Christmas 2010

Here it is the last day of December. Guess I'd best post about Christmas before the year ends!

Singing ten concerts with the Conchords, rewarding as it was, was terribly intrusive on the time I had to prepare for and enjoy the season. I have to figure out how to find a better balance next year.



I was able to get the house decorated, though, inside and out, and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Garlands on the front are a natural with the design of our porch.



This year, I decided to use smaller pine cones on the banister; still not sure which I like better. The result was nice, though, and I like the ornament I added at the front.

 

 Last year we started bringing in fresh-cut greenery from our back yard to decorate the mantels. I love the effect - and the fact that I can avoid cedar, which seems to trigger my allergies.

We cut down our tree early this year, and finally got it up and decorated on my birthday. Squeaked it in with one week to spare! It does look pretty.

We decided to try something new this year, and hung ornaments on the light fixtures over the breakfast and dinner tables. I rather like it! Perhaps a new tradition has been born!

This year's cookies were of six varieties: peppermint, chocolate (a bit of a mocha flavor - guess what the secret ingredient was?), ginger spice, peanut butter with chocolate kisses, cranberry-coconut (new this year, and definitely a keeper!), and my old stand-by date, coconut, and pecan concoction: porcupines. Nearly killed me trying to get them all done in two days, but they made for a pretty platter.

Gifts got wrapped in due time, and Xeda really enjoyed climbing around on them in front of the tree. She really isn't hard to please! The family enjoyed unwrapping them on Christmas morning, too.

Emily suggested we have a menu for our Christmas dinner that included typical foods of Northwest origin. Eager to rise to the challenge, I solicited her help in planning, shopping, and preparation. Together, we made a great team! Our final menu consisted of:

Dungeness crab chowder

Roasted beet and hazelnut salad with goat cheese


Salmon Wellington

Garlic mashed potatoes


Brussells sprouts


Multi-grain rolls

And for dessert:
Blackberry crisp with vanilla ice cream

Time for a nap!

Thanksgiving 2010

We were kindly invited to spend Thanksgiving with the Overholsers again this year, and gladly accepted. This was our third year with them, and it's always a real, traditional meal with lots of family - and a few orphans like us!

As befits any true Thanksgiving feast, the table was groaning with the amount of food on it. Besides the requisite turkey and dressing, there were mashed potatoes, gravy (made on site by moi!), corn, sweet potatoes, lots of bread, and pies, pies, and more pies for dessert. I brought a green bean casserole and some Brussells sprouts.

 

I was really afraid the Brussells sprouts would not be appreciated, but I'd just gotten them from my CSA, and they were so beautiful and fresh, I couldn't resist. Turns out everyone loved them - they were so popular, there were none left over! (Larry and the girls liked them so well, I bought more and fixed them again a week or so later.)

One of the Overholser traditions is to play a game after we eat. This year's game was a crazy survival trivia game that we played in teams. Lots of fun while waiting for room for dessert!

Back home, I watched the movie version of Alice's Restaurant. Not that great, but I had to get our tradition of listening to the song in somehow!

Wonderful as it was to avoid the stress of Thanksgiving preparations, I did miss the aroma of roasting turkey wafting throughout the house (and the leftovers), so on the following Saturday, I prepared a turkey breast and all the trimmings just for us. I used some CSA sweet potatoes for my own savory sweet potatoes recipe, and it was pretty yummy.

 








CSA pears contributed to a pear crisp that was great with ice cream. 

 

 Hey, if one Thanksgiving is good, a second has to be even better, right?

Sarah's 17th birthday

Sarah turned 17 on November 14th, and I wasn't here for it!   :-(    I went to Mobile for my mom's 80th birthday (the day after Sarah's), but left Sarah in her dad's and sister's capable hands. They had a lovely dinner at Newport Bay, and plenty of presents to open (compliments of my pre-trip shopping and Emily's wrapping!).

Sarah really wanted to celebrate her day with her friends by attending the opening day of the latest Harry Potter film - Harry Potter and the Deathly Horrors, Part I - and I was home in plenty of time for that event. It opened on the 19th, so we purchased tickets ahead of time and prepared for 7 girls to descend on our home afterward for cake and gifts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think they had fun! Happy Birthday, Sarah!

Little Shop of Horrors

The very first week of school, auditions were held for Little Shop of Horrors, and Emily was there. It's a fun show with great music, and she wanted to be a part of it. Her wish came true when she was cast in the chorus. Rehearsals started right away, and her life was suddenly very busy!


One day she came home with some funky camouflage make-up on. In the final scene, the cast members are morphed into plants - the results of Audrey II destroying humanity and taking over the world. The make-up people were experimenting with a way to transform the cast members' faces into plants, and used Emily as their canvas. Pretty cool!




 Their director, Mr. Bertram, decided to instill a new tradition at ACMA - Red Carpet Day. On the day of the show's opening, cast members were encouraged to come to school dressed for the red carpet. Emily got all dolled up in a new dress, make-up, and heels. Oh, my! She's so grown up! And, what a beauty!

 

Wish I had some pictures from the play itself to post, but, alas, no flash photography was allowed during he play. :-(  Emily did a fine job in her roles as a homeless person (very convincing!), a fangirl - complete with a line to speak! - and a human plant scaring audience members at the end of the show.

Exhausted after the play ended, she was happy to have her life back, but so glad she was a part of a production some say was the finest ACMA has produced yet!

Mama's 80th Birthday

Mama celebrated her 80th birthday on November 15th of this year. After telling her I was unable to make the trip, I surprised her and showed up anyway! It was pretty epic to see her and Daddy's reactions when I walked in the door! But, I'm getting ahead of myself. First, there was the trip to the airport.

I had to leave the house at 4:45 am. Larry was at work, and I didn't want Sarah driving at that hour, so I took myself to the Sunset Transit Center, and left the car in the parking garage for Larry to retrieve later. I swear I fell asleep on the MAX train during the hour's ride to the airport - that's a first! I slept again on the flight from PDX to SFO, and appreciated every moment. Changing flights again in Dallas made for a very long day, but you do what you have to do, right?

In typical fashion, I had to fly in through Gulfport because Mobile's ticket prices are so ridiculously high. I chose not to rent a car because my trip was so quick and I really didn't think I'd need one. That meant, of course, that someone had to come pick me up. Laura volunteered to do the honors, and, after a full day of travel, we headed into Mobile to surprise the parents.

On Airport Blvd., just a few miles from the house, I started hearing a funny noise coming from the front right of the car. "Oh, it just makes that noise sometimes," was Laura's response. But, after slowing down and gradually picking up speed again, I was convinced it was a tire. Moments after Laura's assuring me that the car was not pulling to one side, it indeed started doing just that. Yup, the tire was going flat. We pulled off and took refuge in a well-lighted spot in front of Applebee's, where we assessed the damage - flat as a pancake. What to do? No AAA membership. We couldn't call Daddy; he'd have been minimal help, and we didn't want to spoil the surprise of my arrival. Matthew? Justin? Who knew where they were or what they were doing at 11:00 on a Friday night. Nothing to do but change it ourselves. At least it wasn't raining!

Laura was dubious, but I assured her we could do it. (Thank you, Larry, for insisting I learn how to change the tires on my car...) Alas, we did need help loosening the lug bolts (damn pneumatic bolt tighteners!), and, indeed, received help from a departing Applebee's patron, who was happy to "loosen and leave". After that, we were home free. We got the car jacked up, removed the flat tire, replaced it with the doughnut, jacked it back down, tightened everything back up, and we were done. Girl Power at its finest!

That near-crisis solved, we headed to Mama and Daddy's house. They were so surprised and delighted to see me, it cemented my decision to come in for the occasion, despite the fact that I would be missing Sarah's actual birthday  - for the first time ever. At least I'd be home for her party with her friends.

I spent Saturday doing some shopping - new tires for Laura! - and visiting with everybody. Dinner with the family, including Ruth Ann, then off I went to Daphne to see Tommy and Tricia.

Sunday was party day! Friends and family were invited for Brunch at Courtland's Restaurant in the historic district near Oakleigh. Forty or so people attended, and it was delightful on several fronts. We weren't responsible for any of the preparations, so could just sit back and enjoy; the almost 100% guest attendance proved just how loved Mama is; and the food was really yummy! My shrimp and baked-then-fried grits was pure decadence!

Fay Gold

 

Mama with Marge Kotnick

Mama and Daddy

    

Mama with John Adam and the Brutkiewiczes

Mama with Tommy

Harold Cohen

Pollman's did the cake, of course, and it was a beauty. I seem to be the family's now-traditional cutter of cakes, so I had the dubious honor of mutilating, I mean cutting, the cake.

On the way home, while I was so close by, I stopped and visited briefly with Susan. It was great to see her, even if it was quick. Back home, Mama opened her gifts, and we settled in for a lazy evening. I would be leaving the next day, so this was our last chance to catch up on the latest happenings.


Thankfully, the trip back to Gulfport was uneventful - especially since it was raining by then - and I even had time for lunch with Laura before heading to my flight. The weather made it a bumpy trip home on more than one leg. In fact, I thought I'd lose my dinner on the approach to Portland, but managed to hold it in check. My options for getting home from the airport past midnight were limited. Again, Larry was at work, MAX had made its last run, and Sarah wasn't an option at that hour, so I took a cab. $65 later (!) I collapsed in my bed. So glad we'd arranged for Sarah to get herself and Emily to school that day - I was wasted!

It took me two weeks to recover from that quick trip between three time zones, but I'm so glad I went. Mama will only be 80 once! Happy Birthday, Mama!