"You're driving me to Phoenix!"

:: with the Mike Stoops and the Golfer, Miami 2001 ::

Headed out today in the family truckster for the Fiesta Bowl.  Let me just say that the last bowl game I was at ten years ago, we won...big (as evident by the National Championship trophy in the above photo.)

Boomer.

Shelves.

Before I rearranged my bookshelves yesterday, I explored the WWW for some inspiration.  The blog, i suwanne, does a cool thing called "bookshelf of the day."  I wish I had thought of it.  Might have to steal it.

So here's is the outcome of my shelf reorganization.  It's not as spectacular as the shelves I posted yesterday, but I like the way it turned out.  Our bookshelves are in our loft which is actually the boys' domain.  So our bookshelves also hold games and children's books (which were not part of the reorganization) and photo albums.
  

I decided to go with the whole "color coded" look.  Too fun not to try.  Here's what I learned organizing my books by color.  1) Most Chick-Lit is red and hot pink.  2) Golf books are always green.  3)  Thrillers and mysteries are always black.  4) Books of more serious topics are blue.

It didn't take as long as I thought to do and was actually a little fun.  And I was proud to discover our eclectic reading tastes. 

One thing is for certain: these shelves have no room to breath.  Which leads me to my next problem.  What the hell am I going to do when I get a new book and have to squeeze it into the middle of the blue section?

Solution:  I'm gonna need more shelves.

Book Lovers Unite!

:: photo courtesy of chotda ::

What I wouldn't give to have this room in my house.  I'm in love with the color coding of these shelves and can't help but wonder, "Did the owner buy these books because of their content or their color?"  Either way, I love it.  (I've actually tried to copy this look with my cookbooks in my kitchen, but it doesn't pack the same punch since I don't have that many cookbooks.)

My other bookshelves are organized differently.  Basically, I have "to-read" shelves, "read" shelves (in order of reading), and "just-couldn't-finish" shelves.  And all of these shelves are divided up between hardback and paperback.  There is a biography/memoir shelf.  A Christmas shelf.  There are shelves for the boys.  Even the Golfer has a couple of shelves.  But I'm running out of room on these shelves.  

I have openly debated on here about getting a Kindle.  For a few weeks I was convinced that it was the way to go (so much so that the Golfer ordered one for me for my birthday.)  And then I came home with yet another stack of books and declared that I just couldn't do it.  I just couldn't go digital (which quickly prompted the Golfer to cancel the Kindle.)

Yesterday I took the boys to Barnes and Noble to spend some gift cards that we were all given for Christmas.  (Disclaimer: our city does not have an independently owned book store.  If it did, I'd buy all of my book there.  However, since we don't, I don't mind getting the large chain discount.)  I proudly came home with yet another stack of books that I can't wait to read.

Here are my latest purchases:

1.  The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

2.  Beverly Hills Adjacent by Jennifer Steinhauer and Jessica Hendra

3.  This is Where I Leave You by Johnathan Tropper

4.  A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff

5.  Red Hook Road by Aylet Waldman

6.  A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (gift from Mom)

7. Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

8.  Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

9.  Bought by Anna David

And these are just the books that I've bought in the last two weeks.

So today, as it rains and I wait for a new headboard from West Elm to arrive (a Christmas present from the Golfer) I am going to head upstairs to our loft and rearrange my bookshelves because it makes me happy.

Clearly, I should have been a librarian.

How do you arrange your bookshelves?

:: Bookshelf 37 by Jane Mount ::

Every kid should ride on the Polar Express.

I think every holiday has a highlight--something special that happens.  Maybe a surprise gift ("A new car!") or a surprise visitor from out of town ("Ding-Dong!")  For us this year, our highlight was a train ride.

Over in Fillmore there's an old-fashioned train station that hold the Polar Express every Christmas.  If you've read the book by Chris Van Allsburg (if you haven't, you must) or seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about.

For the few of you that haven't, in the book non-believers (of the Santa kind) are picked up in the middle of the night by a magical train that whisks them off to the North Pole.  So true to the story,  our boys dawned their p.j. finest and grabbed their golden tickets for their ride up North.  Unfortunately for all of the children, this ride included parents with their cameras.  At one point the Big Cheese even asked, "Why are you coming?"  Poor kid just wanted the experience to be as true to the story as possible.

The ticket taker wasn't quite as good as Tom Hanks, but he did try.

As we traveled to the North Pole, we sang Christmas carols and drank chocolate milk and sugar cookies.  Big Cheese was disappointed it wasn't hot chocolate.  I tried to sing the hot chocolate song from the movie, but that did little to appease him.

I'll admit, when they brought all of the children one of Santa's sleigh bells to keep, I got a little choked up.  I pretended that I couldn't hear it ring.  

This was Santa telling the Big Cheese to not pester his little brother.  (It should have been the other way around, but I appreciate Santa for trying.)

The whole night made for a wonderful Christmas memory.  After the train ride we waited in line to see Santa where Santa once again told my boys that they needed to be nice to each other.  (That Santa's a pretty intuitive guy.)  They even gave us Polar Express mugs to take home to enjoy our real hot chocolate once we got home.

It could have been worse.  They could have forced me to be Rudolph.

363 days.

I enjoy the holidays, but I'm happy that it's over for another year.  Christmas is over.  My house is back to normal (excluding the boys's rooms and the over-abundance of new toys and LEGO pieces).  The boys took golf clubs to their gingerbread houses yesterday and the tree was put back up on the shelf for another 11 months.  Christmas isn't for another 363 days and I am loving it.

After spending the whole day yesterday putting the holidays back into their plastic bins, I planned to do a whole lot of nothing today.  But since I've avoided Target like the plague for the last 3 weeks, I am now in dire need of supplies and the pantry has nothing in it except for cereal and chili powder.

But after that?  Nothing.  You know the best thing about your kids getting new DS games and LEGOS?  It makes the house VERY quite.  The Golfer heads back to work, so Mama is planning to do nothing but sit on the couch with one of her new books (Mama got books for Christmas!  Her favorite thing!) and ignore any cries for help.

I hope your day is filled with a whole lot of nothing too.

Merry Christmas.

:: polar express visit with Santa, 2010 ::

My favorite nativity. Ever.

I took this picture last night.  We drove over to Fillmore to take the kids on the Polar Express (more about that later.)  At the train depot there was a Christmas carousel, lots of twinkling lights, and this nativity which totally and completely cracked me up.

Take a look at Joseph gesturing to the manger.  Why yes, Mr. Wise Man, here's my new born...uh...wait a minute...uh...where'd he go?

Oh there he is.  Mary's holding him.  Mary looks a little red in the face.  Is she embarrassed by the state of things?  Perhaps she's just had a little too much egg nog?  Well she has had a pretty rough night.  And who's that next to her?  A young shepard?  Peter Pan?  Jesus's older brother, whining to Mary about when he gets to ride on the carousel?  One thing is for certain.  Poor Mary's had it.  Besides, she's just given birth to a son that's apparently half her size.

But the best thing about this nativity?  That would be the ginormous candy cane stripped candle smack dab in the middle of all of the action.

After all, Jesus did bring light into the world.

Chocolate-covered Christmas Memories

©2005, Stephenie B. Freeman

Crying at the grocery store isn’t something I normally do, but this holiday season I just couldn’t help myself.  Strolling down the candy aisle, I browsed the shelves for candy to decorate my kitchen for the holidays.  Multi-colored gum drops, nougats with a Christmas tree in the middle, and milk chocolate Santas began to fill my shopping cart. 

It was then that I saw the chocolate-covered cherries. 

My eyes filled with tears as I reached for a box and held it close.  My nose began to run and my sniffling seemed to echo throughout the store.  Feeling silly and embarrassed, I inched closer to the candy lined shelves to hide my face between the bags of red and green M&M’s and festive Hersey's Kisses hoping no one would notice.

It is not unusual to find yourself choked up at the smallest of things during the holidays.  Maybe for you it is a sentimental Christmas song on the radio that brings a tear to your eye.  Maybe it is a special ornament from your childhood that puts a lump in your throat.  During Christmas the smallest of things seem to carry with them the biggest of memories; memories that fill your heart so abundantly that they cannot help but spill out, overwhelming you with emotions that you forgot you even had.

Chocolate-covered cherries were always my Cousin Joe’s favorite, so my grandmother bought him a box every Christmas.  Being like most grandmothers, our grandmother didn’t want anyone to feel left out, so she began buying each and every family member a box.  Even though my grandparents didn’t have a lot of money, when it came to Christmas you would never know it.  There were always an overwhelming amount of Christmas presents under the tree, including the chocolate-covered kind.  After all the “real” presents had been opened, only the small, rectangular boxes would remain.  As they were passed, inevitably some one would say, “I wondered what these could be?” and everyone would begin to giggle. 

As our family grew, so did the boxes of chocolates.  Every new spouse and great-grandchild would receive his or her own box that would be carefully wrapped and placed under the tree with the rest of the gifts complete with bow and gift tag.  I remember the first Christmas that my husband opened box.  He looked at me confused, so I quietly whispered to him, “It’s okay.  Only Joe likes them.”  Before I could stop him, my husband reached across the room and handed the box to my cousin.

“Here Joe.  You can have mine.”

The ripping of wrapping paper came to a halt.  The sipping of egg nog ceased.  All of the Christmas chaos abruptly froze as if Jesus himself had walked into the room to wish us all a Merry Christmas.  We starred at my grandmother, expecting her eyes to well up with disappointment and pain.  Instead, she smiled at my naive husband.

“Well after all these years.  Someone in the family that doesn’t like chocolate-covered cherries!  I guess it was bound to happen!”      

In our family, the boxes of chocolate-covered cherries were the fruitcake that no one ate.  As a child I remember thinking, “I don’t even like these!”  The truth was no one did, but every single one of us packed them up with the rest of the presents and took them home.  It was our family’s holiday tradition and they were something that we loved to hate.

There won’t be any chocolate-covered cherries this year.  My grandmother recently passed away leaving the rest of us behind to miss her terribly and to wonder who will buy the chocolate-covered cherries.  We never ate them; we even laughed about them.  Now we wanted them more than ever. 

Standing in the candy aisle that day, I was tempted to begin to fill my cart with the chocolate-covered memories of my grandmother.  I turned to my youngest son who was sitting in the cart and smiled through my tears.  As I handed him a box, he grabbed it and smiled.  I wiped away a tear as I kissed him on his bald head. 

“One day,” I told him, “you’re gonna love to hate these.”

list 10. favorite Christmas movie quotes.

1.  I just like to smile, smiling is my favorite.  (Elf)


2.  Phil Davis: Well, there have been some nice girls, too, you know. 
Bob Wallace: Oh yeah, yeah. Like that nuclear scientist we just met out in the hall. 
Phil Davis: All right, they didn't go to college. They didn't go to Smith. 
Bob Wallace: Go to Smith? She couldn't even spell it.   (White Christmas)

3.  Art: The little lights... they aren't twinkling. 

Clark: I know, Art. Thanks for noticing.   (Christmas Vacation)

4.  This is so tinsel!  (Prep and Landing)

5.  Can we take a direct flight back to reality, or do we have to change planes in Denver? (The Santa Clause)

6.  Aunt Clara had for years labored under the delusion that I was not only perpetually 4 years old, but also a girl.  (A Christmas Story)

7.  First we'll make snow angels for a two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookiedough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle.  (Elf)

8.  Oh Vermont should be beautiful this time of year, with all that snow.  (White Christmas)

9.  A toast to my big brother George: The richest man in town. (It's a Wonderful Life)

10.  Clark: Whew, it's warm in here. 

Mary: Well you have your coat on. 
Clark: Ah yes I do, why is that? 
Mary: Because it's cold out. 
Clark: Yes it is, it's a bit nipply out. I mean nippy out, what did I say, nipple? Huh, there is a nip in the air.  (Christmas Vacation)

11.  Christmas is not "clothing optional" this year - we have a guest.  (The Family Stone)

12.  Santa!  Oh my god!  Santa's coming!  I know him!  I KNOW HIM!  (Elf)

Card.

This is the pic that we used for our Christmas card this year.  I debated the whole skull-n-bones thing.  Nothing quite says "Merry Christmas" like the international symbol for poison.

However...this was such a cute picture of the boys I just couldn't resist, not to mention it is the Cheese's favorite new sweater.  So instead of fighting me the whole time about it, (i.e., "How long do I have to wear it?  Can I take it off yet?") he actually wore it happily.  And hey, they actually look like they like each other!  (Which they do of course, most of the time anyway.  Just not when they have to share or take turns or if one is in the other one's room or...)

I know I'm biased, but I think they look like a Gap ad.  Which only makes sense since for the first time in a long time we had our pictures professionally taken for our card.  You have to visit our photographer's blog.  She takes great pics and actually blogged about our little family which you can see by clicking here.


Merry Christmas!

Love,
The Freemans

Mama’s Version of the 12 Days of Christmas

© Stephenie Freeman

:: picture courtesy of Crafted by Lindy ::

On the first day of Christmas this Mama gave to thee, all her patience as the kids decorated the bottom of the tree.

On the second day of Christmas this Mama gave to thee, two hours waiting to see Santa, and all her patience as the kids decorated the bottom of the tree.

On the third day of Christmas this Mama gave to thee, three homemade marshmallows for their cocoa, two hours waiting to see Santa, and all her patience as the kids decorated the bottom of the tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas this Mama gave to thee, four dozen iced snowman cookies, three homemade marshmallows for hot cocoa, two hours waiting to see Santa, and all her patience as the kids decorated the bottom of the tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas this Mama gave to thee, five minutes in Time Out for whining, four dozen iced snowman cookies, three homemade marshmallows for hot cocoa, two hours waiting to see Santa, and all her patience as the kids decorated the bottom of the tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas this Mama gave to thee, six stops searching for a limited edition Star Wars LEGO, five minutes in Time Out for whining, four dozen iced snowman cookies, three homemade marshmallows for hot cocoa, two hours waiting to see Santa, and all her patience as the kids decorated the bottom of the tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas this Mama gave to thee, seven classic episodes of Rudolph, six stops searching for a limited edition Star Wars LEGO, five minutes in Time Out for whining, four dozen iced snowman cookies, three homemade marshmallows for hot cocoa, two hours waiting to see Santa, and all her patience as the kids decorated the bottom of the tree.

On the eighth day of Christmas this Mama gave to thee, eight boxes of candy canes decorated like reindeer for the school party, watching seven classic episodes of Rudolph, six stops searching for a limited edition Star Wars LEGO, five minutes in Time Out for whining, four dozen iced snowman cookies, three homemade marshmallows for hot cocoa, two hours waiting to see Santa, and all her patience as the kids decorated the bottom of the tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas this Mama gave to thee, nine trips to Target, eight boxes of candy canes decorated like reindeer for the school party, watching seven classic episodes of Rudolph, six stops searching for a limited edition Star Wars LEGO, five minutes in Time Out for whining, four dozen iced snowman cookies, three homemade marshmallows for hot cocoa, two hours waiting to see Santa, and all her patience as the kids decorated the bottom of the tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas this Mama gave to thee, ten wrapped packages for shaking, nine trips to Target, eight boxes of candy canes decorated like reindeer for the school party, watching seven classic episodes of Rudolph, six stops searching for a limited edition Star Wars LEGO, five minutes in Time Out for whining, four dozen iced snowman cookies, three homemade marshmallows for hot cocoa, two hours waiting to see Santa, and all her patience as the kids decorated the bottom of the tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas this Mama gave to thee, eleven empty bottles of Tylenol from her headaches, ten wrapped packages for shaking, nine trips to Target, eight boxes of candy canes decorated like reindeer for the school party, watching seven classic episodes of Rudolph, six stops searching for a limited edition Star Wars LEGO, five minutes in Time Out for whining, four dozen iced snowman cookies, three homemade marshmallows for hot cocoa, two hours waiting to see Santa, and all her patience as the kids decorated the bottom of the tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas this Mama needed from Thee, an extra day to addressed Christmas cards, make presents for all the teachers, figure out what to buy her husband, join a gym after eating homemade marshmallows and iced snowman cookies, charge the video camera for the school Christmas play, give up and buy the limited edition Star Wars LEGO on Ebay, and redecorate the bottom of the tree.   

Cookie Parties are the best kinds of parties to have.

My great friend, Karin, invited us over yesterday for a cookie party.  She asked us to bring over the ingredients and/or dough for our favorite Christmas cookies.  I decided to try a new recipe--candy cane twists.  I found the recipe in my family fun magazine.  They were easy to make and very festive!

We baked lots of Christmas cookies and ate snacks.  When they got tired of icing cookies, they decorated wooden ornaments to give to each other.  And this fabulous midwestern mommy living the sunny life in SoCal even had sloppy joe's cookin' in the crock pot to feed us dinner.  But I have to say, best part of the afternoon were wine spritzers for the mommies!  It was a lovely way to spend quality holiday time with friends and I can't wait to make this a new holiday tradition.

cute buddy icing his cookie in between taking a lick or two (or three...)

she even had special ones for the Star Wars fans. nothing cuter than a green and red Darth Vader.

hard at work in their aprons. their wives will appreciate this picture one day.

try to ignore his dirty face and glasses and just look at how cute his star cookie turned out.

now on to coloring ornaments and glitter glue!

peanut butter blossoms, candy cane twists, and a festive spritzer.

just a few of the beautiful creations.

our hostess with the mostess

the fab four

happy mommies after a spritzer or two (or three...)

Retro Christmas Pics: Part 2

This is Mrs. Graybill, my godmother.  Starting with my 1st Christmas, she gave me a Reed & Barton silver Christmas Cross every Christmas always with a sweet hand-written note.  She would also always call me on my birthday and sing me "Happy Birthday".  Mrs. Graybill has always been a part of my cheering section and my life has been blessed because of it.

Me and Lori in front my my grandmother's tree.  All I can say is thank goodness this picture isn't a close up.  My mouth was full of metal and I was wearing fake Keds and a teddy bear sweatshirt.  The early- to mid- 80's were NOT kind to me.  But honestly, were they kind to any of us?  I really don't think so.

Case in point.  Yes, that's a bow on our poor cat.  And yes, feel free to call me Sally Jesse.  Why am I sticking out my tongue?  I really have no idea.

One of my favorites.  This is me, my cousin Chelle, my step-brother Shay, and my best friend Blake.  Picture was totally unplanned.  Our parents had dropped us off at the mall and apparently we decided for some unknown reason to take a Christmas picture at one of those random kiosks in the middle of the mall.  I'm so glad we did because this picture is so random that it totally cracks me up.

Here's me and Mom getting ready for the high school Christmas formal, junior year 1989.  I was so excited for my first formal that I didn't even care that my mom was a chaperone.  I loved that black taffeta dress with plaid bows on the shoulders.  Now I couldn't even fit my left butt cheek in that tiny thing, but I would so love to try.

I bet you 100 bucks my mom still has that jacket in her closet.

Santa vs. Jesus

Last week I was helping the Monkey with some of his homework.  It was a speech about what winter holiday he celebrates with open-ended questions like "The winter holiday I celebrate is..." and "My favorite thing about this holiday is...".  He was supposed to answer the questions, draw a picture, and present it to the class.  And like all Kindergarten homework, it required lots of parental assistance.

Our conversation went a little something like this:

mama:  "Okay, Bud.  So what is the winter holiday we celebrate?"

monkey:  "Christmas!"

mama:  "That's right.  And why do we celebrate Christmas?"

monkey:  "To get presents!"

mama:  "Not exactly.  Yes you get presents, but that's not why we celebrate.  We celebrate Christmas because it's somebody's birthday.  Do you know whose birthday it is on Christmas?"

monkey:  "Santa?"

mama:  "Uh...no.  Not Santa..." (waiting to hear the answer)

monkey:  "Santa gives us presents!"

mama:  "Well, yeah...if you're a good boy.  But it's not his birthday and we don't celebrate Christmas because of presents or Santa.  Now think.  Where do we go on Christmas Eve?"

monkey:  (says nothing)

mama:  "Church.  We go to church on Christmas Eve to celebrate somebody's birthday.  Whose birthday  do we celebrate at church on Christmas?"

monkey:  "Santa's!"

Obviously my questions directed at helping him arrive at the correct answer were not working.  We were headed into a bad religious version of "Who's on First?"

mama:  "Monkey, we celebrate Christmas because it was the day that Jesus was born.  Jesus is the reason that we celebrate Christmas.  That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown."

Now he was really confused.

He turned in his assignment and did a great job on his speech, but the whole Santa vs. Jesus misunderstanding has bothered me ever since.  We are a family that goes to church every Sunday (okay, not every Sunday but pretty darn close.)  I've read my boys stories about the First Christmas.  We even have the Fisher Price Little People Nativity set.  So where had I gone so wrong?

Looking around at my Christmas decorations, it dawned on me.  There was a whole lot of Santa and not enough Jesus.

Isn't that the way it is during the holiday season?  Lots of presents.  Lots of candy and cookies.  Lots of lights and decorations.  There are Santa suits for our dogs and snowman coffee mugs next to the Keurig. There are LEGO Advent calendars and homemade gingerbread houses.  But the real reason for the season?  Yeah, that poor guy was no where to be found.

So today I bought two of these.

Luke 2:11 "Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

Every Christmas morning we eat cinnamon rolls and drink chocolate milk after opening presents.  And from now on we will be doing so using these plates.  Just a little reminder who's birthday it really is.

I'll give you a hint:  It's not Santa's.

Celebrating Forty at Bushwood.

The Golfer turned forty yesterday, or as the boys call it "The Big 4-0", and we celebrated in style.  We got all dressed up and went to our country club for dinner.  (I do indeed realize that saying the phrase "our country club" sounds all snobby and snooty and if you're thinking that you'd be correct.  But if you know the Golfer's profession--which most of you do--our belonging to a country club makes complete and total sense.)

In order to take the boys to the formal dining room for dinner, I had to buy them their first sport coats.  At first I was resistant.  I mean, who wants to spend a lot money on fancy clothes for your kids that they will grow out of?  Not me.  But as I said, it was the Golfer's 40th and all he wanted was a nice dinner with his family.  Jackets required.

Now in most fancy situations, I would be a little nervous about the boys acting...appropriately.  They are boys.  Boys are loud.  Boys are loud and silly, especially when they shouldn't be.  Luckily for me, yesterday I had developed quite a miserable head cold and was doped up on cold medicine which means I was very relaxed and could really care less how they behaved.  Plus, I felt like I was underwater and couldn't hear a thing.

But a funny thing happened.  They were very well behaved.  Even with all of the fabulous Christmas decorations (and as you will see from the pictures below, they were indeed very fabulous) they were better behaved than...dare I say it...than they have every been.  They sat quietly at the table with their napkins in their laps.  They used their manners.  They didn't beg to leave or annoy each other in any way.  When the carolers came by our table to sing (yes, there were carolers) they listened quietly.  They were everything that I have ever wanted my children to be.

I'm not sure what it was.  Maybe it was the Shirley Temples or perhaps their ties were tied too tight.  I'm sure tonight when I take them to Chick-fil-A for dinner they won't be nearly as well behaved.  But the Golfer and I did come to this realization last night: getting your kids all dressed up and taking them to a fancy restaurant is a good thing.  They learn to behave.  They practice using their manners.  They experience adult behavior.

We don't ever dress up anymore.  There's no reason for our boys to wear a sport coat.  But I think that this practice of acting like nice young gentlemen is going to be a very good thing.  So it looks like more dinners at Bushwood* are in our future.  And that's a good thing.

By the way, the Monkey liked his bow tie so much he wore it to school today.  With his Lakers T-shirt.

(*Okay, so that really isn't the name of our country club.  If you're a Caddy Shack fan then you'll recognize it as the name of the country club in the movie.  It's the "affectionate" name we given our club.  And one thing that Bushwood does really well is Christmas!  Not just a gingerbread house, but a whole village!  They don't mess around at Bushwood.)