Day 13. Festive Attire Expected

What is your Holiday go to outfit?  What makes you feel festive and look good?  Is it a Christmas sweater (ugly, ironic, or otherwise?), a special Christmas tie? A little black (or green) dress with a festive scarf? A pair of shiny vinyl pants?  What is your signature holiday look?

Can't find a pic of the green pants, but this is festive as #&$@!

For many years, maybe too many, Kat had a pair of green stretch velvet pants.  We purchased them in 1993 at the Avenue or someplace like that in the Shawnee mall.  They were hanging on the clearance rack and I think we paid $5 for them. Best $5 purchase EVER.  They were versatile, Kat wore them with a sweaters and boots, tunic tops and flats, tank tops and sheer shirts and heels.  A variety of really great looks for $5.

Some years the pants fit more like leggings, and other years more like harem pants.  The thing about was not only did they look good on Kat, they made her feel good about how she looked.  She wore them to our Christmas party, to work parties, to church, to her bingo group, and even to work.  It was a sad sad day when she had to formally retire those pants, but they literally fell apart in the wash.  Not much you can do with that.

So, what is your go to piece?  What makes you feel and look good and holiday ready?  If you live in the OKC area I hope you are planning on wearing It when you come to the party next weekend!  

Day 6. Let it Go! Let it Go! Let it GO HO HO HO!

Christmas is the season for doing too much.  90% of the time I am ok with that.  Kat and I are certainly guilty of that.  In 1997 a pregnant Kathleen and I purchased our tree, brought it home and hung lights on it on a Monday night from midnight to 2am when we both had to work the next morning.  Why? Because Kat’s Tuesday night bingo group was coming to house after work.  Too Much?  A few years ago after we were living in Colorado and we decided to have our Christmas party back in Oklahoma not only did I decorate our home in Colorado, but I transported boxes, bins, and bags of decorations to decorate the hall where we were having our party.  I also transported a silver punch bowl.  When Kat expressed concern that not everything would fit, I volunteered to only take 2 pair shoes if that would help. TOO MUCH!

I have said before I am something of a mad genius at engineering these ‘perfect Christmas memories’.  They key is obsessive planning and the set up.  If you do that correctly, then when the actual moment arrives something will happen, and you just have to be there for it.  If you are lucky it is magical.  Or it is a disaster, in which case you have a hilarious holiday memory instead.  See? Mad Genius.

Tomorrow is our annual children’s ornament party.  I thought a great deal about it this year.  My boys are on the upper end of childhood, what if they and their friends are all eye rolling teenagers making jokes at my expense this year?  I am not sure I could handle that.  Lucky for me, when I asked Paul’s BFFL (Best Friend For Life) Katie about it she said we should definitely have it, because of course Hilda and Kyle are still kids and it’s usually fun even for the older kids.  Reason #1.  Now that we are back in Oklahoma I could invite my Niece Elisa Gail to come and bring her children Ella and Aiden. Reason #2 (Although her drill schedule interfered with this year).  Another benefit of being back in Oklahoma is my nephew Baby Scott (who just turned 25) could come with his wife and baby Seamus. Reason #3. 

How adorable and sweet and perfect would that be?  Scott came to the first ornament party and his child will be coming to this one.  I love that so much!

What does this have to do with letting go?  The plan for this year is gingerbread houses, and yes we are cheating and doing the graham cracker houses for the kids.  I also wanted to do 2 bigger houses and let the kids work together to decorate those.  I asked Kat if she could make the gingerbread houses for me.  And of course she agreed, because she is Kat and amazing.  So I borrowed a gingerbread house cutter kit and got the recipe for Kat.  Her plan has been to do it this week.  And then suddenly it was Friday.  Right after dinner Friday we went to the store for eggs so Kat could come home and make the gingerbread house pieces.  But then suddenly it was 10 pm and still no houses. So Kat made a plan to get up early today and make the gingerbread houses and the 9 batches of fudge she has orders for.

But of course things don’t go as planned, and the gingerbread houses didn’t get baked. Fudge yes, but houses no.  We had an event tonight and Kat said after the event she would make the gingerbread houses.  So when we stopped at the store for Diet Coke I purchased the pre-made kits.  Is it the same as homemade gingerbread houses? Of course not.  Will it smell as delightful and Christmassy? No probably not.  With either of those things interfere in any way with the fun that the children will have tomorrow or their memories of it? Absolutely not.  So that was me letting it go ho ho ho.

2013's Gingerbread House

Do me a favor? Bite the head off a gingerbread man for me!

Day 5. All I Want for Christmas is...

How do you tell your mother in law that you and her daughter broke the bed in their guest room?  What is a good way to explain that?  How do you even start?

Of all of the embarrassing experiences I have had, I never thought that I would find myself having to admit to breaking a bed at my in-laws house in the middle of the night.  No matter how I try to explain it, it just comes out bad.  Stop smirking.

Since moving back to Oklahoma we have been living with my in-laws while we got jobs and found a new place to live.  Kathleen and I have been sleeping in the guest room on a futon couch that converts to a bed.  The futon is old, Kat’s parents had it in CA before they moved out here in 2003.  I am guessing it is at least 15 years old.  Does this sound like I am trying to justify the damage?

Not Our Bed, Just a Dramatic Image for Emphasis

There is a long version of this story that involves slight damage noticed a week ago, but the short and sweet version is that the bed is broken and Tuesday night at midnight I found myself rolling out of a broken bed no matter how I tried to adjust myself.  When faced between sleeping on a bed that was surely going to roll me out onto the floor and sleeping on the floor, Kat and I chose the floor.  Except that the guest room is kind of small, and in order to put the mattress on the floor we needed to move the frame.  So at midnight I was waking up Matthew and getting him to come upstairs to help me move this bed frame downstairs.  I tried to explain that the frame was old, and that it seemed a screw or two was missing, but he just rolled his eyes and said, “don’t tell me, I don’t need to know.” Stop smirking, I say!

We tried to be quiet about the whole thing, but eventually we woke up my mother in law who stuck her head out of her bedroom to see what was going on. When the explanation starts with “We weren’t doing anything …” well it just sounds suspicious.

I promise we weren’t trying to sneak the broken frame downstairs; I just wanted to avoid waking up my in-laws.  I swear.

My VERY good friend Scott is coming by Saturday to help me move my bed from storage into our room.  It is like a Christmas Miracle come early!

Day 4. Christmas Letters

I really enjoy getting Christmas letters.  I know it is sort of a dying tradition since it is so easy to stay in touch in the virtual world.  I just have an appreciation for the fact that someone took the time to write out a letter about their year, where they are, what the highlights were and what they are going through.

I doubt that it serves as a better way of keeping in touch than a quick email or facebook post, but I like it nonetheless.  So far this year I have received 2; one from someone I have known since HS and the other from someone I have known since college.  It is a great way to keep in touch.

Kat and I used to send out our own version before we had kids.  One year someone confided that they only ever read the first page of those holiday news letter.  Armed with that information I liked to save up the really juicy stuff for the second page, or at least bury it near the end of the letter as a test to see if anyone was still paying attention. I ran over an elf today on the way home from work.  That way my really dedicated friends were rewarded for their diligence.

I have thought about a news letter for this year, it certainly has been a big year full of big news.  I just haven’t fully committed to doing it yet. I had a heart attack in January.  With all the big news it’s almost impossible to decide where to start. We moved back to Oklahoma.  Not to mention the pressure to be funny and clever and sound positive in the newsletter. The cardiologist asked if Kathleen was my mother.  Plus you have to decide whether to include pictures or not, and then the important question of what size print font do you want?  I will say that the letters I received this year are very optimistic about how good my eyesight is. 

So if you haven’t written a holiday letter to send to me, there is still time!  I look forward to hearing from you!

Lick a stamp for me!

Day 2. Christmas Cookies

I love cookies.  I know I blogged tongue in cheek about my top 12 cookies, but those were store bought cookies.  I love homemade cookies. Specifically the ones Kathleen makes.  Make no mistake, I am no slouch in the cookie department, I get requests for my cookie press Scottie cookies every year.  My Paul makes his version of Kat’s cup of everything cookies and calls them crazy cookies.  They are delicious.  Last year he made 6 dozen for our Christmas party and his high school friends ate every last one. This year, Kat perfected a browned butter snicker doodle that will make people who don’t love snicker doodles love them.  Matthew’s favorite are thumbprint cookies, I think because he likes the freedom to vary what you fill the thumbprint with; jellies, jams, nutella, Hershey’s kisses. . .

In 2000, when Paul was 2 Kathleen made cookies all the time for him.  I have vivid memories of a toddler Paul walking around our tiny house in Warr Acres with a cookie clutched in one hand and a sippy cup of milk in the other hand.  Kathleen used to call him the cookie monster.  :-)

Did you know that the perfect ratio of ‘pretty’ or ‘holiday’ cookies to ‘taste good’ cookies is 1 to 3?  Tollhouse test kitchen’s figured it out.  That means for every batch of my Scottie dog cookie press cookies, you need to serve a batch of chocolate chip cookies, a batch of orange creamcicle cookies, and a batch of oatmeal  cookies with dried cranberry and white chocolate chips.  You know that had to have been a fun job figuring that out. 

One of the best inventions in the known universe is the Christmas Cookie exchange.  As I understand it people get together and bring cookies to share so that everyone goes home with an assortment of delicious cookies to share with friends and family.  I guess the ‘delicious’ part depends on if your friends are good cooks or not.  Hey, I am aware that not everyone is as good as Kathleen.  I had a sugar free, gluten free cookie once. I felt sad for that cookie, because clearly no one was ever going to love it.

When we are in Oklahoma we do a version of a cookie exchange with our friend and children’s minister Kristen Rogers.  One day in December we gather at her house and bake endless batches of cookies together with friends.  It is a fun time to try new recipes, and everyone goes home with a TON of cookies.  I am already looking forward to this year’s cookie day.  Kathleen and Kristen are going to perfect a molded walnut cookie.  I’ll let you know how it tastes.

Keep all of this in mind when I tell you the other day that Kat got a message on her phone saying she was invited to a ‘cookie jam’.  I was so excited, I was certain it was some type of cookie exchange and that soon she would be bringing home delicious home baked cookies for me to sample and enjoy.  As it turns out ‘cookie jam’ is a GAME. No actual cookies are involved. Not. Even. One.  Who does that?  People who make and eat sugar free and gluten free cookies do things like this.

Eat a cookie for me!