Grandma & gingerbread

Well, this is it - the final countdown...if we're not ready yet, we're not going to be!
The kids needed us to watch the girls for a bit today while they did some errands, so we decided we'd better get this gingerbread house that grandpa bought for them put together, or it was going to be too late.
Arilie was amazing at it! She outlined the trees with green icing, stuck all the candy everywhere (well, what she didn't eat first!) and even helped put the icicles on the roof! I finally have a "crafty" child in my family! I think she did a great job! (I was behind Arilie while the photo was taken, when I saw the expression on her face later, I was rolling on the floor - priceless!)



***Sidenote: I'm so thankful that I insisted on getting this photo, because during the night - the dog ate the house!

Speaking of being naughty....

My sister read my "Ghost of Christmas Past" article, and emailed me that she had actually just found one of the maps that we had used to plot our "walk by snoop session" for Christmas morning! Amazing that such a thing still exists!
I submit Exhibit A:

Welcome to my world...

This is what Northern Utah looks like in winter:

Not a Spy Thriller Kind of a Girl...

Hubby got discount tickets to the movies tonight, and rounded up a bunch of the family to go (oldest son & wife, and daughter.) They all chose the latest James Bond film. I opted to go because:
a.) It had the earmarks of a "date" and I get precious few of those (not even going to go there tonight!)
b.) My other option was to stay home in a house full of teenage girls and toddlers.

As we went to go out the door, each member of the group (separately, not in unison) said "mom?...you're going too?" Apparently it is no secret to anyone that this is not my kind of movie. The plot was interesting enough, but I feel there should be a rule, that if you only keep your eyes open for half of the film, you should only have to pay half price - or maybe that $20.00 bag of popcorn should be on the house. My shoulders are so tense, that it will take me days to get all the knots out of them - my dreams will not be sweet tonight - in fact, I will be happy if nothing explodes, stabs, or jumps out to smack me in the face in them!
Whatever happened to movies like "That Touch of Mink" or "How to Marry a Millionaire"? Those are dillemas I can handle!
As we left the barely warm theater, we walked into a full blown blizzard!...No nice relaxing ride home either - white knuckles all the way!
I'm going to have a hot cocoa and go to bed! (With a blankie over my head!)

Grinch of Christmas Presents, Dreams, and the Evil Vortex of Doom

Grinch of Christmas Presents

Uh, sadly, that would be me...
Yesterday I was having a conversation with a friend during my lunch break, and the topic rolled around to Christmas gifts. I started ranting about how my husband isn't very good at surprising me, and I pretty much complained about every gift he's ever given me. After I left her and went back to work, I got thinking about that, and good grief! I'm sure I sounded so awful! (Even though, after 30 years together, you'd think he would know me better!)....see? there I go again!
It must be so daunting to try to find something to please me, I'm amazed that he keeps trying! - And he's never complained about anything I've given him, even though he must get really tired of getting the same old shirt, book and movie every year (well, they're not exactly the same ones - I vary the colors etc. - but you get my drift...) I do enjoy giving gifts, but I'm not very good at recieving them - I really must work on this!


Dreams

Last night I dreamt that I was in a car with my husband. He was in the driver's seat, completely zonked! - I mean mouth hanging open, chin-to-chest drooling, sound asleep! We were drifting in reverse, all over the road headed into traffic. I could see what was happening, but was too tired myself to do anything about it. I did finally try - pushed my foot on the break, but I was just too weak to even slow it down.
Terrifying dream, but I don't need a shrink to tell me what this means, because I can totally relate to it! We have both been working our little hiney's off trying to get our house together in time for the holidays - the day is looming closer, and we are getting further and further behind on our holiday preparations, because of all the added housework - and we are headed for certain disaster! But we are both too wiped out to care!
I have no solutions or clever comments on the matter - this dream was just so vivid, and had such an impact on me - just thought I'd mention it in passing....

Evil Vortex of Doom

During the same lunchtime conversation, (see above) The subject of time came up, and how, for some reason, there seems to be less and less of it. I find this completely alarming!
I was telling my friend how years ago, I worked 2 to 3 jobs at a time, came home and did my "mommy duties" ie: meals, laundry, etc. and yet still found time to play. In fact, there was a time when I would come home from work, feed the kids, get them to bed, then go downstairs and paint (one of my other jobs) until 5 am., then go deliver my work, come home, change, and go to work again. (of course I couldn't do that many days in a row - but deadlines had to be met)...and yet (and I completely forgot to mention to her that this was the whole point of telling her that story) I still seemed to have oodles of free time to do the things that I wanted to! (ie: paint for myself, garden, etc.) How can that be???? I have not been able to figure that out! Like right now, I'm only working 4 days per week - I have a 4 day weekend all the time, and yet where is my free time? I have none - zip - nada.
It's been a subject of so much frustration to me, that I even did this scrapbook page about it for my Book of Me:


...my theory is that there is a growing time-sucking vortex moving towards the earth at ever increasing speed. We are careening towards a time when there will be - well - no time left at all! Which is sad really, because I like to play! :(

So....

My family all live close by, so my husband started the tradition of having them all come home for Sunday dinner. Our house is pretty tiny, so we have to set up a folding table in the living room to accomodate all of us.
A couple of weeks ago, I asked my son #2 to please go help set the table. When I walked in to start setting the food out, this is what I found:




...It's so hard to get good help these days!!!

Ghost of Christmas Past

...Don't worry - no more posts about my house, at least not till it's done.
I'm as tired of the subject as you are! (maybe more!) It will actually feel like a vacation to go to work tomorrow!

Instead, I'm going to return to my regularly scheduled plan for this month (the holidy thememed posts)...and travel back a few decades and reminice about some of my favorite holiday memories as a child.

My dad was not a fan of Christmas. I never really knew why, probably just the "fuss" and the expense, but for whatever reason, he just didn't want to be bothered with it! He would never allow us to put up a tree until just a few days before Christmas. So, of course, by then, the only trees that were left at the tree lot were the scraggly lopsided, sad looking ones. We had a lot of "Charlie Brown" trees over the years!
One year we had some carollers come to the house (which was very unusual because we lived way out of the way!) They stood in front of our big picture window to serenade us, and my dad got so annoyed that he got up and closed the drapes!
(He did change though, after I was married and had a family, he & mom would come over and spend Christmas Eve with us, and he really did enjoy it! - and so did we!)

My mom was an excellent seamstress, and she would usually make most of our Christmas gifts herself. From about November on, as soon as she tucked us in at night, we would fall asleep listening to the whirring sound of the sewing machine as she sewed throughout the night, making us frilly dresses and warm flannel jammies, with matching outfits for our dolls.
Ha ha! I don't know why we even beleived in Santa Clause for so long, because we knew that most of our stuff was made by her! (I must have been really dumb!)...anyway, moving on -

My sister's and I always spent weeks before Christmas making "plans" about how we were going to spy on Santa, and who was going to sneak through the living room first to see what he brought before we were allowed to actually go in and open gifts. It was a thrill and an honor (as well as a danger) to be chosen to be the first to go!
We even made charts and diagrams of where all the squeaky spots were in the floor, so we could avoid them and not get caught! We always slept in the same room Christmas Eve (to aid the conspiracy). One time, my sister was determined she was going to see Santa, and she fell asleep with her nose pressed up against the crack under the door!

Christmas Eve was always "Family Night." We would have a little "program" that mom & dad pretty much let us kids plan and carry out. We would have plays and songs, stories, and games. We really took it seriously and tried to make it something special that everyone would enjoy. Of course, somewhere through the course of it, was always included the story of the Nativity. (And our favorite treat - popcorn and fudge!) I loved this tradition, and it is one that I have carried over into my own family.

Naughty, Naughty, Naughty!
We were also chronic "snoopers" at Christmas time! We always found where mom stashed our gifts no matter where she hid them. Whenever she went to town to buy groceries, we knew that we had at least an hour before she got home, so we would go get them, and play with them until she got back! One year she got us all Tammy dolls, and we had chosen (and played with) the ones we wanted - (different hair colors.) Mom must have been more than a little suspicious Christmas morning, when we opened them and said "hey, you got mine!" and swapped them all around!

*Most memorable Christmas gift? One year, Santa left us a note on the door too look outside, and there was a beautiful new swing set! (This was amazing to us, because we NEVER got big gifts like this!)

Holiday Traditions : Decorations

This month has been a bit tricky and, well - so far isn't going too well, but rather than dwell on that (since I've been complaining so much here lately) I thought I would just write a bit about some of my favorite holiday traditions and memories.
Since the decorations just went up, I think I'll start with that...
My Husband usually does all the Christmas decorating. It's his favorite part of the season, so we all just back off and let him go! Usually every nook and cranny in the house gets decked out, and we have been known to have a tree in every room! (hopefully not this year!)
Me? I enjoy creating the decorations. Some of my favorites are my painted Santas.
I love "old time" looking Santas, so when I saw this one offered as a class several years ago - I just had to have it!
I was working at Provo Craft at the time, and the class was being taught by Juliet Martin - a very talented designer who does a lot of Victorian style work. It was a two day class, and was a little pricey, so I had to plan and save, but I was sure it would be worth it.
The first day of the class was an 8 hr. one. There was a large group, and as is typical for this kind of class, they move very quickly, and it is a real challenge to keep up. The first whole day of the class was spent just on laying in the backgrounds, and painting the face! I couldn't believe how detailed it was, and Juliet must have been a bit nervous, because she kept forgetting steps and having to back track. It was very frustrating and even more stressful!
...But by the end of the day, Santa's face was in place, and I was rather proud of it, if I may say so. The only thing that bothered me was that my Santa's face looked so fresh and young. I wanted him to look more aged so he would seem more realistic, so I went up to the teacher and asked her what I should do to get that effect. She took him from me and dipped her brush into some dark flesh colored paint and did a few strokes right at the corners of his eyes to give him a look of "crow's feet."
When she did that - my eyes got really big, and my breath caught in my chest - her strokes were so big and stood out so much! They looked very unnatural to me, and I was just apalled! I thanked her very much with my teeth a little clenched, and I quickly went around the corner and licked it off!!! (sorry if this is a bit of a gross out - but there is a joke among avid tole painters that saliva is one of their greatest tools!...and one must act quickly before the paint dries too much, or it is a major ordeal to repair mistakes - and at the end of a grueling 8hr. day, I was not willing to do it all over again!)
I went home that night, and practiced the strokes that she showed me, and replaced them later myself (sorry Juliet! - when it came to my painting, I was a perfectionist to the extreme!)...not that hers was bad - she was the designer for goodness sake! - it's just that our painting styles are so different that made it stand out.
There was less to do the second day, so it was a bit more relaxed, and actually enjoyable! We moved at a slower pace and chit-chatted amongst ourselves. Later on, Juliet mentioned something about the story "The Polar Express." She was surprised when most of us there told her that we had never read it. So she told us the story.
What she lacked the first day in teaching skills, she totally made up for with her storytelling skills - we were all enthralled, and by the time she finished, there wasn't a dry eye in the room. It was magical! I'm a collector of Christmas stories, and this one quickly went to the top of the list of stories I had to have - normally, I look for an inexpensive version, but on this one, I sprung for the boxed set, complete with cassette tape and bell!
This class ended up to be a "two-for"...I not only got a favorite decoration out of it, but an awesome experience, and a favorite story too!

*This Santa is done on 3 different layers of wood - so sorry for the fuzzy scan, it couldn't be helped*