now that's some joy!
happy happy joy joy!
we had some awesome new year's eve sushi and made our resolutions. . . owen mostly liked coming up with examples of resolutions but decided on trying a new food--purple carrots and going to a new place--a tree on a hill; michael wants to go camping and my resolution is to make realistic goals! happy 2009!
going to the getty!
there's a fantastic little "family fun" exhibit at the center--and what could be more fun than re-arranging a hockney or writing your own manuscript?
we spent about 7 minutes inside the center looking at impressionist paintings--and while we didn't get to do they monet haystack-hat trick owen did point out that there was only one white iris in the van gogh. that made mommy's day.
a gorgeous socal winter day--and we even got a picture of owen smiling at the camera!
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:
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):
there are many more, perhaps i should take viewing appointments ? ;)
a new heirloom for christmas
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...
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
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.
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:
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. . ..jpg)
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
. . .
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.
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