White Christmas

As far as record amount of snowfall, these holidays weren't record setters.  We did get a fair amount of snow, but the remarkable part of the weather was how warm it was when it snowed, and how cold it got during/after snowing.  One morning I woke up and it was -8 degrees! Unusual for Tahoe!  The trees stayed frozen and covered with snow for days (bad news for our fruitless plum tree--you can see in the 3rd picture that it is heavy laden and slightly broken).  These bright blue skies and bright white trees remind me of my mom--we love these picturesque days!

 We had one full day with the power out, and another full day with decreased/unstable power.  We have a generator that is supposed to kick in if the power goes out, but it wasn't working.  Not a big deal, except that our house is heated entirely by an electric furnace.  We were fortunate enough to have the generator serviced and working by early afternoon.  Andrew commented that all the electricity unreliability made it feel like we were living in a cabin.  I'd have to agree.  That, combined with the fact that many of us were sick (some weird cold/tummy combo) made us eager to be done with the holidays and onto 2011.

All the snow compiled on our deck.

Christmas Day

Christmas Eve brought a new board game to our family: the new generation of Monopoly.  The kids played together happily for hours!  The fun part of the game is that it uses something akin to Debit Cards instead of cash, eliminating much hassle, confusion, and argument.  Other Christmas Eve gifts: a page-a-day calendar for each of the kiddos (Timothy: Would You Rather?  Andrew: Stupid History Facts.  Melinda: Origami-a-Day.  Audrey: Cuteness Overload) and some music for Chris and I from Eric (Blind Pilot and The Radio Dept.) and a Wii game for the kiddos from Eric.  The only bummer about Christmas Eve is that I forgot to initiate Christmas Carol singing-round-the-piano time.  :(

Christmas day was very nice.  I loved having my family around.  Matthew and Siri and Lucy (and Greta) arrived mid-presents, and got to join in the chaos.  I'm missing a good picture of Andrew opening a gift because there was simply so much going on.  I have to remind myself that when there are fewer pictures at moments like these, it simply means that we were having a good time.

It was great to see Chris, Eric, and Matthew cooking up great food in the kitchen.  Also great to see: my sweet little niece Lucy playing with everyone, and my girls watching a movie with my dad.

Timothy gets creative in his "sammich" making

Melinda gets creative with some little people

Gingerbread and Stockings

Decorating Gingerbread Houses is one of those fun Christmas traditions that the kids never want to miss out on. Why would they? They are miniature sugar castles! All the sugar aside, they do really enjoy the creativity involved. I wanted to let them each do their own miniature house, but I just didn't have the time and brain cells to make it happen this year. There's always next year, right? They did a great job working together (after the initial frustrations were addressed) and came up with a very fun design.

Our time in Tahoe was filled with great food.  I love it when Chris has time to cook!  Oh, the things he creates!  Pictured is a bowl of soup that could have won awards it was so yummy.  All of the kids agreed that it was delicious.  That's saying something!  I liked how the tomatoes and zucchini made it look all Christmas-y, Chris liked how the stock was made with the leftover turkey wings and pieces we froze after Thanksgiving. We had so much good food during these two weeks...now we get to go back to me "cooking".  (yes, those quotes were absolutely necessary.)

I also ended up reworking Audrey's stocking, since it had been completed in such haste last year (I think it was last year...?) that it needed some attention.  I'm now happy with the four stockings, though they are heavy in beauty and light in capacity.  I was looking for pictures of them on my blog and computer and didn't find what I thought I'd find, so here they are for the record:

Eventually I will get caught up with all these Christmas posts, I promise!  Next up, family time and presents...and then the lovely, gorgeous, fabulous snow.

Preparing for Christmas

So, Decembers are crazy busy, right?  Do you know when that started and why?   I didn't, until my dad told me (and we all know that everything my dad says is true).  You see, when parents started taking over Santa's job, (presents and Christmas cheer,) they brought the whole mess on themselves.  And so now we are stuck with this huge task better suited for the man in the red suit who knows how to add more hours to the day.

And the elves?  Where are those elves when I need a house decorated and un-decorated?  We couldn't find it, so we went about it all by ourselves...and the un-decorating has yet to be done (first we get to drive 10 hours, jump back into the rat-race, and then we get to un-decorate.)

The huge tree is really cool-looking, but boy is it a hassle...not just to adorn, either...attempting to get it (and keep it) straight is quite the challenge.

Another huge addition, that made this huge house seem more a home, was simply the best Christmas present I've ever received.  A month or two ago, when Chris asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told him I only want 2 things: my watch fixed, and a piano.  And although this was true (gifts aren't a huge deal for me) I realized that I was unlikely to get either...too time intensive, especially for this time of year.  I think that is part of what makes this gift so special.  Anybody have any idea how hard it is to pick out the perfect piano without a second opinion?  Chris did a fabulous job.  He found this 1922 Steinway that looks and sounds beautiful.  It simply wonderful.  And somehow, as you are playing it, you can hear the character and personality come through.  And it fits perfectly in the corner of our great room.

Oh, and here's Timothy looking Oh-So-Handsome (even if he isn't really smiling...this pic was the best of the lot) in his tux, ready for his Christmas concert:

Before heading to Tahoe for family and Christmas, we had a fabulous 60's Christmas party...of which I still need to scrape together pictures.  Hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later, but we're dealing with a bit of Spano-timetable, so it may be August before I actually get good pictures up.  The party was for Chris's mom's side of the family, as well as some other family/friends, and we made everyone dress up Early-60s to match the house.  We had some catering help as well as a jazz trio that was amazing, and a photo-booth set-up run by Jon and Michelle (brother-in-law and almost sister-in-law) with great success.  Here are the few measly pictures that I have, look for a better selection at some point in 2011. :)

December's Projects

December has been absolutely packed full of projects of all kinds.  Small and large, new and old, fun and...otherwise.  One of the first things I finished was the Blankie Project.  Audrey's original blanket was getting so worn out that it was obviously only a matter of time before my continual mendings would no longer be enough to hold it all together.  She's 6 years old, she could stand to set aside the blankie.  But she's my littlest and I couldn't bring myself to make her phase it out.  I'm going with the idea that she'll do it herself when she's ready.  So I ended up making a new one.  Audrey went to shop for the yarn with me, and checked my progress quite often to make sure that the bumps all felt right.  She was thrilled to have it finished, although she doesn't use it much.  It's so fluffy that she's not used to it.  I should probably run it through the washer to get rid of the new, fluffy feeling.  I did end up confiscating the oldest blankie without her knowledge or consent.  Surprisingly, she hasn't mentioned it yet (it has been a couple of weeks) so we'll see how that goes.

Another project had to do with two trees that we inherited when we moved into our house nearly a year ago. They are actually real branches with silk flowers hot glued on. And covered with decades of dust.  I didn't manage to transform both of them (mostly because the perfectionist in me wasn't entirely happy with the results...I think I need to find different pots to put them in.)  We pulled off the flowers, removed the old containers, then I spray painted the branches and chipped off some of the plaster that the branches were set in.  Then into the new pot, a few Christmas lights and ornaments later, and voila!  A new modern addition to our decorations.

We also did some furniture shopping.  The family/friend Christmas party was to be at our house, and we had a rather empty great room.  We ended up finding some great pieces on sale.  I fell in love with the green recliner, and then soon after we found the sofa/chair set, so those had to come home with us too.  The original brown couches that came with our house were slightly regrouped in order to make better seating areas.

All of a sudden our great room feels like a Great Room!  It feels great to have done something to make the house more personal.  It is such a huge place, and there are so many things that we dream of doing to it at some point, that it can often more like a house and less like a home, if that makes any sense.  Homey is a nice way to feel in December.

Where Did Thanksgiving Go?

I've been remiss in keeping this blog updated. :(

Yes, I've been crazy, nuts-o, reee-diculously busy. Am still, actually, but somehow almost a month has passed since we enjoyed our Thanksgiving spread and I haven't even addressed the subject, let alone anything that has happened in the month of December.


We had a great Thanksgiving holiday.  It was great to see family and friends, and as always, the food was fantastic. (is the word "fantastic" supposed to sound so plastic and elastic and spastic? hm.)  My mom and dad got to visit before the actual day-of-the-turkey, and we had a wonderful visit.  The snow kept coming down, piling up like an end-of-the-year storm instead of a beginning-of-the-season storm.

The Thursday in question was spent with great friends, cooking all day long.  Of course, everything was homemade.  Is there any other option?  (....oops, just remembered that the cranberry sauce this year was canned.)  So then, almost everything was homemade.  I made yams, rolls, pumpkin pie, and cherry pie.  Chris made the turkey, mashed potatoes, and some of the best dressing and gravy on earth.  Mmm.

That weekend, I finally watched Breakfast at Tiffany's all the way through.  Every other time I've tried to watch it I get distracted and disengaged.  Melinda and Timothy joined me in being amazed at the quirks in this movie, as well as the fashion of the very early '60s.  I'm sure that 1961 New York (setting for the film) was different from 1964 Southern California (when our house was built) but it was still fun to draw on any possible similarities.  Oh, and I happened to get a picture of Audrey with Audrey Hepburn in the background.

Now on to December...

Like Snow

 My established love for snow is joining my new found appreciation for poetry today.  When we were in Tahoe for Thanksgiving, we had some great snow storms, the kind of storms that usually wait until Christmas/New Years.  I hope it was just a practice run...we'll be back there soon and hope that the snow keeps falling!  This poem is by Wendell Berry, and is called "Like Snow".  I thought it would be fitting for my snowy pictures.

Suppose we did our work
like the snow, quietly, quietly
leaving nothing out.