Man Flowers

Noticed Dee pick a mini-bouquet the row of zinnias he planted the raised bed I let the boys have. Was amused watching him carefully select his blooms and compose them together. Was even more amused when I went upstairs at naptime and found the little nosegay in one of the "kid cups," neatly decorating the radiator near his bed. Love that boy.

Turkey Day Mental Simmer

Just a busy Monday mish-mash of all the things in my mind today. Basically all I'm thinking about at this point is Thanksgiving Day planning, my mind is buzzing with ideas and lists and possibilities.

My hopeful little invitation ended up being way more inviting than I ever dreamed...we won't have just our little nuclear family trying pathetically to down a turkey dinner. People are turning out in droves. Counting ourselves and the boys we will have between 25-30 people, give or take. I'm totally psyched!

Last night we solidfied the menu:

Roast Turkey
Honey Baked Spiral Glazed Ham
Giblet gravy
Fruit and Cheese Plate
Garlic mashed potatoes [1/2 batch made w/ olive oil and half with butter for the vegans in attendance]
Rolls or bread
Cranberry Sauce
Sweet Potatoes
Stuffing
Wild Rice with Wild Mushrooms
Curried Squash Soup
Green Beans w/ Olive Oil, Garlic and Toasted Almonds
Roasted Cauliflower
Cold Lentil, Persimmon, Pomegranate Salad

[Dessert]
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Poached Pears
Assorted Chocolate Truffles
Flourless Chocolate Torte
Whipped Cream

I realize this looks like proof of my certifiable insanity but I swear to you, most of these items can be made ahead, A is taking several of them and teaming with me to cook, I am delegating some dishes to guests and most importantly...even if it's crazy...I really want to be doing this and I'm excited to make it happen!

Now that the menu is all set, I'm collecting my recipes, making the big grocery list, drawing up a cooking schedule for the week beforehand and musing on other happy "Thanksgivingy" things.

Witness:

• A Thankful Paper Chain which could be a really fun activity to keep dinner guests occupied while the meal is being finished.
• Pretty decoration ideas from Better Homes and Gardens.
• The ever inspiring Martha. I especially like the leaf decorated glass jars with candles in them. I am imagining using any old recyclable glass jars we have in our bin. I think the boys would like helping make these.
• These ARGH! beautiful, beautiful harvesty floral arrangments by my floral designing idol Saipua.
• A very charming vintage card cover that makes me very happy. I may print it off just to prop in my kitchen window while I bake. Do you think I could pull off a little starched cap like that?
• This beautiful junk chair frame...turned autumn scene frame. Wish a stunning Queen Anne frame like that would get tossed in my neighborhood.
• Baby dormice, who are both British and alarmingly cute and autumnal...plus, they live in a pumpkin! What's not to love.
• Acorns so achingly beautiful that I want to go out and collect bucketfuls.

Related articles

• How Much Turkey Per Person? Use This Rule of Thumb (thekitchn.com)
• A Good Appetite: A Seven-Day Plan for Thanksgiving - A Good Appetite (dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com)
• 14 Great Examples of Thanksgiving Food Art (neatorama.com)
• What Are the Best Appetizers for Thanksgiving Day? Good Questions (thekitchn.com)
• Thanksgiving Menu Ideas (blogreader44.wordpress.com)

The Photo Booth Lives On!

We had a big party over the weekend and there was an accidental benefit that I didn't expect. One of the ideas I had for this party was setting up a little makeshift photo booth. Amid the furor of trying to get the house ready and set up all the goods before the party-goers arrived, a very sweet friend knocked on the door and very impromtu, threw her soul into helping me not lose my mind and instead turn out a thoroughly successful bash. In the process my little photo booth idea went from wincingly unplausible to super fun.

My pal rocks and she realized that I needed more interesting costume finery in the booth for people to play with for their shoots. So she went home and came back with a trunkful of fabulous disguise booty. She is a really cool friend. I dare you, find a friend like that.  So then....and although I forgot to write up an instruction sheet, demonstrate how it worked or encourage people to try it out...and my poor little photo booth idea was virtually ignored during the party....it was still ultimately a big win.

Party is long over, all the decorations have been packed away and most of the cake got polished off...but that bin of photo booth paraphernalia has just begun to live! Thank you photo booth, you made my boys discover dress-up.

Hee hee! Too bad we have to return all the fabulous accessories...time to start our own collection I think. I dig this parade of characters and I don't want them to go away anytime soon! And I think the photo booth will make a return appearance at another party someday. It was an idea too good to do just once. 

Teething in the Glow of the Christmas Tree

It's a good day at our house. The kind of day when we have (finally, finally) a chance to reflect on the week and the season that have been whooshing past with all kinds of speed and just soak in good moments.

Moments like this. 

Is there anything sweeter than babies asleep in the sunshine? Poor little Nib has been extra sleepy lately because he's cutting the second of his two big rabbit teeth on the top. And also one side tooth. These will be his fourth and fifth teeth. He's positively bristling with ivory these days. I think the whole process must be hurting him a lot because, periodically, I give him a dose of painkiller and he collapses quite promptly into a deep sleep and is sacked out for an hour or so. I'm glad he's getting rest although I hate to see that he's in such pain that he needs to collapse to recover repeatedly. True to form, he's ridiculously good-natured for a teething baby. He is one of the most resilient individuals I've ever met.

The other thing that's wearing him out is his new incessant desire to stand and walk. I think we might have another early walker on our hands, just like Ru who walked at the absurd age of 7 months....right across the kitchen counter to his Aunt Jane's arms. Happy Thanksgiving he crowed and then boop, boop, boop...there he was walking. Maybe Nib will reprise the performance for Christmas or New Year's. Maybe I should alert all 8 of his aunts of the possibility and see if I can get them to compete.

The boys are all down for naps at the moment after a nice crackly fireplace reading session downstairs and then a long game of hanging and then re-hanging and then re-re-hanging candy canes all over our Christmas tree. I always forget to buy candy canes before we put the tree up, it's getting to be tradition, and then I have to run madly all over town finding some, mid-way through December. The bonus is that I almost always get a discount because they're already marking them down at our local drugstore.

I plan to get myself back down to the kitchen with all due haste, get a load of laundry humming and then mix up a batch of cookie dough for assembly-line cutting out and baking once the boys are up and buzzing their way down the stairs. We also have outdoor lights and fresh pine garland to hang before A is home and dinner is making it's steaming way to the table! Tis the season for all sorts of fabulous merriment!

Oh Christmas Tree!

The smell of gingerbread wafting up from the oven downstairs is buoying me on into sharing our little Christmas tree story. There is little more in life to make you feel completely festive than warm gingerbread. I really didn't like it as a kid, but I sure do love it now.

Anyhow, on to the tree tale:

First we went a-looking. We like to go to a family owned stand of evergreens where we are handed a band saw and sent off with our custom fashioned tree cart to search among the spruces until we find just the perfect tree. We have been here three years running for our tree. It hits just the perfect notes for me, family owned, modest in size and selection and cut-your-own in the grass rootsiest manner possible.

The family members at least three generations of owners are all out chatting together, tying up bows and wreaths cozily in a little lean-to that houses a super charming miniature wood stove for warming the hands of the babies and the propped up boots of the grandpas. The stove crackles and some member or other leaps up to hand out a saw or net bag the tree of choice.

They all wear black and red plaid flannel and every year I wonder if it is their family tartan and don't have the bravery to ask any of them out loud. I have to admit that its a very cheery uniform, apple red and black checks were peeking out from Carharts, layered under jackets and even snugly buttoned around the baby in attendence.

So, we picked the perfect tree. (Sorry, I got all carried away about the flannel there.) We have a blue spruce this year instead of the white spruce we've had for the past two years. And Ru pulled the tree cart up to the lean-to again, a feat I was mightily impressed by in a three year old, but still found quite astounding for a little four year old tyke.

We tied the tree on top of the car,  (Such a cold job this year with a biting wind whipping us and flipping the twine all over the place) and then we sailed off home.

We waited one night because there were way too many things on our To Do List still when we pulled in the driveway with the tree...and then we opened the Rubbermaid tubs where I store all the holiday paraphernalia. The boys were big enough to be quite aware and helpful in the decoration process. Ru helped A twirl lights around the tree, we added our garland of tinsel (just one, gold) and then looped on the Mardi Gras beads that we use for extra  kid-friendly glitz.

Meanwhile, Dee discovered the strands of extra lights and disappeared to the hall outlet to experiment with plugging in and unplugging. He was completely fascinated with the whole business. Hang, the rest of the decorations...this electricity stuff was waaaaay cooler. I don't believe we really saw him again all night.

Then, we pulled the ornaments out and I separated them into Daddy ornaments (the breakables) and kid ornaments (the plastic, wooden and paper variety) and we hung the tree with all manner of lovely orbs and gizmos.

At this point A had to whisk the boys upstairs for bed and he volunteered to even take Nib so that I found myself alone in the living room with the soft glow of Christmas lights, a few precious ornaments from my grandparents collection and a small bagful of icicles. I love icicles. The plastic silvery strands that you hang from the tips of the outermost branches. I always wished we could have them as a child and am no end of thrilled every Christmas at the sparkling creature my tree becomes when all those glittering bits all over it. I think sparkle is key to holiday decor.

It was lovely to have a few private moments to hang the special ornaments and the sprinkle glitter everywhere. When A came back down with a lip-smacking Nib on his arm in a half an hour I was all aglow with my moment of Silent Night and felt like the halls had been decked in the very best way.

Merry Christmas all!

Leaf Garland Construction

So, I mentioned the other day that I was hoping to find wax in order to make a leaf garland with The Littles. Well, I finally located candle wax in the craft store and used that. Maybe nobody uses paraffin for canning anymore (I guess, I don't at all, come to think of it.) or maybe I am looking too late in the year, in any case I never did find any. Candle wax, however did work just fine.

My idea was that I wanted to sort of combine two ideas I'd seen and make them one project. My boys are forever collecting outdoor treasures which is why we have a Nature Shelf on the bottom level of one of my china corner cupboards. I wanted to take those leaves which come in with them in quantity and decorate more than just one shelf with them...somehow make the color stay and incorporate something to remind us of Thanksgiving.

Martha Stewart (who else? Brilliant, brilliant Martha) had great instructions for preserving fall leaves...and showed them hung in a window. And then here's a good example from another blogger of the thankfulness idea I ran into.So, that's what we did...we mixed the two. First we picked up leaves...then we melted our wax (in a cleaned out yogurt tub, using the microwave).

While the wax was melting we wrote (meaning I wrote) down all kinds of things we were thankful, one thing per leaf with Sharpie...right on the leaf itself.

After the wax was melted and the leaves were "inscribed" we held onto the stems and dipped them in until each leaf was fully immersed. Then the wet leaves were laid out on parchment paper to dry and harden.

Once they were hardened I took a needle and a very long thread and stitched my way through the stem end of each leaf, garlanding them all up into one long chain. We were more ambitious than we should have been and found that by the time we'd done 2/3rds of the leaves we were all too squirrely to continue any further so the chain wasn't quite as long as I thought it would be. That's okay. We like short garlands too.

The silky feeling of the finished, wax-coated leaves is a wonderful sensation between the fingers and the effect of the light shining through all your leaves-cum-post-it-notes is awfully pretty. We had a fun, giggly time together and now we have a window decoration that we made with our own six hands.