December 2010
37 posts
christmas by the numbers
8: hours spent eating, imbibing and enjoying the company
10: bottles of wine consumed amongst us all
8: bottles of champagne as well
3: major courses enjoyed - raviolis, salad, and the infamous king dad's steak
19: full chairs around the dinner table
11: kinds of cookies, home made
2012: next time we'll be together. Here's to the even years!
“I have a knack - or maybe it’s a curse - for becoming nostalgic in the present...”
– - via Cary Randolph
Me too. It happened four times last night…First when they all arrived, I looked around at the resounding “chin chin” of champagne glasses with their bobbing pomegranate seeds, everyone hugging hello; it was good. Second when we toasted to Ashley and Uncle John...
get your aprons on
Tuesday was family cookie day… hundreds, hundreds of cookies every year from yellowed recipe cards from my grandmother’s mother…the ranks of which are already growing thin after baking. They don’t last long around these parts.
complete with mimosas to start…
and several cooks in the kitchen…
jelly thumbprints are my favorite…
and lace...
to the lake
Before the surgery that fixed his slowly broken back, we went for a walk to the lake. We haven’t done this in far too long. The cold feels too forbidding for that most days.
But everything had changed in the weeks away…the winter had readily set in there on the lake shore.
And caution tape is just that, cautionary, we believe. Well, truthfully, he believes and have a bad habit of...
BlogPost - The Bloggess and the Christmas Gift... →
blogs are a powerful thing, I’m telling you…
(emphasisadded, carolinek)
“Know first who you are and then adorn yourself accordingly”
– a work in progress.
Epictetus (via fashionninag)
merry merry
All is merry and bright (and snowing) in the Gold Coast for another few days this season…
There’s Chicago Ave…
And Oak St…
Not least of all, Michigan…
But I swear I could tell any season by the Hancock lights alone.
oh christmas tree!
I’ve always been inclined towards tradition, so when Coe & I first got together we started a few of our own. An exchanging of ornaments, an annual letter. Some years we’re better than others about the follow through, but we’ve been consistent with the ornaments at least. It’s like a little history every winter, come back alive.
My mom started this with us girls years...
everyone's on the up and up
When he woke up with gravel in his voice he gave Steve the nurse a message entirely in code words, letting me know he was more than ok.
Coe is doing great (thank you for all your well wishes!), replete with pain meds and time to rest. I stayed til six and he stayed overnight, for observation just to be safe.
Worked out plans for a less complicated trip home this morning. Here’s to family...
waiting
There are a lot of people in the Surgery Family Waiting Area here. A general din, a sort of nervous tension cut only by individual tapping on open laptops, the garish, unfeeling blare of the midday news, and the entrance of a doctor every now and then, bringing an update to one cluster of family members or another.
Turns out my first day of work is more of a paperwork day, so I am here at the...
“I think my livers’ name is Cee-Lo.”
– - Quote from last weekend courtesy of our friend, who is lovingly referred to as “Grandpa Stallion” (don’t ask), in reference to the aftermath of the Holiday Luxury Party that raged until 4am (also don’t ask) which we attended in Columbus last weekend with our very favorite...
let it snow
Last night was for a fresh coat of snow, running errands around town, and yoga overlooking the city lights… and finally wrapping the presents that were beginning to stock pile in the corner over there.
The other night at the tutoring program where I volunteer, when the homework was done we made cut-out snowflakes in the art room, my 4th grader and me. And I forgot how fun crafts like this...
bitsofjess asked: Just wanted to say that your home pictures and stories are always my favorite! And I love the pictures you've shown of your place- it looks very cute and classy (like you!). :)
can I tell you a secret?
It’s nearing the single digits in Chicago lately and we have yet to turn our heat on this season. Now David’s a bit of a miser like that sometimes, but this year for once he’s not the cause (side note: does this mean I’m finally winning the temperature war?!)
We live in an old brownstone-esque building (I like it best that way). In the summer it’s a sauna, with a...
'tis the season
This past week saw the arrival of December, our first real snow that covered the city momentarily in white, and consequentially this year’s Christmas tree as well. Good things are coming in 3’s.
I love Christmas. I love the smell of a real tree, the process of finding one just right, the yellow glow of it all lit up at night. It took us forever to get this year’s selection...
on the plaza
We spent the rest of the weekend on the plaza in Kansas City, getting rolling on our christmas shopping and taking in the sights in town. The view from our hotel was spectacular at night…
that sweater
A few of you have asked where I got this sweater… oh my goodness, I love this thing too.
So turns out we went to RL looking for christmas gifts a few weeks back when they were having a huge sale and I ended up with this instead (see: christmas shopping gone awry). I can’t find the link online but check out your local Ralph Lauren if they’re close and if not, this one is kind of...
and then a cowboy hat entered the picture...
Do you know what’s funny about Thanksgiving? The only event all day - the main focus - at least in our families, is food. Cook and eat. Cook and eat. Ad infinitum. Goodness…
So, after HOURS of gorging ourselves on some seriously delicious meals, the evening came, country music was on the radio (rather than Christmas music for a change) and everyone spontaneously broke into dance.
The...
thanksgiving
There were sweet potatoes and there was stuffing, steak rather than turkey, and the most amazing whiskey glazed carrots and pecan pie with maple cream sauce from the Pioneer Woman’s repertoire. Oh and for good measure there were champagne cocktails with cranberries for color. What a festive holiday drink! I’m still dreaming of this meal…
under a half hung moon
The first time David took me to Kansas we bought a Sugarland CD and drove through the flint hills until we could see nothing but rolling country and big sky and open land and small towns. He drove me in his old Ford pick-up truck that was painted white, and had an ancient hula girl lurching on the dash, whose interior was slowly shredding as I perched on the bench seat. This truck, it had a bad...
it's december 1
And it’s snowing outside right now, in giant light flakes that are holding to the ground.
I’m not going to lie- the first snow -it’s kind of magical.