some christmas highlights

owen on christmas morning reading his letter from santa--i started taking pictures then realized halfway through that i really needed a video. he's reading it on his own (note how how sounds out "elves"!) and half asleep. i got a video later of him reading the entire letter but somehow this unscripted moment just seems better. promise to put up a video of owen reading one of his books!




baby lily reaching for her favorite cousin:

the computer that santa's elves built:

spike the dinosaur terrorizes sierra the dog:

marble works! santa delivered this one for gramma and grampa...

the handkerchiefs

here are a few of my favorites. . . you'll have to click on the images to see them closer, but this first one is actually two folded together--one from michael's paternal great grandmother and one from his maternal grandmother--i love the embroidered monogram. . .

this one was edyth's--apparently it was gigantic, so it's been folded to retain it's unique shape and you can also see the name tag that was sewn on it when edy went away to school (the square to the right has three that have been folded together so that the crocheted edges overlap):

i just love this one (it would make a great purse!) notice the butterfly stitching done by the quilter as well, each handkerchief has its own quilting that mirrors the design and keeps the integrity of the original...

here's the little america one--too fun!

there are many more, perhaps i should take viewing appointments ? ;)

a new heirloom for christmas

for the last few months nana, my mom, has been acting particularly mysterious--all i knew is that when we didn't see her on our regular mwf riverside days she was overwhelmingly busy with a secret "project." one afternoon my dad accidentally mentioned they were meeting aunt edy for dinner and then so desperately pleaded with me not to ask any more questions lest he be cerimonously crucified for ruining the suprise. but i was not expecting this gorgeous heirloom that my mother had been crafting with my aunt edy and had enlisted generations of women to contribute. . .

it started sometime earlier this year when my mother had shown me a stack of handkerchiefs tucked (like many women who have been lucky to inherit such intricate intimacies) at the back of her top dresser drawer. the collection struck me as an ecclectic and deeply personal narrative of my foremothers--from the embellished A that my grandmother Alta had carried in her frail hands to colorfully crocheted butterflies that i imagine my mother carried as a young teenager to souvenier hankies that featured the flora and fauna of "little america." it reminds me now of joan didion's narrative in where i was from--which coincidentally michael's family gave me for christmas--didon describes a quilt hanging in a room in her home:

a quilt made by my great-great-grandmother Elizabeth Anthony Reese on a wagon journey during which she buried oen child, gave birth to another. . . and took turns driving a yoke of oxen, a span of mules. . . In this quilt of Elizabeth Reese's were more stiches than I had ever seen in a quilt, a blinding and pointless compaction of stitches, and it occured to me as I hung it that she must have finished it one day in the middle of hte crossing, somwehre in the wilderness of her own grief and illness, and just kept on stitching.

it reminds me of that because i imagine these handkerchiefs as quiet, personal witnesses to that life in that little box house in yankton, south dakota. they wiped tears, were held in prayer, and felt in embrace. looking around my old bedroom where my mother has a hanging her most cherished quilts i suggested she quilt them--it seemed the logical thing to do and something that only my mother with her patience and precision could do. i forgot about that conversation and that moment until christmas eve. not only had she quilted some forty handkerchiefs--but she had made a multi-generational heirloom. she enlisted the help of michael's mother, grandmother, my father's mother and sister to contirbute handkerchiefs and track down names and stories. my father and her sister, my aunt edy, were enlisted--my father to help in the oragami-like fashion in which she was determined not to cut a single piece of that history and instead creatively stitch, layer, artfully fold the pieces together; my aunt to tap into her quilter's network and track down the best batting and sealing for the silk (the same one she used to make my wedding dress) and enlist yet another quilter and her 20 foot quilting machine. . . the pictures and these words seem flimsy compared to the endeavor here, but then that's what makes it an heirloom--it's a living history that continues to tell its story...

thank you edy for your patience and thank you mom for sharing this gift with me xoxoxoxo

snow day!

the cousins have been elfed!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

it's christmastime here!

after a delay waiting for our plane to get de-iced in seattle we finally got on flight 511 from orange county about 8:30 and enjoyed a first class flight up to the snowy northwest. and i must admit owen looked like such the little man curled up in the big leather seat reading his disney magazine with his travelling companions mr. t. rex and hello zebra. we came down the escalator to seatac baggage about 11 and grampa was right there waiting for us!

despite the heavy snow and icy roads we made it home safely thanks to kenn's back road jeep driving and arrived to see this amazing sight:

owen woke up when we arrived sometime past midnight and exclaimed: it's christmas at grandma's house!!

today i baked another batch of holiday biscotti for the big boys and kenn will venture back out on the icy roads to pick up michael whose sas flight lands in about 85 minutes!! looking forward to a cozy family holiday...

the results are in...

what, no rosemary cider? looks like the cranberry cider wins with a few holdouts for cocoa. the next dilemma--christmas breakfast. nana always makes cinnamon rolls but i'm thinking of making nigella's rhubarb muffins again--they're brown-sugary sweet and walnutty-savory and perfect with stocking-side coffee. besides, what could be more christmas-y looking than rhubarb? i'm thinking of doing a buffet-ish style spread with a variety of muffins and fruit and some kind of savory egg bake. any recipes out there for a ham and cheese or other tasty strata?

dancing fidler elves!

missy just shared this with me: the fid kids as disco elves!! really, it's awesome.

papa's santa village--the video!

coffee place

my new favorite place to get coffee... but what is it with places not opening until 10am?

Saint Lucia Day - Dec 13

I was in Norway last year for this day, but St Lucy's Day seems more festive here in Sweden. When I went to work yesterday, the manufacturing warehouse was turned very dark with only candles lit all around. Since it was 8:30am, it was still very dark outside. Then some grade school girls came to do the Lucia procession and sing the Lucia songs. It's always a bit awkward being in the center of another culture's traditions, but kinda cool as well. I just wonder how the "St. Lucy" girl kept her head still the whole time, not to spill any candle wax (she wears one of these:)

We also got some Lucia buns, called Lussekatt, made with saffron. yummy with my coffee:

how to make holiday biscotti: a photo essay

sand angels

so when you've got way too many finals to grade, you're coming down with bronchitis (again) and you're wishing the 80 degree december would end-- it's time to drop everything and get a little salty. . . or, sandy.

thank goodness wednesday comes in tuesday too. . . and b. if you're reading this two words: shopping carts.

better than caffeine

it really is 3:48 and i'm printing the last of my exams i'm giving, well, today (in blue because i ran out of black and green ink) and i'll probably shut down for an hour before packing up for one last fall quarter appearance. i've been working all weekend and all night trying to get 76 hamlet perfromance evaluations done and writing three separate exams based on these performances. a good idea in theory. let's say i've learned my limits this quarter. but i'm writing this not to bemoan the all-nighter but to, in my delerium, remember why teaching and mothering go hand in hand. because when owen got up for the third time tonight around 1 am he staggered half way down the hall with his plush blue puppy and just handed it to me. "here, mom" he mumbled. "maybe you can hold sprinkles and take a bath." and then he just turned around and went back to bed. and that's why i'll make it one more week. . .

i'm wondering too if that's the tradeoff for our babies getting bigger. because then they, in these rare quiet moments, get in some abstract way that sometimes one needs a blue puppy to get through the long night. here's a picture i took this afternoon--owen just looks so incredibly "big". . .

ouch

I hope they can fix my plane. It appears that there's a mysterious hole in one the plane's wings that returned from Thailand which they think is from a bullet.

important reminders

here's what i overheard from owen's conversation with michael this morning- it's a nice "summing up" of the conversations owen & i've been having all week. glad to hear it's been sinking in, more or less. . .

daddy so we don't go in the street because there are real, big cars there and they can't see you and they just go beep! really loud so we have to play rally cars in the garage.
. . .
daddy when you go to work remember don't throw sand at your friends. because it's not nice and just use magic words instead. it's good for rescuing people. LANGO! PRESTO! HADDO! those are pretty good magic words.
. . .
and daddy i made a little people village. and there's the ocean and there's the school and there is the home and it's like papa's santa's village except papa's is special so don't touch it. we only look, daddy, we don't touch ok?

ok daddy goodbye. be a big boy.

conversation for a bed party

but mom? why isn't melanie coming over now?

because it's bedtime.

oh. well, we should have a bed party!

oh?

yeah, melanie can come over and stella can come over and petra can come over.

i think all they're all getting ready for bed.

no. they can come here and stella and petra can sleep in your bed. and then melanie can sleep in my bed.

and where will mommy sleep?

oh! in the middle. and then bridget will come over and she will be queen.

queen?

yes. of the bed party. and west will sleep in the bed too and then bridget will stand on stella and daddy will sleep up top on the ceiling standing on petra and then jesse will sleep standing on melanie in my bed.

oh, where will owen and sierra dog sleep?
i will sleep in your bed next to you.sierra dog will just have to sleep in his own bed.

"potty training"

we just got back from a long day in riverside and i was so impressed because when i went upstairs owen had taken off his clothes, put them in the laundry room and shouted "i'm ready for my bath!".

then, he runs into the office, pulls out the mat that is normally under sierra's water bowl int he laundry room and says: "look! i peed and then i dumped it here--" pointing to the mat with such pride. you guessed it, owen peed right into sierra's water bowl then dumped the pee onto the mat.

when asked why he peed in the doggy bowl he said with glee "it's potty training mommy! for big boys and dogs!"

sigh.

stella & sierra

while the boys ran wild stella and sierra decided they were zen friends:

back in sweden

with the project that will not end. This time had some excitement on the trip out. Thanks to the chaos in Bangkok airport, one of SAS's long distance planes was stuck, so my trip from SEA-CPH ended up getting canceled. So, instead I took British Airways to London Heathrow, experiencing the lovely new terminal 5 -- which actually wasn't too bad.

This time I spent the night in Stockholm and took the 2.5 hour train to work in the morning. Here's my view from the surprisingly nice Best Western Hotel Terminus (obviously across the street from Stockholm's central station.

visions of sugarplums

since my last post i found a "cider six ways" article in the december cooking light and am definitely going to simmer some in the crock pot christams eve--check out the poll to the right and vote for your version of choice! (of course this cocktail also looked fun!).

i've also been thinking about what biscotti i'm baking this year--last year jenn & i made giada's version of this holiday treat and i loved the lemon zest but i'm a bittersweet and not a white chocolate kind of girl. thinking doing some dried cherries and toasted almonds dipped in dark chocolate. any suggestions there?

but mostly i'm excited because owen's holiday zeal is infectious. tonight we read; no, analyzed! the night before christmas (i'd change the "what we're reading now" to the right except owen would sing the 12 bugs hourly if i'd cooperate!)--he was very interested in the "nice" and "naughty" list (especially since we've been having discussions about what's nice and not nice to do at preschool--like throwing sand and pushing in line and not shouting the abcs during rest time) and was going to work very hard to be "in the middle" of the "good list." he thought that if i worked hard at my school santa would put me on the nice list too. and if santa ate his cookies then santa could be a good boy too. we also danced to ella fitzgerald's rendition of rudolph the red nosed reindeer and i'm looking forward to a festive thursday in the middle of an otherwise hectic week.

holiday excitement

we're counting down the days over here--especially since sal & jennifer and baby lily are spending christmas eve at our place! we're deliriously excited and i'm looking forward to simmering some hot spiced cider, singing the twelve bugs of christmas and taking an evening stroll to see all the "gingerbread houses"!

here are sal and lily practicing their carols--i'm thinking lily and owen need their own christmas album!

nana to the rescue

the thing about getting a salon haircut from a rocker boy with a mod tail is that it necessitates "product." so the angled "skater" cut (i believe this is how aunt jenni described it) works if i want to use styling paste on a three year old. and maybe i just have a freakish motherly thing for variations on the bowl cut but i couldn't take it anymore--and apparently neither could nana ; she was just waiting on the sidelines for the call to action with those scissors to straighten that cut (as well as trim that "soccer mullet" in the back).