December 24, 2011

Everyone is asleep and Santa has already visited! Now it's time for me to blog and go to bed! There is a warm cosy fire and I really want to read right now, but I have a feeling morning is going to come early here!

Christmas Eve at our house.

This is such a typical scene. My grandma and Danielle. my SIL working the electric frying pans. They are always in this spot.  My grandma has the fish and Danielle is working the perioges. Look at my brother trying to sneak something like he's 8 years old. There is my mom in the edge of the picture. My guess is that these ladies are discussing the "doneness" of the perioges. See how my grandma is leaning. She's leaning like she has an opinion about something... 

 There are two perioge factions here. One likes them crispy on the outside and one likes them golden. They did half and half this year.  

I didn't even have one.... Shhhh.... Don't tell anyone.

Someday when that picture is different I'll be glad I took this tonight. As my grandma was coming in to fry the fish she said "Well this is probably the last time I'll be doing this...."

Though that is not the first time she's said that! She's said it for like 5 years.

She'll be 88 in April.

And everyone enjoyed their meal.

16 full bellies! We had people eating in the living room too.  Both sides. Siblings, parents, cousins, grandma and Bob. Everyone had a nice time

Why yes, those ARE fresh greens on the table....

My neighbors visited after dinner tonight and right this very minute my other neighbors next door are out on their deck SINGING CHRISTMAS SONGS..... Their deck is close to my porch and I have a door to that porch in my living room. They are loud, but boy are they having a good time!

Christmas is in the air!

December 23rd

A day late bit we are rocking 7 here! Happy Birthday big girl!!!

December Photo Project- Dinner with Santa, December 20th

We went to Dinner with Santa this evening at the school that my husband teaches at. My girl doesn't really like the whole sitting on santa's lap thing. But this santa usually gives a nice gift. And we told her that she needed to tell him what she wants.

She told him a Carebear. She really wants a Wii. She told me she'd "mind-send him the information about the wii." I think she was embarrassed to ask for a Wii because we told her that was such a huge gift and that we didn't think Santa even gave gifts like that. This year Santa IS, in fact, bringing a present like that!  I hope we're not messing her up with hijinks like this because I really want her to grow into a person who asks for what they really want, rather than settle for something a little less than what they would really want. That gave me pause...

And BTW,

OMG, WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME????

(Yes, Michael, I know....I took these photos on my iPhone as well.....)

After dinner with Santa we went to Starbucks where she got a kids hot cocoa. (Don't worry, we used a gift card!! ;-)

And told her we were going on a ride to see Christmas lights.
The house in this post, in particular.

Watching the lights. Drinking Hot Cocoa. Rocking out to Christmas music. This is the stuff of little kid dreams!

Same result as last year. A good time was had by all.

December Photo Project-December 16-18th!

My weekend in photos....

I had a lovely weekend.

I'm very glad it is over.

Saturday morning visit to The Susan B Anthony House with the girl scouts. This was an awesome trip!

We had a fabulous guide who was great with the girls and presented the information at a level the girls could understand and yet still drove home the importance of Susan B Anthony and her accomplishments. Here are the girls with Susan's famous alligator purse that she  carried all of her sufferage speeches in... Seriously!!!!

This children's rhyme mentions Susan!

Miss Lulu had a baby, she called him tiny Tim.

She put him in the bathtub, so see if he could swim.
He drank up all the water! He ate up all the soap!
He tried to swallow the bathtub, but it wouldn’t go down his throat!!
Call for the doctor!
Call for the nurse!
Call for the lady with the alligator purse!
“Mumps!” said the doctor. “Measles!” said the nurse.
“Vote!!” said the lady with the alligator purse!!

Sundayafternoon party at the YMCA for my girl's Birthday! HUGE GIANT BOUNCE HOUSE was enjoyed by all....

This is the first time we've had her party somewhere, usually we have it at home.

WORTH. EVERY. PENNY.

We love the Y, The people we so nice and helpful.  We had a great time and so did the kids, I was pretty unstressed about the entire thing.  They decorated, got balloons, cake, pizza, drinks. We brought goodie bags and the birthday girl!

It was still Yuletide at the museum this weekend and I worked Friday, Sat and Sunday evenings.

And we pretty much killed it!!!

I know that's kind of obnoxious to say. Who wants to read stuff like this? But by the end of tonight I just kept telling eveyone "I'm so proud of us all." Everyone worked very very hard to make this thing happen. And it happened to happen very well. Everyone is very tired....

Tomorrow starts 2 weeks off for many people, including myself.

I. CANNOT. WAIT.

I have not of course, escaped the holiday season without a cold and car repair, experiencing both of those late last week. The difference this year? I'm not so stressed about money and I blew my nose a lot and moved on, though at one point yesterday between the Susan B house and the museum I laid down and didn't think I could get back up. 

 I even rallied Sat evening, came home from the museum early and made it out to the only Christmas party that I could get to this year. My friends Bridget and Rick have had a party since I was in college.  It wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't go!

I'm so glad I didn't miss it.

I can't move this picture. For some reason they are difficult to move when I upload them from my phone. Anyway, this is Susan B Antony's house and right in front of that rocker is where she was standing when she was arrested for voting!  What a visit we had!

December 15, 2011 Peppermint Frozen Dairy Dessert, Edy's Fail

So my daughter LOVES candy canes. And a few years ago for her birthday I made this awesome ice cream for her by crushing up candy canes and mixing them into vanilla ice cream. She loved it.

So when we saw candy cane ice cream, we got her some this year.

But look closely at that label. It ISN'T ICE CREAM AT ALL. (Lower Right)

IT'S FROZEN DAIRY DESSERT

I didn't even notice this until just now. Nowhere on the label does it call this product ice cream. I want ice cream dammit. Edy's people, you know that we all think we're buying ice cream when we pick up this package... You know THAT.

But in looking at the ingredients, rather than CREAM, the first ingredient is Whey (Dairy)-That's what it says.  I should have just made some. I have an ice cream maker, I'm just too darn busy to make ice cream. Maybe for her birthday I'll make some.

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood this evening that this has pissed me off so badly. But seriously, I hate fake food. I hate "created" food. Created and fake food is what is killing us in this country. 100 years from now I bet they figure out that we all got cancer from non-dairy creamer.

I hate crap food. (yes, I would admit that peppermint ice cream isn't up there on the list of health foods, even when it is real ice cream.)

But I want my ice cream to be cream, sugar and eggs.... I don't want frozen dairy dessert. I never ever ever want cool whip. I don't want non-dairy creamer....

GIVE ME REAL DAIRY ALREADY.

And a side of butter with that....

And what am I doing with the ice cream container at 10:12 pm anyway you ask?

Mind your business....

December 14, 2011-The Tree, Finally

Finally putting ornaments on the tree that we've had since Saturday!

In all my adult years I've never had a tree with colored lights. I think I'm a white light kind of gal. But we needed all new lights this year and my daughter begged us for colored lights.

I have to say, it looks cute and cozy.

See the topper on the tree? It's the baby hat she wore home from the hospital when she was born. She came home on Christmas day. It has a pom pom on it.

She's such a big girl now.

George Eastman House Blog Mention!!

How nice! Over on their Facebook page, the George Eastman house posted a link to my blog entry about our visit the other day!

Head on over and like them!!!

December 9, 2011-I'm Dreaming Of a White Yuletide. Yuletide in The Country at The Genesee Country Village & Museum

We're all set for the  second week of our Yuletide In The Country Event at The Genesee Country Village & Museum!  All we need now is a little snow!

December 8, 2011- The Best Seat In The House

It's after 10pm and I haven't taken a picture. These are my favorite seats in the house. You can see the print of  Jeannine's painting that she framed for my 40th Birthday. Along with the chairs I usually blog in. The flowered chair is my favoite, it has rockers on the bottom.

It probably fitting that I show this picture because I spent the entire day inside cleaning the house.  That is, until I went to the Country Club of Rochester for a trustee meeting & reception for the museum. It's ironic because most of the people there probably aren't cleaning their own homes.   It was a nice party, the food & drinks were good. The meeting was painless, and all I needed to do was hang out and make small talk. (something I'm not terribly good at, but I get by.)

By definition I hate small talk. I like big talk. If I'm going to be talking about something then I want it to at least have a purpose. I don't actually care what you think about the weather. if we have to chat about nothing I'd just as soon stand next to you quietly. And I'll be nice, but I don't really like niceties, if you know what I mean.  And put me with someone who is worse at small talk than I am, well then I blather on like an idiot.  Luckily all of the people at the meeting have a vested interest in the museum and that's what they want to talk about. That kind of talk is easy for me.

December 7th- The George Eastman House

One advantage of working a lot on the weekends is having time during the week to do things when it's not so crowded!

After school today I took my girl to the George Eastman House to see their annual Gingerbread House Exhibit. There are over 100 houses!

On the way there I was explaining to Emma who George Eastman was and how he brought photography to the masses with roll film and how he's impacted many many places in Rochester.

She said,

"What's film?"

Oh my goodness.

Anyway, these pics are all out of order but it's too difficult to switch them.

Yup, seriously.... Gingerbread....

The house itself, is completely gorgeous and is as nice a place to visit (moreso if you are someone like me) as the photography museum is. There was a girl playing piano here. And a big Chritsmas tree. It was like walking into a Christmas party from long ago.

This is one of the best parts of the house. As you walk down this hall, you get a view of the amazing gardens there.

Oh yes, all edible!

Around the back of this one they had candy horses....

Emma loved this real elephant head in the solarium.

This is at the end of that hall I told you about above. It's hard to tell but the gardens are fabulous and I can just imagine someone actully sitting there and enjoying their life... I sure would.

The house is completely gorgeous.... There were many more pics that truly show it's beauty but I was already pushing it with all of these photos.

December 6th-Peurto Rican Beef

Tonight after the Y, I made one of my new favorite dinners. Puerto Rican Beef from Every Day Paleo.  This is so easy (I chopped everything before going to the Y and it only took 15 min to cook up when we got home. And the flavors in this are amazing.  That's a sweet potato in there next to that avocado. I forgot the olives, and it's even better with the olives. It's got kale and tumeric (which my husband tells me is so good for you, I'll just go with it.) It also has cumin which I think makes anything tase good.

However, did you ever notice when you cook with cumin your whole house smells until the next morning.  I think it kind of smells like armpits. So this dish has both onions and cumin. And I was the one cooking it. I most likely smell like onions and armpits right now....

December 5th- Home at Last

After working 32 hours in 3 days, it was nice to have a nice normal day with my girl when she got home from school.

She asked me this morning if I thought I had to work on Christmas Eve.... oh my...(I don't, of course.) but talk about mommy guilt....

She's rocking that hat, although she doesn't like being told she looks cute in it.

December Photo Project- December 4th

Christine 2.75

Yuletide Buffet .25

Victory Is Mine (This week anyway.)

We are only 33.33% done with the program!

I'm looking forward to not being at the museum tomorrow and taking pictures and seeing something besides the inside of the museum's meeting center.

This is the scene outside the meeting center.  That tree is like 13 or 14 feet tall!!!

December Photo Project-December 3rd

Christine: 1.75

Yuletide Buffet .25

Today's Yuletide Buffet was a little more difficult than yesterday, but not impossible. We learned more.

Watch out Yuletide Buffet because tomorrow, I OWN YOU.

This was a nice fire to come home to. Currently I have my feet up right next to it with a glass of  Ravine's Dry Reisling. My toes are warm, so is my brain.

December Photo Project- December 2

Christine: 1

Yuletide Buffet: 0

Tonight was the first night of our Yuletide Buffet that I have been planning for 2 months now. It's part of the Yuletide In The Country event at The Genesee Country Village & Museum. This thing has been giving me anxiety for weeks now. It went off without a hitch. (We have 8 more nights though...)  This is part of the dessert buffet.

BTW Folks, if you go to a buffet, especially one that benefits the museum and it's programs, (or any not-for-profit) please don't take a cookie, or a roll, or butter, or any food that you aren't going to eat for that matter. If you aren't sure DON'T TAKE IT. It's a buffet, we're a really friendly place, you can go back up.

 It's wasteful and costs the museum money. Understand that please.....

December Photo Project- December 1st

A few years ago I participated in View From A Prairie Box's, December Photo Project, where you post one photo per day until Christmas. I love that-seeing someone's life in pictures so I'm doing it again this year. Besides it will force me to pay attention to the blog a little more often this busy time of year. 

December 1st Garden.

I realize that I've got more than one picture here but I was out in the yard today and this is what I saw.

Green Onions. The gift that keeps on giving. You plant these things in spring and harvest the tops all summer and then they start growing again in fall. By now the onion underneath is much bigger too so you can eat that as well. Leave them in all winter and they'll probably grow green onions in the spring again for you. I like green onions better than any other kind of onion! 

Sage. While the garden performance was lackluster at best this year, this sage plant flourished. I love the distinctive smell of sage. Sometimes I dry it inside and burn it as an air freshener.  Native Americans also think burning sage keeps bad juju away...  Nice, a fresh smelling home free of bad juju..... 

I did not grow that pumpkin but it sure looks cute in there. It was the only striped pumpkin in the patch.  There is my little worn bench where I like to drink coffee in the morning and beer in the evening. I got it on the side of the road (of course.) The seat flips up. Since I got it for free and I'm not all that attached to it, it stays outside all winter long. So do the plant supports. I like having a little architectural interest when there is nothing else going on in this. This may be the last winter that it lasts though. 

Broccoli. Still growing. Only when you are a new gardener do you operate under the assumption that you can only grown things from May-Sept. Things grow much earlier and much later. Broccoli grows really well in the yard, I must have perfect soil for it. (I should probably look up what kind of soil that is...) You can cut off the main bunch and then these little side shoots keep producing . 

Rosemary. Still going strong. Although I brought her inside for the winter because she's not cold hardy in my neck of the woods. Rosemary is also expensive to buy as an herb at the store and look at this plant!! It started as a tiny little thing back in May.  Yup, that's a milk box. It's sitting next to my back door just waiting for the milkman to come. The funny thing is that it's sitting right UNDER a milkbox that is built into the house.  I sometimes wonder if the milkman did ever come and put the milk in the wall there. I bet that was delicious milk. 

Do you live in a home that's been owned by someone other than yourself? If your home is older do you ever sit in the rooms and wonder what the prior furniture looked like? Of course, we saw the people's furniture who lived here before us because we saw the house when they still lived here. I'm talking about a longer time. What did the house look like during the depression? Where was the sofa? What color was the kitchen? 

I sometimes picture people in here living their lives. Laughing, crying, arguing, making up, having holidays and waking up each morning.  When I do this I realize that it may be our house today but we're really just passing through. 

Hmmmm.................

I love when I read something that makes us look like good parents.  You know, like I've got it under control. Like I know what I'm doing.  In fact I may be a little smug about it. To myself anyway.

Like this article that discusses the fact that in a recent study, kids that ate margarine regularly had IQs that were lower by about 4 points than kids who ate butter.

Man, do we have this one in the bag.... Have you been paying attention? All we eat is real butter. And it's even organic.... I NEVER NEVER buy margarine..

I have saved my child 4 precious IQ points without even really trying.

A second after high fiving myself over this I rememembered that the main reason I only buy real butter is because my mom fed us margairne  my entire growing up.......

Unlikely Black Friday Shopping Trip

So last night, Thanksgiving evening, after my last guests, my friend Kristin and her daughter & my brother and sister-in-law had left, I sat down on the couch in front of the fire. Everyone else was asleep. I looked at the clock and yawned. My head hurt a little. 11:15 p.m. "I really should go to bed" I thought.

5 minutes later I got a text message "We are outside your house, come shoppping with us."

What? Really? No, I'm so not a Thanksgiving-night-Walmart-Shopper kind of gal.

So I opened the front door and there were 2 (one was already in bed) of my 3 SGS girls, blaring Beyonce, "Girls Who Rule The World" What woman could refuse that? Besides, I though, I really need some advil....

So off to my first (and maybe last) experience with Black Friday Shopping. It was a thinly controlled chaos when we got there. Andrea told us point blank NOT to get a cart, it would slow us down too much. Turns out she was right. She instructed us to get a map. We obeyed.  The item Cristina came for was gone already.  We all wanted one of the $40 wireless printers. Andrea staked out the spot, Cristina got the cart.

I had been looking into a laptop and they had one that was a really good price starting at midnight. I walked over to where they were and inquired what the procedure was. Apparently there are numbers that you get. They gave them all out at 10pm. They were gone.

Then next to me was an older man who said something like "hey come with me.." and I did. (Just over to the next aisle mind you...) he said. " We have an extra ticket and we've been waiting to give it to someone nice." Score! Cheap laptop back on!!

So I stood with the other people who were bitching and complaining about people cutting and about not getting in front of them. And telling other people THEY were rude... The man with the laptops kept telling everyone that if you had a ticket, that you WOULD get a computer. They apparently did not believe him because the bitching continued. 

At 12:05 a.m. I got the laptop and made my way to my friends who had fled the scene of people SWARMING the wireless printers.... (While nabbing 3 in the process.)

We moseyed through the crowd of people who didn't look to me like they had any business spending the amount of money that their carts represented. I tried not to think that. We chatted and shopped.

We waited in line forever. I was fading fast. I bought my advil. We pooled our cash for waters. We hurried through the scary parking lot.

I had such fun with those women last night. I crawled into bed at 2am. I was tired today and still had a headache. I remedied it with a walk in the woods with my husband.

But tonight all I can think of is what a special thing it is,  to have someone who likes you enough to remember to swing by your house to get you to go on a midnight shopping expedition. That's something awesome.

A Quick Thought

The rest of you, quit your bitching!

Crushes Around The Internet- Dave Ramsey, The Bulletproof Executive, Zac Brown & Luke Bryan

I'm a woman with a lot of crushes. You don't have to be particularly good looking to qualify as long as I find you interesting and compelling.

Lately in the interesting and compelling category.

Dave Ramsey

The king of getting out of debt and paying with CASH! The man who made it possible for me to stay home with my daughter. (ok, that man would actually be my husband but Dave made me belive I could do it...)  I'm reading his new book, Entreleadership, and it's a good one. Same old no nonsense Dave Ramsey telling you how to run your business. I adore Dave and listen to his show almost every day ("It's about your life and your money," )  He keeps me on the financial straight and narrow (barring any smoked salmon emergencies.) He's a nice guy. The dumbest people will call up and you yourself would just wail on the stupidity of these people.  And he's patient and kind and tells them like it is without calling them a complete moron.  I just love me some Dave Ramsey. I listen so much even my daughter can identify his voice.... "The Same Advice Your Grandma Gave You, Only We Keep Our Teeth In."

Dave Asprey, The Bulletproof Executive.

Dave Asprey, is a Silicone Valley Nerd who's doing whatever he can to do just about everything better.... He has a blog, The Bulletproof Executive.   He sleeps less, eats better, performs better and probaly makes more money than you.....He's compelling... He's biohacking his life. Don't know what that is? I didn't either.  I'm not saying I'd do all of the things he's doing but you can't argue with his results.... He's recently introduced me to the joy that is Grass Fed Kerry Gold Irish Butter  (shh.... Don't Tell Dave Ramsey.) and dark chocolate. I sometimes imagine sitting around with him playing dual n-back brain training games and eating Kerry Gold Butter off his fingertips.

Zac Brown.

OMG you gotta love Zac Brown. His music makes me happy happy! Toes can make me chuckle almost any damn day although it's a little disconcerting when your 6 year old asks from the back seat,
"What's roll a big fat one mean?"
"Umm.... I don't know honey, la la la la"

 I find that beard compelling...

I'm not much for concerts or large crowds but if the Zac Brown Band comes anywhere near me. I'm going to be there, swinging my bra over my head.

Ok, I'll probably be wearing my bra but I'll certainly buy a racy one to wave over my head.....

And he doesn't like debt either!!  I think I love this guy. I 

I could knit that man a had and he'd like it.... And you can bet I'd use some hand-spun, hand-dyed expensive ass shit to do it....


Luke Bryan

My music OCD has taken over with Luke Bryan's new song "I Don't Want This Night To End."  I love that deep voice of his and I completely want to climb up on the dusty seat of his truck....I'm rocking this song in the car and at the gym...CONSTANTLY......

This video makes me realize I've never gone to a party in a truck before.... Add that to the bucket list.....