Merry Everything!

To quote the deep and meaningful reflections of Miley Cyrus... with our family "you get the best of both worlds!" May your Christmas be blessed. May the light of Hanukkah brighten your home. And may 2009 bring peace to all of us!

Have yourself a crafty little Christmas

Every year I have such big expectations of what I want to do for homemade decorations or gifts. I usually don't get many done, but I wanted to share two things I did do that were new. In the spirit of being green, I dusted off my mom's sewing machine and scoured my closets for interesting fabrics to make re-usable gift bags. I didn't want Christmas fabric, but rather bags that could be used year round for birthdays, etc. If every family had 3-4 fabric bags they could use and re-use, the paper saved would be huge. This picture is of two of my favorite bags... the yellow and blue striped one is from the curtains that hung in Noah's nursery when he was first born. I also made one out of a favorite receiving blanket of Benny's. Jason and I decided we wouldn't part with these as it is such a wonderful reminder to see the fabric and remember when we used them. The other bag which is denim was made with an old pair of jeans I found of mine. Jeans that I wore years ago when I was a smidge larger than I am now. I'm happily giving that one away! No need to remember that.

The other thing I did was make the "fruit cake" decoration as Alanya calls it. I took my glass cake plate, filled the cover with fruit and flipped it. The only problem is, I missed a few Sunkist stickers on some fruit, and this morning I noticed one of the lemons is starting to go bad. Oh well. Haven't decided if I'll flip it back and try to fix it. Pretty and colorful though.

And finally, even though my intentions were good, some things just didn't happen for Christmas because of the ice storm, power outage, flooded basement, and did I mention that Alanya started throwing up last night? However I sat down yesterday and spent some time to write a little poem to stand in as an "IOU". I'm assuming my family is too busy this Christmas Eve morning to be reading this, so I'm including it here... Merry Christmas everyone!

Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house,

not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.
Intentions were good, my presents were planned,

the tree was put up all straight in its stand.
When all of a sudden one dark stormy night,

the power went out, it caused us some fright.
Food started to melt, the pumps overflowed,

laundry piled up and the house got so cold.
Our choices were few, our kids would come first,

presents must wait for the pipes may just burst.
Frustrated we both exclaimed to the night,

“No tv! No laptop! This just isn’t right!”
Our nightmare did end for the lights came back on,

but by then it was time that had passed us along.
So with a sad heart I’m sorry to say

I can’t hand you your gift as I wanted today.
I am working my best to complete it real soon,

In fact you should receive it before the new moon.
Thanks for understanding, that’s all I can say.
Blessings of Christmas to you on this day!

First Night of Hanukkah

Even though everyone has Christmas on the brain, we happily pushed that aside tonight to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah. The miracle of lights which has a whole new meaning for us after the five days in the dark. After lighting our two menorahs we all chowed down on Jason's latkes. A few years ago the kids wouldn't touch them, but tonight we all enjoyed them. Most of us eating them with applesauce, Noah going for the ketchup. At least he ate them!

Speaking of latkes, Jason picked up a great book this weekend called The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming, a Christmas Story by Lemony Snicket. It's the story of a misunderstood latke who is exasperated because people aren't listening when he says Hanukkah has nothing to do with Christmas. "It is very frustrating not to be understood in this world. If you say one thing and keep being told that you mean something else, it can make you want to scream. But somewhere in the world there is a place for all of us, whether you are an electric form of decoration, peppermint-scented sweet, a source of timber, or a potato pancake." I hope our kids can be like the latke... explaining to everyone, even the people who don't want to hear it, that each holiday is different, and both are special.

Benny does the Pops!

Yesterday was a busy day with lots to do after 10 inches of snow Friday night and another 10 inches coming Sunday. But the big event of the day was Benny's birthday gift... tickets to the Boston Pops holiday concert. We had great seats, and the show was wonderful. Ben, Jason and I had a wonderful time. Ben said his favorite was the 12 Days of Christmas. The arrangement had different music for every verse. For example, five golden rings was sung to Beethoven's Fifth, and so on. Very funny. Ben loved it because he has been playing the 12 Days of Christmas on the piano over and over since Thanksgiving! A special day for our guy.

Time for a deep breath

I have until 1pm on Christmas Eve to finish everything I have to do. OK. Deep breath. I've had to really think about what's important, and it's the kids. The extra decorations I wanted to make and put together aren't going to happen. The gifts that still need to be made aren't going to happen. Perfect wrapping with bells and ribbons... not happening. This year is just going to have to be different. I can do this. My expectations aren't "lower" meaning not as good. My expectations are simply different this year.

Something to smile about

And even with all the chaos around here, life goes on, little girls get bigger and teeth fall out! Finally the tooth fairy came... we were putting it off when we were refugees and moving place to place. I love the smile the first few days with the big gaping hole. No more babies around here.

Time to pick up

The top of one of our trees simply snapped off and fell on our neighbors shed and fence and landed in a second neighbors yard.

No, we didn't collect all these branches here... these all fell here by themselves.

This section of fence was a magnet for every limb and branch in a 30 foot area!

And we can't forget the basement... here is the damaged cabinet in the laundry room. Rotten and crumbling and nasty!

Back in the real world

The power went on last night four days and seventeen and a half hours after going off. It seemed like 40 days. I'm not kidding. Every hour was an eternity. Every hour that was except for the few we sat and watched the sump pumps overflow. That went fast. Too fast for us to do anything. Tonight though I sit here in my warm kitchen with the lights on, supper going. Talk about taking things for granted.

Over the last few days Jason kept saying this wouldn't have been so hard if we were prepared for it. If we had a generator, or a wood stove, or some other means of keeping the house warm and the pumps working. But we didn't. We have insurance which takes the sting away a bit. We have a large number of trees and debris that have to be removed. Unfortunately we now have 2-3 inches of snow covering everything. We have the soggy basement that needs to be reclaimed. I'm waiting right now for the restoration company that will come in and start working on it. Insurance covers that thank goodness. And finally, I was relieved to find out that we'll get some reimbursement after a deductible for the loss of the food in the deep freezer and refrigerator. I very cautiously shopped today, not wanting to jinx myself in case we had another outage.

My floor is vacuumed. Laundry is nearly done. The candles and flashlights put away. Amazing what 24 hours can do. There are still thousands without power, and my heart goes out to them. Particularly with Christmas right around the corner. I'm sure we'll remember this week for a very long time.

In the dark

The ice storm last Thursday night hit us hard. We lost power at 11pm Thursday. All night long and until about noon Friday limbs and trees crashed all around the neighborhood. It was surreal. When we got up at 7am, we checked our sump pumps and realized it was going to be inevitable. No power, and the massive amount of rain, and then melting ice, the water was rising. All 5 of us had flashlights and tried to get everything up off the basement floor. Jason made a trip to Home Depot and bought an inverter to try and run the pump off the car battery. It didn't work. Realizing there was nothing more we could do, Jason left for work, and I sat down to wait. At 12:30 the water overflowed and quickly every square inch of the basement was covered. It maxed at about 3-4 inches deep.

We kept the kitchen warm by simmering pots of water on the gas stove. The kids hung out in the den where we have the gas insert in our fireplace that gives us the illusion of warmth. By the time the sun went down I had to get out of the house to warm up and charge my phone. The kids and I went out and sat at Starbucks until Jason could meet us for dinner. This adventure was slowly losing its charm.

Did I mention we had a massive amount of large limbs down, including large ones that demolished our neighbor's fence, crashed into his shed, as well as the top of a tree that landed in another neighbor's yard? Our insurance company was helpful, but this is going to be complicated.

After putting the kids to bed Friday, Jason and I emptied the deep freezer and refrigerator. Things were already defrosted. We sat in our cold kitchen at 10pm, me eating melted Klondike bars, and Jason eating a bowl of his beloved blueberries he picked in July. I can't think about the food. It's too upsetting.

We slept at home Friday night, and the temp in the house got down to about 50 degrees. Breakfast was french toast with blueberries. Silly to eat cereal when we had food going bad. Thank goodness we can use the stove. After breakfast Jason took the kids outside to take pictures for the insurance company, and I had a mission. I had less than 20 minutes to splash through the basement and move all of our hidden Christmas gifts up two flights of stairs to hide them somewhere else. Luckily we didn't lose anything to the water. I'll look back and laugh someday, right?

Jason went to talk to our neighbor and he had gotten his hands on a generator to run his sump pump. He generously offered to let us plug our pump in. Within an hour we had pumped the water out, it was amazing. Jason and I spent another hour sweeping water around the basement towards the pumps. Hopefully our hot water heater and furnace will turn on again once we get power. Saturday afternoon, we packed up and drove to my aunt's house for the night. Hot shower, hot meal, heaven. Jason went back home though so that he could keep an eye on the pumps. As of this morning, Sunday, the house was in the 40s and he is switching the generator back and forth on our two pumps. The water table is still extremely high.

We were able to salvage a large cooler full of meat from the freezer, plus another small bag of things which I stashed at my friend's house. Hopefully the deep freezer wasn't damaged by the water either.

I'm sitting here in my brother's living room, enjoying the heat, and his wireless Internet. The kids have been so good, but we all want to get home to our house. I don't know when that will be. I heard the schools have power, but there are still a huge number of closed roads, and the buses won't be able to get through. If school is open Monday, I suppose I'll bring the kids home. Other than that, I'm not sure what I will do. Imagine this was next weekend and a day or two before Christmas. I'm already overwhelmed. Have almost started crying a few times. Have been able to hold it together thus far. Talk about a humbling experience.

Last night my little girl lost her front tooth. She has a little lisp now and a beautiful smile. Life goes on.

Clementine boxes

We love clementines. The cheapest I've seen them is $4.99, but usually they are a dollar or two more. You know why clementines are so expensive? You are paying for that fancy box. That fancy box that everyone hates to throw away. That box that sits on your counter for a few days before you move it somewhere else for awhile. That box that looks perfect for something, but it never quite works for anything. Granted, these little beauties have quite a trip as they travel across the Atlantic from Spain and North Africa and the boxes surely help protect them, but it sure does seem like overkill. Google 'clementine box' and the possibilities are endless, but nothing I need right now. Off to add another clementine box to the stack in the basement. Some day I'll figure out the perfect solution for it.

The perfect meal

For some strange reason, my kids talk about what the meal will be at their wedding. The ultimate, perfect meal that they think will be all their favorite foods. The conversations are quite funny, particularly to hear what they think is "fancy".

Tonight at dinner they went at it again. Benjamin started with dessert, apple pie. I think he just has apple pie on the brain from Thanksgiving. The main dish will be Shepherd's pie. He had three servings of it last week when I made it. Alanya said she'd have appetizers of "weenies", I presume she means those little hot dogs in the pastry, with "dipping sauces" of mustard and ketchup. The main course will be spaghetti and sausage with red sauce. Sounds like a very difficult meal to eat in a white gown. Noah will have chicken with "choice of" peas, corn or green beans, and Hasselbeck potatoes (something I make rarely, usually around Hanukkah). It all sounds good, but I could probably do without Alanya's weenies!

Fried raspberry

No, not a new dessert. Fried raspberry as in, my pink blackberry was dead this morning. Jason gave me the blackberry for my birthday and I never thought I'd use it for anything more than a phone. How wrong I was. I love this thing. But this morning I picked it up and it was just dead. I took it to the store and Mike, the customer service tech, quickly pronounced it dead. He said he'd only seen that error message once before, and nothing could be done, all information on it is lost. I've lost everything. But I can pick up the pieces and move on. (sniff) I have a brand new shiny pink raspberry, eager and ready to receive everything I will put in it. So if I'm in your phone, or I have ever called you, can you shoot me an email with your numbers? I'm not kidding. I have nothing. In fact when I sat down this week to address Christmas cards I discovered that the old little Rolodex that I thought wasn't needed for anything, the one I threw away, actually had more info than I realized. Doh! Any help getting set up again would be appreciated. And don't worry, Mike threw in a CD and cable so that from now on I can back the raspberry up on the laptop. Phew!

My crazy Saturday afternoon

Every December a local organization has a fundraiser where they sell tickets to tour 4-5 homes that have been decked out by local decorators and florists for the holidays. The houses are of course impressive, even before the professionals move in. Last year my friend and I got roped into volunteering at one of the homes. Our job was to keep the flow of people moving in the right direction, and make sure people weren't stealing anything or poking around in closets or underwear drawers. The whole things has a sick, voyeuristic quality to it.

On Saturday, my friend and I showed up at the house we were to 'work' at, and what a few hours it turned out to be! We were stationed upstairs, and were to move people through the upper level and down a back set of stairs. We weren't there 4 minutes when the craziness started.

The first three women who came upstairs were having fun, chatting about the decorations, etc. They went into a bedroom next to me and a big decorative sign that was perched on top of the closet door molding falls off and hits a woman in the head! It took her a minute to get herself together and when she pulled her hands away from her head, she had blood on her hands! This was not the cushy volunteer gig I signed up for! I quickly took her over to my friend who helped her into the bathroom and I ran down to the person in charge. When I told the woman what happened... well... her exact words can't be repeated on a family blog such as this one! In the end, the injured woman's head slowly stopped bleeding and they were able to laugh about it. I was shocked when the woman in charge said to call her next year for free tickets to the tour. That's it. I hope a lawsuit isn't coming!

That was a crazy way to start the afternoon, but it only got stranger. The point was to see the decorations, yet people felt like it was an open invitation to peer into the lives of the people who lived there! I had people push by me into a closed off bathroom. When I told them it wasn't decorated for the holidays, they said it didn't matter, they just wanted to look. People stood and read every word of framed diplomas. One woman took her shoes off to see if the floor had radiant heat. People grilled me wanting to know how big the home was, and how many people lived there. I'm telling you, it was creepy. I'm not sure I'd want thousands of people traipsing through my home and trying to sneak peeks into my bathroom, even if it was worthy of being on the tour! My friend said the same thing... she was creeped out by it too. We decided we need to have plans when they call us to see if we'll volunteer next year!

Christmas preparations

This weekend we finally got our act together and took out our decorations. And with the hope of helping Santa focus a bit, the kids wrote their letters. Each one is precious. Ben (my child with the handwriting of a font designer) teased Noah (my child who writes like a first grader) that if Santa can't read a letter because of bad handwriting, that child gets no gifts! What a bugger. Alanya sat here and happily spent 40 minutes working through her letter with the help of Jason, and had us in stitches the entire time.

The tree is up and when we finished I asked the kids what they thought of it. Noah said it looked great. Alanya said in typical six year old fashion, "but it will look even better with presents under it!" Don't they always?

The piano lesson

Tonight while Alanya was having her piano lesson I picked up the camera and took a little video. I thought it was so cute with her playing with her teacher.

Then, because I took a video of Alanya, I had to do it for Ben! He's only been working on Jingle Bells for a few days, so he did quite well!

The incredible shrinking everything

We've all seen those bits on the news, or Andy Rooney getting all crotchety, about product packaging getting smaller but the price staying the same. Did you know that a half gallon of ice cream is no longer a half gallon? Or maybe I should say that a half gallon is no longer the standard size for ice cream. It isn't just food though. A few weeks ago I was changing the toilet paper roll and when I put the new one on, it just looked odd. I took the old tube and held it up to the new roll. The new roll was 3/4 of an inch narrower. Interesting. We still get the 1000 sheets of toilet paper, but they are smaller squares. Brilliant. I wonder who thought up that one over at Kimberly Clark, and I hope they got a raise. It was one of those days, and I couldn't help myself, so I emailed them to inquire. The response I got stated that the "new size" allowed them to fit more product on their trucks and therefore save more energy in transport. Interesting spin to put on them making more money when I get less product.

This mystery of the shrinking product goes beyond the grocery store. Ever been to the clothing store Chico's? Here the product isn't shrinking, just the arbitrary size on the label. Someone there came up with the idea that women don't want to be reminded they are a size 10 or 14, so their sizing is 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4. I feel so much better about my body image now that I can strut around in a pair of size 1 pants. I never thought it possible.

You probably thought your bedding was safe. Not so. Earlier this year I went shopping for a new comforter cover, found one I liked and bought one for my queen sized bed. It was labeled "full/queen" and I didn't think anything of it. I put it on the bed and it looked ridiculous, barely hanging over the bed or covering the mattress. I started investigating bedding sizes and they had shaved about 4 inches off the width of a queen to make this new size full/queen. Did they think no one would notice? Now they didn't need to produce two different sizes, they could cover both the full and the queen with one. I went in search of a straight "queen" size in a style I liked. No luck. I ended up getting a king size comforter to put on my queen bed. Crazy, I know, but it looks right! Beware, you never know what may be shrinking!