I hope you all have a great Fourth of July!
Unless you don’t celebrate Independence Day, in which case I hope you all have a great fourth of July.
Category: Traditions
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Traditions: Easter Dinner
Last year was our first effort at a family Easter. This year there was no snowshoeing, but we did dye and hide eggs.
Baguette hunted them, with help from Elmer the Patchwork Elephant.
Then there were deviled eggs.
And Mr. Sandwich’s parents came over for a dinner of ham (my great-grandmother’s recipe),
roasted asparagus (shown here pre-roasting),
and beer bread (my grandmother’s recipe),
as well as mashed potatoes and root vegetables and Lawry’s creamed corn.
I may have gone a little nuts.
Dessert–because I lacked time and energy to make a pound cake–was vanilla ice cream and lemon cookies, both from the store.
Verdict? The ham, asparagus, and creamed corn are definitely keepers–although we knew that going in, because I’ve made those before (a quick shout-out to Lawry’s for sharing their recipes, BTW). The beer bread was fine, but not at the top of the food priority list for us, and the mashed potatoes and root vegetables were tasty–but when Mr. Sandwich said, “I just really like your regular mashed potatoes,” well, let’s just say that it’s tough to embrace the experiment.
This post was not sponsored by Lawry’s. I just really like Lawry’s. -
Oscar Surprise
I spent much of my adult life across the country from my best friend. But we still managed to watch the Oscars together–we’d just call each other 20 times during the broadcast to say, “That dress is amazing!” “That dress is horrible!”
Now that we’re in the same city (huzzah!), we not only manage to have coffee more than once a year, we’ve also watched the Oscars together! In the same living room! More than once!
Since Baguette was born, though, long stretches of TV that isn’t Sesame Street have not really been an option. So what was last night’s surprise? Not the winners–I still haven’t had time to look up who they are.
It was that Baguette entertained herself with toys and books and changing in and out of her clothes for the entire red carpet, allowing me to live-tweet the whole thing!
Seriously, tell me I’m wrong.
Now, if I can just manage to watch the actual ceremony . . .
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My Valentines
As I’ve mentioned, we’re not a big Valentine’s Day family. But that doesn’t mean I neglected to say “Happy Valentine’s Day” to Mr. Sandwich this morning.
I’m not a monster.
And we’re not neglecting Baguette. Last week we went to her school’s Valentine Dance Party (Baguette ate some pizza, said, “Time to go home!” and dragged me toward the parking lot), and I also made sure to drop off the required 24 valentines for her class (signed, but not addressed). I’m reasonably sure I even filled out that candygram, although darned if I can remember whether I turned it in.
Then Mr. Sandwich showed up at my office.
Thank you, sweetheart. You and Baguette are my Valentines every day.
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Holiday “Classics” I Can’t Stand
1) A Christmas Story–It was funny once. But every year?
2) Miracle on 34th Street–I’d probably love it if it were 45 minutes long. But it isn’t.
3) Home Alone–AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
4) The Polar Express–So creepy.
5) Love Actually–I actually don’t care about most of these people.
So which holiday classics do I enjoy?
- It’s a Wonderful Life (but not the truly dreadful remake It Happened One Christmas)
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas (I’m also speaking of the original here. Well, typing about it.)
- Christmas Vacation (my favorite of the Vacation movies)
- Die Hard
Yes, I said Die Hard.
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Deck the Meme with Boughs of Holly (updated)
This holiday meme was stolen from Katherine of Somewhere in the Middle. Enjoy, and pass it on.
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate, definitely!
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Neither–Santa leaves unwrapped gifts in our stockings.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? The more colors, the better.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, but I used to want to when I was younger
5. Tacky holiday sweaters: yea or nay? Nay! (Apparently I left out #5–thanks to Blogging With Mittens* for this one!)
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Yorkshire pudding, part of my family’s traditional holiday feast.
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Making egg-carton ornaments with my dad and construction-paper garlands with my mom.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? No idea.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No, we wait until Christmas morning.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Lights and eclectic ornaments. I grew up with tinsel, but we don’t use it because of the dog.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it! Largely because we live in Los Angeles–if we see snow, we’re on vacation.
12. Can you ice skate? Badly, and not for long.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Slippers. It’s not a lame gift if your feet are always cold.
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Spending time with family.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? My mother’s shortbread cookies.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Dinner.
17. What tops your tree? A clear star I bought the first year I had a tree of my own.
18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving!
19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? Yum, until the mint upsets my stomach. Then yuck, clearly.
20. Favorite Christmas show? How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
21. Saddest Christmas Song? I’ll Be Home For Christmas. (Because you can tell, no, they won’t.)
22. What is your favorite Christmas song? Joy to the World.And you?
Update: You know what? I’m going to tag a few people.
Blogging With Mittens*
Confessions of a Semi-Domesticated Mama -
Thankful Thursday: Family
I’m really not sure I can express how thankful I am for my family.
- For my parents, who taught me their values and how to determine my own.
- For my brother, who loves me even though I may have been guilty of psychological torture when we were children.
- For Mr. Sandwich, who sees everything I can be, and tells me what he sees.
- For his parents, who welcomed me into their family long, long before he and I became a couple.
And of course for Baguette, who we feared might never be—but is.
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Wish List
The other day, my dad asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I told him that I had thought of something a few days earlier, but I’d forgotten what it was.
This is typical for me. When I was a kid, I would come up with six or seven ideas. In June. In the fall, when my mother would ask what I wanted, all I could remember was that there had been something.
As an adult, I’ve become a big fan of the useful gift. One year my brother gave me a blender. The next year he gave me a paper shredder. A couple of years ago, he and my sister-in-law gave me a gift card that helped me get a KitchenAid stand mixer. I’ve forgotten a lot of gifts, but I remember these, because they rocked. And the only one I’m still not using is the paper shredder, because I used it to death.
When my dad and stepmom went on a Mediterranean cruise a few years ago, they came back with gifts for everyone. My sister-in-law, my step-sister-in-law, my stepsister, and her daughter all got jewelry. Before I got my gift, my stepmom said, “This is your father’s doing. He insisted.” I opened up my bag and yelled, “Olive oil soap! Awesome!”
Before Mr. Sandwich and I were engaged, Christmas rolled around. He said, “What do you want me to get you?” I said, “Oh, I really want slippers.” He said, “Are you sure?” I said that I was, and pointed out that in fact slippers are a very romantic gift: “My feet get cold, and every time I put on these slippers, I will think, ‘My boyfriend gave me these, and now my feet are warm.’”
When you are living in a New Jersey winter, you really appreciate having warm feet. In fact, even though I’m far from New Jersey, I still do.
What’s on your list?
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Happy Halloween! Or, Costume Drama
Weeks ago–right after Baguette broke her leg–we went to Costco and explored the Halloween costume options. Mr. Sandwich brought her an array of choices, and she picked the elephant.
It promptly became a stuffed animal.
So we weren’t sure whether she’d wear it. But we weren’t too worried, because we had been given a tiny UCLA cheerleader outfit, and we figured that would work if the elephant didn’t.
What we utterly failed to consider was that somehow she has determined that she will not wear layers unless one of them is a jacket or a sweater. So both the elephant costume and the cheerleader dress led to crying and screaming.
Each of these looks delightful but is wholly unacceptable. Not anyone’s Dream Halloween.
After we read a few books and calmed down (all of us, frankly), Baguette decided that she would wear her “Elmo shirt.” We added red pants and “Elmo shoes,” and then she topped it off with three hats. Somehow we made it to several houses on our block, but she went back and forth on whether or not she wanted to take candy from relative strangers, which, when you think about it, is probably not a bad thing.
Now, some might say she was dressed as Elmo, and others as an Elmo Enthusiast. But if you are a loyal watcher of old Sesame Street episodes, you would realize that she was in fact dressed as an entire episode.
La la la la, la la la la, Elmo clothes
