Heee Heeeeeeeeeee Hee!

Check this out while I run around in a panic getting last minute Christmas stuff done. I hardly ever get to watch SNL, so when I saw this I laughed and laughed. Jimmy Fallon is so awesome!

You will bawl like a baby!

This story is so sweet that I had to share it. Now I have to go get myself together because I am crying at my desk at work. I love love!

Oh Christmas Tree

This is what we did on Saturday! There is a tree farm out near Poulsbo that is family owned and operated called Henry's Tree Farm. We have been going there to cut our own tree for the past several years. Super nice people, many many many trees to choose from and really reasonably priced. Lucky for us, it was warm and pretty dry on Saturday, so we had a nice time, and our 7 foot tree fit in the back of the SUV. No need to tie it to the roof, no fuss, no muss. 

Here are a few shots of their place and various trees.

Here is what we ended up with and a little time lapse video of how the whole decorating thing went down. Yes, in one of the photos you can see the footstool and Kit's feet. He fell asleep while I was working on the tree and I didnt have the heart to wake him up just to tell him to move his feet out of my shot. 

Christmas tree 2013 - slideshows

And, it doesn't show, but I did get the needles cleaned up and a tree skirt on the tree. It looks pretty good.

It's Christmas time in the city!

Seattle is all dressed up for Christmas and I love every minute of it. Here are a few pics from a little city tour we did last night. Downtown over to Queen Anne, around and back. More to come because I'm not sure I'm over it yet.

4th Avenue

Outside Hotel Andra on 4th

Construction cranes in South Lake Union

12th man! Go Hawks - combining Christmas and a little Seahawks love!

Space Needle

City views from Highland Drive QA

Even simple lights are pretty - in front of an apartment building on QA

Most well done and just gorgeous - my favorite of the night

I hope a kid lives here

Looking from QA toward Ballard

Looking south on 5th Avenue. Walls of tree lights - awesome!

And possibly the worst house ever - I'm not sure the photo will do it justice, but it looks
like Christmas threw up all over the lawn. I'm choosing to believe that the parents who live here are
so great that they let the kids decorate the entire property - no matter how embarrassing.
MORE IS MORE? 

Figgy Pudding

Here in Seattle there's a little annual Holiday tradition called Figgy Pudding. It's a fundraiser for the Food Bank at Pike Market. Every year the streets of downtown Seattle close down for a caroling competition - and crowds of people walk around and listen and vote for favorites and then the winners get called up to the main stage at the end for a "sing off". Anyone can assemble a caroling group, some are corporate groups like Starbucks or Amazon, and sometimes the groups are just friends who like to sing badly. Some of the singing is traditional, sometimes songs are sung to the tune of a Holiday favorite, but might be completely different in lyrics. It's a lot of fun, and we've attended it for the past few years with friends- super fun thing to do during the season.

This year we were a little weak in our participation. It was so cold that we couldn't get out of the apartment to see the carolers, but we made it down to the main area in time for the last of the finals. Oh well. Still awesome and fun to be a part of the crowd. 

And especially awesome that a certain friend brings the baby boozes to make the season even brighter. Woop woop! 

Yes, I'm judging you!

Now that Thanksgiving is over and the sparkle of gratitude is fading...... can we have a word about the cranberries on the table? Look man, nobody EVER said that they preferred the jiggly canned mess o' cranberry over the gorgeous homemade version. So don't even think about showing up with the store bought cranberries next year - learn how to make them yourself. And the best part, they are SUPER EASY. SUPER EASY (twice for emphasis)!

Here's how:

1 C sugar

1 C water

12 oz fresh cranberries

Weed through the fresh cranberries and take out any that don't look good to eat. Combine the sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, add the cranberries, return to boil. Reduce the heat and boil gently for about 10 minutes, stirring a bit here and there. You'll hear the cranberries start to pop. pop. pop. And the color in the saucepan will become beautifully shiny red. If you like your cranberries a little runny, take them off sooner, if you like them super thick, do the full 10 minutes. Cover and cool completely to room temp. Refrigerate and serve in a glass dish (which emphasizes the gorgeous color)! Makes 2 1/4 cups. Tastes delicious.

On the stove - pop pop popping!

Only 22 days to hear this song over and over!

I love Christmas time, and I love Christmas songs and I am now going to share with you a NUGGET of triumphant joy that will make your entire Holiday season. You're welcome.

The Cory Band - Stop the Cavalry

Now go forth and sing along LOUDLY until your husband can't take it anymore! Ah, I heart Christmas.

Thanksgiving and the Weekend - Where did it all go?

Every year we host Thanksgiving at the farm. The guest list includes my mom and sisters and their families, Kits mom and dad and siblings and their families, and then some of those families in-laws and also various cousins and relatives who are in town. We love hosting because we have room to host, a huge kitchen, and selfishly... by hosting I get to have everyone come to us, so that we don't have to pick sides on this Holiday - and I also get to control how the meal goes down. Not that I'm controlling, but well.... I'm controlling. I just want to eat a nice meal on nice linens, and drink wine out of nice glasses. So, I make that happen, and that keeps me from getting really bitchy. I think that's a benefit for everyone. I think a number of years back I pretty much made sure that "store-bought" food wasn't welcome at my Thanksgiving too. It has to be home made - and if you don't like to cook, no problem, the rest of us do, so you can bring booze. 

This year we had 2 turkeys, one smoked turkey, and one oven roasted. We also had a delicious ham and all the fixins - sweet potatoes, gravy, onions, cranberry, rolls, brussels sprouts, great salads, more food that we needed of course. My cousin and I both made stuffing, mine in the bird, and hers baked out of the bird - both from my Aunt (my cousin had a direct recipe, mine a recipe from her through my mothers interpretation over the years!) Both were yummy - and I'm happy to say we had leftovers, which means either nobody else liked either of our stuffings, or we just got lucky.

Everything went great - only one broken glass - no injury's, no fighting, and no major problems. Highlight was my brother in laws Mom teaching my sister Steph how to tap dance. Pictures to follow, but c'mon - now that's a successful evening. Minor event - my cousin's (first cousin once removed- whatevs... you get it, let's just say cousin) daughter left without her stuffed animal - which normally wouldn't have been a big deal except it was on loan to her from her classroom - apparently this animal (a kangaroo puppet) went home on weekends with students, in this case as a reward for improvement in reading. Well, during the party, the little kids were playing with the kangaroo, and it got "hidden", but nobody seemed to know where. So I spent some real quality time looking for the lost kanga, my sister finally found it the next day in a desk cupboard - waiting to be found out.

This little guy took hours to find.

The only bad deal about hosting Thanksgiving is the ramping up and tearing it all down again. 

1 WEEKEND DAY BEFORE: We started set up a weekend early, rearranging the house - living room furniture into the dining room, dining room into the living room to accommodate 22 people. Then clean the house and get the guest rooms ready. Buy turkeys in advance.

DAY BEFORE: Take day before Thanksgiving off work, get to grocery store for all the things necessary to make day awesome. I meet my mom at the farm around 12:00noon, we visit, start making food. She usually makes the cranberries - they are beautiful. Then we eat lunch and I start sweeping, mopping, getting things in order. I make the giblets for the stuffing in advance so they will not be scorching hot when I put the stuffing together. I brine the bird for the smoker and put him outside overnight to brine. I make pate, Moms recipe, for my appetizer for the next day.

THANKSGIVING DAY: I set the tables, make sure the wine glasses don't have spots, organize the bar glasses and clean the house again. Everyone shows up and it's mayhem - and they all go home and we site exhausted in the living room dining room. This year I was so sentimental that I cried all through people's gratitude speeches - so I didnt really get to eat my dinner. Everyone said it was good.

DAY AFTER: Get up and wash all the glasses. We save those til the next day - I don't like other people to wash them, they are fragile and hard for other people to wash. I know them, so I wash them and Kit puts them away. Then I start the process of cleaning up and putting the rooms back together. 

And now its SATURDAY and the weekend feels like it's almost over - boo hoo. So... I love Thanksgiving, but it goes by so fast! 

I had lights in the living room for Thanksgiving and now I've moved them into the kitchen
for Christmas - feeling like I'm a hero because I got one Christmas thing done.

And, finally - what do you do with leftover mashed potatoes -
make potato pancakes! Awesome!

Hope your weekend was as much fun, but not as much work. And now we're on to Christmas, the BEST PART OF THE YEAR! WHOHOOOOOOO!