Thanksgiving Tidings

Last night my brother called to say that he'd be joining us for Thanksgiving and that his girlfriend would be joining us too!  I should have seen this coming, but I didn't.  Before this fateful phone call, we had decidedly decided that we were not hosting this year.  We were not cooking the big bird.  The plan was to secure an invitation by way of inviting ourselves over somewhere and bring some killer sides to make up for it.  Change of plans.  So far I know that I want to make a collard green gratin and I know that we will drink cider of the fermented kind with our meal.  I also know that I still don't want to cook a bird.  But you can get away with anything these days, so we will figure it out.  Hopefully we will just eat some really good food.  Hopefully you will too.

A friend sent me this NYT article which is fun, although brussel sprouts are too delicious to shred.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Small Winter Habits

Today Naomi and I drank hot chocolate and ate peanut butter toast for our morning snack.  I think we are going to make this one of our winter routines.  In my mind I had hot chocolate as an afternoon treat, but it is being bumped up.  Naomi scavenges her way through most mornings.  She starts off with a banana, followed by oatmeal, followed by almonds which wait for her in the removable plastic sink from our play kitchen.  From there it's a hodge podge of requests, mostly loud hollerings for a bowl of cereal.  At the end of all this but still before the nine o'clock hour we will insert hot chocolate and toast.  After which Naomi will remind me as she did this morning that Mercy Watson likes toast with a great deal of butter on it.  Not my favorite reference, but a very true statement.  

Instead maybe we can start putting this poem to memory:

Animal crackers and cocoa to drink, 

That is the finest of suppers I think;

When I'm grown up and can have what I please 

I think I shall always insist upon these.

What do YOU choose when you're offered a treat?

When Mother says, 'What would you like best to eat?'

Is it waffles and syrup, or cinnamon toast?

It's cocoa and animals that I love most! 

by Christopher Morley

Winter and a Wedding

It's a puzzle I tell you: dressing your children in the cold weather months.  I was determined to get it right this year.  I'm not a rookie.   I wanted to count myself among the prepared.  And so I didn't wait to rummage through the local rummage sales piecing together a warm-enough ensemble.  I ordered the snow bibs from Hanna Andersson and the mittens on a string for both girls.  They both had coats and hats from previous years and previous owners.  We were ready.  

It's safe to say that Naomi has some tactile sensitivities.  What I mean by that is getting a jacket, boots, hats and gloves on her, in no particular order, is a real ordeal.  My "I'm leaving without you" walk out the door is very convincing.  But it's a bit of a downer to have to pull that out every day.  Then a couple things happened.  First, I noticed that there was not a single vacancy in the row of hooks by my front door.  And then one day at Naomi's preschool pick-up I witnessed a rock-star mom getting her daughters dressed for outside.  (She is European and I pay particular attention to mothers that hail from colder climates than our own.)  They were dressed in the full-on all-weather snow-suit -and it wasn't snowing.  "I'm done," she said.  "You will see them in this till March."  "Don't they complain?" I countered.  She looked at me with confusion and her eyes said, "Do you think I care?"  And the winter wardrobe dilemma dissolved right then and there.  The winter coat that isn't water-proof is being given away.  The fleece is being hidden.  Today I drove back to the consignment shop I was just at and bought a similarly legitimate "winter suit" complete with hat and mittens.  This set is almost half the price of the snow-bibs I bought new.  

I feel like I've broken some code.  

But for now that all can wait.  Tomorrow we head a few states south to celebrate a dear friend's wedding.  I'm packing some ribbon and an old handkerchief to wrap her flowers in.  It will be a special time with old friends in the Capitol city which we all shared several years ago.  

  

Color Palettes at Daybreak

I read in the last Domino magazine a great tip about decorating -limit your color palette.  Make a short list of colors and then work within those shades.  I'm a fan of anything that helps me eliminate options and so I've really enjoyed implementing this constraint.  

Between me and my home, I will be the one wearing green.  See how authoritative that sounded?  My green-legged table now stands mustard.   

This project coincided perfectly with the time change of this past weekend.  We've been hit hard by daylight savings.  The word brutal only touches on it.   4:30.  5:30.  5:20.  If you are going to wake us up at that hour you have to happy.  New rule.  Seriously, quality of life before 6am in our house is at an all-time low.  I hope you guys are fairing better.  :)       

And Then Comes IKEA

What comes after Halloween?  IKEA.  Fabric by the yard for me.  Paints and paper for Naomi and at long last, Verity got some cabinet locks.  

What are you guys up to this weekend?  I've got my favorite rummage sale on tap tomorrow morning.  Hoping to squeeze in a run and an Ohlin's doughnut beforehand.  

And, in case you haven't seen it yet, here's a laugh to end this Halloween week.