Three
She’s three. Her big request was pancakes and a pink, blue and orange balloon. Done, baby girl, Done. I wish I had all the rest of the pictures I took, but well, I don’t. Our computer is in the process of having a brain transplant and everything that I love is hidden and buried inside that old computers mind. It’s safe, but buried behind motherboards and hard drives and the wrong cables to make everything go.
But today my little girl turned three. And this is what we had for lunch. We had a real party last weekend for her with our family, the morning after my sisters wedding. I had 27 people in my house. My very small house. But it was wonderful. And now I’m back to mostly normal, I slept a full 10 hours last night and I hope that in the next few days our computer will be recoverd enough so I can get to all my photos and my camera software and photoshop and blah blah blah. I’ll be back soon. I have a lot of things to share!
Making Snowflakes
This afternoon we decided to make a few paper snowflakes. It is finally cold again (like it’s supposed to be in January in the Northern Hemisphere) but still no snow at my house. It really is getting depressing. So today we decided to make our own. This child of mine loves to cut. My mom gave her a small pair of scissors for her birthday last year and she has done really well with them. So far she hasn’t cut anything she’s not supposed to. So far. I’m sure it’s coming. But she pulls out her art box everyday to cut and glue and color something or other. It’s really fun to watch her.
I don’t think I’ve made a paper snowflake for more than ten years. And it was surprisingly therapeutic to sit down on the floor with my paper and my pink scissors and snip away.
The best part is opening them up and seeing what you’ve made. It’s always a surprise. After I cut them out I gave them a quick press with a hot iron to help the folds lay flat.
Well, Creamie’s was less of a surprise. It was pretty obvious to me from the beginning what she was going to end up with. But she was as happy as could be doing it. I don’t think her scissors and sharp enough to cut all the layers of a snowflake anyway. And that’s probably for the best.
Man, I love this little face of hers. I mean, she is two going on thirteen, but sometimes she is just so sweet it makes my heart ache. I am so lucky to have her in my life.
This was my favorite snowflake I made today. I think I’ll be doing this a few more times this “winter”. One of Creamie’s favorite Christmas movies is How the Grinch Stole Christmas. There is a line in there when the Grinch is deciding to pretend to be Santa and steal all the toys where he says “If I can’t find a reindeer I’ll make one instead.” I really feel like that sometimes. If I can’t find snowflakes, well then I’ll make them instead. Me and the Grinch. Getting innovative with our available resources to accomplish our goals. Or whatever.
Recipe: Cauliflower Soup and Stuffed Mushrooms
A few days ago I tried out a new soup recipe and it was fantastic. Really, so so good. So I kind of have a restaurant crush on Zupas. It’s a Utah (and one Phoenix location) chain that has soup and salad and sandwiches. I get the same thing every time I go, Wisconsin Cauliflower soup and a grilled ham and cheese panini. Since the beginning of the year I have been cutting way back on carbs and sugar, you know, that whole new years resolution thing, and we are also trying to eat at home more. But I still crave this soup a few days a week. I found this recipe, and with a few modifications it’s a pretty close replica.
Creamy Cauliflower Soup
In a heavy saucepan (at least 3 quarts) melt 2 TB butter and add 1 chopped medium onion. Cook and stir occasionally for about 10 minutes until golden brown and tender. Add 1/4 cup sifted flour and stir while cooking 2 minutes. Then add 2 cups chicken broth (or 1 14 oz-ish can) and 3.5 cups fat free half and half. Add a head of cauliflower, chopped into 1″ chunks and then bring the soup to nearly boiling before you turn it down to a simmer. Cover the pot, and simmer for about 15 minutes until the cauliflower is tender. (If you don’t have a heavy bottomed pan, you’ll probably need to stir this while the cauliflower cooks so the milk doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pan. I have great pans and with the correct temperature I can cook milk without burning it. But be careful on this step, you don’t want burnt milk soup.) When the cauliflower is soft, blend it either with an immersion blender, or in batches in a regular blender (what I did) until it is smooth. Return soup to the stove and bring back to a simmer, then add 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese and 1 cup shredded pepperjack. Remove from heat and stir in 1 tsp salt (to taste) and 1 good squirt (1.5 TB maybe?) of dijon (or honey dijon) mustard, and 1/2 tsp nutmeg (two good shakes). Stir soup until cheese has all melted and serve with extra shredded cheddar on top. Serves 6.
*Adding a little sugar would make it a lot closer to Zupas original soup, but I decided to skip that step and live with a close enough taste. Adapted from this recipe.
And my other favorite winter treat is Stuffed Mushrooms. Scott hates them. He doesn’t like mushrooms at all, and he really doesn’t like the way they smell when they are cooking. So I reserve my mushroom consumption for lunchtime, when he isn’t home. These make a great side or an appetizer for a party. They will disappear right before your eyes.
Stuffed Mushrooms
Brown 1 pound of Italian sausage, drain and dump on a paper towel lined plate to remove any excess grease and to let it cool. In a separate bowl combine 1 8 oz package soft cream cheese (I always use the 1/3 fat Neufatchel cheese, which is great. But don’t use the fat free version, it gives a really weird texture to the finished mushrooms) 2 cups sharp shredded cheddar, 1 bunch minced green onions (green part only). Add the cooled sausage and mix together. This is the filling, which will keep in a covered container in the fridge for about a week. Next you’ll need 1 pound to 1.5 pounds crimini/button/small brown mushrooms. I like the brown one’s because I think they have a better flavor for this dish. If they are small (1.5″ across) you’ll need more than if they are a larger 2-3″ across. Using a melon baller (available in most kitchen sections of grocery stores, walmart, target, or any kitchen specialty store) scoop out the stems and inside flesh of the mushrooms. You can chop this up and add it to your filling mixture if you like. Then use your melon baller to scoop the filling inside each mushroom. It’s the perfect tool for this job. You can bake a whole 9×13″ pan of mushrooms at a time (packed in side to side) at 450 degrees for about 30-40 minutes, until the cheese is melty and bubbly and the mushrooms have released their juice, or if you are only making a few, space them out on a foil lined rimmed sheet like you were baking cookies. If they are spread out they cook a lot faster, more like 12 minutes.
Sprinkle baked mushrooms with fresh chopped parsley. And eat them while they are still hot. (Cook them at the party if you decide to bring these as a pot luck dish or something.) I usually keep my filling in the fridge and each day for lunch make a half a dozen more mushrooms. And combined with this soup it made for a very satisfying low carb (though not exactly “diet”) lunch these past few days. And the next few. Yum.
Popsicles in January
My dad gave Creamie a Zoku popsicle maker for Christmas. And she has been begging to make them every single day. But I’m a really mean mom and if she didn’t finish the meal before she begged for popsicles I always say “Nope, because you didn’t eat your lunch, but if you eat your dinner we can make some tonight.” But every single time that has happened we have both forgotten about them, she wouldn’t eat her dinner either, or some other random lame excuse. But today was the day. She ate all her lunch, and then asked me if we could make popsicles. YES! I have been so excited to try this out too!
We made Raspberry Orange popsicles. And wow. So good. I am sure that I am going to start an entire pinboard just for zokupop recipes. (UPDATE: I made one.) Because I kind of want to eat them after every single meal they are that good. And since we are going on day four of over 55 degree weather (IN JANUARY!) popsicles were a great idea for today.
So, the Zoku maker goes in the freezer overnight, you pour in the juice/popsicle mix and then let it sit for 10 minutes and you have popsicles. Easiest thing ever.
She was in heaven. Except she kept getting irritated that she was getting popsicles on her face. Thanks dad for a great present!
PS. She is wearing a 6-9 month shirt and just graduated to 4T pants. She’ll be three in two weeks. I grow ’em tall and skinny ’round these parts.
A Quilt for M
Last summer my sister in law M gave me a bag of her old tshirts and asked me to make a quilt out of them. She had a friend who was going to do it for her a long time ago, but life got in the way and a few years ago she gave the bag back, mostly untouched. M commissioned me to just finish what her friend had started. And so I did. They were here last week visiting for the holidays and I was able to give her her quilt in person.
These are all shirts from marathons she ran, places she visited (Egypt, Jerusalem, Denmark, Poland!) or people she helped working as a physical therapist. It was a fun, though enormous project to work on. The finished quilt is 94″x110″ which is almost King Size. My two brothers are holding it up for me and their average height is 6’6″. We grow them big here. I used a heavy woven cotton/twill for the back because it will probably be used as a picnic quilt more than a bed quit.
All the shirts she gave me were gray or white except this one. And it just didn’t work on the front, no matter which way I tried it. But I couldn’t very well throw it away either. And it’s a good thing I didn’t because even though I bought 10 yards of fabric for the sashings and the back (that plaid is 60″ wide) I only had a tiny piece left. You know, about 4″x10″. I needed that shirt in the back just to take up some space! Also, my brother are kind of dorks, especially that one in black. HA! I hope you love it M!
Quilt Stats: 30 shirts for the front, cut into 14.5″ (unfinished) squares, I used more than 20 yards of lightweight interfacing, ironed onto the backs before I trimmed them down to keep them from stretching. That’s important when you are quilting with knits. Sashing is 2.5″ finished, same as the stop border. The outer border I think is 4.5″. I wish I could have made it an inch or two wider. Oh well. The back has about 30 pieces in it, just what happened when you are sewing all the scraps together. Which is also why the plaids don’t match up perfectly. Bummer. I added a grayish border to the blue shirt to help it stand out, and so the blues wouldn’t butt up next to each other and clash. And because those extra four inches were necessary! My friend Kellie at the quilt shop where I work quilted it for me, and I bound it in a light gray by hand. If I was doing it again I would probably picked a little darker gray. It didn’t look nearly so light before I had it all finished. Isn’t that the way it goes.
An Angel Doll
I’ve never had so much fun making a present. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have to hide it away and only work on it at night while everyone was sleeping. It took hours and hours to make. Happy hours. Creative hours. Hours spent doing something that is bigger than me or my own family.
Every year at church we set up an angel tree to help the families in our neighborhood that need it the most. (You pick a tag off the tree and buy a gift for “Adult Male” or “6 month old girl” or whatever.) In the past Scott and I have always taken a few tags and returned our anonymous gifts. It’s part of what Christmas is all about anyway and we feel strongly about helping people who live right by us. But this year we just couldn’t do it. Instead, I helped make stockings for these angel tree kids. I could at least do that. But one day at church I was sitting there in class, the angel tree set up right in front of me. And I noticed a new little tag. A family had been added at the last minute. And right there in the center was one tag that I couldn’t stop staring at. It said “Girl, age 7. Want: doll”.
I stared at it for the entire 45 minute class. I have absolutely zero idea what the teacher was talking about. But my heart was racing, knowing what I was going to do. Then while I very impatiently waited for class to end (I did have the presence of mind to realize that it would be rude to stand up in the middle of the teachers lesson and walk right up to the front of the room…) I had a minor anxiety attack thinking of the possibility that when class was over someone else might get to it first. I KNEW this little tag was for me. As soon as the closing prayer was over, the “Amen” still hanging in the air, I maybe climbed over the empty row of chairs in front of me and snatched the tag as quick as I could. Maybe. But I made it. And that’s all that matters.
We didn’t have any money for Christmas, but I have enough craft supplies to circle the planet, twice over. And I knew I could make a beautiful doll without spending any money. But one that this little girl’s parents could never hope of buying. There was only a few days until these gifts were supposed to be returned so they could be delivered. But I talked to the woman in charge and told her I would never make it in four days. But I’d have it done and wrapped and at her house by the 22nd of December. Then I got to work.
I combined two different patterns to make this doll. She is part Poppy Doll (from Fiona Dalton at hop.skip.jump) and part Little Red (from Larissa Holland at mmmcrafts). I’d never made either of them before, but after I looked at the pattern pieces I knew I could combine my favorite parts of both to make this Christmas Doll. I did end up buying about 6″ of brown felt for her hair and braids. I just couldn’t make her hair jet black (I saved that for her shoes), or gray. And those were the only options in my stash. After I made my doll I started pulling out fabric scraps for her wardrobe.
And then I decided that I was going to go all out. Because little girls need dresses, and shoes, and a school bag. And it was Christmas. She just just wouldn’t have been right without them. Her shoes took a few tries to get right. They are black felt with a working button closure. Her school bag is purple felt with a vintage button clasp.
As soon as the bag was finished Creamie declared it “so baby cute” and then informed me that she needed keys and a phone and a chapstick and a notebook to go inside. But I thought I should probably make her some pants before I worked on minature chapstick. I tucked an extra set of hair ribbons and a silver heart necklace (a gift from a highschool boyfriends parents. I never even wore it) into her bag instead. I did have to make her pants twice because the first ones just didn’t come on and off easily enough. And the rest of her wardrobe pattern drafting went surprisingly well. I think I had my own little angel watching me, making sure i didn’t screw anything up too much because there just wasn’t the time. This little blue shirt has buttons up the back, and is fully reversible. The other side is a cute tealish blue gingham. I had plans to make her a pair of jeans and another shirt or two. But it just didn’t work out.
Because it was December, and I couldn’t very well send a little girl out in a little sleeveless shirt, I drafted a pattern for a wool coat too. The Little Red Riding Hood pattern has a beautiful red wool cape, but I didn’t have any red wool. And a Little Green Riding Hood just isn’t the same. I used the hood as a starting point and in much less time than I anticipated I had this cute green coat with wood buttons ready to go. See, that was the sewing angel watching out for me again. I kind of wish she’d stay around all the time.
Of course that wasn’t all, because she also needed some flannel jammies. So I drafted that pattern too. I had the perfect pink polka dot left over from making this blanket and amazingly the perfect color of ribbon trim. A small miracle. And I think adding 1.25 inches of 1/16″ elastic to the bottom of the long sleeves was one of the most frustrating things of the whole doll making procedure. Sheesh! I ended up threading it through with a needle because I didn’t have a saftey pin small enough to do the job. Those 2.5 inches of elastic were enough to drive me to eat up all my chocolate stash. True story.
And last of all, with just a few alterations to the jammies pattern I was able to make her a party dress. Because little girls need dresses as much as they need coats and bags and jammies and cutie little shoes. I finished tacking down the lining by hand while in the car on our anniversary lunch date the afternoon of the 22nd, and when I got home I added button holes and the sash. But I made it. Kind of. (I ended up cutting the drop off kind of close. But I was NOT letting her go out the door without getting a few pictures.) Santa was already loading his sleigh when I arrived, box in hand, smile in my heart. It was something I’ll never forget. I don’t know which little girl opened her on Christmas morning. But I hope she likes her. I hope she wasn’t wishing for a Barbie, or a Bratz doll or something lame like that. All Christmas morning I kept thinking about my little 7 year old girl, hoping she wouldn’t be disappointed.
I will make this doll again. I thankfully made (and kept!) my labeled paper pattern pieces so I won’t have to start over next time. I think next year I’ll make one for Creamie. And a little boy to go with her. (I already have a huge list of clothes I can make. ) While I was working on making this Angel Doll she asked me a few times who it was for. And I told her it was for a little girl who didn’t have any presents for Christmas. She probably didn’t understand, but she accepted the fact that it wasn’t for her. And she was totally OK with that. She gave this Angel Doll a lot of hugs and rockabyes before she was finished, and was happy to help me wrap up all her clothes in tissue paper and put everything in one big box. I can’t wait to do it again next year.
Get Dressed: Vintage Embroidery and Saddle Shoes
It’s time for another Project: Get Dressed post. I have really been trying to stick to my self imposed rule of really getting dressed up more than just on Sunday’s. I hope that this year I can be a little more consistent with that goal. I might completely fail, but at least I started it off right. This is what I wore to church yesterday.
Shirt, belt and skirt are vintage, and thrifted. Mustard cardigan and nude fishnets are from Macy’s, shoes are Rachel Antonoff for Bass, purse from Wilson’s Leather (a gift from my sister ages ago) and my turquoise necklace was handmade in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
It all started with the shoes. My dad gave me these pink patent saddle shoes for Christmas. They are so comfortable, and the inside is made of the softest leather. They came with some pink laces, but I kind of love having satin ribbons. It makes me feel fancy. And they look as cute with skirts as with dark jeans. See, a perfect shoe. On Saturday we had a family New Years Eve waffle party at my house and I told Heidi that more important than remembering the Coconut Cream syrup and Lignonberry jam she needed to help me figure out what to wear with these shoes. We tried a few combos from my closet before we settled on this one. And I love it. And I love these shoes and I love my dad for giving them to me and Heidi for helping me wear them without looking like a little girl. (I sometimes wear them around the house just for fun. Because I’m a dork like that.)
I found this amazing embroidered shirt at a thrift store at the beginning of October, but yesterday was the first time I’ve worn it. It needed a little tailoring to fit me well and Lynette did a wonderful job. I think it was probably someones cast off exotic vacation souvenir. They just don’t make stuff like this in America. It’s all hand embroidered and absolutely perfect. I should have taken a picture without my sweater, because the sleeves on this shirt are just as beautiful as the rest. Next time. And there will be a next time. It is one of my favorite tops I own and because it has a little bit of every color in it it practically goes with everything. Big pink embroidered flowers are a neutral! Who knew? Actually, as far as I am concerned pink is the greatest neutral ever. It goes with everything, is never boring and always makes me smile.
You can’t see the pattern in the skirt too well, but it is an awesome blue and dark gray herringbone. It fit me perfectly when I bought it, but thanks to limiting my cookie consumption the past few months I need to take it to Lynette and have her take it in at the waist. That is the happiest reason in the world to have something altered!
Also, it is ridiculously warm outside. The grass is still greenish. I mean, this pic was in the shade, but still…. that grass is green. And the fact that I am standing on green grass in January is ridiculous. We spent some time at the park today and Creamie was having so much fun that she shed her jacket and her shoes… and it was warm enough to do it. I swear it was 50 degrees. I really need some snow. And some good freezing temperatures. And some cloudy moody days. Dear Winter, if you don’t come this year and we go from late fall right into early spring I am breaking up with you. I mean it.
Previous Project: Get Dressed posts Pink Plaid, Vintage Plaid and Leather, 10 year Reunion.
Happy New Year
Hello, friends. I’ve been absent from this space for far too long and I miss it. Despite a few challenges we had a wonderful Christmas here in our little house. We are so blessed, and even though I wasn’t expecting much, thanks to some wonderful friends, family and complete strangers we had an amazing Christmas. I have never been more thankful for so many good people in my life. I hope 2012 brings with it a little more luck in a few area of our life, but even if it doesn’t, I am so grateful that I get to spend my life with my sweet husband and hilarious little girl. With them, no matter what luck does or does not come our way, I will be happy.
Last New Years Day I photographed my Pyrex collection (post here). It was considerably smaller then. And tonight after Creamie went to bed I decided I needed to do it again. You know, just for fun.
I have a lot of new pieces, thanks to some great thrifty finds and some great friends who find them for me. Looking at them all together I really need to find some more pinks and blue/turquoise. Those are my favorites of them all, and the hardest to find.
I have made a few New Years goals for myself, and for our little family. I didn’t do to well at last year’s goals, so I am hoping that this year goes a little better. Last year Creamie was sick for most of the winter and spring and it really threw me for a loop. She got a flu shot about 6 weeks ago and hasn’t had a sniffle or a cough or a bad night since then. I just keep praying that this streak of good luck lasts.
This little cup is the most unusual piece of Pyrex I’ve ever found. I saw it on a shelf of a teeny small town thrift store and was surprised to find it was Pyrex. I am not sure if it is a handle-less mug or a tall ramequin or what. But I love the barcode/woodgrainish looking pattern. Kind of fun.
Last year I just set my collection up on my desk to take a picture. It took me about five minutes to get it right. This year it took a lot longer. Scott has finished a movie in the time it took for me to get everything set up on my table, take the pictures and then write this post. But it was an evening happily spent. And since Burn Notice is over for another season I have little else to do in the evenings. (HA!)
Thank you friends for all your support and virtual love. I have loved the friends I have made in this space. And I miss you when I’m not here. I’m not going to try and catch up with everything from the past few weeks. I’ll just tell you that I did a LOT of Christmas sewing. I’ll share my favorite not exactly Christmasy project this week. I spent hours and hours on it and it is one of my favorite things I’ve ever made. Happy New Year everyone!
A Little More Christmas
Thank you all so much for all the sweet comments you left on my last post. It’s amazing how just writing it down and getting it out in the world makes it seem like it isn’t such an overwhemling obstacle anymore. So thank you for listening and letting me know that I’m not alone as I felt I was. Thank you. Really.
OK, so a few days ago we went to pick up my moms tree because she doesn’t have a car big enough to handle a Christmas tree very well. We stopped by my favorite tree lot after I picked up Creamie from her dance class. It was cold, but I came prepared with boots and gloves and and a hat. I just didn’t come prepared for how adorable she would be flouncing through the rows of trees playing hide and seek.
When we found the right tree she very happily offered to help the tree guy carry it to the car. She is so helpful. And I was so thankful that tree guy humored her and let her help him. See, people really are good at heart.
Today this arrived, an early Christmas present from my Dad. Mickey’s Christmas Carol was one of my favorite Christmas movies growing up. I like it about a million times better than the Muppetts version. It has been a happy afternoon watching this with Creamie. But now I’m off to make dinner. Porkchops with Bean and Butternut Chili and homemade cornbread. Because it’s one of my favorite things ever.
Also, I am really in love with my little reindeer necklace. It was my souvenir from our trip this fall. I found it at a teensy little shop in a teensy little town about 100 miles from the nearest grocery store. But, I did a quick search on etsy for a silver reindeer necklace and there are a few similar ones. It is going to be my new go to holiday item this season I think. That and this silver stripey shirt. I got it free with purchase of a dress last Christmas and yesterday was the first time I’ve worn it. See, I used to be scared of wearing things with stripes… what if no one recognized me? (Which has happened. And it was my sister who didn’t recognize me beacuse I was wearing a striped shirt instead of my standard solid color. Which is a post all by itself. Ha!) Be back soon. And with real photographs. I swear. Also, I did an interview over at MessyLa for her blogiversary, go here to check it out.
Christmas at the Door
Hello friends. I’ve been quiet, I know. I feel like a lot is going on and nothing is going on all at the same time. So here is some of that lot of nothing that I’ve been up to and thinking about for the past little while. Illustrated with phone pics which are grainy and blurry but I haven’t picked up my real camera for weeks. More on that later. Creamie is getting better (for now) and she got a flu shot which I REALLY hope helps her stay healthier this winter. She is so excited for Christmas she can hardly stand it. She saw Santa at the church party. She wants to watch The Grinch and sing Jingle Bells every single day. I am excited about Christmas too. And all it took was one huge (to me) act of genuine goodness, kindness and love. Let me tell you a story, which is hard for me to tell, so if you feel the need/desire to comment, please be kind.
I’ve mentioned over the past few months that Scott got a new job, is now working crazy hours and is gone a lot more than he was. What I haven’t so much mentioned is anything about his old job. He and a few partners owned a civil engineering firm. It was a wonderful opportunity for a while, but after the housing bubble burst here in the USA things changed. (Civil Engineering is designing subdivisions, roadways, pipelines, sewer systems, etc. All things that are in about as much demand as new subdivisions. Which lately has been zero.) Their firm layed off a lot of employees just a few months after Creamie was born in 2009. That allowed them to keep the company open and still give a few people work on a contract basis, but still save a lot of money in taxes and medical insurance premiums. They had some good projects. We were surviving. Barely. But making it more or less.
Things went along for better or worse for two years. We always felt like we were still doing what we were supposed to be doing. We still felt like we were on the right path. They were working hard. Constantly trying out new projects and areas. Solar, Hydro-power, all sorts of awesome new things. They always had a few good projects in the works the kept us all afloat. And then this past spring things changed drastically. Work was scarcer, clients had gone bankrupt or disappeared leaving us with piles of open invoices. Lots of interest in the new kinds of projects, but no money to fund them. And everything was hanging (and still is) on one last big project that has been pushed back and postponed for one reason or another for the past 3 years. (On December 19th cross your fingers for us, we are getting closer to seeing this one become a reality, just a few more hoops to jump… I hope.) By the beginning of summer we knew we had to look for something else. Now. Things quickly got worse at work. Then worse again. Who knows how many paychecks we have skipped over the past few years, but this spring and summer were particularly bad. For the first time ever we knew we had to find something else immediately. Scott applied for jobs. Lots of jobs. Applied for jobs for 8 hours a day. And we heard nothing. I cried a lot. I ate a lot of Oreos. Standard coping mechanisms.
And then the first of August he finally got an interview. One interview. He aced it. He was hired out of 140 applicants and 11 interviewees in a unanimous board decision. It was not a moment too soon. (And perhaps a few moments later than I would have preferred.) But the Lord works in mysterious ways and looking back we can see that He prepared us for this opportunity for a long time. Anyway, his new job is awesome. His coworkers are awesome. He loves his work. We have great benefits. Good insurance, with zero out of pocket premium for us. I have dental insurance for the first time in my life. I might get my wisdom teeth out next year! (Yep, all four are hanging out in there hurting and driving me nuts everytime I brush my teeth.) But the best part? He goes to work every week and they pay him for that. Like, hand out paychecks on Fridays and stuff. But wait, get this, the money is magically already in the bank. They just stick it right in your account. It is amazing. And then two weeks later They. Do. It. Again. And then again. It’s a beautiful system. Really, an amazingly beautiful system.
Anyway, that was four months ago. And things are better. So so much better. But there are still those three-ish years of missed paychecks and bankrupt/dirty-rotten-no-good-corrupt clients to deal with. And it will take time to be out from under all of that. This Christmas was looking to be really lean. Leaner than any other we’ve had in our almost 8 years. I have enough craft supplies and fabric that Creamie would never know the difference. She is all set to wake up to a child’s dreamland of handmade toys on Christmas morning. And Scott and I were OK deciding to forgo gifts this year. We have each other, we have a warm home, food to eat and clothes to wear. We have a good job and a lot of faith that all things will eventually work out for our good in the end. But I knew that there wasn’t any extra money this Christmas. None, not even for little things. We got slapped with a $300 HOA fee from our less than awesome condo board a few weeks ago and it had to be paid. (Everyone under our HOA board jurisdiction had to pay it. It’s not because we didn’t clean up our patio or had weird crap hung in the windows or anything.) And there went Christmas. To the HOA board. Lame.
I don’t care about the presents, neither does Scott. What I really want for Christmas is a whole weekend to work in my craft room and sew and make pie. And like I said, there is enough fabric stacked up in my house that Creamie will have the best handmade Christmas a girl could hope to have. But what it really meant was that there was no money for a tree this year. Not even a little one. I arrived at this conclusion the day before Thanksgiving. It was horrible. I cried. And cried. And then I opened the pantry and made seventeen pies. I am not joking. I tried to pretend it didn’t matter, but by that weekend I was sobbing. A lot. At the smallest thing I’d tear up again.
Creamie has been asking for a Christmas tree since we took it down last Christmas. That girl has a memory like a steel trap, nothing slips through that little mind of hers. We looked into a few cut your own tree lots, because they are usually a little less expensive. And we looked into a few programs to cut a tree from government land, but all the permits were all sold out already. I even looked at fake trees at thrift stores, but they are almost as much as a cut your own lot. And I had pretty much come to the conclusion that there would be no Christmas tree with popcorn garland and gingerbread boys in my living room this year. I thought maybe on Christmas Eve I could convince my favorite tree lot guy (we get our trees from him every year, and have since I was a girl) to let me have whatever he had left and we could decorate it then. And it would be fine. And Creamie would love it. But I would have felt like Christmas was missing at my house for the whole of December. And that made my heart sick and it made me cry.
And then a small miracle happened. One that restores my faith in people, faith in Christmas, faith in love and goodwill toward men. Friday afternoon there was a loud knock on my door. REALLY loud. And the doorbell at the same time. I looked out the peephole (because that is what you do when someone pounds on your door) and there was a miracle on the porch. A big green miracle that brought tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat. Our Christmas was at the door. We have been doorbell ditched with a huge beautiful Christmas tree.
We had to snip off the top to fit it in the house it was so tall. Creamie saw it and freaked out, screaming in pure joy. I just stood there and said a silent prayer of thanks. Even thinking about it now it makes me cry. We pulled out the Christmas things. I opened box after box. I tested lights and mixed up gingerbread boys and made popcorn. We spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday stringing popcorn and baking cookies into gingerbread ornaments and hanging candy canes and jinglebells on our big beautiful tree. First thing out of Creamie’s mouth every morning is “Can I do some more Christmas things on the tree?”
It takes up a whole corner of the room, and it looks like it is on fire what with the 1600 lights on it. (I could have used 700 or so more. I didn’t do any lights on the bottom half on the side facing the wall.) And everysingle time I look at it I am reminded of how good some people really are. And how if we pay attention to the feelings and nudges we have we can work miracles in other people’s lives. I am so grateful for this small miracle in mine. I know it is “just a Christmas tree.” But more than that it is a reminder to me of new life. Of hope. Of love. That no matter how hard or crazy or crappy things are right now, that it will change. We will get through it. If pine trees can survive the harsh cold winters year after year and stay beautiful and alive surely I can do this right now. Things really are going to work out. Somehow. Things are going to be “OK”, whatever that means. Christmas is here in our little house. And thanks to the kindness of our Christmas Angel it is in my heart too.
pinksuedeshoe 