Deck the halls...

...literally.

Want to jam out to some Christmas music for free?

Just a quick FYI ---Amazon is giving away a free Christmas song on MP3 everyday through Christmas.  Yay!  You can get such greatest hits as Twisted Sister's Deck the Halls.  I hurt my neck from all the head banging I just did. :-)


There's also some more normal ones too like Mannheim Steamroller's gorgeous rendition of Greensleeves, a pretty version of O Holy Night by someone named Leigh Nash, and Celtic Woman (they're always on PBS!) singing Ave Maria.  


Enjoy!

In the land of obnoxious Christmas letters...

The Cobbler and I in our 2003 Christmas letter photo during the end of my blonde phase.

Do Christmas letters annoy you or do you love them?  I fall into both camps depending on who the letter is coming from.  I have read about literally everything from won horseback riding tournaments and soccer games to a cancer diagnosis.  Yep, I once received a generic Christmas letter from a friend announcing she had cancer.  I debate every year about whether or not I'll write one, but then I look back at all the ones I've written going back to 2003 and think about how much things have changed since then.  Each letter is like a year put on ice for me.  It cracks me up how the letters were initially all about me and the Cobbler and what little we did aside from our jobs to all about the kids today.  Just for kicks, here are some highlights from our letters of the past---


2003:  With both of us working and no kids, I actually devoted an entire paragraph to our job descriptions.  That must have been a thrilling read for the relatives.


2004: We went to Italy for two weeks that fall and found out Red was on the way.  We got our cats too and I described them as "challenging---as baby animals tend to be."  That also was the Christmas that Pumpkin climbed the Christmas tree and took up residence there.


2005: Red is 6 months old when this letter goes out.  Here are my favorite sentences.  This one is regarding Red --- "Her musical tastes range from classical to the great nap inducer Celine Dion to disco.  Her current favorite song is “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen."  And about the cats I write--- "We were initially nervous about how they would react to Red, but we are relieved to report that they have adopted her as one of their own...Oliver is constantly trying to groom her (licking her head would be one of his favorite pastimes if I let him), and Pumpkin watches Red take her bath every night (although it may be just so she can drink the bath water)."


2006: A whole paragraph is devoted in depth to Red's vocabulary (again, probably a snoozer for the relatives), declaring her favorite words to say as "cracker and cookie."


2007: Tom Thumb was born this year.  There's a paragraph gushing about how he "lights up any room with his smile" and Red's room was clearly a fire hazard because "her bed is so jammed with books there is hardly room for her to sleep!"


2008:  My fave passage about Red  is "Her obsession with pirates is entering its eighth month.  She just finally let me remove the skull and cross bones tattoo that she has had on since Halloween."  About Tom Thumb I wrote "He also likes anything that has buttons (e.g. TV remotes, the telephone).  If we didn’t watch him like a hawk, everything would be broken.  We are now convinced that he is either going to be a professional singer (he is constantly making yodeling noises) or the next Olympic gold medalist in swimming."  I wrote about how I was reupholstering our living room furniture and I hoped I would finish before the kids entered high school.  On a good note, that is one unfinished project that has actually been completed since then...but I don't think I actually finished until the following summer.


2009: "The Queen of Mischief has found a perfect minion in her brother.  If there’s crayon on the wall, cookies missing from the jar, or the shampoo bottle is empty even though it was full before their bath, Red's first response is “Tom Thumb did it!”  And he probably did do it, but definitely with some help from his big sister. "


2010: "Red spends her free time singing loudly, interpretive dancing (it’s a hoot), reading, and making art out of anything and I mean anything.  Tom Thumb practices daily to be a future super spy by climbing on counters, discovering new ways to eat peanut butter, stealing bananas then jamming them in his mouth to destroy the evidence, and commandeering any available electronic devices (including the Cobbler’s cell phone, the GPS, etc.) for his own secret missions.  At his side through it all is Blue Blankie, his well worn baby blanket which he loses every single day and then cries until I find it.  I told the Cobbler for Christmas I want a tracking device for it so I don’t lose my mind."


And now we're up to our 2011 Christmas letter.  For those of you among my readers who know you'll be receiving a hard copy of this, you can close your eyes.  As for everyone else, I unveil our very own obnoxious holiday letter---the 2011 edition:

"Red entered first grade this year.  She wishes she could go to school for a couple of hours and then spend the rest of the day at home playing with me and Tom Thumb.  She enjoys taking jazz and Hawaiian dance classes weekly and has joined her school’s Girl Scout troop.  Red spends her spare time singing and dancing in front of the mirror in our living room, reading, drawing fairy castles, and building forts out of couch cushions with Tom Thumb.  At the top of her Christmas list are “minerals and diamonds.”  Obviously, she thinks she’s been extra good this year!

We don’t know how Tom Thumb continues to grow taller when it seems like he never eats!  His latest hobby is disagreeing with everyone about everything.  If he asks us if a stop sign is red and we say yes, he’ll say, “No, it isn’t.”  His other favorite is “No, I willn’t.”  Some days I feel like we’re trapped in a Charles Dickens’ novel with his choice of archaic English.  Tom Thumb started taking tae kwon do in August in a preschool class called “Little Dragons.”  He earned his yellow belt in November and was thrilled since his favorite color is yellow.  When at home and not debating me, Tom Thumb likes playing board games and covering the floor of his room with train tracks.  Tom Thumb is asking Santa for “a yellow dump truck and a yellow gumball.”

The Cobbler completed building his electric car using a 2001 Focus body in the spring.  The Cobbler and his car with its “ELECTRC” vanity plate were the talk of the neighborhood all summer.  My time was spent in an unending battle against dirt and laundry, while running the kids to their classes and volunteering at Red's school.  I had a goal of reading 52 books this year and I’ve finished 44 so I still have a remote shot at making it.  If not, there’s always next year!  My favorite book this year was “Let the Great World Spin” by Colum McCann.  Read it. You’ll like it!

So what do you think?  Obnoxious or just right?  Too late!  It's already printed---ha ha!  

In the end, I like our Christmas letters.  This letter is like my very own time capsule.  Is it gushing?  Yes.  Does it leave out some of the harder moments?  Definitely.  But what do you want to remember most?  I choose the beautiful moments 2011 has given me.

Getting ready to celebrate St. Nicholas Day

Our family has celebrated St. Nicholas day on December 6th since the children were small.  My husband and I LOVE Christmas!  He loves to decorate the outside of the house (I think Clark Griswold is his inspiration), we have a large Department 56 Village that we've collected over the years, and we especially love Santa Claus.  Although I figured out my mother was Santa because they had the same handwriting, the Cobbler was told by a Sunday School teacher that Santa wasn't real when he was in 1st grade.  


I always wanted our kids to grow up knowing that Santa Claus was a real person so they weren't in for a shock when they were older.  Over the years we have emphasized that Santa Claus or St. Nicholas actually lived and that people do kind things for each other or give gifts at Christmas to emulate him.  Every year we read them the same books from the library about Saint Nicholas around this time of year.  


Our first pick is usually The Legend of St. Nicholas by Demi.  This book is the most religious in tone of our three books we read and focuses on St. Nicholas's sainthood.  It covers St. Nicholas's entire life, including his childhood and also some of the more macabre stories like the murder and pickling of the boys who St. Nicholas then resurrects.  Red, who is a kid who really digs church, loves this one.  She even insists on saying the prayer to St. Nicholas that is printed the end of the book---and we're not even Catholic!

Our next pick is a biography by Ann Tompert simply titled St. Nicholas.  This book is in more of a biography format and has some really interesting illustrations that are intended to look like mosaics.  Again, this book covers his life in its entirety and discusses his miracles, but takes a much less religious approach and explains his life in a more "here's the facts ma'am" narrative.

Finally, my favorite is Santa Who? by Gail Gibbons.  It talks about the origins of Christmas and its legends.  The author talks about who St. Nicholas was, how his persona was developed into Sinter Cleas in Holland and then Santa Claus, how December 25 was chosen as the date for Christmas, and how Santa Claus is depicted in America and in other countries.


I so look forward to December 6th.  We usually read all three books, but particularly stress the story of the three impoverished maidens, from which the tradition of hanging stockings comes.  Then, Red and Tom Thumb put their shoes on the fireplace mantel before they go to bed.  We fill their shoes with gold chocolate coins and they get a new Christmas book.  This year's book is The Twelve Days of Christmas in Michigan.

I'm really looking forward to reading it to them!  If you want a treasure trove of information about St. Nicholas and different ways to commemorate his day (December 6), go to The St. Nicholas Center website.  It's fantastic!

Turkey Lurkey! It's time for Thanksgiving books!

Here are our family's picks for fave Thanksgiving books we've read this month---

When a town is reduced to considering shredded wheat as their Thanksgiving dinner, they hatch a plan to catch their "plump and perky turkey" by recruiting a turkey as a model for a turkey tribute art festival.  Hi jinx ensue!

The ugly pumpkin is devastated when he isn't picked to be a jack o' lantern for Halloween, but things start looking up around Thanksgiving when he realizes that he's a SQUASH!

Speaking of turkey, Thanksgiving dinner will be at my parents' house like every year.  And like every year, I must assume that we won't be offered any leftovers.  I know it's shocking, but they like to keep all the leftovers for themselves!  As a result (and by the Cobbler's request), Thanksgiving the Remix will be happening at our house on Friday.  If I was going to cook a turkey, it wasn't going to be one that's jacked up on hormones and antibiotics and raised in the equivalent of a dark room. Amazingly, I was able to find a fresh, free range, organic turkey in the city!  It was a little bit weird having Tom Thumb socialize along the fence with some turkeys that are going to be on someone's dining room table on Thursday, but we had a pretty awesome experience at Roperti's Turkey Farm.  One of the employees even carried our turkey to my car!  As my vegetarian alternative, I'm planning on making this yummy looking veggie streudel on Thursday.  Let the good times roll!

Look it's a flutterby...I mean butterfly!

One of our favorite Halloween traditions is trick or treating at a local history attraction called Greenfield Village.  This year was our 6th year and the kids love it!  You walk the pumpkin lined streets of the village that Henry Ford created from historically significant buildings, meet costumed presenters, and get treats on the way.  

This year Red decided to be a rainbow butterfly, while Tom Thumb told us he wanted to wear his dragon costume from last year again.  For Red's costume, I bought some rainbow wings on eBay and we attached some antenna made of glittery pipe cleaners to a princess headband she already had.  The one thing she really wanted though was to have her face painted.  After watching a few You Tube videos on butterfly face painting (isn't You Tube amazing?), I felt confident enough to give it a shot.  Here are the results:

She insisted that I be the mama butterfly so here's the baby and the mama!

Mama and baby posing in front of the house

At the last minute, Tom Thumb decided to be a train engineer instead!

A wizard at the Pixie Stix station

Most of the pumpkins are intricately carved, but this one was just a square.  Tom Thumb insisted that I take a picture of it anyway.

Red and Red Ridinghood

Red's favorite part --- the dancing skeletons!

The Cobbler and Tom Thumb

Me and the Halloween Centurion

The funniest time of the night was when we went through the treat station sponsored by McDonald's.  Ronald McDonald was there interacting with the kids.  He approached Red and said, "Look-it's a flutterby. I mean butterfly!" And then he turned to Tom Thumb who was riding in his stroller pushed by the Cobbler and said, "Hey, are you going to let him push you around like that?" Tom Thumb smiled and said, "Yes!"


We have three more parties to go to between now and the 31st, but in the meantime---

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL!

Learning about Ramadan

I grew up in the city in which we live today.  It is a community that has very large Muslim population.  Until I was an adult, it never really struck me as being much different from other places--- it just was what it was.  Growing up I was surrounded with my peers wearing hijabs (the head covering worn by most Muslim women), friends speaking both Arabic and English, and being aware that fasting was taking place during the holy month of Ramadan because in high school all the students participating were allowed to sit in the auditorium of my high school instead of the cafeteria during lunch hour.  One time in my high school sewing class a bunch of girls in my class brought in some yummy Arabic food and their wedding videos for us to watch while we sewed.  Yes---you read that right---their wedding videos.  We were all between 15 and 17 years old at the time.


I had an awareness, but not an understanding of Islam.  I think one of the easiest ways to learn the basics of religion, even for adults, is by reading children's books on the subject.  Ramadan ended a few days ago, but this past week we checked out two books about Ramadan from our library --- Ramadan and Celebrate Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr.  The first book was about how a fictitious family celebrated Ramadan and the second book was more a National Geographic type approach with lots of photos about the holiday from different cultures.  Great books!  I learned about what Ramadan actually is --- a reflection on the time when Allah revealed the Koran to the prophet Mohammed.  Muslims are supposed to take this month of fasting, that comes once a year based a lunar calendar, to forgive those who have wronged them in the past year, pray, serve the needy, and think about how to live better lives.  Eid Al-Fitr is the day of celebration and breaking the fast at the end of Ramadan.


Reading these books gave Red and I an opportunity to discuss what her friends believe and how they celebrate.  I now have a better understanding of what Ramadan and Eid are all about too.  


What does your family do to educate your children about other faiths?

Our Marshmallow Drop, Eggs Dyed and Smashed, and What the Bunny Brought...

Last year we went to the marshmallow drop for the first time.  In essence, there's a big roped off field that is surrounded by parents and kids.  A helicopter comes along, drops a load of marshmallows out of the sky, everyone runs to get a marshmallow, and the kids can turn in a marshmallow for a small bag of candy and trinkets.  The marshmallow drop was scheduled for Friday morning at 9AM.  In order to get there and get a parking spot, we would have needed to leave before 8AM.  I woke up on Friday morning, and it was raining and 37 degrees.  Definitely not ideal.  I, for one, did not want to go, but we had two little ones who had been looking forward to this day for weeks.  So what's the next best thing to marshmallows dropping out of a helicopter?  Daddy dropping them out of the upstairs bathroom window!

On Saturday, we did the annual egg dye with Aunt Christy and Grandma Mary Jane.

Easter morning was a big hit.  The bunny brought bubbles (already gone---used and spilled on the front porch yesterday), egg shaped sidewalk chalk, bunny straws (kids LOVED these), glow wands, balloons (did I say I love the dollar store?) and Peeps (gotta have the Peeps!)

With Easter morning, came the annual egg smashing.  I was taken out of the competition almost immediately by my mom.  In the end, Christy was the big winner.

Christy already looks triumphant and this was just her first smash!

After church, Easter breakfast at church, and the big meal at our house yesterday, I was ready for a nap.  Did I get one?  No! And today it's back to the Mount Everest of laundry, but after a fun weekend like that climbing the mountain will be a little easier.

The Easter Egg Hunt and Our Spring Display

This past weekend was our annual neighborhood egg hunt.  The same family every year stuffs 500-800 eggs and puts them out in one of the common areas for the all the kids to have at it. Needless to say, the kids LOVE it!  The bunny hops three times and they're off and running!

Tom Thumb and Red had quite a haul!

Here's Red with two of her best friends at the hunt.

Then the kids visited with the Easter Bunny.

When we got home, we dumped all the candy out of the eggs into a bowl that's now on top of the fridge (otherwise it would be gone by now---guaranteed).  Then, we put Christmas ornament hooks through the top of all the plastic eggs that had holes in them intending to hang them on the tree in our front yard.  It was really windy that day so instead the kids decorated the vase of pussy willows my mom brought by last week and displayed all their other spring treasures.

I got motivated and made a new wreath for the front door out of a $12 twig wreath from Joann (I used a 40% coupon so I got it for a little over $7) and 3 forsythia sprays that I cut up (got those for about $4).  I like it.  It says spring to me. :-)

Now if spring would only come...

Day #24 of 30 Days to a Simpler Life --- Create Hassle-Free Holidays

Make a list of the holidays you celebrate annually.  Besides each entry, write down what each holiday means to you.  For example, Thanksgiving may mean organizing a big potluck dinner for friends who don't have anyplace else to go.  Next, make another list of holidays with columns entitled "Joyful Activities" and "Stressful Activities."  Fill in the blanks.  For example, a joyful Christmas activity might be "Sending cards," whereas a stressful activity might be "Finding perfect gifts for household help."  Once the list is made, vow to maximize joy and minimize stress. 

(30 Days to a Simpler Life, p. 152)

OR for serious simplifiers only...

For one year, as each holiday approaches, choose one celebratory activity.  For example, for Christmas, just send cards, or make a wreath, or decorate a tree.  Fully experience one aspect of each holiday --- and ignore you least favorite holidays completely.  To simplify gift giving for one year, give the same gift to everyone on your list or send a card.  Get out of the loop for one year.

(30 Days to a Simpler Life, p. 155)

Holidays --- I love 'em.  Here are some photos from the last five years.  No way around it.  I love everything about them.  Can you tell?

I love New Year's Day and watching the Rose Parade.  I love Valentine's Day and making hearts with the kids.  I love St. Patrick's Day and dressing green and drinking too much beer.  I love Easter and the egg hiding and finding.  I love Memorial Day parades, 4th of July fireworks, dressing up for Halloween (I don't miss a year!), gathering around the table for Thanksgiving, and taping Christmas cards to my door in the days after we drag home the tree from our church's Christmas tree lot tied to Red and Tom Thumb's red wagon.  I even love obscure holidays like Talk Like a Pirate Day.  I don't know if I ever met a holiday I didn't like.

Now just because I like holidays doesn't mean I'm immune from the stress that accompanies Christmas.  Every year I push myself to do more and more surrounding Christmas.  I send out around 100 Christmas cards, we decorate the tree, we go to the city tree lighting ceremony, we celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 6th (there are some great resources for celebrating this holiday here), we buy and ship a ton of gifts, and we make the big crazy meal on the actual day.  Last year I even made figgy pudding from this recipe!  This year I'm ready to take a breather, but can I actually take one?  My sister Andrea has invited us to Christmas at her house this year---her non-existent house that isn't built yet.  She and her husband have been planning to build this house for the last 5+ years on some property given to them by her husband's grandmother.  It finally looks like this will be the year it happens and I told her if it's built we will come.  I think having flexible plans will be a good excuse for me to just relax a little bit and see what happens.

In sad news, the baby bunnies are gone.  We're not exactly sure what happened, but we fear the worst since the Cobbler found some blood on a leaf in the nest.  I'm really sad and bummed out for the kids.  I haven't told them that they're gone yet.  

And poor Red has to get evaluated for some dental work next week.  She's been seeing the dentist since she was three years old with great results!  The hygienist even praised her brushing abilities and told her she could give lessons to older kids.  Well, genetics caught up with her yesterday.  At her appointment 6 months ago, the dentist said there may be some decay between two of her molars in her upper jaw but they couldn't tell since they couldn't get the bite wings in for an X ray without her gagging.  They were able to finally do the X ray yesterday and the decay was there.  She has to see a pediatric dentist to get it repaired.  In the meantime, I have to brush her teeth.  Red actually cried at the dentist and said, "I'm a baby now?  I can't even brush my own teeth!??!"  I felt so bad for her that I even got weepy and had a good cry while locked in the bathroom when we got home.  I feel responsible as a mom too.  At the appointment six months ago, the dentist suggested flossing and rinsing with mouthwash daily.  I kept up with it for a few months, but then didn't insist upon it.  The dentist asked me if she uses sippy cups (no) or eats sticky sweet foods (yes, we gave her a lot of jelly beans while we were working with Tom Thumb on the finer details of potty training since he was getting them).  I definitely had a bad mom moment.  After talking to a few of my friends and realizing I'm not the only one with a kid who has teeth problems, I felt a little better.  I've never had a cavity in my life, but the Cobbler's teeth aren't so hot and the rest of my entire family (my mom and my sisters) have all had a TON of dental work.  I just need to buckle down, do what I can do (yes, we will be flossing and rinsing nightly from now on) and let the rest go.  I need to apply that philosophy to other areas of my life too.