Long Socks

This morning, my mom interrupted my Terribly Important Morning of slothing and asked if I wanted to go walk at the mall. She knows I need the exercise, and she thinks she’s getting arthritis in her knee so she wants to walk as much as possible to keep it loosened up.

Helen was at school, so I packed up Miss Alice and we went to the mall to join my mom walking around before the stores were open.

Once the stores were open and the kiosks were uncovered, we started window-shopping. And when Alice had finally had enough at 11, we got her some chicken at Chick-Fil-A and then went to BabyGap to check out the sales there. I got Alice a red velveteen skirt for $1.97. No, that’s not a typo. One hundred and ninety-seven CENTS. Rock on. The fabric alone is worth more than that.

I also got the girls matching little outfits for their picture with Santa, if I can get Helen to agree to sit in the man’s lap for more than 20 seconds. I’m trying to figure out how to best bribe her to do it — last year she was crying in the picture. I imagine this year might have the same result, since she gives the Santa house a VERY wide berth when we pass it in the mall.

Anyway. Their matching little outfits were all on sale at BabyGap as well — red velour flippy little skirts, off-white lace-trimmed shirts with red roses on them (not skanky at all — very cute), and red and white striped tights. I’m very excited about the tights. And so is Helen. She INSISTED on trying on the outfit as soon as she saw it — especially the “Long Socks.” She loves Long Socks.

So. I managed to wrestle the outfit back off of her so that she could have “Rest” without the risk of wrecking it, and maybe we’ll go do photos with Santa when Alice wakes up. If Helen is still interested. Helen just might do it if she knows she gets to wear Long Socks. I just hope Alice doesn’t completely freak out, which is the typical response of an 18-month-old when faced with Santa pictures — which is why we don’t have one for Helen at that age. It was just NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

Wish me luck, though. If it doesn’t work, we’re going to go to Target instead.

Busy.

This is what I’ve been working on lately.

Helen's Stocking

It’s not finished — still needs a hanging loop and a profusion of bows and jingle bells and stuff off the back, but it’s getting there. I did the loopy fringe on Alice’s stocking last night, and I’ll hopefully make the loopy fringe for mine and Jerry’s today.

We’ve never had stockings before — I’m excited! Hopefully Santa will remember to FILL them, which is another issue altogether. Since we haven’t had them before, Santa’s not in that habit.

Fun for All

Don’t tell Helen, but I’m conspiring with the mommy of her friend from preschool to get the girls together this weekend. Depending on weather, we will play with Dalmation puppies at McKenzie’s house or we’ll go see the Christmas Parade downtown and let the girls play at our house afterwards.

Either way, I’m excited. I’m just pleased that Helen has friends. 🙂

Indoors

My family has a bizarre Thanksgiving tradition. It comes from the Thanksgiving when I was in kindergarten or first grade, my parents had done a lot of research on what the Pilgrims actually ate at that “First Thanksgiving” and, together with some of their best friends, they tried to recreate the original Thanksgiving feast. We went to a campground somewhere, and my father, The King Of Overkill, insisted that everything be cooked over an open fire, just like the Pilgrims did.

The kids made Pilgrim hats and Native American Headdresses, and we made popcorn over the fire. I don’t remember much else, except that it was the beginning of the way my family ALWAYS does Thanksgiving.

The menu has gone more traditional, but The King of Overkill (and the Prince, my brother) always try to cook as much outside as possible. This involves digging pits in the ground, filling the pits with hot charcoal, and placing cast-iron dutch ovens on top (with more charcoal on the lid) to cook things as varied as cakes, yeast rolls, and a Pumpkin Splut Surprise (it was a pumpkin spice cake that went terribly wrong at the Thanksgiving of 1994).

My father has the turkey preparation down to an art. He gets up with the sun on Thanksgiving day, builds a roaring fire, and constructs an outdoor oven using ReBar (is that how it’s spelled?), oven racks, clothespins, and heavy-duty aluminum foil. The oven is powered with embers from the roaring fire, which is built under VERY strict guidelines as to what kind of wood (and in what condition) can be used (pine makes turkey taste like turpentine, for example). No one is allowed to throw so much as a paper plate on that fire while the oven is in use. Dad cooks and bastes the turkey outside — rain or shine — in his little oven from about 8am until 12pm. He’s not allowed to have anything alcoholic to drink until 30 minutes before the turkey is going to come off the fire. And he’s generally right on it as far as his estimations of how much time remains until the turkey is done.

As Dad cooks and turns the turkey, reloading the embers powering his oven, the rest of us typically spend the morning sitting around the fire, making fun of each other, and slowly preparing the food for the feast. One nice thing about camping in the cold — very little refrigeration necessary for stuff like apple pie before it’s ready to be cooked. In a Dutch oven. In a pit in the ground.

My job has recently been to make the potatoes (because I make mashed potatoes from scratch, and every time my mother makes mashed potatoes they’re thick and gluey). So my brother Pete sets up a cast-iron tripod over the fire and water and potatoes go into a cauldron hooked to that, boiling until the potatoes are tender. Then I take them off the fire and with a pastry blender, butter, and either sour cream or ranch veggie dip, I make mashed potatoes.

My other specific jobs are to bring enough olives for Jerry (and now Helen and Alice), who has an insatiable appetite for ripe olives, the cranberry-orange relish, and the White Turkey Chili that I make in the cauldron with all the leftover turkey the day after Thanksgiving. It’s one of my signature recipes. I used to make it all the time at home, but Jerry finally got weary of it so I don’t make it much here anymore.

This year, however, we did not go on the family campout. With my surgery, I’m still not up to traveling in a car for long periods, so driving to Virginia would have been very unpleasant for me. And we figured out that to board the dogs and rent a camper or cabin would have cost us at least $1000 total. Not really feasible for us at this time.

So, for the first time since 1989 (which was my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary with the whole family at Callaway Gardens in Georgia), I had Thanksgiving in a dining room. I cooked all of it this time, basting the turkey myself, mashing the potatoes, making the pie, cooking the green beans, making the dressing. All of it. I didn’t make my usual cranberry-orange relish this year, since Jerry’s not a big fan, and I knew that Helen wouldn’t be either. So we just went with regular can-shaped cranberry sauce.

Helen and Jerry decorated the dining room with all of the Thanksgiving art that she has been bringing home from school the past few weeks. So there are about 5 turkeys taped to the windows in there, and several autumn leaf paintings. She was so proud of herself and her contribution to the day!

All morning, Helen asked me if it was time for dinner yet. “How about NOW? Is it time for dinner NOW?” She and Alice had breakfast, mid-morning snack, late-morning snack (at their usual lunchtime), and Thanksgiving Dinner, all before 1pm. They LOVED it. Well, of course Alice loved it — any holiday centered around gluttony is A-OK with her. But Helen ate a lot, too, and Helen’s not a big eater. A big snacker, yes, but not a big eater.

I kept my recipes really REALLY simple, and so it was pretty easy to get everything ready to go and coming out of the oven at roughly the same time.

I’m a little sad to be missing the family tradition this year, and I know that the weather has got to be gorgeous (partly because we’re not there — Murphy’s Law — the weather has been HORRIBLE for about 6 years straight now). But at the same time, I’m treasuring our quiet little holiday with Just Us. There’s no stress, no fear that Alice is going to faceplant into a Dutch oven, and we had a wonderful dinner together at our dining room table.

Hopefully in the future our girls will get to experience both — my family’s weird Thanksgiving tradition, and the more-mainstream, calmer style of gluttony indoors before everyone retires to various sofas for an afternoon nap.

And who knew? — Mashed potatoes actually CAN stay warm for longer than 30 seconds when not exposed to sub-freezing weather at the table. I’ll definitely concede defeat on that point to Jerry — it is exceptionally nice to eat food that stays warm long enough to be spooned out AND consumed. I always thought that was just a Christmas thing…