Advent and Christmas

One of my resolutions this year was to write--and, in particular, post on this blog--more.  Here it is January 22 and I'm only now getting Advent and Christmas pictures.  Even though it's late, I thought you might enjoy seeing them and, in any case, I like to record at least a tiny bit of our life here and there to remember what we did.

The kids were really excited this year about giving gifts to each other and to us.  They'd had this set of unpainted wooden vehicles for awhile and Margaret and Joseph painted them one afternoon for William's gift.  He loved them, of course.

I LOVE it when Joseph reads to his siblings.  He offers fairly regularly and he is a good reader but, for some reason, William has only recently allowed Joseph to read him stories.  But they all got more into it this Advent when we had a lot more books around.

One new thing we did this year was an Advent calendar, of sorts, with books.  We own about 15 Christmas books and I used our library to get enough for all the rest of the days of Advent and then wrapped them all in pink and purple paper and we opened one each day.  Honestly, I probably won't do this again.  The kids sort of liked it but I think it led to an overall feeling of their having been too many presents by the time Christmas was all over.  But we do love our Christmas books and I think I will continue to keep them tucked away in the attic until the start of Advent each year so they are extra-special.

A completely non-exhaustive glimpse at a few favorites that were already unwrapped by the time I took these pictures:  We love all of Tomie DePaola's books and the one below is one of his many lovely Christmas books.

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey was the easiest to convince Joseph to read aloud to the others.  It's a really sweet story and I think Joseph could really identify with the character of the inquisitive, precocious, talkative, seven-year-old boy.

This book was found at a used book sale over the summer and was new to us.  We like both Rumer Godden and Barbara Cooney and the book did not disappoint.  It's a LONG book for a read aloud but Margaret and I read it many, many times during the Advent and Christmas season.  We bought a copy of the book for our good friend, Holly, a fellow Barbara Cooney-lover and laughed hard when Margaret opened her gift from Holly and found the same book.  

Grandma Marga supplied a traditional Advent calendar with windows to open for each day.  I loved these when I was a kid and this was a big hit with all the kids.  We also, fortunately, have another Advent calendar (not pictured) which allowed us to let one kid do one calendar each day.  I may have to start planning for a fourth calendar for next year.

I'm not the most crafty person out there, but I do love making paper snowflakes.  The kids enjoy it as well but they aren't quite up for the harder work of cutting six-pointed flakes.

We were so happy to receive as many Christmas cards as we did this year.  Between our frequent moves and a general decline in Christmas card sending I was worried we wouldn't get any.  I am determined next year to be on top of this myself.  If you didn't get a card from us this year and you'd like to be on our list, feel free to send me your address.

Did anyone else decorate with Trader Joe's shopping bags this year?  The kids were so excited about the paper chain links and gift tags printed on the bags this year.  We cut out lots and lots of them and had more gift tags than we could possibly use.  I strung them into some garland and hung it (artistically?) on a blank wall.  It's still up, to tell you the truth.  I don't have anything else to put on that blank wall but I suppose that a garland of gift tags is beginning to look a bit odd . . .

We bring out our Nativity set progressively through Advent.  Joseph arrives first.  Then the cradle which he's "found".  They he goes to get Mary so she appears the third Sunday of Advent.  The fourth Sunday of Advent we bring out the shepherds and sheep.  Jesus is placed in the crib after Mass on Christmas Eve and the Three Kings begin their journey at the same time.  The kings move through the house each day until finally arriving at the cradle on Epiphany.

Eric and the kids brought home our biggest tree yet this year.  Our old tree stand had breathed it's last after Christmas last year so we were glad to find that we'd inherited one with the house.

This picture is a poor attempt at capturing the look of total awe on William's face with the whole bundle of lights in his hands lit up as I plugged them in.  He's a fan of Christmas.

I love this picture:  a cutie little imp, living it up as chaos swirls around him.  Margaret and Joseph pooled their money to get Gregory that little toy which we call the "Smasher Ball."  I have no idea what it's official name is but it's a Melissa and Doug toy and it is, far and away, the biggest success I've ever witnessed in the Gifts for One-Year-Olds department.  Gregory just loves this toy and still plays with it every day.

The kids got a box of dress-up hats one morning.  We stretch out gift-opening for the entire Twelve Days of Christmas though most of the days the gift is just one small thing or even one thing to share.  The lion hat is the most popular.

Another morning the kids opened a big "art box" filled mostly with things I would have gladly bought them any time of the year but I have no problem giving them those types of gifts for Christmas.  Joseph is an extremely prolific artist and has gone through about 1000 sheets of paper in the last six months.  There's some waste but mostly he just really likes to draw and work at drawing.  I ordered the kids several reams of different kinds of paper from Dick Blick and also got two over-sized clip boards so that Joseph can more easily draw when he's sitting on the floor or in the car.  A big box of paper inspired quite awhile of this sort of thing:

All, in all, we had a lovely Advent and Christmas this past year.

Thanksgiving with the Tuthills

This past summer we were forced to make our annual pilgrimage to the Midwest at an inopportune time in order to attend the memorial service for Eric's grandfather.  It was a beautiful time and a lovely trip but, since Eric's semester wasn't quite over, we had to return again quickly and we had very little time to visit with Eric's family.  They decided to put aside their distaste for Thanksgiving travel and join us on the East Coast this year to make up for some lost visiting time.  We were thrilled to host Marga and Larry and even more thrilled that Ben flew all the way from school in LA to join the fun.  

I was all in a flurry preparing for their six-day visit and, at one point, Eric said, "So, basically, you want to renovate the whole house before Thanksgiving?"  To which I replied, "Yes."  I didn't, of course, but those of you with a good eye will see hints of several of the projects that have kept us busy this fall and which will get their own treatment before too long.

I love hosting people and putting together menus and while I certainly don't claim to have any particular expertise in that area, it's something I'm actively working on.  My "decoration" budget is pretty much non-existent but I was pleased with the results of working with stuff I mostly had on hand.  I sprang for a pot of mums for our sideboard and ransacked the attic for every small mason jar I could find.  

Pumpkin, Apple and Pecan.  

                                       

Of course I forgot to take any pictures of the table set for dinner because we were all starving but imagine a darkened room and all those jars behind the pies lit with candles.  And then a whole bunch more jars with candles on the table.  And food crammed into every square inch.  It was sort of amazing to see that candlelight can really overcome a multitude of shortcomings in the Fine China and Table Linens department. The food was delicious, the company was even better, and we enjoyed nice time with all three Tuthills through the weekend.

The shells make me crazy so these are a real treat around here.

Margaret can peel potatoes!  And squash!

A belated birthday present.

This is what my in-laws do when they are here:  wash dishes.  They can visit anytime.  It was like being on vacation.

Cranberry-red wine-cinnamon.  Note to self:  make a triple batch next year.

Remember Margaret's chicken apron birthday present?  Marga had a matched set made for  us.  I love them except that they make us both look fat.

                             

I had a sinus infection over Thanksgiving which is why I look like death in these pictures.  Someone must have snagged the camera and caught me trying to relax with some knitting while the turkey roasted.

This is NOT our Thanksgiving table but, rather, our Leftover Tea that the three "girls" had on Friday .  We bought that china at an estate sale when we were engaged but we seldom use it because we only have four place settings.

Ben, in the Familial Garb.  Ten points to anyone not related to Eric who can tell me what the real family name is.

Sunday in the park, with garden

Sunday afternoons are so lovely. It's especially wonderful when we get up and out early enough to get to Mass at 8:30 so that we're home early with the whole day ahead of us. But what to do with that whole day? Typically we either take the train into Manhattan and wander around or go for a drive. Margaret was strongly lobbying for the latter this past Sunday. Eric pulled up a map and made us a list of parks we'd never been to while I put together a picnic dinner.

Making dinner has been a blast lately. Our garden is doing really well. All the lettuce sprouted but between our late start (we could have planted in mid-March) and slugs it was awhile before we got our first harvest. The slugs had us stumped for awhile: they'd emerge each evening just after dark and munch our young leaves down to nothing. After a bit of research we decided that hand-harvesting was the best bet. We--and by "we" I mean Eric unless the kids are up late--keep a slug stick stuck in one corner of our planter box. Each evening we head out, use the stick to pull off any slugs we find and drop them in a cup of salt water. I love animals but I love lettuce more.

Once we got on top of the slugs the lettuce went crazy. We've made lots and lots of salads and we just pulled out some bolted plants and started a second planting. We'll see how that goes. One of the lettuce varieties didn't do as well so we put some parsley in that space.

And we added a mint plant to one end although we hear that mint spreads so we might move that to a dedicated planter.

We also have cilantro and basil on the roof of our shed.

Between our garden and our weekly produce deliveries we've been eating well: lots of salad, lots of pesto, a yummy caprese salad for our picnic last night. We are definitely planting a much bigger garden next year. I never would have thought that container gardening would work so well.

But back to our Sunday. We opted to explore Palisades Park which is on the Hudson River, straddling the George Washington Bridge on the New Jersey side. It's a long, skinny park and it is very pretty but it is largely hiking/biking with some small marinas along the water. We were hoping for more of a "picnic spot with picturesque view." The first place we stopped seemed to promise this but after a few minutes we noticed that the water on the path was rapidly encroaching on our bench. Who knew the Hudson River was tidal?

We found a nice little picnic area and enjoyed our dinner. We are still loving Joseph's FreeWheel. It's great to see him getting around on sloped, bumpy, thorn-riddled terrain.

And here's a couple shots of my new haircut, courtesy of me. I've tried a couple hair salons since leaving Minnesota and the results was always a bad hair cut and less money in my wallet. So I did a little googling, got out my scissors and had at it.

I needed to do a couple of rounds over a day or two to get close to what I was going for but I'm pretty happy with the result. And it was free! Can't complain about spending zero dollars on a decent haircut. Eric has proclaimed it the best haircut I've ever had.

Back from the Midwest

Our mostly-annual Midwest road trip came early this summer. Eric's grandfather died on Palm Sunday and the memorial service was held at the end of May in Madison, WI. We left the minute Eric's semester ended (I picked him up at the curb outside his office with a loaded car) and spent ten days away arriving back home very late the night before an all-day meeting Eric had to attend. The timing definitely meant that we spent far less time in St. Paul that we would have liked but given how much we have going on this summer, a shorter trip was probably in order anyway and this forced us to do it.

Eric mostly grew up in Madison so he is always happy for a reason to spend some time there. The memorial service was lovely. Grandpa was very popular and had many old friends in Madison. He was also a veteran of World War II and the military "presentation of colors" at the end was very moving.

I think the highlight of the whole trip might have been the family reunion that evening. Eric's Great-Uncle Ted hosted the entire extended family at his house for the evening. The Iltae are a very musical bunch and Ted's two sons brought out their instruments and entertained us all with song after song after song. I was amazed at the memory these guys had. There was lots of jamming, too. Joseph and Margaret both wanted in on the action with the mandolin:

Joseph actually had pretty good technique thanks to his violin lessons.

We spent some time tooling around Madison. The kids were excited to see houses where Eric had lived and schools he had gone to. We drove back to St. Paul with Eric's brother Ben Sunday afternoon. We made our traditional pit stop at the Norskie Nook and ate way too much pie. I thought this view of Ben was really fun:

He and William, discussing alternate views on fashion:

All in all, it was a lovely, if short, trip. I hope we can make up for it a bit next summer. We have several very good friends in St. Paul and it is hard to see them only once each year.

Any green thumbs in the family?

Anyone who has talked with Joseph has probably heard about his farming dreams. It's not a constant thing with him but, once or twice a year, he gets on a long kick about how he wants to move to a farm--either right now or when he grows up--or farm in our back "yard". Joseph, of course, would also be the first to tell you that, "Just in general, I really can't wheel on grass." Which isn't exactly true but it's definitely not the best surface for him.

Anyway. We have long wanted to do some container gardening so that Joseph can get at what we're growing but we've moved every summer since Joseph was old enough to help plant a seed so we've never taken the plunge. With all we have going on right now, large-scale container gardening isn't a big priority but Eric really, really wanted to try out some lettuce this year. We both have mouth-watering memories from the summer Eric house sat for an older couple who told him to please harvest and eat anything that was ready in the garden while they were gone. Almost every night we went out and picked ourselves an amazing salad.

I can't claim much credit for this project. Eric did all the research and found that lettuce does pretty well in a pretty simple container. My basic contribution was to pick up the lumber during my weekly Home Depot run (during which I discovered that a 10-foot 2x6 board is the largest thing I can safely move to a lumber cart while wearing a baby). Then, during classic "let's do a project" mode at our house, Eric was working from home and pointed out that since the two little boys were asleep I could go out and set up the planter boxes. I was more than happy to do that all on my own but, of course, both boys woke up early and Eric ended up coming out and doing most of the work himself after all.

The kids were jumping out of their skin with excitement. Joseph and Margaret alphabetized the seed packets and placed the seeds carefully.

But William wasn't too pleased when he found out that we hadn't just built him a huge sand box to dig in all the time (I also can't claim any credit at all for this magnificent outfit of his):

Fortunately, there was plenty of watering to do so all three kids got to help with that.

Joseph has checked several times this afternoon and reports that we don't have any plants sprouting quite yet. We're actually a little late to the game with lettuce planting for New Jersey but we're supposed to have lots of cool, rainy weather for the next couple weeks so we're hoping that something will grow. If we have success we may look at what we can plant later in the season or expand things a bit next year.

And Joseph has now decided he wants to be a botanist when he grows up and is requesting that our next home schooling unit with the Rice boys be all about plants (click on that link for some more pics of my kiddos and a peek at what we did this week).

And please excuse our rather sorry-looking patio. We have a construction site next door and they put up a chain link fence inside our property line which we'll have to investigate at some point. And, just generally, the patio was left in a sort of chaotic state. But, living in the city, any outdoor space at all is a bonus so we're happy to have it.