that we were able to see so much family for Christmas, especially because everyone came to us. Rush was able to spend time with all four of his grandparents and almost all of his aunts and uncles. Trent and I were able to get enough done before everyone arrived (our freezer was full of muffins and mushroom soup and quiche), so we could pretty much sit back and enjoy time with our guests.

What is it called in the Navy when sailors switch their hammocks between shifts? Hot bunks? That’s essentially what was going on at our house as Trent’s family left on Christmas Eve and mine arrived about an hour later. Rush stayed awake through the entire Christmas Eve service at church, tired, but clapping after every song.

Christmas morning was a little different than usual as we waited to open presents until my sister and brother-in-law could arrive that afternoon. For once in was actually cold on Christmas day so we actually had a fire in the fireplace all day, from about 7 AM until 10 PM. Rush had his first taste of Julekake and gjetost, Norwegian Christmas bread (that thankfully my mom baked) with a carmely goat cheese, and I think the bread went over better than the cheese for him.

After months of work, especially that last crucial month leading up to December 23 when it was completed, the play kitchen Trent built for Rush was unveiled on Christmas morning. We moved it into the kitchen and it looks awesome. It’s worth posting more pictures.

We’re still living among stacks of presents yet to find a home, Christmas tree needles covering the floor, ashes overflowing out of our fireplace, and leftover baked goods. Combined with the rain outside and the leftover ham bone simmering in a pot of 15 bean soup, it’s the perfect 5th day of Christmas.

White Christmas

Today is the official Christmas baking day at the Williams house. Rush helped me all morning and is now exhausted and taking an early nap. So far we just have dough chilling in the freezer for Santa’s Whiskers, the buttery cherry, pecan, coconut cookies I discovered last year in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, and cheese crackers, a recipe from the cookbook my sister-in-law Kim made for me for Christmas last year. Not cookies, but I ambitiously added it to the menu around 4 AM when I was watching tv.

The remainder of the cookie menu includes peanut butter blossoms (you know the ones – with the Hershey’s Kisses) and a yet undecided bar cookie. I really should go start one of these while Rush is napping… If you’re joining us for Christmas in a few days, don’t shy away from the cookies based on the fact that there is coconut everywhere and Rush’s hands are in it. He did wash his hands first, but also these pictures are post-dough making, when the kitchen was already such a mess that I just let Rush play with the remaining coconut.

Even though our house is kind of a disaster zone and we have family arriving in two days, I feel like making Christmas cookies is the priority here. Besides the fact that mopping the floor before we baked would have been pointless, I think Trent and I can just stay up late cleaning on Wednesday night if needed. Plus we’re stocked up on wine and Shiner’s Holiday Cheer, so if things don’t get totally spotless we can always mellow out the grandparents, aunts, and uncles with cookies, beer, and the warm glow of the Christmas tree.

Halls: Decked

Ah, I love our Christmas tree this year. I could just sit and stare at it for hours, or lay under it and snooze with the cats. Sometimes Rush will walk in the living room, turn on the tree lights, then throw his arms back, clearly amazed that something so awesome is in our house. I feel the same way. This is our first year to have Christmas stockings in our own home. My mom made Trent and Rush’s, Gran made mine back when I was little, and I just made a tiny stocking for the baby. I intended for it to be whimsical and actually go with the other three stockings, but I made it while watching two back to back episodes of Law and Order SVU, which wasn’t really putting me in a whimsical mood. Next year it will be a tree ornament anyway, so it’s fine. Hopefully my mom has another fantastic stocking up her sleeve for the new baby.

This year I took an idea from Martha Stewart’s Good Things and made a Christmas card holder with clothespins, wrapping paper, and Mod Podge. The cards were hanging from some really cool paper ribbon that I found at the dollar store, but the cats have made it their nightly goal to sabotage the ribbon. After fixing it every morning after breakfast, I’m finally adapting it: no more hanging ribbons. It’s still a decoration that I love.

I love the days leading up to Christmas when the preparation really gets into full swing. Rush and I made Chex Mix for the garbage men this morning so we can give them their gifts tomorrow, and it’s really barely enough to thank them for not only keeping the neighborhood clean but also being the highlight of Rush’s day every Tuesday and Friday. As soon as I post this, I’m going to wrap presents while Rush is napping. My agenda for tonight includes working the two gifts I’m still trying to complete, one for my dad and one for my niece Trinity, the name I drew in the Williams family homemade gift exchange. In an odd way, I’m also looking forward to making a grocery list to get ready for all the food we’ll be making while our family is here, and about making cookies. ‘Tis the season!

Celebrating Like It’s 1985

My friend Kellaura shares my love of 80’s Christmas crafts, so she came up with the idea of making salt dough ornaments from a recipe in the December 1985 edition of Gourmet magazine.  We spent all day Sunday making ornaments, listening to –mostly bad- Christmas music (we need to delete some of that from our computer, or at least make a playlist of music we want to listen to), drinking hot Dr. Pepper and eating cookies.  Regarding the Christmas music, Trent texted me earlier to let me know that NPR has it’s streaming Christmas music again this year.  We found it so late last year, but now that I know it’s back, we’ll be listening.

Anyway, getting back to the salt dough, it was exactly the kind of December day that I dream about all year.  Last year we were so busy remodeling our kitchen, a horrible plan for December, that we didn’t get a lot of time to leisurely make ornaments.  Trent and Nick made a few, then moved on to hang out in the backyard, but I think Kellaura and I could have sat at the table decorating with seeds and beans all day.

  The ornaments were baked and cooled by Sunday night, and since then have been sitting on our kitchen counter awaiting a coat of shellac.   

Besides the ornaments, we also ended up with some entertaining self portraits of Rush and his godfather that I found on the camera… So far this December has been heavenly.  As a family, we’ve finished off about 5 dozen cookies since Saturday.  Literally, that is not an exaggeration.  It looks like I’m going to have time to do at least two of the Christmas projects that I classified as “optional.”  And I just answered a knock on the door and it was the UPS man delivering a box from Williams Sonoma.  I would wait for Trent to open it, as it is addressed to “The Williams Family”, but it says “Perishable” so…

Christmas Card: Behind the Scenes

Not every picture could make the Williams family Christmas card this year, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t get quite a few interesting shots…

  There were a lot of the “I’m laughing an looking upward because my mom is singing and dancing behind my dad like a maniac trying to get a good picture” pictures:

The eye-roll, “let’s wrap this up” picture:

The sand in the hair picture:

The listening to the ocean in a shell picture:

  And the post-listening to the ocean in a shell picture:

I love that one.  It’s so peaceful.  I briefly considered sending a totally artsy Christmas card and just using that last photo, but Rush’s cute face won in the end.

Quick Update

The baby's "going home from the hospital" clothes are washed and folded and ready to go. I guess it's almost time to start packing for the hospital. I wonder which onesie our baby will wear home...

We're getting our Christmas tree tonight! I can't wait to get it up and decorated. I really and truly love wrapping Christmas presents, so although I've wrapped a few I've been rationing and waiting for the tree to go up so I can really create a mood. Plus all our ornaments have been sitting in boxes in the kitchen all week, so it will be nice to get those out of the way. Just a few more hours...!

Haul Out the Holly

We can’t really go into any details, but we’ve been spending a lot of time lately trying to finish all our handmade gifts…

I hope Trent is noticing from these pictures that I taped newspaper over the kitchen table before I handed Rush a paintbrush and a glass plate filled with permanent paint.

We’re “almost” done. I think. We’re constantly evaluating where we are on our handmade list. Trent and I were recently discussing the fact that we each have productive times during the day and it would be so nice if we could really harvest that time. He feels ready to go early in the morning and can accomplish a list of things, while I usually have to spend the first hour or two of my day zoning out. However, when Trent is asleep at 9:30 PM, I’m just gearing up. On Friday night I was on my way to bed when I stopped by the craft room and made this wee bunny for my neighbor’s baby shower. That’s 12:54 AM.

I just finishing washing and folding all our baby neutrals, aka the farm animal onesies. Everything for babies is either pink, blue, or ducks, so for now we’re stocked with ducks. It took forever to fold these two small loads of laundry because I was distracted by the Glee Christmas special. It really made me wish our house was decorated.

I bet Rush would like the house decorated as well. Maybe we’ll work on that a little this afternoon. Here he is checking out our platter supply…getting ready for Christmas entertaining?

Sweet Tooth

The Christmas sweets are really starting to appear. I went to a “treat exchange” on Saturday, so now that we have a bag full of chocolate covered everything. I’ve been unsuccessfully trying not to eat too many red velvet cream cheese brownies and limiting my hot chocolate intake. Rush has become a huge fan of hot chocolate, and as we discovered last night, hot (decaf) tea with lemon honey. There’s a cookie exchange this weekend, so although I haven’t baked any Christmas cookies yet, I will be starting by the end of the week.

I had to take everything out of the bottom row of the Advent calendar because Rush just walks up whenever he feels like it and pulls out a piece of candy. And I’m starting to manipulate the pockets…on some days he is going to pull out a container of yogurt. If you think that sounds too healthy to be fun, think again. Have you tasted little kid yogurt? It’s awesome. Sadly, I pulled our Advent wreath out of the box on Sunday and it was broken. It was one of the coolest things we owned, so I’ve been researching what kind of glue to use to repair broken pottery. Hopefully we can get it back together again.

Additional Thanks

I just got this cute picture of Rush’s cousin Trinity reading him a bedtime story over Thanksgiving. Cute! And Snuggly!

Trent and I went on a date tonight and I learned a valuable lesson: if you normally order a combo plate with one cheese enchilada, upgrading to a combo with a cheese enchilada and a queso covered cheese enchilada is not necessarily a good idea, especially if you also ordered a large queso as an appetizer. It was queso overload. Delicious queso overload, but still…wow. I walked off approximately one drop of cheese finishing up Christmas shopping at Target after dinner.

Trent and I were on the Barbie aisle picking out our Angel Tree gift and I was retelling the story of my favorite Barbie of all time, the Peaches and Cream Barbie, which I specifically remember my Uncle Niel giving to me in 1985. She had a fabulous peach chiffon ball gown skirt with a white shinny bodice and a fluffy peach boa. You just can’t find ball gowns for Barbies these days; it’s all sequined cocktail dresses. I was reminiscing away, when I saw it – the 1985 Edition reissue of the Peaches and Cream Barbie. It was amazing. But also $45, so I’m sticking with the memory.

Happy Advent

We’re halfway through the first week of Advent and I have yet to dig our Advent wreath out of wherever it is hidden among the Christmas decorations in our garage, but our new Advent calendar is finished and hanging in the kitchen!  As I finished the border on Sunday night, I was so glad I started back in August. 

   I had a lot of inspiration:  most obviously the Advent calendar Kate made last year, the sequined Christmas stockings and projects my mom and sister make, and Gran’s stash of sequins and beads (which I used).  Like most of my projects I just went a step at a time, working out the plan as I went.  I constructed the inlaid pockets based on an Advent calendar I saw here, but as our computer was blitzing out and wouldn’t open Adobe files as it was time to sew the pockets, I just went from a general memory of having previously looked at the tutorial rather than following it.  I needed pockets big enough to hold candy for –God willing- multiple children as our family grows. For now it’s filled with mini candy canes (like Rush’s mouth) and chocolate Santas.  Rush would have been just as excited with boxes of raisins, but as tempting as it was to fill the pockets with raisins, it doesn’t exactly shout “festive”.   I love Kate’s idea of adding notes like “go get a Christmas tree!”, but I’ll just have to slip those in as the events arise.  We haven’t planned that far ahead for December yet.

So the Advent calendar is up, check.  The next step is either finding the Advent wreath or gathering the last of the pumpkins and putting them outside.  After that I’m expecting things to start moving pretty quickly.  December is typically a fast month anyway and to quote Charlotte’s Web "Life is always a rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.”  We’re waiting for both.

Giving Thanks

I’m thankful for a great overall Thanksgiving, for family and food and cooler weather.

I’m thankful that Trent, Rush and I avoided getting the stomach bug that half Trent’s family had (sorry nieces and nephews, I know you can’t be thankful for that this year...)

I’m thankful for getting to spend time with my cousin Per, who I don’t get to see nearly enough.

I’m thankful for Trent, Rush, and our new baby.

(Agh, who else has to go for a weigh-in at the doctor’s office a few days after Thanksgiving?!)

Thank you God for all these blessings. And thank you that Trent’s mom baby-sat for us so we could go see Harry Potter 7 part 1. And thank you that my mom and I found two huge boxes of donuts and bagels at Kroger for $1 each. Amen.

Cravings

If you were ever searching for the recipe for the most perfect, delicious chocolate chip cookies, your search is over.  I found it.  Surprise – it’s the recipe on the package of Kroger brand semi-sweet chocolate chips.  I ate a million cookies a day until yesterday, when the supply was finally depleted. 

Rush enjoyed them as well and when he says “cookie” he says it with real meaning, similar to Cookie Monster.  He learned to dip cookies in milk and really, really liked drinking milk out of a glass.  Not a sippy cup or a plastic cup, but a glass.  We’re trying to teach him good manners and apparently he’s embracing it.  I’m anticipating that he will expect his milk in a champagne flute during the holidays.  

In healthier food news, my grapefruit cravings are back.  Forget pickles and ice cream, I must get some sort of vitamin C deficiency while pregnant.  After going back and forth with Trent last night over who would run to the store for grapefruit juice, I finally just went to bed and this morning I went out for a jug of grapefruit juice and giant bag of grapefruits.  Lesson learned and applied from my first pregnancy:  the grapefruits and juice are good enough, I don’t also have to supplement with Fresca.  I wouldn’t turn down Fresca, but how much money can one family spend on grapefruit?

Only a few days until Thanksgiving and not only am I ready for turkey and dressing, I’m already thinking about my Friday leftover lunch, a sandwich made with one of Trent’s grandmother’s homemade rolls and broccoli rice casserole.  Even if I didn’t get to eat any turkey this Thanksgiving, I would be content to just look at this decoration that I found in Rush’s school backpack.  It’s one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.  Well, it’s one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen besides Rush.

The Piles

Sometimes I look around our house and there are piles of stuff on every available surface. Right now at least some of the piles are useful or productive and not just stacks of junk mail and pliers and magazines and vitamins and pumpkin seeds in a Ziploc (actual contents of our kitchen counter right now, thankfully not pictured). I just remind myself that I never promised anyone a spotless home, nor did I ever even imply that it would happen, even slightly. Sometimes I have to remind Trent that when we started dating I was living with Kim, my potluck roommate during my freshman year of college who matched my level of messiness, so it’s not like I tricked him.

Trent often makes fun of me for my nightstand, which is full of useful things. That’s the only box of Kleenex in the house that he hasn’t hidden in a cabinet somewhere. In Trent’s mind, only old people have Kleenex around their homes, so he takes any boxes he sees and hides them. That one has slipped past his radar so far. I find it useful to have all my stuff out: The Night Offices for all those times when I’m awake from 3-5 or 4-6 AM, which has been my standard this pregnancy; a baby name book because we’re still working on that; magazines and the BCP, obviously; and Atlas Shrugged, which split in half when I dropped it on the floor at Whataburger the other day. It’s actually made it a lot more manageable to only have to hold 500 pages at a time.

In terms of piles of productivity, here’s my cardboard box of Christmas presents, in pieces, and other various projects. I could also go to the garage and take a picture of Trent’s pile of Christmas presents in pieces, but for obvious reasons I can’t show any pictures of end results yet. I keep adding layer after layer to my box; who knows what’s on the bottom. At least it’s contained, to an extent. There are similar bags of half finished craft projects around the house…

Rush has his own piles, mainly piles of comfort in his bed. I snuck in and took this photo a few minutes ago and it looks so cozy that I’m tempted to go make my own nest of books and stuffed animals to sleep in tonight. In fact, yes, I’m going right now. The second half of Atlas Shrugged is calling.

Ducks!

We had a fun visit from our friends the Harrises last week.  They have two girls, so Rush got a sneak-peek of what it’s like to have a sibling for a few days.  We spent a lot of time outside, so on Friday morning, Elizabeth and I took the kids out to a park near our house to feed the ducks. 

Rush mainly wanted to hand-feed the ducks and it took awhile to get him to throw the bread to them.  At that point he had also decided to start eating the bread.  Yum.

The next picture was taken a few minutes before Rush ran into the water, I’m assuming either because he wanted to pet a duck or because he’s used to the beach where he can run into the water.  I guess it wouldn’t be a trip to the duck pond for a little kid if he didn’t leave with soaking wet shoes and socks.  “Duck” is one of the words he can say, and I think he caught on to the fact that ducks say “quack quack” as well.

We had a great visit with the Harrises, but Rush did end up spending Saturday with what we refer to as “a case of the Caseys.”  That’s when you get so worn out that you spend all day barfing and sleeping.  It doesn’t happen to everyone, or probably even that many people at all, but knowing my sister Casey for the past 27 years I’ve seen it enough times to recognize it.  I think the stretch from Halloween weekend through the time change and last week were just compounded exhaustion for him.  I’m pretty sure he’s back to normal now, but we will be trying to stay as low-key as possible for the next few days.

The Little Chef

One of the greatest developmental milestones we have reached is Rush being able to stand on a kitchen chair and help cook.  If he ever opens a restaurant or becomes a famous chef, he can tell interviewers that he has been cooking since he was one.  I have to be careful to only say “Do you want to help me cook dinner?” if I actually mean it, because he’ll start dragging a chair across the room. 

A lot of his cooking involves stirring cereal and moving it from measuring cup to measuring cup.  He also likes to add spices and emptying the bread box.  But look, here he is with a zucchini.

I like how he’s presenting the illusion that he’s eating it.  He’s a great actor. 

I was really smug about it when he was a baby and would eat any baby food we put in front of him.  Now we’re in the stage where we offer him vegetables over and over again and serve him whatever we’re eating, knowing that sometimes he’ll eat it and sometimes he’ll give us crazy looks.  He’s pretty consistent about loving salad though.  The other day I neglected to put some on his plate during dinner and he was really offended.

Rush cooking with me is generally easier than letting him have free reign downstairs.  Because we’re hosting Christmas this year and I’ll be nine months pregnant, I was testing out a potential Christmas dinner recipe the other night.  Maybe I should have read every detail of the recipe before I started, but typically recipes from Everyday Food are pretty simple, so I just scanned it.  I missed the part that said "whisk sauce continually for ten minutes until it boils and thickens.”  I wouldn’t normally attempt a recipe like that anyway, and certainly not with a 19 month old who can open the pantry by himself.  Rush was great at entertaining himself through the long process of making the recipe, but in the end everything in the house two feet and below was on the floor. 

Maybe cooking is something he’ll always enjoy and he can cook dinner when he’s older…