My Excuse

I haven't gotten to read as much as I'd hoped over Christmas break, but I've got a good excuse. I've been doing this instead:

This is our first time to go skiing, but I really hope it isn't our last.

Pay Attention

I'm not an adventurous cook. I cook by the recipe, and I usually stick to recipes that are tried and tested, old favorites. I make a pumpkin bread that's pretty good, if I do say so myself. A couple of years ago my youngest son took some to work, and ever since then his boss has requested some at Christmas.

Well, if you've been reading this blog, you know that this Christmas I've been kind of behind. So, early Christmas Eve morning, in the middle of getting ready to go to my Mom's, I decided to bake the pumpkin bread.

I wasn't sure I had enough sugar, so I measured it out in a separate bowl to see. I did. I started putting the recipe together, but my mind was in a million places at once. As I slipped the bread into the oven, I happened to notice the bowl with the sugar in it pushed to the back of the cabinet. Yikes! I grabbed the bowl out of the sink, dumped the pumpkin bread mixture back into the bowl, added the sugar, then poured it into the pans again and slid it back into the oven.

About five minutes into the cooking time it hit me. I'd squirted dishwashing liquid into the bowl as I put it in the sink. Back came the pans out of the oven. Down the sink went the batter.

The moral of the story? Cooking does not lend itself to multi-tasking.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

We're going over the (Little Red) river and through some (patches of) woods to grandmother's house today, but not in a horse-drawn sleigh. We'll probably eat a little too much and laugh a lot today. I hope you do, too.

Christmas Stress

Christmas shopping. Check.

Groceries and Cooking. Doing that today. Almost check.

Bookkeeping. Nope.

Syllabi for Spring semester. Nope.

Relaxing? I'm still waiting on that part.

Christmas List

It's Baa-aaack Holiday Version

I wrote a post earlier about a creature who haunts our house called The Toilet Paper Phantom, and then later I shared an instance when he put a toothpick in my shoe. Well, I think he's back.

The other night, about midnight, I noticed that my husband had gotten out of bed and was wandering around the house. So, I got up and went to see what he was doing. "Do you have a mousetrap set anywhere?" he asked. I immediately knew why. In my sleep I'd heard something that sounded like a block of wood falling to the floor, but I think I'd incorporated the sound into my dream and didn't realize I'd really heard it until he'd asked me about the mousetrap.

Well, I only knew of one mousetrap, and it had been set in the back of a cabinet probably sometime last winter, but we checked it anyway and it was still set. So we began to go around the house looking for anything that could have made that sound. We finally made our way to the Christmas tree and noticed that, not one, but two ornaments had fallen off the tree. And not just any two. The two that had fallen off were both given to me by one of my best friends right before our wedding and they'd hung on our tree every year since. Weird. One was a traditional ball ornament, much too light to have made that noise, but the other was a heavy plexiglass disc with the date and snowflakes etched on it. I'm sure that it smacking the hardwood floor was the sound we'd heard. And even weirder is that it's not like one could have fallen off and hit the other. They were in totally different spots on the tree.

Stop playing that Christmas music. Cue the Twilight Zone theme.

Santa & Me

Before Thanksgiving I wrote a post about having some pictures restored, and I posted one of me and my second grade class. Well, here's the other one: Santa and me.

It looks like I'm keeping an eye on Mom and Dad just out of camera range, making sure they don't leave me with this weird guy, even if he did give me a candy cane.

Let the Flailing Begin

If you’ve been reading my “Gleanings from My Readings” posts lately, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve found Anne Lamott to be an especially quotable writer. In her book Plan B: More Thoughts on Faith, she observes, “I know that with writing, you start where you are, and you flail around for a while, and if you keep doing it, every day you get closer to something good.”

Well, I’m ready. I let myself have a couple of weeks off, for several reasons. One is that I haven’t really taken any time off from my studies since I began three years ago. Another is that I wanted to enjoy my family over the holidays. And the final reason is that I just can’t work in fits and spurts. When I write, it becomes my second religion—I have to do it with my whole heart, mind, and soul, and I knew I couldn’t devote that kind of uninterrupted time to my dissertation during the holiday season.

But it’s over now. This is the last lap. I’m ready. Let the flailing begin.

Some Things Never Change

Christmas Card

Merry Christmas! I hope you got every book on your Wish List and that you have time to read them in the New Year.

I'm Not Making This Up

Great eavesdropping doesn’t just happen in Walmart. Monday I was in Little Rock, trying to finish up my Christmas shopping, and while waiting in the checkout line at Best Buy, I overheard a priceless conversation.

An elderly couple was in line behind me. I heard him say to his wife in a shocked voice, “Look over there at that yellow thing. It says, ‘Kill Bill.’”

“I think that’s the name of a movie,” she informed him.

“Oh,” he said. “I thought maybe it was talking about Bill Clinton.”

I hope they couldn’t see my shoulders shaking.

Now That's My Kind of Christmas Tree

Christmas Quiz--a la Ashley

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?

Both

2. Real tree or Artificial?

Artificial. It’s easier.

3. When do you put up the tree?

Mine’s not up yet. Maybe today? Lest you think I'm a Scrooge, putting up my tree this late is not my usual modus operandi. I never put it up before Thanksgiving, but I usually do have it up sometime during the first week of December. This year, though, I was working on my prospectus defense for the 4th, then we left the next morning for a long-anticipated trip to San Antonio. So I do have an excuse. If I were rolling in the dough (which I'm not) I'd hire a decorator to deck my halls. I love how a decorated house looks, I just don't love being the one to do it.

4. When do you take the tree down?

I have been known to take it down Christmas night, but for sure by a few days after Christmas. I’m always ready to get the house back in order.

5. Do you like eggnog?

I’ve only had the bought, pre-prepared kind, and I like it okay. I think I’d probably really like the homemade variety.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?

Books. Surprised?

7. Hardest person to buy for?

My husband. He doesn’t want a lot of stuff, but when he does, it’s usually something that’s important to him, and I hate to buy a “big” gift for him and it not be exactly what he wanted in every way.

8. Easiest person to buy for?

My daughter.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?

Yes, a small crystal one that sits on a mirror. It was a gift from my aunt.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?

Lately, neither. When I used to have the time to do it, I patronized our wonderfully efficient, always reliable, and surprisingly inexpensive US postal service. Lighten up--it's Christmas!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

A doll from one set of my grandparents when I was about fourteen. And, no, it was not one of those dolls that you sit on a shelf and admire. It was a doll you play with. I was mortified.

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas?

After Thanksgiving, unless I just happen to make a great discovery before.

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?

Not as a gift. I have passed on something I’ve gotten and couldn’t or wouldn’t use to someone else, but it was more like “I’ll never use this. You want it?”

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?

Fudge. Italian Cream Cake. Homemade rolls.

15. Lights on the tree?

White lights. I love the look. (Sorry to disappoint you, Ashley!)

16. Favorite Christmas song?

"The Christmas Song.” You know, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire . . .” I like all the classics sung by Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Burl Ives, etc. But one Christmas carol I’ve never liked is “The Little Drummer Boy.” The “pa rum pa bum bum” just gets on my nerves.

17. Go out for Christmas or stay at home?

We do grandparents before Christmas and stay home Christmas Day. But it has become a tradition to go see a movie on Christmas night.

18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's?

Ashley said it best: “Only if I sing the song.”

19. Angel on the tree top or a star?

Neither. It’s a glittery ornament with a tall spire. Maybe it’s supposed to remind you of a star. Anyway, it’s pretty.

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?

Christmas morning. I never let the kids talk me into opening presents early. Nothing heightens pleasure like anticipation.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?

Seeing others start Christmas too early. A three-month long Christmas season is tooooo much. And I hate that Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, is often overshadowed by the mad rush into Christmas.

22. Favorite ornament theme or color?

Red.

23. Favorite for Christmas dinner?

We get so much of the traditional holiday meal items at the grandparents that we actually do barbeque with all the fixins for Christmas Day lunch. Funny that, although we get enough of turkey and stuffing, we never get enough of the pies and candies, and are able to incorporate them into our nontraditional Christmas meal.

24. What do you want for Christmas this year?

To finish my dissertation quickly and without pulling all my hair out or going insane, and get back to my (arguably) normal life.

Booking It--Wish List

This week’s book questions are especially appropriate for the holiday shopping season. Post your answers, and maybe someone will take the subtle hint.

1. What’s on your book/reading wish list?
2. What books are you giving this year?

#1—I’d seem greedy if I listed all the books I actually wanted, so here are a few:
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (You’ll hear why tomorrow)
Billy Collins’ Ballistics
Stephen King’s Just After Sunset
Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter
Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food

#2—I’m not telling! Everybody I’d buy a book for reads this blog.