Christmas is Coming

 This time of year I am in the middle of getting quilts to customers before their Christmas deadline, getting pattern submittals to fabric companies for winter releases, thinking about getting continuing ed hours for my engineering license that I hang on to for hard times (but always waiting until the 11th hour before I actually DO anything about it)...and then there's Christmas.  The gift buying, the card writing, the decorating that just doesn't quite get done.  It's a mad world of running at top speed and crashing. Plus, add in the extra bonus that 2020 is and it's just a little bit stressful.  I used to REALLY love Christmas and then I became an adult...or what passes for an adult most days anyway and now, I still love Christmas but don't take time to enjoy it.

So, the other day, I took a pause.  I decided I was going to the Salem Candle Tea.  I've gone almost every year since I was maybe 6 years old and I really didn't want to miss this year because it was going to be so different.  Because of COVID, they were doing the candle tea as a drive through.  So, I left the shop, picked up David at the house and we went to the candle tea.

They had different stations set up around the square and as you drive through, you listened to a narrative on an app on your phone.  Instead of singing Christmas carols accompanied by the old organ, here's where we learn about the importance of music to Moravian life and worship.

Instead of heading downstairs to the dining area and watching them make the beeswax candles, there's a demo.

They have a rendition of the kitchen where we would sit down, have coffee and sugar cake and learn about life and chores in the Brothers House.  

Instead of heading to the cellar to see the putz, there was a small display of sample houses.

And just like in the regular tour, the last stop was the telling of the Christmas Story and even though it wasn't the beautiful putz we love to see, it still had that calming, hope-filled effect on me.

But really... the part that made me smile the most was that Shelby got to go to her first candle tea.

 

So, we decided to keep the Christmas pause going and made a run out to Tanglewood for the Festival of Lights.  We haven't driven through them in years.  We hit the back of the line right at the entrance to the park so I thought, we're not far from the gate so that's not so bad...at which David laughed because he knew they had added a road that took the waiting line all the way around the steeplechase field.

It was 2 hours before we got to the gate.  But, we had lots to amuse us.  Shelby was taking in all the sights and sounds.  There was music and lights and people jumping out of their cars to go to the port-a-potties.  From the other cars around us, we could hear kids laughing and people singing...one guy in particular was loudly singing the 12 Days of Christmas and not well.  It was wonderful.

We finally made it to the gate and the "paid" part of the light show lasted about 45 minutes.  There were some new things but mostly the same lights as the last time years ago.  That didn't matter one bit because it was all the other parts...the being together part that mattered.

(But I really did miss that coffee and sugar cake.)

A Little Look at Christmas

Christmas has always been all about family with my folks...whether we liked each other or not.  It seems though that as the years go on, we like each other more and more and the laughter is more abundant than the sniping.

We're adults after all, right?

For the most part anyway.

There are things that always happen though...

• Mom and I cook too much.
• Everyone eats too much.
• My brother's family is just a little late...which sends Dad over the edge.  (Patience is not a virtue he's embraced.)
• My parent's over buy in the gift department.
• There is a huge mess left over after the boys leave.
• Someone gets their panties in a twist over something that may or may not have been said or done...but it's short-lived as soon as Asher does some nutty thing he does.
• There is laughter.
• There is love.
• There is a nap.

The photos this year looked like something out of a sitcom to me for some reason.

Hum "Happy Together"...

Asher, the pink bunny boy...

Hampton, a teenage boy making faces,,,

Shelby, hiding on the pool table...

J.D. hamming it up...

J.D. buried...

My brother in his new snuggie... his wife saying "what is wrong with you"...

Dad in a goofy hat...

Asher and the big box of mystery...

What was in the box...

The turkey feast...

The wild bunch...

Yep... happy together!

The Christmas Tour

After the motley Christmas crew left the house on Monday, I got to work catching up.  First on the agenda was make a couple red velvet cakes.  It was a staple at my grandmother's house every Christmas and my brother's favorite so now I make the cake using her recipe.  (I made two this year so my friend Hattie could have one for her Christmas invasion.)  

 

Here's the recipe if you want to give it a try...

Grandma's Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients:      

2 1/3 c self-rising flour

1 ½ c sugar

1 c Wesson oil

1 tsp soda

1 c butter milk

1 tsp vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 oz red food coloring

                 

Directions:          Preheat over to 350⁰.  Mix sugar and oil.  Add eggs, liquids and flour.  Mix well.  Bake in 2-3 layer pans, 25-30 minutes.  Test with a toothpick to make sure done.  Let layers cool then frost cake.         

Icing

Ingredients:      

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1 stick butter, softened

1 box powdered sugar (since it doesn't come in a box anymore, I use the one pound bag.)

1 tsp vanilla

1 c chopped pecans

                  

Directions:          Cream margarine and cream cheese together.  Add sifted powdered sugar, vanilla and nuts.

So...after that, Shelby and I had to put our feet up or the night.  We needed to be prepared for the craziness to come.

Christmas Eve begins our little family tradition of bacon and eggs while we watch Christmas Vacation.  Then I'm off to cook the green beans and sweet potato casserole for the Christmas Day gathering at my parent's house.  Somewhere in there we wrapped a few more presents, visited with Hattie for a bit and packed a bag for the tour.  We load the car full of presents and head for the hills to have dinner with David's dad and "step-family".  It's a blessing to be included.

 The first time I met the young woman holding Shelby, she was about the age of the little sweetheart beside her.  When I first started coming up for Christmas Eve, there was just the one little girl.  Now there are a baby brother, three cousins by a new marriage, and two new baby sisters who were so very lucky to be adopted by this wonderful clan.

One who was put under Shelby's spell all night.

I was sort of under hers.

So then...we head to my parent's house for the Christmas Day festivities. 

My mom donning her Christmas tiara (which she has earned many times over)

My three nephews getting on their goofy faces (yes, they receive an obscene number of presents)

My dad buried in a present avalanche and kinda happy about it

Okay, so I ran out of boxes and used whatever was on hand which included an empty box of Super Tab folders...which was what the youngest thought he had received as a gift from me...and was over the moon about it.  I mean hopping up and down yelling "Super Tabs".  Y'all he is the funniest kid ever.

And Shelby after attacking a present, then a sock, then having a running fit...she looks a little punch-drunk, don't you think?

It was a great Christmas.  They usually are but they just seem to keep getting better.  

Christmas Eve Eve and Everything is Stirring...

I really like the barter system especially in the last few years when money is usually not just scarce but non-existent.  Luckily, I've got some skills with which to barter...which is why my house was in a complete upheaval yesterday in a good way.  

Several months ago, my sister-in-law asked if I would put together a memory quilt for her.  She had saved her son's onesies, her favorite baby outfits and preschool tees, crib sheets, the gown she wore when pregnant and various other things.  Sure I said...if my brother would come fix some things around my house.  (side note... my dad and brother can build and fix just about anything since both of them were born into the construction business.  My husband...that's another story...)

So, I finished the quilt and was holding it hostage until the things here at the house were fixed.  Here's all I wanted:  1. a hole in the kitchen wall near the floor filled...old house so this little hole was a free invitation to whatever critters came to visit the basement. (I was ready to sell the house...) 2. The hole in the outside basement door (the one big enough for the cats, raccoons, possums, etc. to come on in the basement and enjoy the great indoors). 3. Replace the rotted door frame on the patio that suffers from rain back splash.  It's been a very rainy year.

That's not much to ask for a 80" x 80" memory quilt...

Here's what happened...

My brother recruited a crew to come help...and they chose Christmas Eve Eve to come over.

The crew from left to right... my brother's long-time friend, Sean, my bother, Jim (the tall one in the back that looks like Paul Bunyan), Sean's son, Patrick, Jim's wife's nephew, Evan (the one that looks like Pony Boy from the Outsiders and yes he means to do that), my nephew Hampton, my husband David (supervisor), my nephew, Asher, the babe in the front, and my Dad, the boss.

Can you say motley crew?  Y'all, I have a small house.  I do not let many people come in that small house because I have enough stuff to fill three houses.   I pushed the freaking out aside and made the biggest crockpot of beef stew EVER and some cornbread and sat back and watched my quarter-acre turn into Never Land with a herd of lost boys.  (Luckily I took Shelby to the groomer first thing so she didn't have to deal with the stress of protecting her territory.)

Remember the list of three things I wanted done?  Here's what these boys got done in about five hours:

1. Replace the toilet in the front bathroom (this is what I asked for for Christmas, seriously...)

2. Replace the lid on the toilet in the back bathroom (because they had an extra)

3. Fix the leaky sink in the front bathroom (we now have cold water for the first time in at least two years)

4. Replace the faucet in the back bedroom (because that leak could be fixed)

5. Replace the shower head in the back bathroom (didn't need this but my brother and my husband got carried away at Lowe's)

6. Hauled off a load of junk out of the basement (I don't even want to know what came out of there)

7. Put the legs on my new Ikea desk and set up my little office space)

8. Replaced the basement door

9. Painted said door

10. Installed a jam to seal the door (outside entrance basement in an old house...there's no such thing as level, plumb and square)

11. Sealed that hole in the kitchen with a steel plate (if something comes through that, I'm moving)

12. Evaluated why my dishwasher doesn't works (and will one day come back and fix it...one day)

13. Decided that the french doors need to just go away and be replaced with windows because the rain back splash ain't going away)

14. Unstuck the light fixture on the patio so we could replace the light bulb (okay...really Sean broke the globe on the light fixture but the light bulb works now..)

15. Cut the ivy off the house.

16. Trimmed the wild bush beside my house than can't be killed with nitroglycerin.

17. Trimmed the giant holly tree and pulled all the vines out of it.

18. Raked and blew the leaves... 

...in the pouring rain which is how Pony Boy ended up looking like this... (soaking wet with chunks of dead leaves all over him...his mother may kill me).

Once most of the work was done, all the boys came in the house and at a whole crockpot of beef stew (really...I have about a cup left over), then did some serious damage to my Christmas cookie collection (thank goodness because that mess needs to get out of my house.)

As they finished up, Asher and I went downtown to pick up Miss Shelby.  He talked the whole time...multiplying up how much money Grandfather was going to give him for working and how much that would be if you worked seven days a week, singing the Loca the Pug song, telling me about Gibby, his blind jack russell/blue healer...I was highly entertained.

Shelby was not.

We got back to the house and the crew was wrapping up.  I gave my brother the quilt and they all went on their merry way.  Sean says this may become a new Christmas tradition - come fix stuff at my house and I feed them.

I'm good with that.  I think I came out pretty nicely on this barter in so many more ways than just having things fixed at the house.  

You Just Never Know

For as long as I can remember, it has been a tradition for us to go to the Candle Tea at Old Salem.  I remember going with the children's choir of the little hippie church we attended (you know...the choir that didn't care if you could carry a tune or not...which I can't).  Then my mom, brother and I would go stand in line every year...in the cold usually and in the rain more than one would expect.  My freshman year at NC State, I stood in line and negotiated the 200 year old stone steps on crutches.

The last few years, my nephews have been in attendance instead of my brother.  This year it was very cold and rainy...which stops no one.  It's tradition you see and it's worth it.  Where else can you hear a brass band playing Christmas carols in the street... or sing along with a 250 year old organ being played by a guy who rings the bells at Wait Chapel at Wake Forest University... or watch beeswax candles being made... or sit on benches in a 200 year old kitchen, drinking coffee and eating the best sugar cake ever... or stand in the cold meat basement of the Single Brother's House seeing a nativity putz while a man tells you the best story ever.

It never really changes every year but every year it gets better.

But just when I thought it couldn't be sweeter...it was... and here's how...

One of the things you do to entertain yourself while you stand in the long, slow line is take turns going in the gift shops on Main Street.  So while Mom and I held the place in line, the nephews checked out the shops.  Their grandfather had given them each $20 to spend so they were boys on a mission.

So after going through the Candle Tea, we headed back to the shop so the boys could spend their money.  

Hampton, the tall one there, is really into history so he bought a reproduction American Flag, circa 1965.  JD, the dude with the glasses got a bugle.  (My brother was not amused.)  But Asher, the little moving target there in the front, got three things for his money... a whistle...a flute...and (oh my gosh I have a lump in my throat even now...) a quilting kit.

A. Quilting. Kit.

I would have never guessed in a million years.

My brother says he really wants me to teach him.

See... told ya it got sweeter.

(and yeah...I'm crying again.)

A Happy Holiday

It was one of those wonderful holidays where everything (for the most part) came together.

As is our tradition, we started with the Stokes County tour, visiting David's family.

Then after eating too much and watching the kids tear into their presents, we head to my folk's house.  By the time we get there, things are pretty quiet.

That doesn't last long though.

The nephews get there mid-morning and a happy pandemonium ensues.  We spent a little bit of time watching three little boys rip into piles of presents and a lot of time laughing at the kitchen table.

 Continuing my theme of reminiscing about our grandparents, I made a red velvet cake for my brother.

From scratch.

Using my grandmother's recipe.

From scratch, I said.

And it was GOOD.

We ended up staying over again last night and heading back home this morning.

All we needed was a little snow to make it a near perfect Christmas.

A Memory

Grandpaw loved Christmas.

Well, maybe it was more that he loved his grandkids.

Most years, we'd show up at Grandmaw and Grandpaw's house on Christmas Eve.  Sometimes all the cousins were there.  Sometimes not.  We didn't know it at the time but the reason we went there on Christmas Eve was so our parents could leave and go to the Sears-Roebuck Clearance Center on Lawndale to buy all the cheap Santa gifts they could afford.

We just thought it was a chance for us all to gather steam for Christmas Day.

We would watch the "special reports" on TV showing Santa sightings - radar blips and a very excited weather man.

We would turn the giant round Naugahyde stool on its side and take turns rolling back and forth - more times than not ending up on our heads and laughing hysterically.

We would gather around Grandpaw's radio in his bedroom, listening to Christmas carols and more reports on Santa's progress.

But the thing we did most was treasure hunt.  Somewhere in that house was a huge box of Chocolate Ice Cubes.  We would wander, looking in every hidey hole and when they were finally found, you would then find us all digging in...eating as many as we could...


just as Grandpaw planned.

The Good, the Better and the Exhausted

That would be me.

Exhausted.

But all's well that ends well, right?

Thursday, I took off to help out my mom who was having "out-patient" surgery that afternoon. But...what started out as a 30 minute surgery ended up as a 2 hour surgery and a 2 night stay in the hospital. I stayed with her because well...she's my mama and I wasn't about to let her stay there by herself. Long story short, mom's fine and I got to take her home this morning.

In the meantime, David and Shelby had been camping out with my Dad, keeping him company, chauffeuring him to a late-night doctor appointment and eating even late-night Mexican food. (Not Shelby, just Dad and David...I'm not sure they should be hanging out with each other.)

When I got Mama home, I threw dinner in a crockpot, made her promise she'd sit down and rest and we tore out of there like we had somewhere to go.

Because we did.

We were meeting Quiltkeemosabe and Mr. Q for the matinee performance of The Nutcracker.

Did I mention I'd been sleeping on a Naugahyde recliner in a hospital room for almost three days...with no shower.

I was looking good.

I had an hour to drive 40 minutes, clean the Naugahyde off me and get downtown.

We actually made it (no one really cares if I wear make up or not, right?) and we had a wonderful time...as we always do with Quiltkeemosabe and Mr. Q.

The Nutcracker, an early dinner and Noma, then home...where I crashed...too tired to sleep.

Exhausted but happy.

I got to take care of Mama for a change instead of the other way around.
I got to sit with my Dad and found out he likes sushi and can text.
I got to share a little Christmas time with my husband and my friends.

And now I've got to go to sleep because tomorrow is another crazy day.

More on that...tomorrow.

Christmas Comes and Goes

For some reason this year flew by faster than any other. I barely got Christmas cards out on time. I was still wrapping presents on Christmas Eve. I used to have all this done by mid-December if not sooner. I'm not really sure what happened. Next year I'll be prepared, right? (sure I will.)

'

We did the usual Stokes County tour on Christmas Eve to see all Dave's folks. The last stop is like a Norman Rockwell painting. It's the way everyone thinks Christmas should be. There are happy people enjoying each other's company. There are wonderful, well-behaved children opening their gifts and giving hugs to the givers.

There are grandparents and great-grandparents. There are aunts and uncles. And the food... I already can't wait until next year to get more green beans.

'

Here's Mr. E in his new Wrangler wear and cowboy hat...ready for the rodeo. Is he not adorable?

After the Stokes tour, we headed south to my folk's house. These days Christmas Eve is quiet, just Mom, Dad, Dave, Shelby and me. The nephews show up the next morning and all the calm and quiet goes away.

'

My dad is hard to buy for because if he wants something, he buys it...and anything he wants, I can't afford anyway. But this year, I found the perfect thing - a Grinch mug. He likes to think he's the Grinch who stole Christmas. Really, he's the Grinch that loves Christmas.

Here are the nephews taking a break from the Nerf wars to pose with Mom and her plate.

We ended up getting around 6" of snow at my parent's house and decided to spend another night instead of hitting the snowy highway in the dark. We hunkered down and watched sappy Hallmark Christmas movies. Mom got to experience the pure joy of being Shelby's bed.

Not only was it Christmas snow, it was one of the prettiest snows I ever remember seeing.

This is the face of pure misery. We had to go in and sit by the fire wrapped up in a towel. She had snowballs caked in her fur. I've had trouble getting her to go outside ever since!

We finally ventured back home a day later and spent a quiet night after Christmas binding Lumpy. Shelby is an excellent binder. See?

I'm now off for another long weekend. I'm hoping to spend at least a little of it getting organized to start 2011. I've got big plans. It's going to be a good year.