and the ornaments & decorations are preparing for hibernation...
So what's a Housewife do to get herself out of a mild post-Christmas slump?
Sure, I could sit quietly & reflect on the 364 days gone by.
I could consider my goals & options, and make a plan for the next 365.
Or...
I could bake a batch of super sticky buns to share with good friends on New Year's morn', of course!
Some will sparkle, twirl & toast, while those of us with less motivation opt for good friends, plentiful culinary treats, a steady flow of adult beverages and little ones snoozing in the guest room. Sweatpants & no DD...the perfect way to ring in a New Year!!
Every year I proclaim "This year I'm keeping it simple!"
And every year, without fail, I fail!
I valiantly race to keep myself ahead of the giant glittering ornament boulder released upon us poor Mamas just as we put the last Thanksgiving dinner plate in the dishwasher.
I love the spear-wielding natives at the end of this video...
they remind me of my own present-hungry, lightsaber-wielding natives.
It might be August, but if I see something someone on my list would like I'll pick it up and stick it one of my gift stashes.
We buy our Christmas tree the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, and it's usually fully decorated within a day or two. The way I see it, if I'm gonna spend all this time & energy decorating a dying, needle-spewing shrub, I should get to enjoy the sparkling & twinkling for as long as possible.
The Monday after Thanksgiving, I hit the holiday lists full force...my goal...to have holiday cards ordered & gifts acquired 10 days prior to C-day.
In the midst of battling distracted drivers on congested retail thoroughfares and hoards of stressed out & exhausted shoppers, there is also the Christmas kitchen to contend with.
First comes the annual grease-palooza...the making of the Christmas doughnuts. These must be accomplished first, as a few dozen must be shipped to my non-frying folks in CA. The rest get stashed in my basement freezer, eventually to be nibbled on during the present frenzy of Christmas morning.
Then there are the multiple varieties of holiday cookies to be baked and decorated - 'cause you can't make just one batch! Heck, you never know what Mr. Kringle's palate might be yearning for when he finally arrives at your house. And presents might not get left if you don't have just the cookie confection to fit his mood!
This year's bake-off consisted of the traditional gingerbread & sugar, and some fun & funky Christmas Swirly Cookies (layers of red, white & green sugar cookies, rolled in Christmas sprinkles, sliced then bake).
When I pulled the Swirly Cookies out of the oven, the Handsome Husband proclaimed "they look like Dr. Seuss made 'em"!
(I'll post a snap of the Dr. Seuss cookies another day. I'm too damn lazy this Christmas Eve morning to get up off my ass up and snap a few shots.)
Sure there are gifts to buy, but for those type-A's like myself, that think they need to teach their kids some deeper gift-giving lessons (what a crock!), there are also the dreaded handmade-homemade gifts. Though inspiration, preparation and actual handy-crafting may commence in July (and your friends finally get confirmation you have lost your mommin' mind), somehow it always ends up with this Mama Elf in the chilly basement 'til 2am mere days before Christmas finishing up the multitude of projects my boys have lost interest in.
Last year it was variety of sponge-painted photo jewelry boxes & pencil holders. This year it's handwarmers for teachers and scarves for Grands & Aunties & Uncles. Sure, the boys helped pick out the patterns and yarns, but, try as they might, they just couldn't master cabling!
Mama Elf's Christmas spirit was definitely taking a beatin'.
So what's an exhausted elf to do?
Despite the yet to be knitted scarves and piles of still to be wrapped gifts, I launched my own Twinkle Rejuvenation Program.
Here's my 12-step program (Don't worry, there aren't actually 12 steps...who's got time!).
Stop what your doin' and take an evening stroll through the neighborhood...a few holiday lights make even the shabby house in your neighborhood look festive & whimsical.
Pour yourself a glass of wine (or steep a cup of tea if you must), grab a cookie (or two), turn of the lights, plop yourself on the sofa and enjoy the fruits of all those decorating labors.
And when you get an urgent GNO email, don't be "good" and stay home to wrap or bake! Put on something sparkly, dig out your fav glam lip gloss and join the girls for some grape juice and giggles.
Don't worry...the presents will still need wrapping, your house will still need cleaning, and the groceries will still need buying, but you will be so much perkier (unless you had that 2nd glass of grape juice) after a little time to unwind.
Get yourself a mani-pedi and read a trashy weekly while they rub your feet.
So where do things stand in Weeksworld this Christmas Eve morning?
Scarf knitting...three still to be knitted.
Guess some family folk will be gettin' a box of yarn & a picture of their scarf.
Wrapped gifts...zero, nada, zip
There are gonna be a LOT of gift bags under our tree this year! Tissue paper, stuff, label, DONE.
Coffee...brewin'.
Mama Elf...sitting on the sofa, watching a glorious Christmas Eve sunrise and blogging.
Yesterday the UPS guy dropped this box on my front porch...
It was sort of an inside out Christmas present.
Check out all that lovely holiday wrapping paper they used for stuffing! A waste? I guess they have tons of it around their warehouse, so maybe it's kinda green of them actually.
(My son's school does a fundraiser thru Innisbrook every year, and I always order several rolls of their high-quality and fun wrapping paper to restock my supply for the coming holiday season and kiddie birthday parties.)
When my order came home from school a couple of weeks ago, it was missing a couple of items, so last week I finally contacted Innisbrook. The gal who I spoke with was very personable & professional and offered to ship me the forgotten items, no questions asked. Wow, what terrific customer service! I was impressed.
So what did this three foot long box, stuffed full of lovely silver & red gift wrapping, bring me?
Yep, that right gang...all that paper & cardboard for two 3" wide rolls of eco-friendly ribbon!!
If Santa packed presents like this, he'd never make it around the world in one night!
Now, I admit, I'm not the greenest gal, but I do try to trim my carbon footprint where I can...
We recycle.
I always bring my own bags when shopping.
We use cloth instead of paper napkins.
There are no paper plates or plastic utensils in my house.
My kitchen is stocked with an extensive collection Gladware.
And the light bulbs are all hi-efficiency.
On the other hand, I refuse to give up my plastic storage bags (aka Ziploc) & baby wipes (they are just too versatile to part with!). Sorry Mother Earth!
But seriously, Innisbrook, two tiny eco-friendly rolls of ribbon in that enormous box?! Two little rolls that could have been tossed into any ol' envelope!
So, have you figured out excessive packaging is one of my biggest pet peeves?
Sorry, Innisbrook, love your papers, ribbons & gift bags, but this one just couldn't be ignored.
This evening I was determined to post about something besides holiday cooking! I consulted my list of draft posts (someday there will be more than 24 hours in my day), and the list of ideas now neatly organized in the "reminders" app on my new iPad. Alas, once again ADD got the better of me (wish I could take a booster dose of Adderal right now, but then I'd be up all night being productive) & I found myself perusing Pinterest. Then these colorful PJ bottoms caught my eye...
and off I went on the Procrastination Train...woo-woo, next stop Punjammies, where I found two more bottoms to add to my wish list...
But these wonderful & reasonably priced ($35) PJ's were only the beginning of this cyber tangent . . . I had to know where these colorful threads came from.
Punjammies led me to the International Princess Project, an organization that helps Indian women & girls escape the cycle of forced prostitution, poverty, illiteracy and disease.
PUNJAMMIES™ are made by women in India rescued from forced prostitution seeking to rebuild their lives. Proceeds from the sales of PUNJAMMIES™ provide fair-trade wages, savings accounts, and holistic recovery care.
Wow, a "want" ('cause I certainly don't "need" another pair of PJ's) that helps other women! Talk about a win-win!
There are thousands of holiday traditions followed by millions -- Santa Claus, twinkling lights, decked out trees & halls, and cookies galore.
Some traditions illicit passionate debate -- white lights or multi-colored, real or artificial tree -- but all are beloved.
Then there are those unique traditions created by a families, shared through the generations, and cherished by all.
Growing up, one of my favorite holiday traditions was my family's collection of covered & decorated gift boxes. This of course was back in the dark ages, when stores put purchases in sturdy gift boxes. Each year my mother would carefully cover the box top (and sometimes the bottom) in festive wrapping paper, affixing ribbons, bows and artwork (cut from the best of the prior year's Christmas cards).
After Thanksgiving, my father would retrieve the boxes, nested together & stacked on the top closet shelves throughout our house, to be filled, then displayed under our tree once again. The boxes were like old friends, returning for a long-over due visit.
There's the little red foil-covered box, with the over-sized yellow chick (with a few sprouts of real yellow feather sticking out of the top of its head), that contained my very first Christmas present. As I grew up, it became an increasingly difficult gift buying challenge for my Mom to find something that would fit in a box just big enough to fit a onesie.
There's the green foil covered tie box with a little girl holding a sign "I Love Daddy". Surprise, surprise Dad, another tie!
Or the lovely pistachio green covered box with delicate ribbon flowers & fake pearls at their center that my Grandmother made for my mother one year. It's just the right size for most perfume bottles.
It was a glittery rainbow gathered under our tree each year.
I had dreamed of continuing this wonderful tradition when I had a family of my own, but alas, at this point the tradition is dead. There are no covered boxes under our tree --time & storage space are diabolical conspirators!
But there is one family tradition I doggedly hold onto -- my Grandmother's Christmas morning doughnuts. This is not so surprising when you consider this Housewife has a countdown calendar to National Doughnut Day. (June 3rd, in case you're curious.)
Each year, and only once a year, my Grandmother would make these sweet cake doughnuts (with a hint of orange & lemon zest and almond flavoring) for our Christmas morning nibbling.
I resumed the tradition a number of years ago, making 5-6 dozen -- some which get shipped to my Mother in CA to enjoy on Christmas morning with my Father & Brother. (Lucky for us they freeze & reheat beautifully!)
The frying of doughnuts is not a holiday project to be undertaken with little monsters raging about, so I must carefully plan or orchestrate a morning (2.5-4 hours) of non-Momming time each holiday season to measure, zest, mix and fry, fry, fry.
Well, with both boys at school 'til 3pm, today was Doughnut Day in Weeksworld...let the frying commence!
Days like today make me super thankful for my Kitchenaid!
Frying Central
60-90 seconds on each side is all it takes.
Dozens of golden, slightly crunchy on the outside, light & cakey on the inside doughnuts!
Sure, Doughnut Day = Kitchen Disaster Day too, but they are OH SO DELICIOUS!
Each year, I promise to exercise restraint during my morning of frying, but each year I struggling through yet another afternoon of fried carbohydrate tummy distress and ER-worthy sugar crashing...but these guys are so worth it!
Tonight, 2 1/2 dozen are stashed away in my freeze for Christmas morning, while another 2 1/2 dozen are ready to ship out for CA first thing tomorrow morning.
Maybe someday I'll find the motivation and space to revive the covered-box tradition, but for now I'm perfectly content with my doughnuts (and a house the reeks of fried dough).
So what are your favorite holiday traditions -- past or present, new or old, or awating revival?
Now enough procrastinating, you better get back to your Mama-Elf holiday lists!
Earlier this week I shared my personal birthday tradition -- baking myself my Aunt Blythe's Vienna Cake.
I had high hopes for this year's effort and things started off perfectly...
The batter perfect, airy & smooth.
And the cake came out of the oven with souffle-like height & golden.
Then came the de-panning...
(Can you hear the ominous, silent-era music?)
alas, the pastry gods were not favoring me that day. The sucker was trapped, like I'd greased the pan with kindergarten paste!
Then, just to spite me, the damn custard sauce came out PERFECTLY!
Silky smooth, not a single lump!
As soon as I poured the sauce over the cake it began to deflate!
What a pathetic sight! Where did I go wrong!!
Then I realized where the fatal mistake had occurred...
Not wanting anything to go wrong, dreaming of a perfect birthday Vienna Cake, I had set the oven timer for 1 hour, to remind me to check on the cake's process, but when the timer went "beep, beep, beep" I totally forgot that the cake needed to bake another 15 mintues!!
Damn it! Foiled yet again!
But never fear, it may look disgusting, but that cake still managed to thrill the taste buds.
Maybe next year will be the year -- cake perfection!
