Archive for the ‘Faking the Joy’ Category

• 24 Days of Christmas: Day 24

  Date: 2009.12.24 | Category: Faking the Joy | Response: 0

  I thought I’d give you a peek at what Christmas looks like around our house.

  Today we’ll work until around noon. Lee will pick me up and we’ll go home. We’ll clean the fridge out of any leftovers for lunch so that we’ll have room for other leftovers. Then we’ll clean and iron the tablecloth and all kinds of fun stuff like that. I’ll start Christmas dinner prep by making cranberry sauce and brining the turkey. I’ll shower and dry my hair. We’ll order Chinese food and my in-law’s will pick it up on their way to our place. We’ll eat (thus beginning the gorgefest that is Christmas). Then everyone will sit around and watch tv or play Wii. I’ll go back and forth between the living room and the kitchen because I’m still doing Christmas prep (roasting extra drumsticks to use along with the giblets for gravy, making the sweet potatoes). Sometime around 11 will pile into one car and head to mass. We’ll do mass (meaning they do mass and I mostly observe in my role as non-Catholic). We go home, foist the leftover Chinese food on my in-laws because there is no room for it in the fridge and head to bed.

  We’ll roll our of bed around 9 (most likely). I used to get out of bed much earlier on Christmas day because we used to eat around noon when I was growing up. However we did not go to mass when I was growing up thus were physically capable of getting up at 6 or 7am. We’ll start the fireplace and put on Christmas music. We’ll open stockings while having a cup of coffee. Stockings are *always* first. Then presents. Then Lee will clean up while I start fretting about what time to put in the turkey. I’ll finish making the stuffing. I’ll set the dining room table. I’ll fret about whether or not it’s time to put in the bird. Yes, there is a theme here. Much fretting about the bird! If I remember I’ll watch the Queen’s Christmas Address (though I’ll probably forget, I usually forget).

  Around 1, by which time the turkey is most definitely in the oven, MIL, FIL, BIL and SIL will arrive. More presents. After presents there are snackies. There will me a movie or tv or Wii or they’ll sit around and chat. I will mostly be in the kitchen, fretting over the bird. (Or perhaps hiding because I’m not used to having so many people in my house and it is sometimes overwhelming.) My FIL will peel potatoes and someone else will do the carrots. I’ll check on the bird and baste. Eventually it will be time to start cooking the sides. The turkey will be done. I’ll make gravy. We’ll sit down to eat. I’ll remember I forgot to put something on the table. We’ll eat some more. We’ll do coffee and tea and dessert. We’ll create piles of leftovers for people to take home. We’ll collapse in the living room while Lee and FIL do the dishes.

  In the middle of all of this Piper will sit in everyone’s way and hiss.

  Eventually we’ll feel like we can move again and people will start to head home. After they leave Lee and I will change into our pjs and moan about how full of food we are and then fall asleep on the couch.

  And that is Christmas.

• 24 Days of Christmas: Day 23

  Date: 2009.12.23 | Category: Faking the Joy | Response: 0

  It’s the day before the day before Christmas. We’ve got everything bought, almost everything wrapped and we don’t really need to leave the house between now and Christmas except for work and church. The meal is planned.

  It’s list time.

  There will be a list of what needs to be done before Christmas Eve because my in-laws are coming over Christmas Eve. This will include things like “Hang mirror” (we just about a mirror for above our fireplace), clean, put new batteries in the Wii controllers (we’re going to introduce them to Wii bowling). The cleaning list will contain things like scoop kitty litter, vacuum, and find someplace to but the half dozen magazines you haven’t read yet.

  “Find the tablecloth” and “Iron the tablecloth” and then “Figure out how to put the too large tablecloth on the table without people stepping on it.”

  “Figure out where we’re going to put appetizers as the space we used last year now has the cat’s dishes.” (Where were the cat’s dishes before? Where one of the Billy bookcases is now, of course.)

  “Dig the roasting pan out of the bedroom closet,” and “Ditto the serving platters.” (What? Doesn’t everyone store their extra kitchen stuff in their closet?)

  “Move boots and coats out of the entry to make room for everyone else’s.”

  In short, it will be the usual people are coming over chaos with the added we’re cooking a big meal chaos thrown it.

  It’ll all work out. It will all be lovely. Right after I write five lists and lose them each about three times.

• 24 Days of Christmas: Day 22

  Date: 2009.12.22 | Category: Faking the Joy, What's for Dinner? | Response: 3

  I think we are almost ready for Christmas. We’re ready for the day (just one gift left to wrap) and we have almost everything we need for Christmas dinner. We host dinner for a variety of reasons – we have the biggest dining space for one. The others involve me wanting my stuffing* and preferring to spend most of Christmas Day in my jammies. (Ok, fine. I prefer to spend most of every day in my jammies.)

  This is what our Christmas feast will look like. Before dinner we’ll have a snacks:

  • cheeses – brie, Wensleydale cheese with cranberries, havarti and cheddar. I’d go a bit more out there but Lee doesn’t think his family would appreciate my “weird” cheeses. And I’d love to go to Thyme & Again to buy their port Stilton pate but I’m not actually supposed to eat Stilton. It doesn’t normally stop me but I don’t want to deal with a stomach ache when turkey is coming.
  • A duck/pork pate
  • crackers
  • hot pepper jelly
  • pickles – yes! The gherkin makes an holiday appearance!
  • spiced nuts…if there’s any left

  Then we’ll do dinner:

  • Turkey
  • stuffing
  • more stuffing
  • mashed potatoes
  • mashed sweet potatoes with orange zest and ginger
  • green beans (if I remember to cook them this year, I did not last year)
  • glazed carrots
  • gravy
  • more gravy
  • homemade cranberry sauce
  • rolls

  Then after dinner:

  • yet to be determined desserts (a pie and um something)
  • tea
  • coffee
  • chocolate-covered peanut butter balls (if I get around to making them)

  Then we’ll lie on the floor and moan that we ate too much. Once people can move again Lee and my FIL will do the dishes. Then everyone goes home, loaded up with lots of leftovers. Lee and I will eat leftovers for a week. Fun!

  *One of the first time Lee came to visit me (I think it actually was the first time) I made a roast chicken and I made stuffing. As I was making it he was watching over my shoulder. After I had assembled the ingredients and was getting ready to actually stuff the bird he incredulously asked, “That’s it?” He later told me that he was convinced that it would be horrible and bland but he was determined to eat it anyway because he wanted to impress me. Now he fights people for it, as it should be with stuffing.

• 24 Days of Christmas: Day 21

  Date: 2009.12.21 | Category: Faking the Joy | Response: 1

  Today is the day when I start thinking to do lists. Over the next few days there will be many. I start to get concerned about what needs to be done and how it’s all going to manage to get done and out come the pen and paper (or you know, a blank screen and a keyboard).

  There are the food lists. The cleaning lists. The decoration lists (house is decorated but what will we do for the table?). The what is in the stockings list – closely related to the “do I have enough stuff for it” worries. (I think I do…I worry that anything more and the stocking holder would topple off the mantle.)

  I think sometimes I even have lists for my lists. Are you a holiday list-maker? I figure I’m in good company with Santa and all…

• 24 Days of Christmas: Day 20

  Date: 2009.12.20 | Category: Faking the Joy, What's for Dinner? | Response: 0

  Only four days left after this! Woohoo!

  I love Christmas baking. While I could say I’ve done it for years it’s really only been since about 2006. I was working from home and was supposed to have a quiet December. About three days into the month that changes and my quiet month turned into three weeks of barely sleeping. The week before Christmas I was sleeping only a few hours every night. I suddenly had to publish a set of a very cranky manuals (I was tech writing at the time) and this involved lots of hours, little sleep but really it mostly involved babysitting my computer and internet connection. The processes involved in publishing ate up most of my computers juice and I couldn’t do much else on it. I needed to do something other than just stare at the screen for two weeks. By the time the week before Christmas rolled around I was going completely nuts. I was antsy. I needed to do SOMETHING. So I baked.

  It was a rather silly undertaking as I didn’t really have many people to gift the goodies to but I baked anyway. I made Peppermint Patties. That was a bit of a mistake because I hate dipping things in chocolate (more on that another time) and they are particularly finicky. I made biscotti that no one liked. And I made Denise’s mint sugar cookies and they quickly became a Christmas tradition.

  (Except maybe Christmas 2007. I remember absolutely nothing about that Christmas. I couldn’t even tell you if I cooked myself a Christmas dinner that year. It’s a big blank in my memory. Oddly enough, that was not the Christmas I spent horrifically hungover.)

  Generally speaking what I make any Christmas gets shaken up a bit. Denise’s sugar cookies are a Christmas staple but other than that it could be anything. As I mentioned on Sassymonkey Reads this morning, this year I branched out with spiced nuts and Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls.

  The funny thing is, I’m not a baker. I much prefer to cook than bake, except for maybe bread (but then my wrists don’t like kneading bread). Baking is a bit too precise for me. I’m not good with measurements and exactness. But there is something about Christmas to that requires me to spend at least one afternoon covered in flour.

• 24 Days of Christmas: Day 18

  Date: 2009.12.18 | Category: Faking the Joy | Response: 0

  It feels like every which way I turn my head today I’m seeing things that don’t make me glow with the holiday spirit. Moms are being attacked for being on the internet. Someone stole the sign from Auschwitz. A local food bank was robbed and the Christmas baskets stolen.

  It is not feeling like a time of goodwill towards anyway.

  But that is what this season is supposed to be about. Peace. Goodwill towards our neighbours and strangers.

  I keep reminding myself of this. I hold open the door for the person behind me. I hold the elevator. I smile at someone.

  It’s the simple things. It’s the little things. So give that harried parent the parking space a wee bit closer to the store entrance. Don’t ram your way through the grocery store. Hold open the door. Buy someone a cup of coffee. Smile at someone.

• 24 Days of Christmas: Day 17

  Date: 2009.12.17 | Category: Faking the Joy | Response: 0

  Today I’m talking tourtière at BlogHer.

  I remember eating two spectacular tourtières when I lived in Montreal. One was at a professor’s house. I was taking a seminar in Canadian History and our professor invited the whole class over to his house for dinner and drinks. He and his wife provided a wonderful meal but the only thing I remember from it was the tourtière. It was the best I’d ever eaten and I really wish I had asked for the recipe (though looking back I realize it is quite possible they hate it catered). The other was my ex-boyfriend’s mother’s homemade tourtière. He was from rural Quebec (though he and his family were anglophones) and his mother used to make him goodies, freeze them and ship them by bus. The bottom of the bus was cold enough that everything stayed frozen (assuming we didn’t hesitate in getting to the bus to pick them up and trust me we never did). That really is one tourtière recipe I wish I had because there was nothing like coming home from a long day of classes and studying and popping one of her tourtières in the oven. (And really, her cooking was the best thing about that relationship.)

  Read the rest over there.

• 24 Days of Christmas: Day 16

  Date: 2009.12.16 | Category: Faking the Joy | Response: 2

  I’ve always thought that people with December birthday got screwed on the presents front. No, I don’t have one, but my mother does. Then I went and married someone who does as well. They have both suffered “combo” gifts in that past and it sucks. So in this house? No combo gifts allowed.

  Tonight, when Lee gets home he’ll get his birthday gifts. He’ll get a birthday dinner (homemade pizza, aka “Karen Pizza” because IRL my name is Karen not Sassymonkey). He’ll get to choose what to watch on television and I can’t complain about it. I won’t even be able to complain when he changes the channel a gazillion times during the commercials (serious pet peeve of mine). He can make me watch a horribly dull movie that I wouldn’t normally watch (though I am allowed to play on the internet during it since he spent the other night playing on my iPhone while I was watching a movie).  He’s not getting cake because he doesn’t want one (he’s clearly insane).

  It will be a regular birthday, with nary a Christmas thing to it. Ok…except maybe the Christmas tree in the background. There are some things that simply can’t be helped.

• 24 Days of Christmas: Day 15

  Date: 2009.12.15 | Category: Faking the Joy | Response: 6

  A good Christmas is one in which there are lots of Muppets. After a couple of years of searching I finally found a copy of A Muppet Family Christmas on DVD that did not cost $100 on eBay. (It seems the key to this is to search for them off-season.)

  We watched it this weekend. Lee, somehow, had never seen it before. (He also does know any of the Canadian Historica Minutes which leads me to believe that he grew up under a rock.) It was fun watching it with him for the first time. He highly approves of the Swedish Chef in this movie. Plus it has the Sesame Street gang and Fraggles.

  This year was also the first time that Lee saw A Muppet Christmas Carol.

  He enjoyed Michael Caine, though I have to admit it’s probably not his favourite version of A Christmas Carol.

  We still have one more Muppet Christmas movie in our collection. A few months ago we bought A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa.

  I didn’t even know this existed until it was nominated for an Emmy. And then I bought it.

  Now you will notice that It’s A Very Merry Muppet Christmas is not in this list. That’s because I’m still mad at it. I don’t have a very good reason for being mad at it except that when I was looking for copies of A Muppet Family Christmas every store (including the online ones) tried to sell me it instead. HMPH! I’ll get over it someday. I guess.

• 24 Days of Christmas: Day 14

  Date: 2009.12.14 | Category: Faking the Joy | Response: 1

  The Nutcracker. Just the thought of it fills my head with images of delightful colours and pirouettes. It sparkles and glitters.

  When I was a little girl, growing up in the middle of nowhere Prince Edward Island ballet was beyond my dreams – of either doing it or seeing it live. There were no places to take lessons (not that we could have afforded them anyway if there had been). Ballet for me was something that existed only on television and in books, mostly books. The first ballet I ever remember seeing was Alice in Wonderland on Adrienne Clarkson Presents on the CBC.

  It was years and years later before I saw the ballet live in person, and when I did it was the Nutcracker. I was in my third or fourth year of university and I took a whole $25 (a rather significant amount of my budget at the time) and bought a student ticket. I was in the third balcony (though thankfully the first row) and I went alone. In the seat beside me was a little blond girl, no more than three or four years old and complete with ringlets, who was clearly about to experience her first Nutcracker too. I honestly couldn’t tell you which of us was more excited.

  Then the curtain lifted and I was whisked away to a world of magic. I was like Clara, in awe of the Nutcracker, the Snow Maidens and the Sugarplum Fairy. I was in their world and was sad to have to leave when the final curtain came down.

  Last year Lee suprised me with tickets to Nutcracker here in Ottawa. Well, he kind of surprised me. I knew he was buying tickets. I didn’t realize that he got us truly fantastic seats. We were in the second row. I had never sat so close before. It was overwhelming and wonderful. Well…mostly. It honestly wasn’t my most favourite interpretation of the story that I’d seen. And there were no programs. Lee, who had never seen it before and didn’t really know the story was completely lost. It really wasn’t a perfect performance.

  I swore that this year we’d go to Montreal, and see it done the way I was used to it. The Montreal version is a very much a classical interpretation of the story (read: no bears on roller-skates making a random appearance at the party…). Months ago we set the plans in motion. I recruited some Montreal friends to go with us. We booked a hotel across the street from the performance hall. Our friends made dinner reservations.

  Saturday afternoon we drove into Montreal, did some shopping, got settled in the hotel and then got ready to go out. I see the ballet (or any theatre experience) as a very good reason to get dressed up.

  

  Nutcracker ready

  It doesn’t hurt that I’m always looking for a reason to wear this gorgeous green dress. I also impose this on Lee. No jeans allowed at the ballet is the house rule. So I make him wear a suit. And a tie. The cufflinks are totally optional.

  

  Snazzy...and blurry

  Somewhere there is a less blurry photo of us – a self portrait we took while waiting for the curtain to go in the theatre but it’s on the actual camera and I don’t know where that is. (Translation: I’m too lazy to go looking for it and my iPhone is right beside me.)

  My favourite moment of any ballet, but particularly Nutcracker, is the moment right after the orchestra has finished warming up. They are silent and the conductor has his baton raised and you know that in just one second he’s going to bring down his hands and it will start. That you are about to be whisked away. That you are about to be part of something special. In that moment all you can do is hold your breath and watch as the fake snow falls against the special backdrop.

  

  Waiting for the magic to begin

  Once the music starts I don’t want it to end. While there’s still music and dancers on stage I’m a six-year-old girl. While there’s music there’s magic.