Merry, Merry.

[source]

I want it to be Christmas.

I want the cookies, and the time off, and the coats and hats, and the music.  Oh, the music!

And, judge away my friends, but this little ditty* will be playing as I deck our, uh, house with, uh, lots of sparkly ADD-type Christmas decor.

I've started my shopping, and I've been pinning away fun decorations, and I've already picked out our Christmas card.

Anyway, Shorty**, guess it's time for bed.  How else will I have visions of sugar-plums and homemade peppermint marshmallows?


*I still haven't felt the baby kick, and it's making me mad.  So, now, since I know he can hear, I'm trying all sorts of things to get him moving.  (Lazy fetus!)  So far, here are some things that have not worked: me yelling at students, the season four finale of Brothers & Sisters, Christopher Walken reading "The Raven," Mitch barking at a bone, threats to name it Shorty.  And now let's add Justin Bieber's Christmas music to that list.  Does nothing rile this child?

*Or do you prefer to go by Dirty?

Who Are These People?

Sometimes when I'm out shopping, I come across really heinous objects like this one--a horse head with a hot pink feather hat/mane tree ornamental clip--and I wonder. . .

Whose idea was this?  And who agreed with that person that it was a good idea?  Who pitched the idea to their boss?  What boss then okayed production of such a ridiculous. . .thing.

And then who was the buyer for the store who decided that their store would sell it? 

And, finally, why did I buy it?

Savannah Family Christmas

Cassie just wrote a post about the origins of our Savannah family, so if you're not sure who these people are or how this little family of vagabonds came to be, check it out. 

It was seeming like we weren't going to get to have our Savannah Family Christmas this year, so when Cassie called last week and asked it we would be up for an impromptu celebration, we were thrilled.  It was just one of those perfect visits, full of great food and laughter and just the right amount of chaos.

I just love these people. 

 Cassie got superhero capes for Iris and Opal.

 And then Iris decided that she would turn hers into a fabulous gown.

Mmmmmmm. . . 

 Big, crazy, delicious Mexican feast.

Big crazy happy family.

WAFFLE CONES!

We had a wonderful, peaceful, gluttonous Christmas.  We slept until 12:30, opened presents (more on those later), ate lunch, chatted on the phone, went to see True Grit (seriously awesome movie--completely perfect--and this comes from the girl who hates westerns), and came home and ate an absurd amount of food.  It was one of those days that reminded me of just how much I love my simple, uncomplicated little life.

Oh yeah, and I GOT A WAFFLE CONE MAKER!  (Because I have the best mother-in-law this side of the Mississippi.) 

 Tonight I just made vanilla, but I'm thinking that there will be more flavors in the future: lemon to go with sorbet, chocolate, chocolate-dipped, chocolate-dipped with sprinkles, cinnamon and nutmeg. . .  Um. . .can I make a strawberry waffle cone?  I swear I'm not high.

And, bee-tee-dub, there's only one thing that's more exciting than homemade waffle cones--and that's. . .MINI WAFFLE CONES!

As you can tell, I'm goofy excited about this gift, and I can't wait to have people over for dinner to have a medly of mini cones.  New Year's, perhaps?

Merry Christmas!

We all know that the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.

But this Christmas it's been a little different for me, partly because I have a singing voice that sounds a little bit like a dying cat, and partly because, well, my Christmas has been more about other people--in a totally awesome way.

I'm not writing this to be all "look how great we are" or anything, but this Christmas--the last couple of weeks in particular--have been more dedicated to serving and helping others than they have been to taking daily trips to Target and Gap.  And even though I'm a little worn out and don't have as many new sweaters as I usually do this time of year, I can't remember a time I felt better about Christmas, about human compassion and generosity and camaraderie.*

Tomorrow will be about sleeping in, and opening a few gifts that are under the tree, and eating, and snugglin', and going to the movies. 

May your Christmas be as lovely!

XOXO

*And then every little good deed would make me feel so good that I was beginning to think that I was only doing them for that good feeling and not to help other people.  This is a dilemma that my friend Phoebe dealt with one time.

Don't Forget about the Pups!

Still have a hankerin' to bake but tired of eating cookies? 

Well, don't forget about the dogs! 

This year we made a double batch of Annie's Eats dog treats.  (I love the way that rhymes!)

Dogs love them, and you can eat them, too (though I wouldn't recommend it unless you're actually starving or something--or if you just love to eat dog food).

 Dog Treats from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats
5 1/3 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 5 pieces
1 cup boiling water
3/4 cup cornmeal
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. beef bouillon granules
1/2 cup milk
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 egg, beaten
3 cups whole wheat flour
Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the rolled oats, butter, and boiling water. Let stand for 10 minutes. Grease cookie sheets.
Add the cornmeal, sugar, beef bouillon, milk, Cheddar cheese, and egg to the bowl. Mix well. Stir in the whole wheat flour, 1 cup at a time, until a stiff dough has formed. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead, adding additional flour if necessary until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky.
Divide the dough in half. Working with one half at a time, roll the dough out with a rolling pin to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut with a cookie cutter and space evenly on prepared baking sheets. Reroll remaining dough scraps and continue cutting until all dough has been used.
Bake 35-45 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Let cool completely.

Christmas Card Model Dog

Here's the Christmas card that we ended up sending out.  There's a good chance you have it up on your mantle right now.  If you don't, I'd suggest printing the picture and putting it on the mantle.  I've been told that it brings good luck.  And that it'll make your whole house smell like bacon.  (Okay, so that first part was a lie.)  Oh, and, by the way, if we don't send you birthday or anniversary cards or anything like that, just remember that we covered it with the "happy everything" card back in December.

Anyway, I was pretty happy with the card, except that Mitch looked like some sort of ghost dog with rabies.  The funny thing about that was that during our little Christmas card photo shoot (thanks, Photographer Cassie!), Mitch was basically acting like a model dog.

Well, maybe not at first. . .

But then it was like he was an old Christmas card photo takin' pro.*

 Seriously, look at him.

Are you kidding me with this one? 

I really do think he's in a contest with himself to be the cutest dog on the planet.

*Which, clearly, Matt and I are not.**

**Also, it's true that Matt and I, in our very non-model way, dressed for completely different types of weather and/or parts of the earth.  It was like 65 degrees and raining, and I'd woken up that morning with poison ivy on my face.  Plus, I love winter garb.

My Sister, the Film Critic.

I actually shared this story a really long time ago, and if we're friends in real life I've probably told it to you on more than one occasion--because I just love it that much.

When Chloe was little--like 6 or so--I was home for Christmas and I took her to the movies to see Elf.  At Thanksgiving, Chloe had gone to see the critically acclaimed film, The Haunted Mansion.  When we were driving back from the movie, Chloe was pretty quiet, thinking pretty hard, and then she busted out with this:

"You know, Sissy, sometimes you think a movie is scary or funny, but really it's about love--or Christmas spirit."

The next year on Christmas Eve I was talking to her on the phone and asked her what she was doing.  She explained, in a really bored sort of way:

 "Well, I was out putting food out for Santa's reindeer, but then I thought I saw the Grim Reaper, so I came inside."

[source--because you can buy this Grim Reaper Christmas ornament]

Hope your Christmas week is just dandy.  I'm off to the post office to finish off the last of my Christmas tasks.  Horray!

Spelling Bees and Rainbow Cakes

Before we do anything, can we please take a moment and do a happy dance because today was my last day of school until 2011.  Shoot yeah!

Okay, so let's back it up.  My eleventh graders have their American Literature end of course test on January 5.  They return to school on January 4.  I have many things to say about this, but it wouldn't be prudent to post those things on the world wide web.  I actually like having a job.

So, anyway, we've been doing EOCT preparation stuff/review all week.  And here's something about EOCT review: it sucks.  It's dry and boring and it's tough to make it fun.  I wanted to do something fun for the students,  kind of a Christmas break send-off/good luck on your EOCT thing.  I decided that that fun thing was a spelling bee.

"What do we get if we win?" the students asked.

I responded [obviously without thinking], "A cake."

Shoot.  As if I didn't have enough to do this week, I had to go and commit myself to making a cake?  What a stupid thing to say.

And even more stupid was when I decided that,  hell, if I was going to make them a cake, I was going to make them an awesome cake.  And I'd never made the rainbow cake. 

So I made the rainbow cake.

They LOVED it.  Apparently, Savannah's eleventh graders aren't big Martha Stewart or mommy blog readers, so they didn't even know that the rainbow cake was a thing.  Hell yeah!

There were oohs and ahhhhs and screams of "That cake is awesome!"  And I'd be a damned liar if it didn't admit that it made my chest puff out a little.  (The chest puffing could also have to do with the fact that I ate four entire meals by the end of today's school day.  There was puffing all over.)

So we ate cake, and talked and laughed and spelled words.  I spent a good portion of the lesson focusing on commonly misused words, so I'd say something like "Put that paper over there.  Spell there."  And then they'd spell the correct form of the word.  Not terribly complex, I thought.  Until. . .

Me:  There are a lot of cliques at this school.  Spell cliques, you know, like exclusive groups of people.

Student:  C-L-I-T-S.

Me: Um, no.  That's something very different.  Moving on!

I guess we've got a little more studying to do.

Christmas around the House

Here's what Christmas is looking like around our house.  (a.k.a., "Get ready to see way more pictures than you want to.")

Oh, and I left some stuff out because I posted about it last year here and here.

 Homemade wreaths.  More wire hangers!

 Treat bags ready to go to school.

 Cute dogs running in circles around cute husbands wearing man slippers.

Frank Sinatra ornament that plays our wedding first dance song, "Fly Me to the Moon."

More marshmallow making.  I'm obsessed.

Not my best Christmas tree work, but I was too lazy to go to the store to get more lights

 after almost half of the strands were suddenly broken.

What's Christmas looking like in your neck of the woods?