Hilary

It’s Almost Here. . .

Every day this week, the girls have woken up asking me, “Is it Christmas today? Today? This day, right here. Is this the day?”

Every day, I’ve had to let them down just a bit by saying that, alas, it was not. Still, they rebounded nicely when they tacked the next marker onto our DIY Advent Calendar. Thankfully, the time has passed quickly. Per usual, our days have been filled with school, shopping trips, French lessons, karate, visits to Santa, play dates, and lots of time in the car going to and fro. Lots of time.

And yet, here it is, the 23rd of December, and I am blissfully calm. Craig and the girls are out at the Y. I had my date with Tony Horton after I cleaned the house. Nothing pleases me more than clean, clutter-free counter-tops. . .well, there are a few things, but you know what I mean.

I’m breathing easy, because we are ready to go. The gifts are wrapped. The cards have been mailed. The house is clean (at least for a little while), and the food has been prepared. The family comes in tomorrow. We’ve all done preemptive dietary maintenance so that we can enjoy whatever dishes pass over the table. The sun is shining and I’m feeling really good. Nothing left to do now but kick back with a glass of nog (*le sigh*) and admire my handiwork. I feel like Tom Hanks in “Cast Away” when he finally sets the fire, dancing around the flames, announcing, “Look at what I have created!”

Sure, the dishwasher needs to be emptied, again. There are buckets of laundry to be folded and the inside of my car looks like dust bunny breeding ground, but so what. The things that make the holidays enjoyable have filled my days and my home. It may or may not be a white Christmas, but in our little corner of the world, it will certainly be a stress-free one.

Merry Christmas, y’all.

IN: ON: December 23, 2010 TAGS: holidays, winter BY: Hilary

DIY Advent Calendar

I really want an Advent Calendar for the girls. I remember getting the cardboard calendar with the picture of the nativity on the front. Every day, I would pop open the appropriate door and fish out my little piece of chocolate. Such a simple little activity, but it brought so much joy and just further fueled the anticipation of Christmas.

This is going to be Morgan’s 5th Christmas and I have yet to set up an Advent Calendar in the house. Since they get their fair share of sugary snacks as it is, I’ve been leaning towards the kind of calendar that has pockets or little doors where I can slip small trinkets into or behind (yes, I ended on a preposition).

Once I’d made up my mind to make this the year of the Advent Calendar, I saw them everywhere. Purchasing them became another story.

At first, I wanted the one from Pottery Barn Kids and would have been happy to take either the house or the hanging Christmas tree. I guess I was so busy researching Black Santa, I missed my chance because they were all sold out.

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A friend of mine suggested I check out Etsy.com because they always have really cool stuff. I had heard quite a bit about Etsy, but hadn’t really sifted through it the way I should. Ohhh, they have such wonderful stuff! I really like this one:

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Still, I didn’t order it. I kept putting it off and getting distracted with the myriad of other things I have going on in preparation for the holidays.

Then, at 5:44 am, this morning, I got a phone call. Schools are closed due to inclement weather.

[insert your own expletive of your choosing here]

I was caught totally unprepared with no activities for us to do. Before the wintry mix started falling, I phoned in an emergency playdate with a friend who was more than happy to come on by. Unfortunately, by the time she got here, the snow started coming down. The girls had a good 15 minutes to hang out before their friend had to be bundled up and driven home. I looked at the clock — 10:23. It was going to be a long day.

I wracked my brain for things the girls could do. They played with their dolls, with their Doodle Pad, with their bead set. It was only 10:45. We “wrapped” presents. Morgan chose an empty shoebox; Coever, an old coloring book. I made them paper chain dolls to color. Then, inspiration struck.

We were going to make an Advent Calendar. The first step was whether or not to do a cross off calendar or a stick on calendar. The allure of using a tape runner or glue dots every day won out. Coever’s teacher had been free-handing a picture of Santa the other day and I remembered the basic strokes to duplicate it on some butcher paper. We cut out circles and Morgan numbered them with some help from me. Coever handed me my tape runner and we started filling in Santa’s beard up through today’s date. When we were done, we taped it to the back of the front door and voila! Advent Calendar! As much as I loathe arts & craps, in the end I always get some great art and happy girls.

IN: ON: December 16, 2010 TAGS: arts and craps, coloring, holidays, winter BY: Hilary

M-I-C-K-E-Y

Remember when the name Disney immediately conjured up thoughts of a mouse and his best girl?

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How can you not smile when you see this?

IN: ON: December 14, 2010 TAGS: photos, random BY: Hilary

Ho! Ho! Ho, boy!

Three years ago, I posted about a quest to find a Black Santa Claus in our area. This year, not only did we find one, we went to visit him at the Newsome House in Newport News. The Newsome House is a historic landmark and a living museum where patrons can learn about the civic and social work of Thomas Newsome, a prominent African American lawyer at the turn of the 20th century.

I have to admit, I was pretty excited that I had the foresight to look into this Black Santa, or should I say, “The Soulful Christmas”, as it was billed on the event website. I told two of my other girlfriends about it and we planned to meet up with our kiddos in tow. I didn’t know what to expect much beyond having them see Santa and maybe taking a brief walk through the house itself to learn about its significance to Black culture and to the city of Newport News.

We met our friends out front and took the obligatory group photo.

After the kids let me snap a few, we headed inside for the main event. We were greeted in the foyer of the house by several volunteers who directed us to the right where Santa was patiently waiting, candy canes as the ready. Now, while the girls have seen Santa Claus and could pick him out of a crowd, they haven’t seen Santa Claus as in, waited in a ridiculously long line while being plied with candy canes by uptight, underpaid, underqualified elves. Thankfully, there was none of that here.

I will say, though, there is something supremely hypocritical about encouraging your children to totally throw off all of your hard-pressed pleas to “not talk to strangers”, then watch them vault upon a random, red and white clad lap and use a laser pointer to emphasize the salient parts of their Christmas Wish List Power Point.

I think Santa may have agreed to that tattoo set, hence the giant smile on Morgan’s face. As for Coever’s smirk? Well, she always looks like that.

After the kids bombarded Santa Claus with their requests, they each received a free Scholastic book courtesy of the Newport News Public Library. Then, we were told that there was going to be a puppet show performed off of the foyer within the half hour. We were welcome to tour the house while we waited.

Our kindly docent took us upstairs where we viewed a series of family quilts created by members of the African American Quilters Guild. In the adjoining room there was an extensive exhibit about Thomas Newsome and his family. The docent very patiently explained to us who Thomas Newsome was and what he had meant to the community. Then, she asked if there were any questions. Let’s just Morgan had that woman drawing upon every fact, however small, to flesh out the purpose and significance of the Newsome house for her 5 year old satisfaction.

Finally, it was time for the puppet show. I have to say, when I think puppets, I think Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. I wasn’t ready for the Soulful Christmas Puppet Show featuring Lawrence Atkins and “Da Crew”. I’m just going to give you peek of their rendition of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and let you fill in the blanks.

Yeah. It has gold fronts, earrings, Timberlands, and a dollar sign medallion around it’s neck.

Soooooo. . . .we sat through that madness and the kids loved it, while we moms exchanged round-eyed looks of indignance over their hands. Thankfully, the puppet show wound down rather quickly, the kids metabolisms kicked back on and demands for lunch were fast and furious.

In the end, the girls had a great time and a truly memorable experience. There will come a day when they will no longer believe in Santa Claus, so it’s important to me that they have these magic of Christmas moments. Of course, when they start cutting up, instead of saying that they won’t get any toys, I’ll say only thing under the tree will be that nasty-a** puppet!

IN: ON: December 13, 2010 TAGS: activities, holidays BY: Hilary

I’ll admit it. . .

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IN: ON: December 12, 2010 TAGS: honesty BY: Hilary

Art Show

This afternoon, Morgan asked me for some construction paper and some stickers so that she could play “art show” with Coever. I doled out some paper, handed her the community box of crayons and came up short on some stickers. I remembered we had some leftover Halloween foam stickers in the arts and crafts box. Sure enough, there was a baggie filled with black cats, skulls, Frankensteins and the like. I figured that the art show was going to consist of creepy houses with darkened windows, floating ghosts and graveyards.

This is what I got instead.

Talk about thinking outside the box.

IN: ON: December 10, 2010 TAGS: arts and craps BY: Hilary

Dream Kitchen

As the holiday baking season truly gets underway, I am wishing for more workable (granite) counter space, a double convection oven, a center island with spacious seating, and that Samsung 28 cu. ft. French Door refrigerator. Throw in a Viking range with a pot filler faucet? *le sigh* I love Country French with neutral granite counter-tops, brushed steel fixtures, and creamy, blond cabinets. I guess I can make do with cherry cabinets if I have to. I mean, I’m not totally inflexible.