the house was in the 60s this morning so i figured now was as good a time as any to turn the fireplace on. and the beautiful thing about gas is that you can have just a little flame so you don’t go out of your mind. it had quite the mesmerizing/calming effect on the boys and perhaps i’ll crank the thermostat down more often.
i realized the other day that i forgot to add christmas eve and christmas day to our advent garland. next year. this morning was our last activity – breakfast, pjs, and books in front of the fire. i think the boys thought this was christmas. it’s kind of a fun stage. they get all excited about the tree and the fire and christmas carols but have no idea what those pretty wrapped boxes are under the tree. no idea that they are gifts. no expectations.
they do know, though, that we seem to have lots of extra goodies around and they get to drink more hot cocoa than at any other time of the year. now add to that all the christmas goodies my folks sent us. goodies like lebkuchen and panetonne and ritter sport bars that bring up some of the strongest childhood christmas memories for me.
i can make a good list. and a few years ago i started making lists of the books i wanted to read over the coming year. i don’t always follow the list but it gives me some guidance when i’m standing in the stacks at the library wondering what in the world i should open next.
here is the list so far. the fiction part of the list is always a bit short because that is the one area i end up doing a fairly good job of picking at random over the course of the year.
i have read a couple of these before and there are several on the list that i started over the past year and then for some reason set aside. here’s hoping i can check them off this year.
i made royal icing for the first time the other day (making sure to add a bit of almond extract because remember, everything tastes better with almond extract). i think i have found a new love. give me a stack of cookies, a bag full of icing, and some fancy sanding sugars and i’m pretty content. and that icing is so easy and rock hard when it dries that i might even be up for gingerbread houses.
elisha has been quite into our cookie decorating sessions. asher just dumps sprinkles on one cookie and then announces he’s off to play football.
four days until christmas and no plans for the rest of the week except christmas eve service and christmas day in miami. the weather has finally cooled down enough that the idea of baking bread doesn’t make me want to jump in the freezer, and soups and risottos seem like the perfect pre-christmas foods…but only if this weather keeps up.
and for those tempted to pronounce it like “LEE-nah” give “LEH-nah” a try. she’ll thank you for it.
the meaning of a name isn’t a make it or break it thing for me, and i’ve always been skeptical of baby books’ descriptions of the meanings and origins of names (check out five different books and sometimes you’ll find five different meanings/origins). but in my quest to assure omar that this was indeed a sweet name for her i found several places that trace the name back to both latin and old german roots (not sure how those go together but i’m running with it) that mean “lion’s strength,” though i like to think of it in terms of a lioness. something about that makes me smile.
then wouldn’t you know that i stumbled upon jhill’s new animal alphabet prints and guess what animal she uses for the letter L?
we received a christmas card today from someone that included lenna’s name with the rest of ours. love it.
:: omar making gingerbread cookie dough. me eating gingerbread cookie dough.
:: asher toting around our nativity mary everywhere – bed, breakfast, in the toy bulldozer.
:: elisha being a bit scandalized by the fact that the nativity baby jesus’ bottom is bare.
:: christmas dinner parties with candles and sparkly decorations and sparkly drinks.
:: rainy and cooler weather with winds i can hear blowing past the windows.
christmas scrooge
:: crowds upon crowds of people apparently looking for things to make other people happy but who themselves don’t seem too happy it’s christmas.
:: not being able to find a single good christmas pandora station. not. one.
:: realizing that this time next month we won’t be singing christmas carols.
i love this recipe. omar loves it. the boys love it. and unlike many cranberry relishes it is void of any jell-o products, so if you just blur your eyes over the amount of sugar it almost seems like it is good for you. like you are doing a disservice to yourself if you aren’t eating it.
apple cranberry sauce
1 bag of fresh cranberries
1 granny smith apple, peeled and diced
3/4 c sugar (i’m still trying to figure out how little i can get away with putting in it)
1.5 tsp fresh grated ginger
juice of one orange (about 1/4 c)
zest of one orange
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. lower heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, or until about half the cranberries have popped. remove from heat and cool.
i think i almost wrote “july” on the rent check. 85 degrees. really? i might just take a tip from ellie, who is also experiencing a tropical christmas (unfortunately without the aid of central air), and remove all the holiday songs from our playlists that include anything to do with fires, snow, or roasted chestnuts…that last one mainly because i find them unpalatable. oh well. bring on the crocheted snowflakes, turn the air down, and simmer some cider. but don’t stand too close to the stove because the gas flame will then cancel out any a/c breeze and lead you to give up on the cider and down a bit too much coquito.
:: we went on a walk the other night and got to check out the neighbors’ use of twinkling lights and pretty wreaths along with unfortunate decisions like blow-up nativity sets and electric “santa hat”-wearing dolphins that are all sparkly.
:: on this walk i looked into a house and noticed that there was a full-on pipe organ in their living room. i think i counted at least 100 pipes. how cool. i think we need to become friends with them.
:: please ignore the candy cane cookie recipe in my finds section. they were a bust. a pink and white nightmare bust. a flavorless bust.
:: for multiple reasons i suggest finding a puerto rican to marry but one of the main reasons is a whole new world of food and drink is exposed to you. and at christmas time that means coquito. think of it as a tropical eggnog with a coconut kick. omar’s endeared several people to him thanks to his aunt’s recipe (thanks, sandra!), and this year he was hoping to extra-endear the church staff to him during our christmas party until he found out he might be the only one partaking (except for my few sips, ahem). but then wouldn’t you know that this past sunday the church musician who drives up from miami (leave it to the miamian) asks omar if he’s ever had coquito. i think omar almost kissed him and a couple of hours later guess who was in the kitchen whipping up a batch?
and frankly, i’m quite proud of elisha’s ability to practice what he’s preaching by not freaking out on his brother. for those of you needing a bit of translation, the verse is proverbs 29:11 (a fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control) and my starbucks order is “tall wet cappuccino with whole milk.” i didn’t actually realize my boys knew how predictable my coffee tastes were until last night when elisha, in an attempt to stall bedtime, started sharing random bits of information with me, including my starbucks order.
on to advent. kathy inspired me to do a daily advent activity with the boys this year. and then i saw her advent garland and thought that this was an excellent excuse to go out and buy the adorable miniature clothespins like i had seen at a restaurant in new york (recipe uses them in their menu presentation). the garland is now up and i plan on writing activities on the back of each circle. friends and blogs have given me lists of ideas to do each day (crafty ideas, family ideas, serving ideas) but i decided to have a loose list to work from and then each night write what we’d do the next day to allow for unexpected schedule changes/current exhaustion levels.
so far the activities have included getting the tree, watching a charlie brown christmas, “making” felt christmas ornaments (i don’t actually think these self-adhesive ornaments i got at michael’s should qualify as a craft, but they are perfect for a 2 and 3 year old), and tonight, decorating the tree. if i had it my way (and the budget to do it) every other day would consist of activities like “buy zinnia colored diapers!” “buy a dress and leggings here!” and on and on.
in elisha’s belly: celebratory burgers and fries!!
and what does a mama of two boys do after she makes her ultrasound tech quadruple check the girl status? go out and buy a couple of cuteclothes. purple and pink clothes.
we’re too excited over here. baby girl is still without a name. a strange thing for us considering we knew the boys’ names for sure once we found out their sex. but we’re down to two so perhaps there will be a coin toss in the next day or so.
elisha thinks the pictures of the baby are pretty cool. asher just points at them and reminds you that we’re not supposed to touch a baby’s face or hands – just toes and tummies.
:: older, wiser women. we had several people over for thanksgiving, including a couple of women in their 90s. one lady, aged 97, (who was married for 70! years!) even left me a silver serving piece, saying with a laugh, “please take it! i can’t live much longer!”
1. buy socks. i go on and on about how i wished i lived where there were seasons and chilly temps, but the fact is, i hate socks and closed-toe shoes. most of the socks i unearthed in my closet had a distinct late high school/early college look to them so i opted to go out and buy some. i’m not sure you could have a more un-thrilling purchase.
2. find a vacation book to bring. i was looking for something in the fiction department but ended up with malcolm gladwell’s blink. fairly breezy social psychology is good, too.
3. pack the boys off to abuela’s for the week. check. but not before i gave them some killer hair cuts. killer mainly in the sense that i didn’t screw anything up this time. asher’s first time in the chair was uneventful and he went from mullet to cute 2 year old boy cut. no more baby semi-curls. and elisha’s is good. this time the gel accentuates the cut rather than covering up my goofs.
4. drink a mexican coke and eat an empanada. i’d heard a bit about mexican coke (different than ours because it is made with cane sugar) and even though i’m not one for pregnancy cravings, i’d been thinking about it for weeks so i’ll chalk it up to a pregnancy craving. so on our way back from miami today we stopped at a little bakery that imports it. i was wondering if i always think coke in other countries tastes better because it’s made with sugar or because i’m on vacation and even a warm, flat coke would taste good in rome or florence. verdict? i think it’s the vacation. they did have imported fanta, though, and that is definitely one drink that is made differently, for the better, in other countries. next time…
5. print out boarding passes…or not. how easily i forget that the tsa has a thingagainstus.
i’ve got a few friends who think we always eat adventurous and exciting foods. we don’t. we love to try new things and (usually) the boys do, too. but our weeknight meals are typically standard dinner fare – roasted veggies, salads, bean dishes, pastas, roast or sauteed chicken, and on and on.
omar is more adventurous than me when it comes to full-on recipes, but i think of myself as pretty adventurous and resourceful when the fridge is bare and the goods left in the pantry are weird. we’re less than a week away from a 5 night trip to new york so i have no desire to go grocery shopping right now. i think of these times as kind of daring – what can i make the kids for lunch when we’ve already had way too much pasta, there is no bread for peanut butter, no cheese, and the crackers are all stale?
there was a lonely little can of salmon in the pantry. i’ve read and read on how important it is to eat certain types of fish and know that many people recommend eating things like canned wild salmon if you don’t get enough. i just really don’t care for the stuff. but i got elisha all excited by saying he could squirt mustard and plop mayo into a big bowl and stir the salmon in for me. then we tasted. no tears or protests. this was served with some oddly textured craisins and a stale-ish end of a loaf of bread. nice.
10 minutes later asher is digging into his second helping with a tiny spoon (they eat almost anything when the spoon is tiny), i’d pawned my helping off on asher, and i look over to a quiet elisha. sure enough he’s eating it but he is visibly shuddering when he swallows the stuff. poor kid. cheers to him, though, for not complaining. i ended his misery by giving him a pickle (another random “all that’s left in the fridge” food).
while i was inflicting them with this meal, i kept thinking of the book i just finished – laurie colwin’s home cooking. i thought my salmon story might fit well into either her “kitchen horrors” chapter or “repulsive dinners: a memoir” chapter.
after the lights are out. giving elisha a final bedtime snuggle.
me: what do you think we should name the baby?
elisha: jesus.
me: hmmm
elisha: did jesus give us juice or wine for the lord’s supper?
me: (seriously?) umm…wine.
elisha: why we have juice?
me: good question. (at this point i figured i’d use big terms and hope he’d lose interest) even before official prohibition, america became a bit hung-up on drinking and no one fought the good fight to keep wine as an accepted part of the lord’s supper.
Leaders of the 18th-century “evangelical revival” in Britain and America, though concerned about the immoderate use of alcohol, did not see wine, cider, and beer as alcoholic in the same way as distilled spirits (such as gin and brandy). However, in the 19th century, temperance became “teetotalism” or “total abstinence,” moving all alcohol (wine included) into the list of forbidden beverages. Many began to question why a beverage considered dangerous to drink was still used on the Communion table.
Motivated by these arguments, Protestant churchgoers and clergy sought a way to make unfermented grape juice. An American Methodist dentist, Thomas Bramwell Welch, and his son Charles were the first to succeed in this on a large scale. Charles Welch was a skilled marketer, and “Welch’s grape juice” became a popular beverage among total abstainers and the replacement for fermented wine on most American Protestant Communion tables (except in Lutheran and Episcopal churches).
and of course the individual cups that resulted as a fear of germs were made so as not to look like whiskey shot glasses. but my favorite tidbit gleaned from the article?
…some marketers to evangelical churches have developed disposable individual Communion cups which contain both wafer and grape juice in separate hermetically sealed compartments.
