Advent Day 24 - and Christmas

It was rather sweet that the last Advent was "Drive Around and find the best Christmas Lights in Town", it capped the whole Advent experience off perfectly.

Christmas Eve was blue skies, brisk wind, long walk, a clean house, making cheese and green chile enchiladas, lighting luminarias, leaving out cookies for Santa, Scrabble and filling my daughters stocking for the first time.

Christmas it rained and rained and poured, like I'd never seen it before. For the first time ever, we didn't get out of our pyjamas all day long. We drank coffee and ate cheese and watched Return of the King (the Extended version) which was just perfect and played more Scrabble and I got just what I wanted for Christmas (a full pass to the documentary film festival and a 6-pack of Blenheim ginger ale) and did crosswords and I truly didn't mind that we had missed out on the cabin or anything. I didn't feel bone-deep lonely as I feared - I had my family. We are a family.

We did drive out to Asheville the next day and I loved having a horizon for once and some snow and mountains and a cute little downtown. The best moment was breakfast at the Early Girl Eatery and admiring the art on the walls - and when AH paid the bill, he secretly bought one of the paintings for me. We agonize over every purchase so this spontaneity shocked and pleased me so much. I love it! But I was disappointed that you can't walk around Black Mountain College as it is now a Christian Boy's Camp. Drag.

The after-effects of Christmas include a bajillion cookies in my house, general contentment and a toddler who repeatedly picks up the phone, says "Hello? Santa?" and then drops it, shrieking in terror. Thanks for hanging with me as I recounted every last detail of my advent.

Advent Day 21

"Address and send all Christmas Cards"

I included this in the advent, thinking if it was drawn earlier in the month it would be a real kick in the pants to get the cards done. Every year I make some terrible card (I don't know why I don't buy them friends, I really can't say, except for the principles of re-using and creativity I guess) and send them out late - but I am happy to report that all the glitter-fied cards are in the mail, if not at their destination. So today was a Pass, I Did It Already, Thanks Advent.

Except I had one last package to send to a friend in Vancouver - took it down to the post office and for one of those small Amazon boxes which had two childrens clothing items, a book and a small jar of jam in it - $26 was the cheapest Slow Boat to China rate I could get out of UPS. Like, 3 times the price of any item in the package. Is it just me or do package rates seem a billion dollars higher than they used to be?All told, it was almost $200 to send packages of homemade goodies to friends and family this year - dang, no wonder people send gift cards, which is just depressing.

Speaking of depressing, perhaps it is the shortest day of the year or the womanly hormones talking, but I've been less than jolly this week as the 3rd consecutive Christmas without family or friends looms. We had plans for a cabin and that was pulling me through - a mountain-top cabin owned by an acquaintance, lots of snowy walks and a fireplace - but it looks like it won't happen. The big old snowstorm really hammered Western North Carolina and they lost power and the roads are still all snowed in. This is somewhat crushing, as we have 5 days off together and doing the same old routine in the same old place ALONE - well. I'm trying to pull myself out of the doldrums.

Do you see that stamp up there? Canada Post put it out, it's a reproduction of a Mary Pratt painting that I covet so completely it's hardly bearable. The light! The canning jars! I'm having a minor obsession at the moment.

Day 19 and 20

Day 19
"Surprise Day"
I threw this one in the mix because I was worried that being told what to do every day would get old. I was wrong - instead I kind of fretted all day about creating the Surprise. Such as Surprise! - I made gingerbread pancakes in the shape of snowmen for breakfast- but managed to bicker with my husband throughout said activity, about his ongoing and infuriating inability to guess what needs doing by simply looking around him and assessing the situation. Such as: daughter falls of chair, cries hysterically, will only go to wife, wife is currently flipping said Snowmen Gingerbread Pancakes which is impossible to do with weeping toddler in arms- What Would You Do? Continue unloading the dishwasher? I thought not. Point for me. The day just went downhill from there with much cleaning of the house, much wrangling of a child who was going off her rocker and not having the energy to make planned dinner, and thus dining on popcorn. Well, they can't all be Red Letter Days I guess.

Day 20
"Buy this year's ornament"
I don't need more ornaments - my brother and my Mom have kept me steadily supplied with Lauscha glass ornaments (beautiful German numbers) and thrift stores always charge bottom dollar for old glass ornaments which I never understand.

But each year of our marriage, we have bought an ornament from a place we had visited or an experience or just because we like it..
.
Witness Christmas 2007's ornament, when we were still convinced the baby we'd be having in 19 days was a boy. Whoops.

I hope Simone will be excited to put these ornaments up in future years and ask for the stories. But the story behind this years ornament?


Simone, your parents just really, really like beer.

Advent Day 16, 17 and 18

Day 16: "Buy tickets to a hockey game or make plans to ice skate"

I was hoping for a hockey game, though the Hurricanes have been doing terribly. But looking over the schedule, the only remaining games were post-7 pm. And really, all I wanted to do was inject a little Canadian-ness in Simone's life so doing it without her wasn't an option. Which leaves us with ice skate - in North Carolina. Hmm. I grew up skating outside, on backyard ponds, community rinks with a little wooden shack to change into your skates, the floorboards criss-crossed with blade marks, and best of all, rivers - there is really nothing like skating on a frozen river, going for miles amongst the trees. Skating in circles indoor on artificial ice pales a little in comparison. So I was very happy to find out that downtown Raleigh has put in an outdoor rink until the end of January, right in the middle of the tall buildings. We'll see how it goes...

Day 17: "Make a garland from materials we find outside"

It happened to be snowing tonight - Snowing! So we set out with some shears and a basket and within 30 feet, I had clipped some beautiful holly, juniper and magnolia leaves.



It's hard to see in this second picture (I'm always taking my pictures at night, trying to fight off a crazy toddler so I apologize, they aren't Design Blog worthy...) but we strung up some green Velvette ribbon (I bought a reel of it from the Scrap Exchange simply because I loved the word "Velvette" - do you ever buy things because of their old school brand name? Guilty!) along the bannister and hung it with the holly and greens. Free! Beautiful! (Note the toddler running to sack me at my knees in the background...)



And then because I had some greenery left over, I piled some lights in the same basket we used to collect them and lit it up.


I think it came out rather nice, especially after lighting the Frasier Fir candle you see in the foreground. Jeannette sent it to me last year, which is the kind of thing I could never buy myself - but am so happy to have.

Day 18: "Watch 'Shop Around the Corner'"

My love for this movie never wanes - so smart and funny. It's as near perfect as a movie can be, or at the very least, movie dialogue. I do love "It's A Wonderful Life" but this is my Must-See every Christmas, one of the few I actually own. Love.

Advent Day 13

" Take a wintery walk, then make homemade hot cocoa"

Wintery walk - check, it's been downpouring rain and streaming cold for days. And we essentially live on a big college campus so we have our choice of paths and botanical gardens and such.
Homemade hot cocoa, yes please. In lieu of my beloved Cadbury instant hot chocolate (Please Kraft, cease and desist your hostile takeover bid for Cadbury, the future of good chocolate on a mass scale depends on it!) or my only a little less loved Abuelita Mexican hot chocolate, I relied on this recipe, pinched directly from this book:

Chai Hot Cocoa with Whipped Cream

3 C Milk
1 C water
3 T cocoa powder
2 cinnamon sticks
5 cardamom pods
1/2 t ground ginger
3 cloves
Pinch cayenne pepper
2 t vanilla extract or vanilla bean
4 oz bittersweet chocolate

Combine everything except bittersweet chocolate in a medium saucepan and heat until scalding. Remove from heat and let steep for 10 minutes, then strain.

In same saucepan, melt chocolate and add steeped, spiced milk. Sitr for five minutes until chocolate is melted.

Pour into 4 mugs and serve, as I did, with Cinnamon whipped cream.

The toddler member of the family thought it very fine, even after suffering the indignity of being stripped to her bare torso, donning a bib and the eventual transference of said cocoa to a sippy cup.

Advent Catch-Up (Day 8,9,10)

AKA pulling it out of my ass.
I'm pretty proud of the fact that despite my final papers and huge old statistics exam, we kinda sorta kept up with the Advent activities. Kinda.

Day 8: "Make a batch of Ginger Krinkles". It may sound like I'm obsessed with ginger, but it's just luck of the Advent draw. There is an equally big part of my heart dedicated to chocolate. I handed this one over to Sergio, as I had to finish my g-dawed paper. I thought all was well. There are maybe 8 ingredients total and some very minimal instruction. Nonetheless, there is a pile of flat, crumbled, utterly useless cookies in my kitchen right now. I couldn't even take pictures of them to mock, it just seemed a little mean. A teeny tiny voice in my head was shrilling "Do I have to do EVERYTHING myself?" but I got over it.




Day 9: "Find and do a Christmas tradition from another country".
I had 4 hours sleep, an 11 hour work and school day, a crazy windstorm, a slightly-warm toddler, and a husband departing for band practice in less than an hour. Emergency world Christmas situation! I remembered something about pudding and a nut and voila - Thank you Denmark for your easy-to-rip-off Christmas tradition. They make rice pudding and put an almond in one of the ramekins. Whoever finds the almond gets a prize, often a marzipan pig.
My harried working Mom version: uh, I used TJ's Instant Choc. Pudding which I bought because I love the box), buried a walnut in one of the bowls (no almonds in the pantry), shuffled them like a 3 card Monte and handed them out after dinner. Sergio found the walnut, I handed him a Kinder Happy Hippo and bam - kinda done.

Day 10: "Surprise your co-workers with baking".
Um, see Day 8 and the resulting cookie debacle. Thus tonight I made Hello Dolly bars and plan to distribute them tomorrow. Which is not exactly cheating.

In other news, I have no more homework for 3 weeks. It's truly the most wonderful time of the year.

Advent Day 7

Working on four hours sleep, with three assignments due and one exam before Wednesday, I was truly grateful to pull today's Advent out of the sack:

"Have A Charlie Brown Christmas viewing party"






This particular "party" involved an almost 2-year old on my lap watching it for the first time, a Chocolate Covered Candy Cane Jo-Jo, hot tea and blankets. It was fantastic.

Advent Day 3

" Prepare the Luminaries."

This is a New Mexico thing - Sergio has fond memories of his whole neighborhood going out on Christmas Eve and lighting their candles. What I love about Luminaries is the simplicity - brown paper bags, votive candles and sand - voila. I am currently painting our brown bags with red and green chiles, which is kind of heretical but yet, completely New Mexico. In fact, a sauce of red and green chile is called "Christmas style". So today I rounded up sand (free), some old paper bags and some obnoxiously-scented "Cinnamon Bun" votive candles. Our neighborhood is having a St. Bernadette's parade on December 12th to the local Catholic church and we may add our lights to the community blaze - or wait until Christmas Eve and guide Santa in through our New Mexico runway. 

Advent Day 2

After the good intentions and shattered hopes (well, not really - I have no hopes when it comes to taking my kid out post-bedtime to a place where she must behave) of last night's choir outing, today's Advent surprise was Nice n' Easy:

"Drink some eggnog, the kind in a glass bottle, with some cookies". 

The eggnog was delicious (I know some are haters but this is the Good Stuff), and the cookies were TJ's Peppermint Jo-Jo's.  Yum.

Advent

Welcome to my version of PeBloPoDe (Personal Blogging Post December) which coincides nicely with what I intend to post about - the Advent.  I happen to be an Atheist, and I don't mind telling you, because it seems about as valid as any other sets of beliefs to me. Despite this obvious roadblock, I love Christmas. I lustily sing along with the songs with only a twinge of hypocrisy and put up all the decorations and the colored lights. And I have always had an Advent calendar. But this year I have TWO Advent calendars:

First, a traditional chocolate style type, but the important thing to note is the word Kinder - I have a slavish devotion to the Kinder brand of chocolate and Kinder Surprise eggs  specifically, which have little toys and puzzles inside to put together. They're from Germany and you can get them in Canada - but never, ever in the USA. I do not know why, but when I saw this Advent calendar on my trip home I snatched it up. Kinder every day! I am sort of glad my kid is too young to fight me for it. 

But I'm REALLY excited about the second one - also via Germany, as my brother gave it to me when we met up in Canada. The empty bags seemed to have a lot of possibility and when I read this post from Cup of Jo, I knew what to do. We made a list of 24 Christmassy things to do - mixed them up and put them in the bags. It's crazy how excited I am to open the bags, like I'm a kid. Today was a gimme, because we already had plans to see a Christmas choir at the Duke chapel tonight, but I love the idea of making all my tasks and traditions into a daily surprise. And the plan is to share them with this blog. 

In honor of the music we're going to hear tonight, here's a cut from one of my favourite Christmas records, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles's "The Season for Miracles" (1970):

(Advent Day One update: We made it to the third song before someone's small child started wailing and wanted the lights back on instead of those pesky candles and beautiful singing...sigh, maybe next year.)