Up early to get the coffee brewing, the breakfast casserole in the oven, the panettone {a family tradition} toasted and the raspberry puree for the bellinis in the blender.
25% of the food shopping for the next 3 days has been completed.
Absolutely 0% of the 90% of the gifts have been wrapped.
That leaves lots of stuff to do today!
Factor in a haircut for Elliott, 4pm mass and 11 guests for lasagna dinner tonight.
Jay will get the turkey in the brine and help Santa by picking up a surprise for under the tree…
Coffee is brewing.
Lots of it.
*****
Night One was a success with Ameci’s pizza and Sonoma Salad : Chardonnay and Blue Moons : A plate of Italian Wedding Cookies, macaroons, jam thumbprint cookies and saltine toffee.
And Toy Story 3.
{Elliott & Holden enjoying the movie with Grunc, their Great Uncle}
Maybe that is why the past 12 months seem to have gone by SO gosh darn fast!
Each year gets more fun with these kiddos. Introducing them to new places, foods, traditions…each year they “get it” a little more.
It’s such a treat to see them with their little friends ~ flourishing older friendships and cultivating new ones. Holden has been saying “Happy Holidays” to everyone he comes in contact with. I love that.
I want them to {LOVE} the holidays as much as I do. To love to bake goodies to deliver and cook hearty meals to share with family and friends. To shop for just the {perfect} little trinkets for our loved ones ~ it doesn’t have to be much ~ just well thought out and meaningful. To wrap it with care and sign the card with lots of love.
To GIVE.
And expect NOTHING in return, but JOY.
As I was out and about {alone!} last night in the rain, I ran around to several places picking up little things on my list. It felt like Christmas ~ cold, rainy, hustle & bustle, little white lights in trees lining the mall streets, shopping bags.
Last week I was complaining that it was too warm here in So Cal….now it’s getting to be too wet! Jay just called and said that there is lots of flooding and that it’d be best to stay in today….that’s just fine with me. I’ve got things to wrap, grocery lists to put together and more toffee to make.
We’re having lots and lots of out-of-town visitors this year. Two of them are already here from NYC and then we have my in-laws coming in from The Carolinas, my Uncle & Jill coming down from Marin County and Gramma coming up from San Diego. I am praying that with all this rain that everyone gets out OK and has safe travels.
Looking forward to {wrapping it up} in the next couple days and getting all my reindeer in a row.
I don’t know about you, but it’s always such a relief to drop off the one hundred and some Christmas cards at the post office!
This year I had a vision for our card and well, it didn’t happen. Life got in the way, but it’s OK because there is always next year…or the year after that!
For the past two years Jay has put together our photo cards in Photoshop. It’s super cheap because you just have to pay for the print price rather that the holiday photo card price {although photo cards are soooo inexpensive these days!} Basically this year we spent about $15 for 120 prints of our card at Walgreens:
{Spending Thanksgiving Day 2010 with Shamu}
I found this darling paper at Vons! I thought it was a little something out of the holiday ordinary…plus it’s 2-sided so the back is all polka dots, too! I love the chartreuse….
{Sorry, magnifying glass not included}
Wishing you a {Polka Dotty} Christmas!
*****
Thank you SO much for flopping along with me in 2010. I truly have enjoyed blogging this year and can’t wait to see what 2011 holds. I hope you’ll come along with me and find out!
All the best to you and yours this holiday season and always.
We were up bright and early today for Elliott’s holiday dance recital.
They have 3 shows throughout the day and why do we always get the early one at 9am?
This time I did things differently and didn’t stress…we used the foam rollers and I put them in her hair before she went to bed last night and I skipped the mascara because we already determined that 5-year olds and mascara don’t mix.
She did a tap number to “Up On The Housetop”. I won’t bore you with a gazillion and one pics, but here is a cute one of her on stage:
Last night at the dress rehearsal her teacher, Miss Sandra, told me “she’s a natural”. Awwwww….yes, I am a proud mama!
{Plus look at the precision here…she’s right on count with the leader girl! OK, done bragging!}
The whole show was DARLING. The 3-year olds are too much….I almost pee in my pants from laughter because they really are too precious ~ each one doin’ their own thing.
Jay and I agreed that our fave {aside of UOTH, of course} was the lyrical piece….Jay will admit that he loves to watch lyrical. When I am glued to So You Think You Can Dance, I always joke with him, “Here’s a lyrical routine.”
Is 40 too old to learn lyrical? Maybe that can be my goal for 2011.
Hmmmmm. That wouldn’t be pretty.
Maybe I should just stick to half marathons.
Getting back to our superstar…here she is receiving her trophy from Miss Erin:
As I’ve mentioned many times before, we get our tree at Home Depot every year.
A 4-5 ft. Noble Fir.
On a table.
Done.
Somewhere along the line we got a couple strands of red lights and it has become tradition, however, next year I would like to use the small multi colored ones.
I am a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas trees. I like a non-flocked tree with a collection of ornaments from over the years. I do not use garlands or icicles. Just clean and simple. We have a star that has yet to be placed on top, but will make it’s way there in the next 8 days! It requires {someone} to get a chair, clip a little off the top and put it into place….apparently we have been too busy to do that.
But I am happy with our tree this year. It is well shaped and the perfect size for our tabletop.
Here’s just a handful of our special ornaments:
{Glass pineapple from the Newport Mansions in Newport, RI}
{Mouth-blown glass garlic bulb from our days in Gilroy at the famous Garlic Festival}
{The red cup from Starbucks}
{Ornament from our honeymoon in the USVI…miraculously made it home in one piece}
{Gorgeous paper ornament handmade by women in Africa}
{Handmade gingerbread man my Mom made when I was a young girl}
{Raggedy Ann ~ another handmade by my Mom from the 70s}
After yesterday’s post I thought I’d better spring into action.
I stayed up until the wee hours making a batch of Puppy Chow for Elliott to share with her class this morning and also addressed {most} of the 120 envelopes for our Christmas cards. The printer has been acting up so I’ve had to print the letter in random quantities here and there which has not been fun…but today when I dropped 75% of the cards at the post office, I had to get out and take them inside. The drive-by mailbox was covered in yellow crime scene tape and there were two postal workers “surveying” the damage??!!?? Interesting.
I made total use of my 2.5 hours sans 3.75 year old. I am always amazed at just how much one can get done flying solo!
Bev Mo
Old Navy
World Market
Michael’s
Party City
Kohl’s
Home to get our Christmas cards that I forgot earlier
Post Office
Pavilions
I went to NINE places in 2.5 hours.
LOVE.
Old Navy is having their “Jingle Jammies” and I got the kids their annual Christmas jams for $8!
Last year I got there too late and wasn’t pleased with the selection, but this year I LOVE what I found:
{for Miss Elliott}
For some reason the pair I found for Holden aren’t on Old Navy’s website, but I had to share so I snagged an image from on-line somewhere:
Adorable, eh?
I am sad because this is the last year that Elliott will fit into the Gap/Old Navy 2-piece jammy sets.
Wah!
So get over to your ON store and get some cheap jammies for the kiddos to wear to bed on Christmas Eve! $8 is an awesome price for these and they wash well and last all year.
*****
Off to make chow and toffee for Jay to take to work and get the rest of the cards signed, sealed and delivered!
When it comes to sangria, I think less is more {not drinking less, but less ingredients!}. There are some complex recipes out there, but in my opinion the simpler ones are just as delish.
{Thanks, Hollie for supplying last night’s beverage!}
I wanted a quick and easy tapas style appetizer and came across the manchego recipe from Ty Flo {Tyler Florence}.
Soooo good!
I made paella on Valentine’s Day almost 5 years ago and Jay’s been asking me to make it ever since.
So glad I found this recipe because I will make it more often now. You can also add mussels or clams…I just used chicken breasts, pork chorizo and shrimp.
Last year when we were celebrating Jay’s 40th in Vegas, we went to Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill and had the café con leche flan for dessert. It was out of this world! Mine was obviously not as good, but not a total failure….I cooked the caramel a little too long in the beginning, but the custard part was fine. I also used a square pan rather than the standard round cake pan {because seriously, how does the flan know if it’s round or square?}
It was a little ghetto-tastic, but I look forward to perfecting my skills down the road…
And it’s not a party until someone dresses up as “Santa Tiana”…
*****
I hope you enjoyed your Spanish feast, Babe!
May all your hopes and dreams come true on your way to 42.
The other day I asked Elliott what her favorite part of Christmas was and she said, “When Santa brings me presents!”
Now, I think that’s what most 5 year olds would say, but I was hoping she’d say, “The spirit of the holidays and sharing it with family and friends.”
Maybe down the road. But I am still trying to teach them the {true} meaning of Christmas. Trying to emphasize the “it’s better to give than receive” thing.
I am thrilled that her elementary school {celebrates} the holidays. At their preschool they celebrate {Winter} and that’s it.
Elliott’s class invited the mommys and/or daddys to come in and share a holiday tradition with them. I think I was more excited than she was!
I asked her what she wanted to talk about and she said “our ornaments”. She wants to share hers from ’07…the cheerleader bear. She chose the cheerleader that year because that’s what she dressed up as for Halloween and apparently that is her favorite one to date. So we will take that in and talk about how we add a new one to the collection each year and when they grow up and are out on their own they will already have a nice, nostalgic memory box filled with goodies for their trees.
Then she added, “I also want to share puppy chow with my friends!”
This is something I make every year, too. Super easy and always a hit.
So, I’ll be busting out several batches of this stuff for Jay to share with his co-workers and Miss E to spoon out onto cute little paper plates for her classmates. I’m sure the parents will LOVE all the powdered sugar dustings on their kid’s clothing!
*****
What’s your favorite tradition during the holiday season?
