Nowhere to go but up

2008 has not been a year that I'd want to live over again. It's had its bright spots, but overall I'd have to say it sucked. No where to go but up.

And the icing on the cake for the year is I'm ringing in the New Year without heat. I'm not kidding. While I was out of town, a fuse blew, which then caused the transformer on the heater to melt, so they had to turn the heat off to replace the part. Of course, because of the holiday, they couldn't find anyone available to come and do that until Friday. So I'm spending New Year's Eve and Day trying to keep warm with 3 space heaters, blankets, hot tea, long underwear (thank the lord for Patagonia capilene!) and wool socks and slippers. Layers, lots of layers. I will say that it was lucky that one of the other tenants was home and reported the issue before it caused a fire.

My Aunt and Grandmother sent me home from my visit to Michigan with a can of green beans, a can of black eyed peas, and a small ham so I could have my traditional New Year's Day meal. This is a very good thing since I didn't have a chance to get to the store today with all the heat issues. I'm pairing my meal this year with baked sweet potato fries for something different. In addition to the meal fixings, they also sent me home with an insane amount of cookies, chocolates, and other goodies.

I did have a wonderful visit to Michigan for Christmas. My new baby cousin is adorable, even when he spits up on me (which he did more than once) and cries all over my shirt. I spent 7 days completely offline, with little to no cell phone reception, forcing me to disconnect from the world for a bit and just focus on the time with family. It was wonderful. I really wish I lived closer to them.

Anyway, I'm going to curl up on the couch with the pets and a mug of tea and wait for the ball to drop so 2008 will finally be over. I can't wait. I really think there's nowhere to go but up from here (especially with the lack of heat) so things must improve in 2009.

Finally don't forget the New Year's Rules people!! Don't you dare do any laundry!

New Year's Day dinner reinvented

This year I decided to try new recipes for my New Year's Day dinner. Risky, I know, given how important following the food rules are. But that doesn't mean I can't branch out within the rules. Every year, for my entire life (and I'm not exaggerating), my New Year's Day dinner has consisted of ham, black-eyed peas from a can, green beans, and some potato dish (mashed, scalloped, gratin, etc.). Every year.

I want this year, 2008, to be different than the past few years have been. Really. The past three or so have been a bit rough in a variety of ways, and I want some things to change. So I decided to start with my New Year's Day meal. I know it sounds strange, but you have to start somewhere. I guess I'm hoping that if I change the meal on the first day so it's different than the past years, the year will be different as well.

So I varied my meal as much as the rules allowed. I still had black-eyed peas for change, but instead of canned I purchased fresh in the produce section. They do taste a bit different, and are less mushy, but still delightful with ketchup (it's an acquired taste) and the leftovers I've discovered are quite good on salads.

For my meat, remember, the rules state nothing that scratches backwards, so no chicken or turkey. That left beef, lamb, or some pork product. So I went with a marinated pork loin instead of ham. I'm not very good at cooking beef unless it's ground (always ends up overdone...I need more practice), so I eliminated that. I wanted to get some lamb, but the cuts available just didn't look very good. So I went with pork loin. I decided on one infused with apple-bourbon flavor. It was delicious. And just as tasty the next day.

Where I really went in a different direction was with the greens for money. It's always been green beans, but actually any greens will do. It's just important to eat a big pile of greens so you get your green. So I decided to try a new recipe. Bacon and brown sugar braised collard greens. My mouth watered when I read the recipe title (it's watering again now). I carefully inspected the recipe to make sure it violated no rule. Looked good, no violations (it uses water instead of chicken broth). So I purchased a big bag of prewashed and torn collard greens and two thick-cut slices of bacon. Brown the bacon, add and saute some onion and garlic, then add in water, pepper, brown sugar, and a bit of vinegar, and finally add the greens and cook for about an hour. OMG they are so yummy. Sweet and spicy and savory all at once. I'm still enjoying the leftovers.

I really hope how successful the 2008 New Year's Day meal was is telling of how this year is going to be different.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has to be my favorite holiday. It's a combination of some of my favorite things: cooking, eating, and hanging out with friends and family you care about. And even better, there's no gift pressure. I know, I know, Thanksgiving is supposed to be about being grateful for everything in your life. Well, when I can't think of anything better than getting together a bunch of family and friends and just hanging out together and eating lots of good food. Not much makes me happier than that. And I see the purpose of the day as just that. I'm grateful for my friends and family, so I choose to spend the day with them. It makes sense to me.

Growing up Thanksgiving in our house was always a completely random gathering of people. Most of which were either unable to travel or had no place to travel to. So my family threw open its doors and welcomed everyone to our table. Most of our guests only had my family in common, and often had never met. You'd think that this would cause tension, but somehow it never did. And the group of people was different from year to year.

People would start arriving mid-day to hang out for a few hours before the feast. We had snacks out, hot mulled apple cider (non-alcoholic) simmering in a coffee carafe (specially designated as cider-only), a jigsaw puzzle out on the non-formal dining table, and music on in the background. The football game would be turned on, but with low volume so as not to intrude on conversation. My parents are both from Michigan, so the annual Detroit Lions-Dallas Cowboys game is very much a part of the Thanksgiving tradition in both families (yes, I will have the Lions game, this year versus Green Bay, on myself in the background today). But it certainly wasn't the center of attention at our house. Usually people gathered around the jigsaw puzzle with a mug of cider and a plate of snacks, and chatted while trying to fit pieces together.

There was no kid table in our house. We all sat at the big dining room table together, pulling in extra chairs from all over the house. The day before we'd put the extra leaves into the table, and put down the tablecloth and candles, and set the table with the china (which we used for all holiday and special occasion meals). And yes, even us kids got to use the china. One year the cat decided to "help" us. We had a sheet we would put under the tablecloth as an extra layer of protection for the table. She figured out that if she got a running start from the living room and jumped on one end of the table, she could slide all the way to the other end on the sheet! She'd then jump off and circle around to do it again. Mom and I just stood there and watched, laughing hysterically, spreading the sheet back out after each pass. Eventually she lost interest and we were able to set the table, but she took probably a dozen "rides" on the sheet first!

The big feast was usually mid to late afternoon. Everyone brought one dish to share, usually a dish considered traditional in their family. Our Thanksgiving feast varied from year to year depending on the guests. Yes, we had central elements (turkey!), but it was so cool to see what other people considered traditional dishes. Over the years a few became part of our traditional dishes. But this also meant that often we had duplication. A few years we had multiple green bean dishes. Most years we had at least two different cranberry sauce/relish recipes, as we had our own traditional Cranberry-Orange-Apple relish. I still have to make that relish either for Thanksgiving or Christmas or the season just doesn't feel right. And my cousin likes the cranberry sauce from the can that you slice. But more duplication meant more yummy foods to try and more yummy leftovers (my favorite part, I'll get into that more in my next post).

We always made the turkey, as well as at least one dish of dressing. There was always whipped/mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes baked with brown sugar, butter and marshmallows on top, dressing/stuffing, rolls, salad, cranberry sauce/relish, various vegetable dishes like broccoli-cheese casserole or green been casserole or braised baby carrots, at least one chilled jello salad (such as pistachio fluff), and of course gravy, one with giblets and one without. A feast. Definitely a feast. You had to pace yourself so you had room to sample everything on the table. And that was just dinner. Dessert came later.

After eating, an assembly line was usually set up to clear the table, package everything up, and do the dishes. It never took long. Then we'd take a break and work on the puzzle, watch the parades or football on TV, visit, or just fall asleep on the couch and take a little nap. After an hour or so, people would start to think about dessert.

Dessert was just as much a feast as dinner. We always made our traditional Pumpkin Roll, which we'd make ahead as it had to be chilled (one less thing to do on Thanksgiving day!). There was also usually a pecan pie (did I mention my mom's family is from the South?), a pumpkin pie, and a few years there was even sweet potato pie. Or fruit pies like apple or mincemeat (with suet but with chopped apple instead of meat so it was sweet rather than savory). And plenty of ice cream or whipped topping for the pies. Guests would bring other desserts that aren't usually considered Thanksgiving desserts. I remember a chocolate-toffee layered dessert with cake, pudding, whipped cream and toffee bits, kind of like a trifle. Yummy. There was a delicious pear tart one year as well and unfortunately I didn't get the recipe.

This year I have no plans other than to make a meal for myself and spend the day at home. And I'm actually grateful for that. I'm grateful to have the time to myself to put things in order in my house and my life. To continue the purge of un-needed and un-wanted belongings that I've been dragging around. To recharge. And I am cooking myself a Thanksgiving dinner, with all sorts of recipes I've been wanting to try for sometime now. If they go well, then I'll have a lovely Thanksgiving menu for next year. If they go badly, well, let's just say the dog will be very grateful for a few days.

So Happy Thanksgiving to all!

New Year's Day Rules

I grew up with a list of New Year's Day superstitions, otherwise known as the Rules. My indoctrination began at a tender age, and New Year's Day just doesn't feel right if I don't follow all of the rules about the day. Most of these, if not all of them, come from my maternal grandmother, a woman raised in the South. So many of these superstitions are common in the South. In the North and West, however, they'll elicit some pretty strange looks from your friends.

Dinner
I spoke about this in a previous post. First, the main course. Eat nothing that scratches backwards. This means no poultry as they scratch backwards at the feed before eating it. Lamb is ok. As is ham or beef. But no poultry. I cannot eat chicken or turkey on New Year's Day without feeling like I'm committing some huge mortal sin.

Next, side dishes. You need to eat your black-eyed peas and greens. The black-eyed peas are for sense/cents. Not sure if it's for common sense or money, but I'll take either in abundance thank you very much. The greens are for dollars (or any money). This is any kind of green vegetable. Growing up it was green beans (probably because they were my sister's favorite veggie), but any greens will work. Just eat lots of it so you get lots of money. As a child I thought this was made up by my mother to get my sister and I to eat more vegetables than we would normally have to. We were good little girls, we always did eat our veggies, but "lots" was pushing it. However, the promise of lots of money during the coming year in exchange for suffering through a big pile of greens is convincing enough for any child. Note: I am still waiting for the big financial return on all those greens I've eaten over the years. Yet, I still eat a big pile of greens every damn year.

To ensure we ate a proper meal on New Year's Day, my grandmother would mail us a can of green beans, a can of black-eyed peas, and a ham (not the canned variety, but rather the preserved and shrink-wrapped kind). Yes, you read that right, mail us our meal. That's some pretty strong rule enforcement. I visited Grandmother for Christmas this year, and she sent me home with ham and a can of black-eyed peas. The only reason I didn't get a can of green beans as well is because I already have a can in my pantry (no lie, and she made me swear to it). She sent me home with them. Just in case I didn't have time to get to the store between Friday and Sunday night to get me some. And you wonder why I'm still following the rules to this day. I'm scared not to.

Laundry
Doing laundry on New Year's Day means that someone will be "washed" out of your life during the coming year, otherwise known as a death in the family. This can be summarized for your friends as: laundry = death.

Activities
Don't do anything the first day of the year you don't want to do the rest of the year. In other words, do the things you want to do. Sleep late. Call your loved ones and friends or better yet, go visit. Catch up on correspondence. Relax. Watch some tv or movies. Whatever you find enjoyable and wouldn't mind being able to do for the rest of the year. And whatever you do, don't spend it on a plane or traveling if at all possible. I flew one year, and spent a large chunk of my time in airports and on planes during the next 365 days. No joke. I also recommend NOT being hungover/sick unless you enjoy that feeling.

Don't pay bills on New Year's Day as this signifies money going out and none coming in. Never a good thing.

Luck
Turning a stool/chair on one leg = bad luck. Don't ask me about this one. I don't know. All I can tell you is that when rotating a chair or stool on New Year's Day, I always, always, pick it up off the floor completely before turning it. Better safe than sorry.

So consider yourself warned and indoctrinated. I can't make you follow the superstitions, all I can do is tell you about them and pray for your soul if you don't follow the New Year's Day Rules.

Holiday traditions: Part 5, miscellaneous

Always a miscellaneous. Always things that you just can't categorize. The OCD cataloging librarian in me is having fits because everything belongs somewhere, somewhere...

Decorations
Putting up decorations was always fun. Dad was in charge of the lights outside. We usually bought some pine swag when we got the tree, and he'd carefully wrap little lights around it and drape it around the porch roof. We even had a star that went up on the roof. We had lights for the trees, to go around the door, for the eaves (with swag, of course), but not really over the top like you'd think of over the top. We didn't twinkle, we didn't set anything to music, we just had swag and lights framing the house. I always thought it was very pretty and tasteful. At the end of the 12th days of Christmas, Dad took it all down and bagged each strand of lights in a zip top baggie, labeling each bag carefully for where the lights went (front bushes, window, door, etc.). I found a couple of those bags a few years ago, but the problem is we moved often enough that I have no idea which house the notes refer to!

Inside the house, we were pulling decorations out of the boxes, remembering each one, deciding where to put them and then running around the house putting things everywhere. By they time we were done, it looked like Christmas had thrown up all over our house. My sister and I had Christmas tree night lights, there was fake swag on the banister with lights woven through it, candy dishes, Christmas magnets for the fridge, candles and soaps in the bathrooms, Christmas books on the coffee table, and so on and so on. Christmas insanity. But somehow it never felt overwhelming to us kids. After the 12th day of Christmas, we would help gather everything up and put it in the living room to be boxed up again. We didn't help put it in the boxes, but we did help gather it.

As a family, we also had a contest. Who could find the last decoration. Whomever did won the glory of being able to gloat that they found it. I think Mom is the all time record holder, finding a Christmas decoration in JULY! Yeah, she wins. Bah humbug.

Cards
I do "holiday" cards because they either get done and mailed out around Thanksgiving or not until after Christmas. Just the way life goes. As an (apparently perpetual) student and someone that works in an academic environment, the first few weeks in December are insane...finals, end of the semester, etc. Cards just aren't a priority...finishing the 15 page research paper is. And doing cards is a complicated endeavor. The past few years I've had so much going on I've written the proverbial "newsletter" because otherwise my hand would fall off trying to write in each card. There's also verifying addresses (cross checking with last year's cards, searching e-mails for updated addresses I haven't written down yet, etc.) and updating my address label file. Then there's finding cards you like. For me, that means non-denominational happy holidays cards. Admittedly I do try to buy them during the after Christmas sale for the next year because they get expensive when you're buying more than 2 boxes. Finally, there's doing the actual cards. This means labeling and stamping the envelope, writing in the card, folding and stuffing in the note, and licking all those envelopes. Hopefully the envelope glue tastes good...but make sure you have a glass of water (or wine, or cider, or whatever your little heart desires) handy.

Some people have a check list for their cards. It looks like a spreadsheet with columns for years they check off if cards were sent and received. And if they don't get a card from someone for so many years, they stop sending them cards. I'm not one of those people. I'm probably organized enough, but it's just too much work and I don't care if you send me a card or not. I'll probably send you one even if you never send me a card. Some people just don't do cards. I get that, and I don't hold it against you. As long as you don't hold it against me for those years I just don't get cards done.

Holiday traditions: Part 4, entertainment

Besides the trip to cut down the Christmas tree each year, there were always a few activities that come to mind when I think about the holidays.

Jigsaw puzzles
We always had jigsaw puzzles. At every holiday function. And they were holiday themed. Easter ones, Thanksgiving ones, even Valentine's day. But we had several different Christmas ones. And we did them every year. New ones would appear from time to time, but we never stopped doing the old ones. We'd just cycle in the new ones. One in particular I remember was the gingerbread house. There also was a wreath made of dog bones, polar bears (winter themed), Christmas ornaments, and I believe even Santa's workshop to name a few.

We'd designate a table as "the puzzle table" for the entire holiday, and do puzzle after puzzle, with music on in the background. Somehow we never lost a piece. When people would come over for Christmas day dinner, they'd eat, drink hot cider and work on the puzzle, all while talking and having a good time. And of course my sister and I fought over who got to put in the last piece...which meant either Dad or Mom did it instead.

Games
We'd play many a card game as a family. Specifically we played Uno, hearts and pinochle (double deck, 4 players for you card sharks out there). Now these were not the Norman Rockwell everything is merry card games. These were vicious. For example, once I gave my mother the queen of spades during hearts. She turned to me, and said, completely seriously, "bitch, I'm gonna get you for that." And she did. Then next round she nailed me but good, giving me a nasty run of hearts AND the queen of spades, but not enough to shoot the moon. Damn her, I went from first place to third place in ONE hand. But before you call child services, we always had a good time. We'd call each other names and scream and laugh and thoroughly enjoy ourselves. As a family. How many other people can say they had that good of a time just hanging out with their family? My sister and I know we were pretty lucky in that respect.

Movies/TV:
Growing up my sister and I weren't allowed to watch much tv. We were allowed the Muppet Show (a family event), sci-fi with my dad, and PBS. That's about it. So Christmas time was special because it meant we got to stay up late and watch all the special shows. The Charlie Brown Christmas with the pitiful tree, "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, John Denver and the Muppets Christmas, other Christmas specials that came out over the years, the parades on TV, and most special of all, the ballet of the Nutcracker with Mikhail Baryshnikov in the title role.

Music
Everyone has their favorite Christmas/holiday music albums. For some people it's carols or pop music, but for us it was an album called "A Brass Christmas," George Winston (both "December" and "Winter into Spring"), and John Denver & the Muppets. Jenna and I danced around the living room to Miss Piggy singing "Christmas is coming" every year. I still have those albums, now on CD rather than vinyl. And it just doesn't feel like Christmas until I play them.

Holiday traditions: Part 3, food

Food. Traditions and the holidays always come back to food. Dinners, buffets, desserts, treats, it's all about the food. I remember many holiday food traditions growing up.

Recipes
There is a huge list of traditional family recipes that always made a holiday appearance. These include: pumpkin roll (aforementioned), spiced & sugared nuts, boiled custard (no eggnog in this family), cranberry-orange relish, mincemeat pie, Grandmother's sweet potatoes/yams, peanut butter and/or chocolage fudge, and mulled apple cider.

There were also regularly appearing appetizers: warmed cream cheese w/jalapeño jelly, spinach dip, sour cream and onion dip, brie warmed with marmelade and almonds on top, and mixed nuts. Other appetizers might get mixed in for a year depending on what people brought with them, but somehow we always went back to the same core group.

Meals
Our Christmas dinner was much like our Thanksgiving meal. It consisted of a random and eclectic group of people who's family didn't live close enough to visit, much like our family, which is scattered all over the U.S. and now the world. The dinner itself was a feast, involving many of the above recipes, a yummy turkey and/or ham (sometimes even a roast), stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggies (green bean casserole anyone?), rolls, and whatever our guests chose to bring and share from their own holiday food traditions. We all sat around and ate and talked and laughed. Somehow, despite the fact that the only thing everyone there had in common was knowing our family, we always had a good time.

[We also had a specific New Year's Day dinner, but more on that in a later post.]

Food gifts
Remember when you used to give holiday gifts to your teachers? And if you live somewhere where you can still do that, remember when they could be homemade treats? We did that every year. My sister and I would make pumpkin rolls and the spiced & sugared nuts for our teachers each year. Mom of course helped us, but she tried to make sure we did as much of it as possible to really be able to say the gift was from us. We'd get nice food gift containers to put the nuts in, and wrap the pumpkin rolls in foil and tie the ends with ribbon so they looked pretty. Then we'd haul them into school on the last day before break and give them out. I don't remember a teacher ever saying no, and I don't remember ever worrying about health, diet, food allergy or any other concern. We just assumed they'd be able to eat and enjoy them.

To this day I bring food to holiday parties, whether at work or a friend's place. Only now, I bring a copy of the recipe along for everyone to see just in case someone can't eat something that's in what I've made.

Stocking goodies
Our stockings always contained food in addition to little gifts, specifically nuts, candy, and fruit. Pistachios were the favorite nut, followed by walnuts and almonds, all of them still in the shells and needing the nutcracker to get to the meaty goodness. Of course the candy involved chocolate (Hershey's Kisses, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, chocolate covered marshmallow Santas, Peppermint Patties, cherry cordials for my sister, Godiva truffles for my mom) and sometimes hard candy. But mostly chocolate.

To add to the chocolate and nut goodness, we had oranges and apples. As a bonus, each year Santa brought a new and different "exotic" fruit to try like star fruit, kiwi, mango, pomegranate, etc. These were fruits that when I was young you didn't often see in the supermarket, except in the really expensive area and there was never very much of it. So Christmas morning after we emptied our stockings we all tried the fruit with breakfast. Some years were more successful than others. Kiwi and mango are still some of my favorite fruits. Star fruit, on the other hand, I don't think I've ever eaten since. I don't remember it tasting like much, although it was pretty to look at.

Hershey's Kisses
Mom always put Hershey's Kisses in decorative Christmas bowls around the house. The living room, the family room, the kitchen counter, they all had bowls/dishes with red, silver and green foil wrapped Hershey's Kisses. We would all walk by the bowls and grab a Kiss (or two) throughout the holiday.

Unfortunately, as pretty as they were, these were a temptation to the pets. Both animals would eat them, and it's a wonder they didn't get sick but somehow they never did. But you could tell which animal ate them. When the cat ate them, she removed the foil. You'd find this nice little pile of foil on the table next to the bowl. And she'd only eat one or two. The dog on the other hand would eat the entire bowl, foil and all. For days afterwards you could look out into the backyard and see little glints of the foil sparkling in the sun, almost like twinkling lights in the daytime. Disgusting, I know, yet strangely pretty.

Mom still put the Hershey's Kisses out, but she started using candy jars with tight fitting lids instead of the bowls. I'm now the proud owner of one such candy jar; it's shaped like a snowman and currently has red and green M&Ms in it. Yum.

Holiday traditions: Part 2, gifts

My family has a tradition of giving people exactly what they want or need. You give me a list, and you will get something on that list, preferably something that can and will be used. For example, when I started driving, the garage I used had no automatic opener on it. I had to get out of my car, unlock the garage door, open it, get back in my car, and drive in. Now, this is really more of an inconvenience than anything else, but I had a good reason for wanting a garage door opener for Christmas. I was on the swim team in high school. That particular winter was one of the coldest and snowiest on record, which meant that when I got home from practice and got out of the car, my wet hair would freeze solid. Seriously. So, I asked for a garage door opener for Christmas. Dad and I spent Christmas afternoon that year installing it. I was thrilled; my friends thought I was insane.

This practicality extended to gifts from Santa. How many people got underwear from Santa? For some reason I never understood growing up, Santa always brought my dad colorful underwear. Every year Dad got at least three new packs. Santa gifts were usually one big thing and lots of little things like bookmarks and pencils with your name on them. I'm still using those pencils. They're very handy at work where things tend to "walk off" and disappear. Pencils with your name on them always seem to find their way home again.

Opening
My family opened gifts on Christmas Eve. We'd eat dinner, open gifts, and then attend the late night service. My sister and I would pull the gifts out from under the tree and pile them up for each person in a different chair or corner of the couch. We were the "gift elves." Each person sat next to their pile. Remembering which chair/corner was yours was important because Santa left his gifts in the same place. The images you see of people tearing into gifts all at once with paper flying everywhere didn't happen at our house. We actually opened our gifts one at a time, each person taking their turn and paying attention to each person during their turn. I'm amazed that my sister and I had that much patience as kids, but apparently we did. Inevitably, one gift was matching nightclothes for my sister and I, which we would wear that night. The pictures on Christmas morning of us exploring our stockings and Santa gifts always had us in matching nightclothes. Were your Santa gifts wrapped? Ours never were. We each had a pile of Santa gifts in our designated space. My sister and I were different enough it was never hard to tell which pile belonged to whom.

Thank you notes
We wrote thank you cards. One of the...umm...benefits of us opening gifts one at a time is that someone could keep a list for each person of what they got and from whom. The few days after Christmas my sister and I would spend a little time each day writing thank you notes, whether we liked the gift or not. Somewhere over the years I got out of this habit...but shh...don't tell my mother. She'd be apalled. [Hi, Mom!]

Animal mischief
Hazards of wrapped gifts generally involved the cat and curling ribbon. She loved curling ribbon. She'd chew on it, eat it, and generally massacre any curling ribbon she could find, including ribbon still on the roll! We had to make sure any gift with curling ribbon under the tree was under another gift so she couldn't get to it. She also had a blast playing with the wrapping paper after we opened gifts. That, to her, was an awesome gift. A big pile of crinkled up paper and paper balls to attack and spaz out in. And don't forget the boxes to hide in. A kitty dream, I tell you.

Wish lists
We all keep wish lists. You know you do. Even if you never write it down you have a list in your head of things you'd love to have. My sister and I would spend hours going over the big toy book from whatever department store we got it from. It was sad the day Sears discontinued their Wish Book. I have many a fond memory of me, my sister, that book, and a marker for circling the things we wanted. As kids, our gifts weren't nearly as practical, but as we got older, they became more so, although there was always that one thing on the list just because you wanted it, no practicality necessary.

Now I keep my wish list on line via Amazon. With friends and family scattered all over the globe, it's the easiest way to let people know what I'm interested in. My wish lists usally consist of things I'd love to have and that I would use, but that I'd probably never buy for myself. And of course, it's not just one big unorganized list, but rather multiple lists, each with a different theme: DVDs, kitchen, music, etc. [Before you pick on me, remember, I organize things for a living. It's what catalogers, us librarians maintaining the library catalog, do.] I try to get my friends to give their wish lists as well. Sometimes I find that perfect gift that's not on their wish list (the things you see that just "scream" that person), but usually I stick to the list.

What kind of gifts do you give? Practical or just fun stuff?

Holiday traditions: Part 1, the tree

What kind of traditions does your family have? Or do you have any? It's always interesting to hear what my friends did growing up.

In my family, we had several traditions. Nice ones, in my opinion. These centered around certain things: gifts, food, entertainment, the tree, and, well, miscellaneous (some things you just can't categorize...which drives the OCD librarian in me nuts!). I'll break this up into a few posts, to keep it manageable.

The Tree

We always cut our own tree. Always. And we were often the last family on the block to have our tree up, as we'd wait until two weekends before Christmas to go get the tree. We'd bundle up and head out as a family either on Saturday or Sunday afternoon to a local tree farm and find the perfect tree. After one of us (Dad when we were young) crawled on the ground to cut the tree down, we'd carry it back to have it shook (pine needle shower!) and bagged (netted?) and tie it to the top of the car with the trunk facing front for aerodynamics and so the wind didn't harm the branches. We always used the same blanket for this...a striped picnic blanket. I still have that blanket in the back of my car, and it still has pine sap on it, despite the repeated washings. While we waited, there was hot cider or cocoa to drink and things to see or animals to pet and play with. Sometimes there were local crafts to look at (and buy if desired). We often got different types of pine, but it was always the same routine, no matter where we lived. One year we found a tree whose cones were still attached. They had opened, releasing their seeds, but the cones held on instead of falling. We tied little red ribbons around the top of each cone, effectively turning them into nature-made ornaments.

We'd get the tree home, and put together the stand and get the tree up. This involved my sister, Mom and myself standing in three different places around the room checking to make sure it was straight and Dad holding the trunk and somehow not losing his patience with us all three giving him directions at once. Mom spread an old sheet down first, to catch some of the needles. This sheet would eventually be hidden by the tree skirt, but for the first few days the tree stood, undecorated so it could relax and acclimate, in the living or family room with an old sheet beneath it. It looked a bit undignified, but the house smelled fantastic. There's nothing like a fresh tree.

Part of the reason we got our tree so late is so that it would last the full 12 days of Christmas. It never came down until that 12th day, when the 3 magi arrived at the manger. This is Janurary 5th. So our tree may have gone up later than everyone elses, but it stayed up long past when everyone took theirs down. I remember the Christmas tree carnage up and down the street, usually around the 1st of the year.

Once the tree had relaxed and become acclimated to the warmer house, the decorating began. This was usually a few days after the tree arrived. Dad put the lights up, atleast 3 strings, covering every inch of the tree with little lights. There were never blinking lights in our house...they gave us all headaches and tormented the cat and dog.

Then came the ornaments. Ornaments in our house were special. Each year my sister and I got to pick out a new ornament, representing something from the previous year that we did, an important event, or an interest/hobby. We each had our own box, and we'd pull out the ornaments one by one and line them up in chronological order. Mom had stuck little lables to the bottom of each one with our first initial and the year (if it wasn't on the ornament) to keep them separated. It was fascinating to look at them over the years and see how our interests had changed, or not as the case may be (three years in a row I chose ornaments involving a swing). The purpose behind this tradition of an ornament every year was simple: this way my sister and I would have enough ornaments to decorate our own tree when we moved out on our own. As we got older, some years involved two or three ornaments. Often we'd start a series from Hallmark and continue to get the series but still get a separate ornament for the year. My mom and dad each had their own ornaments to add to the tree as well. As did our "adopted" family member, Marjean. She spent every Christmas with us, and had her own ornaments and stocking.

The result of these many different collections of ornaments was a very eclectic and colorful tree. When we were younger and didn't have very many, we had the traditional ornaments (balls and snowflakes) to fill in the gaps, but by the time we were both in high school we often had trouble finding space for all of our personal ornaments. We never had themed trees. Well, I guess our tree was a theme...it showed how while we were all very very different, we could come together and despite our differences make something beautiful. I loved looking at our tree and seeing each of us represented on it.

Last came the tree topper: a brass 3-D star. It wasn't solid, but rather two flat stars that slid together to form the 3-D one. It was all intricately carved out and the lights reflected off of it beautifully. Since my sister was born in an odd year and me in an even year, we'd trade off who got to put the topper on (with Dad's help, of course); even years it was me, odd years it was her. [A very simple way to prevent fighting, no? Mom used this even/odd trick for all sorts of things, including chores like dishes.] With animals, other tree "finishers" like popcorn chains were out of the question. And we weren't a garland family, but we used to do icicles (those plastic silver metallic things you had to separate and drape individually over branches that static clung to everything), until the year we found out they could kill our pets. Not to worry, this wasn't found out the hard way, but rather via the news.

It's funny, I've been out of the house for over a decade now and yet I still continue the tradition of getting a new ornament every year. I have a little mini fake tree (3 feet) that I put up, so now I have not only a collection of regular sized ornaments, but mini ones as well. It even has a mini version of our star tree topper that my mom found one year. My tree, small or large, continues to be eclectic, and I wouldn't have it any other way.