The Newsletter

I was quite proud of this year's Christmas card.  Updated picture, nice scenery in the background, fun design, no Disney characters--a great improvement over last year.  Since it is one of the few times in any given year that I get to put my English degree to good use, I have a big thing about our newsletter.  I spend more time on the dang newsletter than I spend shopping for all of our Christmas gifts combined.  It is a sickness.

Naturally, I feel compelled to share this year's literary accomplishment on my blog.  Partly because I just found a stack of Christmas cards and newsletters that inexplicably did not make it out to the mail.  Here's hoping you got yours....and if you didn't.....well, here's the electronic version.

Best and Worst of 2010

Holland's Family Edition

Best Family Vacation Moments: night fishing off the houseboat with cousins, climbing Mt. Timpanogas, hiking in Logan Canyon with cousins, learning how much our dog loves to travel, discovering St. Louis's City Museum, laughing our heads off at Pickleville Playhouse, building sandcastles at Bear Lake.

Worst Family Vacation Moments: realizing the houseboat was built by Hobbits, discovering the climb to Mt. Timpanogas was a bit more treacherous than Dad remembered, losing Endeavor's shoes at Snowbird, watching tornadoes touch down as our minivan was pelted with hailstones, searching for the cap gun Justone wanted all over the western U.S. then finding it at our local Cracker Barrel.

Best Purchase: Bionic Man picked up a battery operated lawn mower to tide us over when our 36” lawnmower needed repairs. Turns out, the new mower is light enough that Justone and Endeavor can use it, and they became our summertime lawn care specialists. (Funny, Bionic Man hasn't felt much pressure to get the old mower up and running again.)

Worst Purchase: the harmonica Justone bought when he was supposed to be Christmas shopping for his sisters. Enough said.

Best Adjustment: Endeavor, Justone, and Superkid all went to different schools this year. Endeavor is a 6^th grader in middle school (yes, you read that right), Justone goes to an accelerated learning program at another school, and Superkid is in first grade at our new local elementary school. Despite all the changes, they have enjoyed their new surroundings, made new friends, and are doing well in school.

Worst Adjustment: Ruth's not quite ready to have the children at school all day, every day. She never knew grocery shopping could be so quick....or so boring.

Best Surprise: Superkid's cardiologist said her “ticker” was working so well, she didn't need to see him again for a whole year!
Worst Surprise: Ruth told the hairstylist she wanted to go “back to her root color” and came home with startlingly dark hair. Much, much darker than she ever remembered having.....after the initial shock wore off, the rest of the family decided they would love her anyway.
Best Days of the Year: Sundays when Dad didn't have meetings.

Worst Day of the Year: Fall Daylight Savings. Ruth changed the clocks before going to bed. Bionic Man got up in the morning, and thought the clocks were still an hour ahead. He was an hour late to his first meeting!

Best Performance(s): Endeavor ran cross-country for her middle school team this year, improving her personal record by more than 6 minutes! Bionic Man set a new personal record at the Indianapolis Half Marathon. Superkid won a huge prize package for perfected attendance in the month of May (the only month she didn't miss any school, ironically). Justone used things he found around the house to make an animated diorama for a school report, all by himself.

Worst Performance: after a summer spent safely hiking in “real “ mountains, Ruth slipped and sprained her elbow while walking with the children along a stream bed....in our neighborhood.

Best New Skills: Superkid learned to read, Endeavor is learning to play the violin, Bionic Man is taking guitar lessons, Justone knows how to fix the van door when it gets stuck (a skill Mom really appreciates), Ruth taught herself how to make slipcovers, and Hunter the Dog can roll over on command!

Worst New Skill: see “Worst Purchase”.

Best: having family members and friends all over the country who mean so much to us! We are blessed to have many wonderful people who show us love and set good examples for us in the way they live.

Worst: wishing that time and distance wouldn't prevent us from spending more time with those we love.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of You!

Love from Ruth, The Bionic Man, Endeavor (11), Justone (10 very soon), and Superkid (7)

Thanks and Giving

Whew!

The last two weeks at my house have been C-R-A-Z-Y.  My in-laws came to visit for several days before and after Thanksgiving.  We're always so happy to have visitors, and it was great to spend that time with them.  It was especially fun to throw a big Thanksgiving feast with them as guests of honor.

But it doesn't matter who the visitors are, visitors throw off my puttering time.  And I must have my puttering time.  What can I say, I'm a homebody.  I have to have at least 3 days in the week where I just putter around my house, or else I start to lose my mind.  It's okay if the other 4 days have me running willy-nilly over hill and vale, as long as I get those puttering days in, too.  Trouble is, people on vacation don't want to putter, they want to get out and see things!  Which I totally get.

Anywho, so I've been busy, the last couple of days, puttering around my house and my blog, catching up on all the things I don't do when I'm unable to putter.  We had a really nice Thanksgiving, which I pretty much failed to capture on film, due to the fact that I was busy cleaning, cooking, serving, and cleaning.  The Bionic Man could have snapped a few pics, but since we had no Engineering Feats or Natural Resources of Great Importance in attendance at our Thanksgiving Feast, that would be asking a lot.

What I did manage to get pictures of, ended up being one of my favorite things about this Thanksgiving:  Our Thankful Tree.

Inspired by the Pothier's tree over at 71 Toes, we added a Thankful Tree to our own Thanksgiving traditions. Endeavor made ours, totally by herself, leaves and all.  Don't you love the way she wrinkled the brown paper for a bark-like effect?  I tell you, it's probably a good thing Martha Stewart is approaching retirement.  Endeavor cut out many blank leaves, which we had our guests place on the branches of the tree, after they wrote down something they were thankful for.

I have loved having these expressions of gratitude on our kitchen wall.  Some of the things our family members and friends who joined us for dinner were grateful for included:

showers

flowers

Hunter (our dog was mentioned on multiple leaves)

Church

Family

Friends

Corndogs (4 year old Mason really appreciates the finer things in life)

Tigers & Elephants

Good Doctors & Nurses

Parents

Freedom

Waterproof Shoes (two Mormon missionaries, Elders Huse and Huntsman, joined us for dessert)

We had such a nice time sharing dinner with Ben's parents and several other families.  I just love the way everyone contributes to the feast: bringing family favorites of their own, sharing their favorite traditions, helping us make new ones, and taking the time to celebrate all of our blessings.

A Box of Blessings

I mentioned these little origami boxes in another post.  My then 10-year-old daughter made the one above, last Thanksgiving, using simple instructions from a library book on origami.  She used 6x6 inch squares of paper that I had, in fall-ish patterns.

The beans and boxes are part of a tradition that we adapted from my side of the family.  Every Thanksgiving, after the food has been blessed, we take turns going around the table and sharing things we are grateful for.  Everyone has a few kernels of corn or beans or candy corn or lentils (depends on what we have handy, I guess!), and they drop one into their box each time they express their gratitude for something.  We go around the table until everyone has used up all of their kernels.  I love hearing all the different things that we have to be thankful for.

On Thanksgiving 2008, that tradition was particularly poignant.  We had buried our sweet Lily just a few weeks before.  Two days after Thanksgiving, Superkid would be admitted to the hospital in preparation for open heart surgery.  The Cleverly's had recently returned to a new job and their home in Indiana, after an eighteen month absence in another city, only to have a sudden, unexpected job loss.  By Thanksgiving, Brandon had received a job offer, but wouldn't be able to start working until after Christmas.  My sister, Lisa, was under-employed at that time.  It had not been an easy year for any of us.

I don't remember the specifics of the expressions of thanks that were given that year, as we went around the table, dropping kernels of corn into our boxes.  What I do remember was the beautiful feeling that was present while we recognized how much we had been blessed, to see the evidences of how we had been upheld and supported through difficult times.  Each of us, down to the youngest child, could sense the incredible love that our Father in Heaven has for each of us, His children.

That, right there, is why I love Thanksgiving so much.  I'm so glad to have a day set aside to perform the counting of my blessings.  I'm so happy to have the reminder that, despite what the measurement of the world's yardstick may be, I am wealthy.

 

Whine and Dine

Ladies and....ladies, it has been a long week.  After finishing up a couple of projects at the end of last week, I looked around at the disaster that was my house and threw my hands up in despair.  Something just wasn't working (and that something was not me, because I filled the dishwasher three times on Friday alone), and something had to change.

I spent most of this week figuring out what had to change, how to change it, and changing it, but that is a story for another day, another blog post.

Today's story begins with me telling you, since Thanksgiving is around the corner and I'm in a mood to confess, that I don't make my own turkey gravy and that I really, really want a new dining room table.  And chairs.

Since we've lived in Indiana, we've celebrated every Thanksgiving with our friends, the Cleverlys (aka the Clevs), and assorted other friends and family.  It's always at my house, and Nicole and I always plan and prepare the bulk of the feast ourselves.  Often, my sister visits for Thanksgiving, and sometimes the Clevs have family visiting, and we always try to include other friends who don't have family in the area to join us.  We've become a good team when it comes to cooking a feast for a crowd.  Nicole has become quite the turkey specialist over the years, while I have attempted to specialize in pies.  (Still working on that one.)

The secret to Nicole's savory turkeys is that she brines them.  She brines them in the Williams-Sonoma Apple & Spices turkey brine.

Nicole either roasts the turkey at my house or brings it to finish cooking in my oven.  We make our final preparations for dinner while the children play and our husbands snitch appetizers. Just before dinner, Nicole and I make the gravy.....using the Williams-Sonoma Turkey Gravy Base.

Notice that Williams-Sonoma figures prominently in our Thanksgiving celebration?  Ironic, because Nicole and I are real sticklers when it comes to keeping the grocery budget low at all other times of the year.  Nicole is the queen of coupons and I make granola bars from scratch.   Believe me, we have tried to make our own brining solution and our own gravy in order to avoid the Williams-Sonoma price tag. 

We tried it, and we regretted it.  But this--this is worth it's weight in gold.  This is like the caviar of gravies.  You will want to eat this gravy by itself, with a spoon.  I'm not kidding.  I plunked down $10 per jar for this stuff without batting an eye this week.  And I bought three of them.  Two for Thanksgiving, and one for me to eat with a spoon. 

Nicole and I do not live down the street from Williams-Sonoma.  The nearest one is almost an hour away, at a swanky mall on the right side of town.  We only shop there for gravy and brine.  This year, it was my turn to make the trip to Williams-Sonoma.  Due to the fact that I don't frequent the swanky mall or Williams-Sonoma on a regular basis,  I accidentally entered the Williams-Sonoma home store, began searching for the gravy......and met my destiny.

This table.  It is the missing link to my kitchen, I swear.  Here is what it looks like in the Williams-Sonoma catalog.

Be still my heart, that table is destined for my kitchen.  It seats 12.  Granted, there are usually 16-20 at our Thanksgiving feasts, but since half of them are children, this table will do just fine.  I'm pretty sure a table for 20 won't fit in my kitchen, anyway.  It's a conventional 72 inches without the leaves.  And....

It's on *sale!

 *for $975, table only.

Ummm, did you read the fine print?  Unfortunately, that is about $900 more than what I have available to spend on a table.  But it is solid.  So very, very solid in all it's chunky painted white wood and distressed elm tabletop glory.  Believe me, I checked it out.  The Williams-Sonoma sales associate found me underneath the table, taking a good look.  She--elegant and refined as she was--seemed slightly shocked to find me down there.  I don't think the typical Williams-Sonoma customer lies on the floor beneath their products. 

Not to mention, I don't think I have spent that much money on a single piece of furniture ever before.  That kind of money is a lot of pressure for any one single object to live up to, don't you think?  I mean, I just don't think it is right for me to have to say, "Kids, come sit down for dinner, but don't touch the table!!!"  

Then again, that tabletop was a good three inches thick.  And it was already nicely distressed, so we could only improve upon that look.  There was not a single smidge of wobble in those table legs.  But that price doesn't include chairs.  And since my current dining chairs are all ready to fall apart, that is a problem.  

But Williams-Sonoma offers "In-home delivery with White Glove service".  I don't even know what White Glove service is, but I bet it's way better than what you get from the Sears Appliance delivery.  I want to experience White Glove service!

On the other hand, if I am going to shell out that kind of money for a piece of furniture, I'd better carry it around with my until my granddaughter's fight over it on my deathbed.  There are commitment issues here.  I have hardly any pictures that actually hang on my walls, because of decorating commitment issues.  

But my in-laws are coming for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  My in-laws!  And if I had this dining room table, my mother-in-law would surely think that her son and grandchildren were well-cared for by an outstanding homemaker with impeccable taste.  Right?

Now, I'm off to get some cheese to go along with my whine.  

Moral of the story?  Order your Williams-Sonoma gravy online this year.  A $6 shipping fee costs less than the $975 table you might be tempted to bring home if you go to the store. 

My Favorite Holiday

With or without the Williams-Sonoma table, I really love Thanksgiving.  

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays.  By the time I came along, my parents were set in the tradition of having the dinner at their house, so up until my 21st year, all my Thanksgiving memories took place in my own home.  My grandparents usually came--both sets--and for years and years we always had guests who were visiting the United States from other countries.

I'm not exactly sure how these invitations were issued, but my dad had quite a few contacts within our small college town.  My parents were eager to share a quintessentially American tradition with our visitors, and I believe equally eager for their children to discover first hand how big the world really was.  I don't remember everyone, but I recall meeting people from Taiwan, China, Iran, and Brazil at our Thanksgiving table.  The family we hosted from Brazil became good friends, and we shared celebrations with them for the next several years, until their father finished his doctorate and they returned to Brazil.  My siblings often brought along college roommates, and I remember enjoying so much learning about all of these people and where they came from and how they celebrated holidays in their own homes.


Since the Bionic Man and I were married 13 years ago, we've never had a chance to go home for Thanksgiving.  For some reason, we were stubbornly determined to spend our first Thanksgiving alone (newlyweds, you know), so I single-handedly prepared our feast.  I was quite proud (and pregnant).

The next year, we were living in Germany with our new baby, and that Thanksgiving was a spectacular failure.  We tried to celebrate with American friends who lived in another town.  I was supposed to bring the pies.  Guess what?  There are no pie tins in Germany.  It doesn't matter how good your homemade pastry dough is, you cannot make a pie in a rectangular pyrex baking dish.  Don't even try.  We sat in a four-hour traffic jam on the autobahn, arrived at dinner long after it was over, and brought along the most un-pielike pies in the history of pastry desserts.

After that, there was nowhere to go but up.  Luckily, we really went up the next year, when we scored an invitation from our friends (and, at that time, landlords) the Binghams.  Thanksgiving at the Binghams was truly a feast.  My mouth waters to this day as I think about it.  The turkey, the twice-baked potatoes, the seven-layer salad, Bonnie's orange rolls, and THE PIES.  Oh, the pies.  It was so good that by the time dinner was over, I looked like this:

Just kidding!  That was Justone in there, making it hard for Endeavor to fit on my lap.  And, judging by the date on that photo, that was after the Bingham's New Year's Eve dinner, which was also incomparable.  Let's face it, there is a reason Justone was my biggest baby: I partook of a good share of Bingham dinners during that preganancy.

Anywho, after that introduction to Bingham family celebrations, they couldn't have got rid of us if they had tried.  We spent the next six Thanksgivings with Uncle Morris and Aunt Bonnie....until we moved to Indiana.  It became an important tradition, one that our children looked forward to every year.  

My children were devastated when they realized that we wouldn't be able to go to the Binghams' for Thanksgiving, that first year in Indiana.  Tears were shed.  Promises were made, that their mommy would try to make all the right foods.  That year, we invited three other young families who were far from home to join us.  One of those families, the Cleverlys, have become part of our Indiana Thanksgiving tradition.  We've celebrated with them ever since, along with an assortment of other friends and any family members (like my sister, Lisa), who can make it.

Nicole Cleverly and I have tweaked our menu over the last few years, but as our sixth joint Thanksgiving approaches, we have some pretty consistent jobs.

Nicole:
Brines and roasts the turkey
Makes the stuffing
Brings her mother-in-law's raspberry jello salad (there are NEVER leftovers)
Plans to do the potatoes this year, too
Transports the turkey to my house and helps with the gravy
Brings the Cheescake Factory Pumpkin Cheescake

Ruth:
Makes the ham
Makes the rolls
Makes the sweet potatoes
Makes a few other side dishes
Makes lots of pies and desserts
Makes the fresh cranberry sauce
Hosts the dinner

Brandon and Ben, the husbands, are in charge of the dishes.  As of last year, Brandon also provides a smaller, barbequed turkey.

When my sister, Lisa, comes, she is in charge of homemade salsa and getting all the meat off the turkeys when the meal is over.  We usually have several other guests, as well, who bring along some of their family specialties, too.  It is quite a smorgasbord.

See all those plastic cups?  No one seems to mind that we keep it ultra simple, around here.  I'd rather have everyone enjoying games and conversation after dinner, than getting stuck with lots of dishes.  You can also see, from this picture, that I don't let a half painted wall keep me from inviting lots of people to my house.

Last year, I put Endeavor in charge of the place settings, and that is definitely going to become a tradition.  Trust my mini-Martha to come up with something like this:

Didn't she do a great job?  She wrapped the napkins around the utensils, with cute strips of decorative paper, and made origami boxes with our names on them out of coordinating papers.

The beans and boxes are part of a tradition that we adapted from my side of the family.  Every Thanksgiving, after the food has been blessed, we take turns going around the table and sharing things we are grateful for.  Everyone has a few kernels of corn or--in this case, beans (not sure why we used beans last year....maybe we couldn't find popcorn?)--and they drop one into their box each time they express their gratitude.  We go around the table until everyone has used up all of their kernels.  I love hearing all the different things that we have to be thankful for.

How do you celebrate Thanksgiving?  Do you have any unique traditions?

Turning Frowns Upside Down

I'm grumpy this morning.

I have several reasons to be grumpy.  None of them are really all that important, but the fact they are on my mind is bugging me.  So I'm going to share them.  Don't be offended.  Feel free to skip to the end of this post.

1.  The Bionic Man called me yesterday, at the beginning of an already full afternoon, to let me know that it was "cakeathon" night at Cub Scout pack meeting that night.  Could I come up with something creative?  (See what happens when I make rainbow cupcakes just one time?  They get used to it, real fast.)

2.  Shortly after the Bionic Man called about the cakeathon, I had to go to my OB/GYN's for an uncomfortable test.  I'm not going to go into details, because we don't know each other well enough.  Test results were fine.  I'm fine.  I just think ultrasounds that don't include babies are zero fun, so I'm feeling grouchy about the fact that I had to be there.  (Don't worry, it wasn't like this ultrasound was supposed to have a baby in it.  I just think that variety is more fun and rewarding.)

3.  As I whipped dinner together and raced to get out the door to a meeting later that night, the Bionic Man mentioned casually, "Oh, by the way, tomorrow is the chili cook-off."  WHAT chili cook-off?  "The one at work," he told me.  "Do you think you could make that chili that isn't chili for me to take to work tomorrow?"  It is really not typical for the Bionic Man to spring stuff on me like this.  He knows better.  I don't know where the two strikes in six hours came from.  But since I refused to make the cake (hey, that test at the doctor's office hurt) I kind of had to smile through clenched teeth and agree to make the soup....if he would pick up the ingredients.

4.  It is 9 A.M. and I have to make chili.  Bionic Man picked up some of the ingredients, but not exactly the right ones.  I'm going to have to go to the store for more.  My kitchen is a mess.  My hair is a mess.

5.  I have to get Christmas organized in the next 5 days.  And Thanksgiving is at my house.

Sigh.  Okay, it is out of my system.  Now, I'm going to think of the words of one of my favorite Primary songs:

If you chance to meet a frown,

Do not let it stay.

Quickly turn it upside down

And smile that frown away!

No one likes a frowny face,

Change it for a smile;

Make the world a brighter place

By smiling all the while.

I'm going to turn my grumps upside down to gratitude.

Not sure why I chose a cat picture.  It was just so darn cute.

1.  The Bionic Man is such a good father.  I love that he's trying to help our son, Justone, have a positive experience with cub scouting.  It is so great that he'll check up on things and make sure we're ready for each scouting activity.

2.  My OB/GYN is so funny.  He makes me laugh hard.  And nothing that can't be easily fixed is wrong with me.  And guess what else?  The new guidelines for mammograms are that you don't have to have your first one until the age of 50.  I won't need to have that painful procedure for another 17 years!  That really makes me happy.

3.  I'm so flattered that the Bionic Man loves my Tuscan Chili enough that he wants to take it to share with his co-workers.  I'll share the recipe with you sometime.  It takes just like the Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana, only I add beans.  Anything with beans is chili, right?

4.  My kitchen is huge.  I'll find a place to make the chili.  I'm so thankful to have a home that I can use to bless others, even if big kitchen equals big mess.  I'm thankful that I have lots of hair.  It is long and thick, and long, thick, messy hair is better than no hair.  I can brush it.  Bedheads are really in, right now.  Circles under my eyes and messy hair will just make people think I'm a big Twilight fan when I'm at the store.  Problem solved: I definitely don't need to take a shower before I run out to the store today.

5.  It will be so nice to have Christmas taken care of ahead of time.  I'll really be able to enjoy the holiday season if I'm not stressed out.  And I love having Thanksgiving at my house.  I'm so glad my sister can come, and Thanksgiving just wouldn't be the same without sharing it with our good friends, the Clevs.  Even though we are far away from other family members, it is a blessing to have so many other wonderful people in our lives that we have learned to love like family.  Here's a shout-out to the Binghams!  We will come back to Connecticut someday for Thanksgiving, but we're going to have to bring the Clevs with us.  Hope you don't mind!

Ahhh, that's better.  Now I'm smiling.  What do you have in your life that you can turn upside down today?  Please share!