One more note, and then I do intend to return to Paris.
It's the time of year when, were we home in Lincoln, I'd be penning an email requesting many, many friends to save the date for our upcoming Guadete Party. {sigh}
I just figured I'd make note of that here in case anyone was considering hosting in our stead, just this once. The party would be Saturday, December 16th, if I were there. And, I mean, the name of the Sunday is REJOICE! Sunday. Could there be a better time on the church calendar to throw a party?!
I do need to request that, should you choose to host the Gaudete party while we're away, you please keep it only sort of moderately epic so that our friends will not be disappointed when we return and take back the reins in 2018. Don't outshine us, okay? But somebody, please, get on out there and help everyone REJOICE!
That's all for now.
Showing posts with label Hostessing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hostessing. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Thanksgiving to Gaudete! Non-stop party hosting fun!
I love to be the host. Dinner parties or brunches, big parties or drinks with a couple close friends. I'll take any of them.
You've seen photos of my home. It's not fancy. I'm not fancy. I'm not trendy or flashy or even especially tidy. What I am, is a person who loves opening my home to friends and family, and I use their visits as a reason to work on the tidiness thing.
I worked so hard to catch up with posting through the birthdays, then the holidays and the hosting that goes along with it, caught up to me and I've been swamped. I'm seldom in bed before 12:30am these days. I regret my late nights when my 6:40am alarm sounds and I have to start the morning rush to school. I know I could use my daytime hours more wisely (hello, fb chats with friends! hello, silly but affirming parenting articles!) but I cherish those post-kids'-bedtime hours for really getting things done around the house, and the bedtimes come later as the kids get older. Ugh.
Here's what I've been up to since I finished "catching up".
I hosted an intimate(ish) Thanksgiving dinner. It was originally going to be just the seven of us plus Liz and Whit, as the rest of the in-laws were traveling or had plans with the other sides of their families. A few hours before dinner, Phil called and asked if he and the boys could join us. Hooray for more fun, especially for the kids! Boo for the cause - Renee's poor health and too much snow to drive to her grandfather's farm.
We tried a new-to-us method for the turkey - spatchcock. I made Nathaniel do it, and I'm glad because it looked like work. He had to cut out the backbone, then get up on a stool to put all his weight into breaking the breast bone. We were able to cook an eighteen-plus pound turkey in about two hours, and it came out beautiful, if somewhat inappropriate looking!
The girls helped me set two tables with china and the placecards Meg made. I'd been torn about whether to cram us all into one table or relegate a small group to a kids' table before I got Phil's call. Once we added five to the party, the question resolved itself. Rachel and Oliver joined the adults at one table, while the older cousins partied it up in their own space.
I'd planned to make only pumpkin pies because that's all my kids said they wanted.
Between Liz and Phil, though, the dessert table ended up with plenty of variety.
Pumpkin pies, cranberry tart, blueberry pie and carrot cake, along with plentiful whipped cream and coffee. Happy, happy dessert table! Overall, it was a small but wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.
*****
I hosted a meeting of Ruth's "Little Flowers Club". They're 5th graders learning about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit this year, as they approach Confirmation. The moms take turns hosting and teaching each month. I am no teacher. My Gift to talk about was Counsel, so I thought for a while about what I could do to fill some time while teaching them at least the basics. In the end, with Christmas so near, I opted to have them make sugar cookies. My theory was that I could tie it in like this: If you need counsel when cooking, you don't ask someone who's never boiled water. You turn to someone who is proven to be trustworthy and reliable at giving cooking advice - your grandmother, or the Joy of Cooking, or Pioneer Woman. Similarly, when you need Counsel in life, you should turn to someone reliable and trustworthy, like a spiritual director, or your priest, or a friend who is very faithful. There was more to it than that, and some info about St. Catherine of Sienna, but you get the gist.
They move a lot, so this was the best shot I got. Ruth and I made the dough for Pioneer Woman's "Favorite Christmas Cookies" the night prior, so the girls got to skip right to rolling, cutting and painting. I baked them while the girls ran around all crazy town, then they came back to do some decorating with white frosting. Most of them sucked down a half cup or so each of leftover frosting before going back to the running around. It was pretty hilarious. I imagine other moms manage more of a "learning environment", but I'm done with my meeting for the year and calling it a success!
I was supposed to host my women's bible study group that same night, but there were so many conflicts for people's time that we ended up canceling.
*****
The big hurrah, of course, has been our annual Gaudete party! It came and went last weekend. There are always weeks of build up to hosting that party - slowly deep cleaning and decorating, making tons of lists, cooking as much in advance as possible - but I love, love, love it! I only took a few pictures. In truth, I'm repeating things so much that if you go back to last year's photos, or the year before when the computer somehow magically made my photo sparkle, you'll set the scene. I believe this was our fifth Gaudete celebration and I felt significantly less stressed as it approached this year. I had most of the same decorations from last year. I did swap out the candles in the fireplace for birch logs lit with white lights.
You can't see it very well here, and this is the only (super lame) photo I'm even sharing from the party, but you get the idea. I'm too busy talking and making sure drinks are filled to take photos after things are set up. My main new savory food contribution this year was this slow cooker spinach artichoke dip. It's incredibly easy and delicious! I highly recommend it. I also had a crock pot of pulled pork and some mini rolls for sliders. It was good, but heavier than it needed to be for an after dinner event. Phil brought a stunning cheese board, as always. The big hit was "toffee cheddar", I think.
Marianne is old enough to remember the very first Gaudete party we threw, to which we invited whole families rather than only adults. She kept bringing up this year that she thinks we should do that again, or at least let her invite some friends. Ha! We did a quick count at my bible study this week and we have over 80 children in our group of 14 families, and that's just a portion of the families invited to the Gaudete party. (You read that right - I can't remember the exact tally, maybe 85. In 14 families. And you thought we had a big family! We're bringing down the average.)
We had forty-some guests this year. It was wonderful. Drinking and talking and eating and talking more. Bishop Conley honored us with a visit, as did two of our parish priests. The last guests were with us well after midnight.
We tried something new this year. Peter and Rachel can be a challenge at bed, always popping back up for drinks and tuck-ins, so I didn't want to have to get them settled just on the other side of the dining room wall when I knew it would drive me nuts fighting with them. Instead, I told the kids they could take blankets and pillows to the tv room and sort of camp out down there. I was hopeful that they'd fall asleep watching movies and we could quietly carry them to their beds once the party ended. Um, nope. Ruth and Meg fell asleep at some point, but that was hardly helpful. Peter and Rachel were still wide awake and sneaking crackers when the last guests left. Oh well. They were mostly out of my hair during the party, with the exception of occasional visits to greet guests, and we just had to survive the wreckage the next day. They're all practiced and ready for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve now!
*****
We get to be guests for our next couple big events - our couples' book club this weekend* and Christmas Eve at Sherri and Andrew's. The day after Christmas I'm hosting a big family party for Nathaniel's birthday. We bumped it up a day so we could do it before any of the out-of-town siblings start heading home. I have no idea yet what I'll do for food and fun at that, but at least my decorations will all still be up!
*Book club is guaranteed to be unique and exciting this month. We read a short story called "Babette's Feast". (Apparently there's a well known movie based on it, but I'm not familiar with it. Yet. I need to look it up.) The host couple was unable to track down some of the more unusual ingredients to actually emulate the feast in the book (oh darn... no turtle to be had...) but they mentioned lobster bisque and caviar as substitutes! I'm glad they're hosting and not me for this one. I wouldn't have given it nearly so much effort!
You've seen photos of my home. It's not fancy. I'm not fancy. I'm not trendy or flashy or even especially tidy. What I am, is a person who loves opening my home to friends and family, and I use their visits as a reason to work on the tidiness thing.
I worked so hard to catch up with posting through the birthdays, then the holidays and the hosting that goes along with it, caught up to me and I've been swamped. I'm seldom in bed before 12:30am these days. I regret my late nights when my 6:40am alarm sounds and I have to start the morning rush to school. I know I could use my daytime hours more wisely (hello, fb chats with friends! hello, silly but affirming parenting articles!) but I cherish those post-kids'-bedtime hours for really getting things done around the house, and the bedtimes come later as the kids get older. Ugh.
Here's what I've been up to since I finished "catching up".
I hosted an intimate(ish) Thanksgiving dinner. It was originally going to be just the seven of us plus Liz and Whit, as the rest of the in-laws were traveling or had plans with the other sides of their families. A few hours before dinner, Phil called and asked if he and the boys could join us. Hooray for more fun, especially for the kids! Boo for the cause - Renee's poor health and too much snow to drive to her grandfather's farm.
We tried a new-to-us method for the turkey - spatchcock. I made Nathaniel do it, and I'm glad because it looked like work. He had to cut out the backbone, then get up on a stool to put all his weight into breaking the breast bone. We were able to cook an eighteen-plus pound turkey in about two hours, and it came out beautiful, if somewhat inappropriate looking!
The girls helped me set two tables with china and the placecards Meg made. I'd been torn about whether to cram us all into one table or relegate a small group to a kids' table before I got Phil's call. Once we added five to the party, the question resolved itself. Rachel and Oliver joined the adults at one table, while the older cousins partied it up in their own space.
I'd planned to make only pumpkin pies because that's all my kids said they wanted.
Between Liz and Phil, though, the dessert table ended up with plenty of variety.
Pumpkin pies, cranberry tart, blueberry pie and carrot cake, along with plentiful whipped cream and coffee. Happy, happy dessert table! Overall, it was a small but wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.
*****
I hosted a meeting of Ruth's "Little Flowers Club". They're 5th graders learning about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit this year, as they approach Confirmation. The moms take turns hosting and teaching each month. I am no teacher. My Gift to talk about was Counsel, so I thought for a while about what I could do to fill some time while teaching them at least the basics. In the end, with Christmas so near, I opted to have them make sugar cookies. My theory was that I could tie it in like this: If you need counsel when cooking, you don't ask someone who's never boiled water. You turn to someone who is proven to be trustworthy and reliable at giving cooking advice - your grandmother, or the Joy of Cooking, or Pioneer Woman. Similarly, when you need Counsel in life, you should turn to someone reliable and trustworthy, like a spiritual director, or your priest, or a friend who is very faithful. There was more to it than that, and some info about St. Catherine of Sienna, but you get the gist.
They move a lot, so this was the best shot I got. Ruth and I made the dough for Pioneer Woman's "Favorite Christmas Cookies" the night prior, so the girls got to skip right to rolling, cutting and painting. I baked them while the girls ran around all crazy town, then they came back to do some decorating with white frosting. Most of them sucked down a half cup or so each of leftover frosting before going back to the running around. It was pretty hilarious. I imagine other moms manage more of a "learning environment", but I'm done with my meeting for the year and calling it a success!
I was supposed to host my women's bible study group that same night, but there were so many conflicts for people's time that we ended up canceling.
*****
The big hurrah, of course, has been our annual Gaudete party! It came and went last weekend. There are always weeks of build up to hosting that party - slowly deep cleaning and decorating, making tons of lists, cooking as much in advance as possible - but I love, love, love it! I only took a few pictures. In truth, I'm repeating things so much that if you go back to last year's photos, or the year before when the computer somehow magically made my photo sparkle, you'll set the scene. I believe this was our fifth Gaudete celebration and I felt significantly less stressed as it approached this year. I had most of the same decorations from last year. I did swap out the candles in the fireplace for birch logs lit with white lights.
You can't see it very well here, and this is the only (super lame) photo I'm even sharing from the party, but you get the idea. I'm too busy talking and making sure drinks are filled to take photos after things are set up. My main new savory food contribution this year was this slow cooker spinach artichoke dip. It's incredibly easy and delicious! I highly recommend it. I also had a crock pot of pulled pork and some mini rolls for sliders. It was good, but heavier than it needed to be for an after dinner event. Phil brought a stunning cheese board, as always. The big hit was "toffee cheddar", I think.
Marianne is old enough to remember the very first Gaudete party we threw, to which we invited whole families rather than only adults. She kept bringing up this year that she thinks we should do that again, or at least let her invite some friends. Ha! We did a quick count at my bible study this week and we have over 80 children in our group of 14 families, and that's just a portion of the families invited to the Gaudete party. (You read that right - I can't remember the exact tally, maybe 85. In 14 families. And you thought we had a big family! We're bringing down the average.)
We had forty-some guests this year. It was wonderful. Drinking and talking and eating and talking more. Bishop Conley honored us with a visit, as did two of our parish priests. The last guests were with us well after midnight.
We tried something new this year. Peter and Rachel can be a challenge at bed, always popping back up for drinks and tuck-ins, so I didn't want to have to get them settled just on the other side of the dining room wall when I knew it would drive me nuts fighting with them. Instead, I told the kids they could take blankets and pillows to the tv room and sort of camp out down there. I was hopeful that they'd fall asleep watching movies and we could quietly carry them to their beds once the party ended. Um, nope. Ruth and Meg fell asleep at some point, but that was hardly helpful. Peter and Rachel were still wide awake and sneaking crackers when the last guests left. Oh well. They were mostly out of my hair during the party, with the exception of occasional visits to greet guests, and we just had to survive the wreckage the next day. They're all practiced and ready for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve now!
*****
We get to be guests for our next couple big events - our couples' book club this weekend* and Christmas Eve at Sherri and Andrew's. The day after Christmas I'm hosting a big family party for Nathaniel's birthday. We bumped it up a day so we could do it before any of the out-of-town siblings start heading home. I have no idea yet what I'll do for food and fun at that, but at least my decorations will all still be up!
*Book club is guaranteed to be unique and exciting this month. We read a short story called "Babette's Feast". (Apparently there's a well known movie based on it, but I'm not familiar with it. Yet. I need to look it up.) The host couple was unable to track down some of the more unusual ingredients to actually emulate the feast in the book (oh darn... no turtle to be had...) but they mentioned lobster bisque and caviar as substitutes! I'm glad they're hosting and not me for this one. I wouldn't have given it nearly so much effort!
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Summer break report
Summer break. Wow! It is trucking along! I've thought of a million tiny things to blog, but my kids are forever claiming their minuscule allowances of screen time, and even at 30 minutes per kid per day, they hog the computer for what seems like forever. It may be because I am not much for policing their 30 minute windows of screen time, and despite a ridiculous collection of egg timers, they seem to be always "forgetting" to set their timers or failing to hear them sound.
Poor me, I know. Don't cry for me (Argentina). I still manage to waste more than enough time scrolling through FB and reading ridiculous articles about the 10 shocking things you didn't know you were doing that will ruin your laundry, and other really critical uses for my time.
Some things I've been thinking of late:
~ I am so grateful to whichever previous owner installed aluminum blinds in the ground floor bedrooms. We've had more than our fair share of thunderstorms this spring, and I credit the heavy blinds for allowing Peter and Rachel to sleep through them easily. The lightning flashes are much more disruptive in the rest of the house!
~ Renee and I are hosting a series of summer bbqs! Some just for us, some with guest visitors. I love it! I always love hosting with Renee, because I can focus on the food I'm prepping and know the setting will be not just taken care of, but laid out well beyond my own ability. Even with paper plates on her patio, she manages to make it elegant! I also love a regular interruption to my normal routine dinner prep. Phil is handling the main course (on the grill), so I get to prep sides and dessert and that sounds seriously relaxing and easy to me. I'm hoping to try out some new desserts from the Baked cookbooks that Renee gave me for my birthday!
~ Speaking of the cookbooks, I tried out their Smores Nut Bars* this week when we hosted the kids' Totus Tuus leaders for dinner. It's not really my style, being a pretty dense, rich bar, while I'm more of a cakey gal, but I was in the mood for something different. It was excellent. Nathaniel loved it! And it was really easy to whip up.
*The link says "adapted from" the cookbook, but as far as I can tell they didn't change anything. My additional notes - I am lazy about chopping chocolate, so I used dark and milk chocolate chips. Also, I'm not sure you gain much by cutting up large marshmallows versus using mini marshmallows. I did it this time - the cutting - but it was a sticky hassle. Next time I think I'll just use an equivalent quantity of mini.
~ Marianne, with some minimal assistance from Ruth and Meg, is diligently constructing an incredible 4th of July structure that will be loaded with explosives. I don't want to give too much away, but I foresee a pretty impressive blaze in the middle of the street once this things sets off all its fireworks and melts down. She's even more enthusiastic than usual after we recently learned that Arthur and April are bringing their crew to Lincoln for the 4th! The girls can't wait to see their Minnesota cousins!
~ My sister celebrated a milestone birthday last week. Mostly that makes me think that I'm getting pretty old, myself, since I'm less than two years behind her. Ages that begin with a four seem far-fetched. Happy birthday again, Marci!
~ A couple people have remarked to me at the pool that I "have an easy summer ahead of" me because my kids are all pretty independent this year. It appears true, to a point. Rachel is loving the pool, but she runs back and forth between the baby pool and big pool ("Walk! Don't run! Rachel! Slow!") and I can't take the life vest off of her for an instant. I often find that after a brief conversation with another mom, I've lost track of her. I don't worry that she's drowning, because of the puddle jumper vest, but I don't like when she slips my watch. Peter is having a blast, but he wants to take his puddle jumper off and practice swimming for real. I like doing that with him some, but I don't like the battle to get him back in his life vest once he's tasted freedom. So, "easy"... yes. I'm not holding or nursing an infant, and all my children can walk reliably in that baby pool without face planting and needing constant rescuing... but I'm not yet one of the moms who's lounging on a chair with a book. That's still a distant dream.
Summer has been flying by, and I don't foresee it slowing. Between house guests, family visiting from out of town, the kids' trip to Kansas and my 20 year high school reunion (I know! You're shocked! It's not possible I could be so old even after that talk of my sister's aging!) I feel like we'll be saying hello AND goodbye to July before we know it. I'm trying to soak up the slightly later mornings and the afternoons at the pool and just keep it all pretty chill in the meantime. Enjoying the ride. Having an "easy" summer.
Poor me, I know. Don't cry for me (Argentina). I still manage to waste more than enough time scrolling through FB and reading ridiculous articles about the 10 shocking things you didn't know you were doing that will ruin your laundry, and other really critical uses for my time.
Some things I've been thinking of late:
~ I am so grateful to whichever previous owner installed aluminum blinds in the ground floor bedrooms. We've had more than our fair share of thunderstorms this spring, and I credit the heavy blinds for allowing Peter and Rachel to sleep through them easily. The lightning flashes are much more disruptive in the rest of the house!
~ Renee and I are hosting a series of summer bbqs! Some just for us, some with guest visitors. I love it! I always love hosting with Renee, because I can focus on the food I'm prepping and know the setting will be not just taken care of, but laid out well beyond my own ability. Even with paper plates on her patio, she manages to make it elegant! I also love a regular interruption to my normal routine dinner prep. Phil is handling the main course (on the grill), so I get to prep sides and dessert and that sounds seriously relaxing and easy to me. I'm hoping to try out some new desserts from the Baked cookbooks that Renee gave me for my birthday!
~ Speaking of the cookbooks, I tried out their Smores Nut Bars* this week when we hosted the kids' Totus Tuus leaders for dinner. It's not really my style, being a pretty dense, rich bar, while I'm more of a cakey gal, but I was in the mood for something different. It was excellent. Nathaniel loved it! And it was really easy to whip up.
*The link says "adapted from" the cookbook, but as far as I can tell they didn't change anything. My additional notes - I am lazy about chopping chocolate, so I used dark and milk chocolate chips. Also, I'm not sure you gain much by cutting up large marshmallows versus using mini marshmallows. I did it this time - the cutting - but it was a sticky hassle. Next time I think I'll just use an equivalent quantity of mini.
~ Marianne, with some minimal assistance from Ruth and Meg, is diligently constructing an incredible 4th of July structure that will be loaded with explosives. I don't want to give too much away, but I foresee a pretty impressive blaze in the middle of the street once this things sets off all its fireworks and melts down. She's even more enthusiastic than usual after we recently learned that Arthur and April are bringing their crew to Lincoln for the 4th! The girls can't wait to see their Minnesota cousins!
~ My sister celebrated a milestone birthday last week. Mostly that makes me think that I'm getting pretty old, myself, since I'm less than two years behind her. Ages that begin with a four seem far-fetched. Happy birthday again, Marci!
~ A couple people have remarked to me at the pool that I "have an easy summer ahead of" me because my kids are all pretty independent this year. It appears true, to a point. Rachel is loving the pool, but she runs back and forth between the baby pool and big pool ("Walk! Don't run! Rachel! Slow!") and I can't take the life vest off of her for an instant. I often find that after a brief conversation with another mom, I've lost track of her. I don't worry that she's drowning, because of the puddle jumper vest, but I don't like when she slips my watch. Peter is having a blast, but he wants to take his puddle jumper off and practice swimming for real. I like doing that with him some, but I don't like the battle to get him back in his life vest once he's tasted freedom. So, "easy"... yes. I'm not holding or nursing an infant, and all my children can walk reliably in that baby pool without face planting and needing constant rescuing... but I'm not yet one of the moms who's lounging on a chair with a book. That's still a distant dream.
Summer has been flying by, and I don't foresee it slowing. Between house guests, family visiting from out of town, the kids' trip to Kansas and my 20 year high school reunion (I know! You're shocked! It's not possible I could be so old even after that talk of my sister's aging!) I feel like we'll be saying hello AND goodbye to July before we know it. I'm trying to soak up the slightly later mornings and the afternoons at the pool and just keep it all pretty chill in the meantime. Enjoying the ride. Having an "easy" summer.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Marianne Elizabeth Ita
Marianne received the sacrament of Confirmation this weekend. I can't really wrap my head around having a child old enough for me to write that sentence, but time marches on whether we want it to or not.
As mentioned previously, Marianne asked Mary to be her Confirmation sponsor, and chose St. Ita as her patron saint. The class had a retreat on Thursday, and a couple rehearsals leading up to the day, all of which helped to alleviate her nerves. Still, the first thing she told me when she got up Saturday was, "I'm not going..." though she knew full well she was. The poor girl. I prayed hard during the mass that the Holy Spirit would pour out his gift of courage (fortitude) on her, along with all the other gifts of the Spirit.
Curls, courtesy of cousin Sara. So glad she was able to take over and save me the time! Plus, she knows way more about these things than I do.
I only have a couple photos of the event, also courtesy of Sara who braved the packs of parents up front to snap them, but I'm hopeful I'll be able to update soon with more. A couple of class dads who are wonderful photographers appeared to be stationed on either side of the church, documenting the mass in great detail. I look forward to them sharing their photos!
Nathaniel was asked to be an acolyte. It was his first time serving at a mass with the bishop (not counting as an altar server in high school). I like that the altar servers, lector, acolytes and ushers all tend to be family members of the students. It makes it a very family-oriented celebration.
Mary said that when Marianne walked up to be confirmed, she looked pretty terrified, but she got through it. Shortly after, I discovered she was one of the three students carrying up the gifts. She hadn't bothered to tell us she'd be doing so. That's very like her.
My parents, my grandma Sara, Aunt Carolyn, Sara and Elizabeth all drove up to spend the weekend with us, celebrating. We had a lunch reception after mass. We did everything possible ahead of time, then my mom ran the final set up just after mass, while Mary and our family went down for the little cake reception in the church basement, and the photo ops with Bishop Conley.
I chose fire colored flowers to lend some color to the party, and filled vases with red, orange and yellow candies to supplement the beautiful cookies I ordered for dessert.
If you're local, and you need really lovely cookies, check out Cara Bella Cookies. Cara is the sister of a friend of mine, and her cookies are gorgeous and delicious. (I was not paid for this ad, I just love cookies. We used her for Rachel's baptism, as well.)
Lunch was pulled pork and shredded beef sandwiches, veggies, a Waldorf-style salad and chips. Simple and yummy. I cooked up crock pots full of meat a few weeks ago, then froze it for the party. I don't know quite what I was thinking, but I made enough for a small army. There was plenty left for lunch the next day for us and our out-of-towners, and for several additional meals for us. Sweet! Pulled pork tacos, here we come...
Cousin party! I only set up the one table for the kids. The rest of us ate on our laps, and I had some wooden tv-trays scattered around so people could set down drinks and plates.
We were extremely flattered to have Bishop Conley stop by after a lunch reception given for him and the other priests at the rectory. Nathaniel had dropped him a note inviting him, but saying that of course we understood he probably had a full day. He replied that he'd have to play the afternoon by ear. When he popped in for a brief visit, we were surprised and honored. What a special gift to Marianne, to receive an extra blessing from the Bishop on her Confirmation day!
As mentioned previously, Marianne asked Mary to be her Confirmation sponsor, and chose St. Ita as her patron saint. The class had a retreat on Thursday, and a couple rehearsals leading up to the day, all of which helped to alleviate her nerves. Still, the first thing she told me when she got up Saturday was, "I'm not going..." though she knew full well she was. The poor girl. I prayed hard during the mass that the Holy Spirit would pour out his gift of courage (fortitude) on her, along with all the other gifts of the Spirit.
Curls, courtesy of cousin Sara. So glad she was able to take over and save me the time! Plus, she knows way more about these things than I do.
I only have a couple photos of the event, also courtesy of Sara who braved the packs of parents up front to snap them, but I'm hopeful I'll be able to update soon with more. A couple of class dads who are wonderful photographers appeared to be stationed on either side of the church, documenting the mass in great detail. I look forward to them sharing their photos!
Nathaniel was asked to be an acolyte. It was his first time serving at a mass with the bishop (not counting as an altar server in high school). I like that the altar servers, lector, acolytes and ushers all tend to be family members of the students. It makes it a very family-oriented celebration.
Mary said that when Marianne walked up to be confirmed, she looked pretty terrified, but she got through it. Shortly after, I discovered she was one of the three students carrying up the gifts. She hadn't bothered to tell us she'd be doing so. That's very like her.
My parents, my grandma Sara, Aunt Carolyn, Sara and Elizabeth all drove up to spend the weekend with us, celebrating. We had a lunch reception after mass. We did everything possible ahead of time, then my mom ran the final set up just after mass, while Mary and our family went down for the little cake reception in the church basement, and the photo ops with Bishop Conley.
I chose fire colored flowers to lend some color to the party, and filled vases with red, orange and yellow candies to supplement the beautiful cookies I ordered for dessert.
If you're local, and you need really lovely cookies, check out Cara Bella Cookies. Cara is the sister of a friend of mine, and her cookies are gorgeous and delicious. (I was not paid for this ad, I just love cookies. We used her for Rachel's baptism, as well.)
Lunch was pulled pork and shredded beef sandwiches, veggies, a Waldorf-style salad and chips. Simple and yummy. I cooked up crock pots full of meat a few weeks ago, then froze it for the party. I don't know quite what I was thinking, but I made enough for a small army. There was plenty left for lunch the next day for us and our out-of-towners, and for several additional meals for us. Sweet! Pulled pork tacos, here we come...
Cousin party! I only set up the one table for the kids. The rest of us ate on our laps, and I had some wooden tv-trays scattered around so people could set down drinks and plates.
We were extremely flattered to have Bishop Conley stop by after a lunch reception given for him and the other priests at the rectory. Nathaniel had dropped him a note inviting him, but saying that of course we understood he probably had a full day. He replied that he'd have to play the afternoon by ear. When he popped in for a brief visit, we were surprised and honored. What a special gift to Marianne, to receive an extra blessing from the Bishop on her Confirmation day!
Thursday, January 08, 2015
Holiday round up
Christmas was two full weeks ago, but it feels like six. Is that just me? It feels like it was a whirlwind holiday, totally sneaking up on me, but now looking back, it was ages ago... We had almost a full week of partying nightly with family, then a short break, then a visit from my folks. It really was a wonderful holiday season, one of the best I can remember.
I've thought of half a dozen posts to write since Christmas, but feel like I can't do that or I'm likely never to get pictures from Christmas posted and the tidbits I want to remember written... I've started this post three or four times but always get pulled away and by the time I come back I just have to delete it and start over. If you're reading this, that means this attempt finally took, and I'm so glad! Hopefully future-me won't find it too difficult to figure out why there's no record of the Christmas celebrations in the December 2014 archives, and will find this post easily enough.
Since I'm guessing most of you read Renee's recap of Christmas Eve already, I'm just going to drop a bunch of photos that I don't think she included, and throw in some commentary along the way, and leave it at that. (For the record, most of the Christmas-week photos - the good ones, anyway - were taken by Tom.) Enjoy!
The first couple pictures are from a spur of the moment whole-family dinner at Sherri's house on the Monday before Christmas. I know when I have several house guests, just finished throwing a formal dinner party for a friend's anniversary the night prior, and am prepping for my biggest party of the year in a few days, my first thought is, "I should invite over a few more families, hopefully with at least 9 kids between them, for dinner tonight. Just for fun." Sherri is amazing.
Rachel terrified everyone in turn with the "sewer pup" finger puppets that live in one of Grandma's kitchen drawers. Is anything as much fun as a drawer full of random cups, spoons, bowls and toys in Grandma's kitchen?
Some of you already saw my beautiful deviled egg platter on Instagram, but I thought I'd share it here as well so I could add more description. Sherri does basically everything for the Christmas Eve party, but a couple things she is willing to farm out. This was my first year on the egg assignment. In my family, we just fill them and leave them plain, or maybe sprinkle a little paprika, but the in-laws have a history of a tangier filling and there are always capers involved, as well as paprika. I figured I'd mix it up a little, so made the standard style with capers you see in the middle. Then there's a ring of my family's standard, with paprika for pretties. The outer ring was a new recipe for Sriracha deviled eggs, because Nathaniel and his brothers (and Renee's boys) are all adventurous with spicy foods. I thought they were all delicious (okay, I didn't eat any of the capers, but the filling was good on that one, when I tested it) and the plate was clean at the end of the night. Success.
Sisters-in-law are the best! Liz arrived moments later to make it even more lively. We missed you, Anna, Leah and April!
You'll notice that I dressed my crew on Christmas Eve in the outfits from Tom and Laura's wedding. Since I totally forgot to attempt a family photo that evening, please refer back to the one in this post. It's way better than I'd have managed anyway.
I love that a couple of my kids are old enough to be nearly autonomous during these big dinners. Here, the girls are making their first course pass at the buffet, though they cheated and went for ham with their fish course (not shocking, since they both skip over the pickled herring and pâté).
Rachel's dinner consisted primarily of pickles.
Nathaniel and Ruth performed "Good King Wenceslas" for the family.
Notice that Marianne is about to flick Ruth in the head. {sigh} Sisters.
I love the look on Peter's face during the gift game the cousins played. He loved being part of the big kid game, even though he didn't know his left from right, so kept mixing things up.
After Christmas Eve at Sherri's there was much elfing to be done at home. I wrapped up my work at about 2am. Nathaniel came to bed much later, as the cd+gs for the little karaoke machine you see pictured in front of the stockings turned out to be more complicated to burn than he'd realized, and Santa had to do some coding to make it work. Oy. I'm glad Santa has mad computer skills. (Also, I wish manufacturers offered more karaoke cds with zero questionable songs on them. You can either get Disney songs - fun, but I like some variety - or pop music with several good songs and then something like Baby Got Back, that I'd rather not give to my kids just yet. If anyone out there has found a great collection of pop songs suitable for kids, let me know!)
On Christmas morning, I sequestered the girls - who jumped out of bed immediately upon the clock ticking to 7:15am - to the kitchen to let Peter sleep a little longer. I gave them juice as a weak consolation... Then Peter joined us and I kept them ALL there while we waited on Nathaniel to finally get out of bed. I'm sure it felt like an eternity to them, but I think it was probably all of 7:25 when they finally were freed to find their gifts.
The gifts from Nathaniel's annual trip with the kids to the Dollar Tree are always one of the most entertaining parts of the morning. The feathery mask was Meg's gift to Marianne.
Marianne and Ruth, testing out the new Karaoke machine that Santa brought for the kids.
Sleepy Rachel, with her new doll, Mali (and one of the crayons Marianne got for her). Mali hasn't replaced Bunny, by any means, but Rachel's a big fan.
The rest of Christmas day was spent eating cinnamon rolls and candy, lying around, playing with toys and taking naps, and then at Sherri's big extended family party hosted by Nathaniel's Uncle Richard. It was a relaxed, lovely sort of Christmas day.
The following day, the adults got a night out! Renee and I had scheduled a night to go out with Tom and Laura, without children, to make sure we got some quality time in with them. We extended the invite to the rest of the adults in the family, since they're all so darned fun, and as it turned out everyone but Liz (work) and Mary (sick) were able to join us!
More sister-in-law fun, this time with sangria instead of champagne. We're flexible like that.
We even stopped at a bar after dinner. We were so "out on the town"! Woohoo! Nathaniel and I don't go out nearly often enough. Tom ordered a captain and coke for me (fond reminiscences of happy hours at the Outback when we all lived in Colorado), and inexplicably told the waitress it was my birthday, so she wished me well when she delivered the drink. Ha! Most of the crowd ordered the bar's specialty, the moscow mule.
Because we are one crazy family that just can't get enough of one another - and because Nathaniel and I were the only ones who had a sitter with time constraints - everyone came back to our place after dinner for tea, coffee, and totally-unnecessary-but-still-consumed snacks.
Meg had given Nathaniel a little tub of blue goo with a spider in it from the Dollar Tree. I have no idea what it was supposed to be... but Nathaniel and Sam played with it for a long, long time that evening. I'm glad we know what to get Sam for his next birthday.
The final family gathering was Nathaniel's birthday dinner the following night, which I hosted. Tom and Laura left town that day, and Liz and Whit were back to work in Omaha, but even a small family party is an affair to remember around here (and we had Sam, Mary and Francis to break up the monotony of our typical Lincoln crew).
Why does the phrase "can we do a silly picture?" always have to be followed immediately by fingers up noses and in ears, mouths and eyes? Yick. Surely there's a more creative "silly" option.
38. It's my annual four months during which I'm married to an older man.
Nathaniel requested gingerbread cake with fresh whipped cream. I used Joy of Cooking's Gingerbread Applesauce Cake, which is always delightful, and I made cinnamon nutmeg whipped cream to top it. The powdered sugar stencil-style numbers were something I thought of literally as the cakes were baking (during dinner, so I could serve them warm - I don't recommend trying to do this often, as it was sort of stressful to get the timing right). I thought the two square cakes, while delicious, were boring to look at. The numbers turned out well, if still a little dull.
That concluded our week of family fun! The following weekend my parents came, but I took almost no photos other than the couple that have shown up on Instagram. They brought the good toys with them - lots of stuff on the kids' Christmas lists that we weren't going to buy ourselves. Like this:
Oh. Wait, no. I totally did NOT ask for that. To quote my emailed list of gift ideas to my mom, under ideas for Rachel, "a ride on/push toy, maybe?... we prefer something simple, without a lot of bells or whistles" My mom couldn't quit laughing when Rachel opened the package and discovered that she could push a dozen different buttons for different musical instrument sounds and songs. I always know this is a possibility when I ask my folks for a gift for the kids. To be fair, though, it's been the hit of the gifts, and is played with all day long. Also to be fair, my email continued on, "but i realize kids DO like the bells and whistles, so whatever." I figure if I'm asking them for gifts for the kids, I ought to leave a little freedom in the search. This is what that earned me. (My mom knows I'm just giving her a hard time. Mostly. We are 100% appreciative that they bring the fun with them whenever they come.)
And there you have it! My Christmas break recap, finally completed. Up next, maybe I'll manage a year-in-review of 2014 or something equally New Year's-ish, just a couple weeks after the fact! Or maybe I'll just go back to my typical sporadic anecdote posting. Time will tell. On the day after Epiphany, I wish you a very Merry Christmas, one last time!
I've thought of half a dozen posts to write since Christmas, but feel like I can't do that or I'm likely never to get pictures from Christmas posted and the tidbits I want to remember written... I've started this post three or four times but always get pulled away and by the time I come back I just have to delete it and start over. If you're reading this, that means this attempt finally took, and I'm so glad! Hopefully future-me won't find it too difficult to figure out why there's no record of the Christmas celebrations in the December 2014 archives, and will find this post easily enough.
Since I'm guessing most of you read Renee's recap of Christmas Eve already, I'm just going to drop a bunch of photos that I don't think she included, and throw in some commentary along the way, and leave it at that. (For the record, most of the Christmas-week photos - the good ones, anyway - were taken by Tom.) Enjoy!
The first couple pictures are from a spur of the moment whole-family dinner at Sherri's house on the Monday before Christmas. I know when I have several house guests, just finished throwing a formal dinner party for a friend's anniversary the night prior, and am prepping for my biggest party of the year in a few days, my first thought is, "I should invite over a few more families, hopefully with at least 9 kids between them, for dinner tonight. Just for fun." Sherri is amazing.
Rachel terrified everyone in turn with the "sewer pup" finger puppets that live in one of Grandma's kitchen drawers. Is anything as much fun as a drawer full of random cups, spoons, bowls and toys in Grandma's kitchen?
Some of you already saw my beautiful deviled egg platter on Instagram, but I thought I'd share it here as well so I could add more description. Sherri does basically everything for the Christmas Eve party, but a couple things she is willing to farm out. This was my first year on the egg assignment. In my family, we just fill them and leave them plain, or maybe sprinkle a little paprika, but the in-laws have a history of a tangier filling and there are always capers involved, as well as paprika. I figured I'd mix it up a little, so made the standard style with capers you see in the middle. Then there's a ring of my family's standard, with paprika for pretties. The outer ring was a new recipe for Sriracha deviled eggs, because Nathaniel and his brothers (and Renee's boys) are all adventurous with spicy foods. I thought they were all delicious (okay, I didn't eat any of the capers, but the filling was good on that one, when I tested it) and the plate was clean at the end of the night. Success.
Sisters-in-law are the best! Liz arrived moments later to make it even more lively. We missed you, Anna, Leah and April!
You'll notice that I dressed my crew on Christmas Eve in the outfits from Tom and Laura's wedding. Since I totally forgot to attempt a family photo that evening, please refer back to the one in this post. It's way better than I'd have managed anyway.
I love that a couple of my kids are old enough to be nearly autonomous during these big dinners. Here, the girls are making their first course pass at the buffet, though they cheated and went for ham with their fish course (not shocking, since they both skip over the pickled herring and pâté).
Rachel's dinner consisted primarily of pickles.
Nathaniel and Ruth performed "Good King Wenceslas" for the family.
Notice that Marianne is about to flick Ruth in the head. {sigh} Sisters.
I love the look on Peter's face during the gift game the cousins played. He loved being part of the big kid game, even though he didn't know his left from right, so kept mixing things up.
After Christmas Eve at Sherri's there was much elfing to be done at home. I wrapped up my work at about 2am. Nathaniel came to bed much later, as the cd+gs for the little karaoke machine you see pictured in front of the stockings turned out to be more complicated to burn than he'd realized, and Santa had to do some coding to make it work. Oy. I'm glad Santa has mad computer skills. (Also, I wish manufacturers offered more karaoke cds with zero questionable songs on them. You can either get Disney songs - fun, but I like some variety - or pop music with several good songs and then something like Baby Got Back, that I'd rather not give to my kids just yet. If anyone out there has found a great collection of pop songs suitable for kids, let me know!)
On Christmas morning, I sequestered the girls - who jumped out of bed immediately upon the clock ticking to 7:15am - to the kitchen to let Peter sleep a little longer. I gave them juice as a weak consolation... Then Peter joined us and I kept them ALL there while we waited on Nathaniel to finally get out of bed. I'm sure it felt like an eternity to them, but I think it was probably all of 7:25 when they finally were freed to find their gifts.
The gifts from Nathaniel's annual trip with the kids to the Dollar Tree are always one of the most entertaining parts of the morning. The feathery mask was Meg's gift to Marianne.
Marianne and Ruth, testing out the new Karaoke machine that Santa brought for the kids.
Sleepy Rachel, with her new doll, Mali (and one of the crayons Marianne got for her). Mali hasn't replaced Bunny, by any means, but Rachel's a big fan.
The rest of Christmas day was spent eating cinnamon rolls and candy, lying around, playing with toys and taking naps, and then at Sherri's big extended family party hosted by Nathaniel's Uncle Richard. It was a relaxed, lovely sort of Christmas day.
The following day, the adults got a night out! Renee and I had scheduled a night to go out with Tom and Laura, without children, to make sure we got some quality time in with them. We extended the invite to the rest of the adults in the family, since they're all so darned fun, and as it turned out everyone but Liz (work) and Mary (sick) were able to join us!
More sister-in-law fun, this time with sangria instead of champagne. We're flexible like that.
We even stopped at a bar after dinner. We were so "out on the town"! Woohoo! Nathaniel and I don't go out nearly often enough. Tom ordered a captain and coke for me (fond reminiscences of happy hours at the Outback when we all lived in Colorado), and inexplicably told the waitress it was my birthday, so she wished me well when she delivered the drink. Ha! Most of the crowd ordered the bar's specialty, the moscow mule.
Because we are one crazy family that just can't get enough of one another - and because Nathaniel and I were the only ones who had a sitter with time constraints - everyone came back to our place after dinner for tea, coffee, and totally-unnecessary-but-still-consumed snacks.
Meg had given Nathaniel a little tub of blue goo with a spider in it from the Dollar Tree. I have no idea what it was supposed to be... but Nathaniel and Sam played with it for a long, long time that evening. I'm glad we know what to get Sam for his next birthday.
The final family gathering was Nathaniel's birthday dinner the following night, which I hosted. Tom and Laura left town that day, and Liz and Whit were back to work in Omaha, but even a small family party is an affair to remember around here (and we had Sam, Mary and Francis to break up the monotony of our typical Lincoln crew).
Why does the phrase "can we do a silly picture?" always have to be followed immediately by fingers up noses and in ears, mouths and eyes? Yick. Surely there's a more creative "silly" option.
38. It's my annual four months during which I'm married to an older man.
Nathaniel requested gingerbread cake with fresh whipped cream. I used Joy of Cooking's Gingerbread Applesauce Cake, which is always delightful, and I made cinnamon nutmeg whipped cream to top it. The powdered sugar stencil-style numbers were something I thought of literally as the cakes were baking (during dinner, so I could serve them warm - I don't recommend trying to do this often, as it was sort of stressful to get the timing right). I thought the two square cakes, while delicious, were boring to look at. The numbers turned out well, if still a little dull.
That concluded our week of family fun! The following weekend my parents came, but I took almost no photos other than the couple that have shown up on Instagram. They brought the good toys with them - lots of stuff on the kids' Christmas lists that we weren't going to buy ourselves. Like this:
Oh. Wait, no. I totally did NOT ask for that. To quote my emailed list of gift ideas to my mom, under ideas for Rachel, "a ride on/push toy, maybe?... we prefer something simple, without a lot of bells or whistles" My mom couldn't quit laughing when Rachel opened the package and discovered that she could push a dozen different buttons for different musical instrument sounds and songs. I always know this is a possibility when I ask my folks for a gift for the kids. To be fair, though, it's been the hit of the gifts, and is played with all day long. Also to be fair, my email continued on, "but i realize kids DO like the bells and whistles, so whatever." I figure if I'm asking them for gifts for the kids, I ought to leave a little freedom in the search. This is what that earned me. (My mom knows I'm just giving her a hard time. Mostly. We are 100% appreciative that they bring the fun with them whenever they come.)
And there you have it! My Christmas break recap, finally completed. Up next, maybe I'll manage a year-in-review of 2014 or something equally New Year's-ish, just a couple weeks after the fact! Or maybe I'll just go back to my typical sporadic anecdote posting. Time will tell. On the day after Epiphany, I wish you a very Merry Christmas, one last time!
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Brunch
How it went down:
N to the Bishop, in late October: We'd love to have you join our family for brunch sometime. We're free these dates in November, let us know if any would work for you.
Bishop to N: I'm traveling currently, but will get back to you.
A couple weeks pass, the bishop travels a lot, we assume he's busy and perhaps has forgotten the invite, and we're okay with that. We'll try again another time. Then, out of the blue in mid-November
Bishop's assistant (a high school classmate of N's) to N: The bishop's mother will be visiting him for the holidays. Would you be interested in hosting her and him for brunch on 12/21?
N to Bishop (and his assistant): Of course! We'd loved that. We're honored.
Fast forward to the Gaudete party last weekend, which the Bishop kindly stopped by.
Bishop to N: In addition to my mother, my sister, her husband, and my niece may still be in town on the date of our brunch.
N to the Bishop: The more the merrier!
(all communications paraphrased, obviously)
*****
Last night I baked Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls for both the brunch and to be part of our Christmas morning breakfast. I was up till past midnight finishing them. As always, they were worth the work.
Nathaniel volunteered to help by making the quiches. As I directed him through each step of prep work the night before he asked, "Are you going to micro-manage me through the whole process?" "Yes. I can't help it. I've made the recipe before and you haven't." Did it end up saving me time? Yes. I think so? Probably. I appreciate the thought, anyway, and they turned out lovely!
*****
We kept it simple, which is hard for me. I didn't want it to be too pretentious when the invite was for a family brunch. I wasn't even going to use a table cloth (though obviously I was using the china) but Nathaniel wanted me to. We served Quiche Lorraine, cinnamon rolls and fruit salad. Also, coffee, OJ and mimosas. Honestly, it's exactly what we'd have served if any one of your families had joined us.
The bishop's family - his mom, Betty, his sister, Susan, her husband, Dan, and his niece, Kaitlyn - was wonderful and gracious and fun. Bishop Conley had taken them to visit several orders of sisters while they were in town, and they had funny stories to recount about the differences in the sisters from each stop. Hearing Kaitlyn refer to him as "Uncle Jim" caught me off guard, but of course she would.
His sister's family had their 9-week old chocolate lab in the car (the weather was mild, no worries), and asked toward the end of the visit whether they could bring her in for the kids to meet. Our kids have been obsessed with the idea of a "real pet" for the past couple weeks, and this won't have done me any favors. But man, that was a cute pup! I may have snuggled her a bit myself.
Bishop Conley took time to chat with our kids, although I'd had to bump them to a kids' table with the extra adults added to the party. They showed him our nature shelf. Peter took the opportunity to show Dan every toy car he owns. Thankfully, Dan was a great sport. He and Peter were fast friends. Rachel sang her way through the meal. Loudly. Betty couldn't stop laughing at the music.
The beauty of a house full of children is that there's never a dull moment in a dinner/brunch party. They keep it lively and relaxed.
We truly are honored and grateful that the bishop took us up on our offer to join us for a meal. What a beautiful way to wrap up our Advent.
N to the Bishop, in late October: We'd love to have you join our family for brunch sometime. We're free these dates in November, let us know if any would work for you.
Bishop to N: I'm traveling currently, but will get back to you.
A couple weeks pass, the bishop travels a lot, we assume he's busy and perhaps has forgotten the invite, and we're okay with that. We'll try again another time. Then, out of the blue in mid-November
Bishop's assistant (a high school classmate of N's) to N: The bishop's mother will be visiting him for the holidays. Would you be interested in hosting her and him for brunch on 12/21?
N to Bishop (and his assistant): Of course! We'd loved that. We're honored.
Fast forward to the Gaudete party last weekend, which the Bishop kindly stopped by.
Bishop to N: In addition to my mother, my sister, her husband, and my niece may still be in town on the date of our brunch.
N to the Bishop: The more the merrier!
(all communications paraphrased, obviously)
*****
Last night I baked Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls for both the brunch and to be part of our Christmas morning breakfast. I was up till past midnight finishing them. As always, they were worth the work.
Nathaniel volunteered to help by making the quiches. As I directed him through each step of prep work the night before he asked, "Are you going to micro-manage me through the whole process?" "Yes. I can't help it. I've made the recipe before and you haven't." Did it end up saving me time? Yes. I think so? Probably. I appreciate the thought, anyway, and they turned out lovely!
*****
We kept it simple, which is hard for me. I didn't want it to be too pretentious when the invite was for a family brunch. I wasn't even going to use a table cloth (though obviously I was using the china) but Nathaniel wanted me to. We served Quiche Lorraine, cinnamon rolls and fruit salad. Also, coffee, OJ and mimosas. Honestly, it's exactly what we'd have served if any one of your families had joined us.
The bishop's family - his mom, Betty, his sister, Susan, her husband, Dan, and his niece, Kaitlyn - was wonderful and gracious and fun. Bishop Conley had taken them to visit several orders of sisters while they were in town, and they had funny stories to recount about the differences in the sisters from each stop. Hearing Kaitlyn refer to him as "Uncle Jim" caught me off guard, but of course she would.
His sister's family had their 9-week old chocolate lab in the car (the weather was mild, no worries), and asked toward the end of the visit whether they could bring her in for the kids to meet. Our kids have been obsessed with the idea of a "real pet" for the past couple weeks, and this won't have done me any favors. But man, that was a cute pup! I may have snuggled her a bit myself.
Bishop Conley took time to chat with our kids, although I'd had to bump them to a kids' table with the extra adults added to the party. They showed him our nature shelf. Peter took the opportunity to show Dan every toy car he owns. Thankfully, Dan was a great sport. He and Peter were fast friends. Rachel sang her way through the meal. Loudly. Betty couldn't stop laughing at the music.
The beauty of a house full of children is that there's never a dull moment in a dinner/brunch party. They keep it lively and relaxed.
We truly are honored and grateful that the bishop took us up on our offer to join us for a meal. What a beautiful way to wrap up our Advent.
(left to right, with some ups and downs along the way - Me, Peter, Betty, Bishop Conley, Kaitlyn, Marianne, Susan, Rachel, Ruth, Nathaniel and Meg. Photo by Dan.)
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Santa Sangria
I was just going to update my party post with a link to the Santa Sangria that Sarah brought, but she gave me enough tweaks, I decided to share it in it's own little post. I liked that it was sweet and fruity, but not too sticky-sweet tasting. Yum!
Santa Sangria
(Sarah got the original recipe from Real Housemoms)
1 bottle (750 ml) Moscato Wine
2 cups 100% cranberry juice
1 cup POM Wonderful pomegranate juice
1/2 cup orange juice
1 can (12 oz) 7-up
1 apple, unpeeled, cored, quartered and sliced thin
1 orange, halved and sliced thin
1 lemon, halved and sliced thin
1 red bartlett pear, halved, cored and sliced thin
1/2 cup fresh cranberries, frozen (to help keep it chilled)*
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
Mix all ingredients. Chill for several hours or overnight. Stir before serving.
*If I make it, I'll probably freeze the whole bag of cranberries and throw them in. I don't think they affect the flavor (based on my cranberry lemon water experiment), so you might as well have that much more "ice" and color. Also, Sarah said she didn't think the pomegranate seeds affected the flavor, so you could probably save yourself a buck or two if you wanted to skip those.
Santa Sangria
(Sarah got the original recipe from Real Housemoms)
1 bottle (750 ml) Moscato Wine
2 cups 100% cranberry juice
1 cup POM Wonderful pomegranate juice
1/2 cup orange juice
1 can (12 oz) 7-up
1 apple, unpeeled, cored, quartered and sliced thin
1 orange, halved and sliced thin
1 lemon, halved and sliced thin
1 red bartlett pear, halved, cored and sliced thin
1/2 cup fresh cranberries, frozen (to help keep it chilled)*
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
Mix all ingredients. Chill for several hours or overnight. Stir before serving.
*If I make it, I'll probably freeze the whole bag of cranberries and throw them in. I don't think they affect the flavor (based on my cranberry lemon water experiment), so you might as well have that much more "ice" and color. Also, Sarah said she didn't think the pomegranate seeds affected the flavor, so you could probably save yourself a buck or two if you wanted to skip those.
Monday, December 15, 2014
Gaudete!
I think it's a full fledged tradition now - our (nearly) annual Gaudete Party!
Is it weird to say that I've always wanted to have a holiday party tradition? It may not happen every year, but I like to think it'll happen most years. So far the only two years we haven't done it since starting were the years I gave birth to babies in November. I hope we'll be celebrating Gaudete Sunday for years to come - it's a fun way to draw attention to a liturgical celebration many people never notice beyond the pink candle on the advent wreath and the crazy rose vestments that the priests wear, AND it's a fabulous time to visit with a big group of friends. Win-win, for sure.
I took a handful of photos, and I will share a few, but the truth is, they look pretty much the same as last year's. I used my pretty burlap garland that I made last year again. Rather than spend time stringing cranberries, though, I bought a few strands of wooden beads made to look like strung cranberries. I figured if I used them for a couple years, they'll have saved me money, and they've already saved me loads of time. I once again clipped a couple poinsettia plants and placed individual branches in small vases - an idea I got from Real Simple (or Martha?) years ago and love. I don't especially care for a big poinsettia plant, but I love the way each flower/branch looks on its own. My one new pinterest idea this year was using silver jingle bells around candles, to add a festive touch. (You can kind of see one of the places I used that on the photo below of the food table.)
I took these pictures of the living room when it was cleaned the day prior to the party, then told the kids they weren't allowed into the room anymore till after the party. I was tempted to go so far as to make them use the side or back door all weekend, but I didn't let myself get quite so crazy. They could tell you I was close.
My decorations are simple, and my furniture is still the same old grubby stuff (see how badly those couches need some pretty new throw pillows?! not to mention new slip covers...), but I mentioned to a couple people that this is one time of the year when, despite how many things I might like to change, I LOVE my home. The touches of decor make it feel so warm and peaceful to me. Also the fact that I really cleaned - the walls washed free of marker of the cobwebs out of the corners. It feels very ME, to me, you know?
Marianne made a lego advent wreath, and each week, when she adds a new flame, she takes a few legos out of the "old" candles to make them shorter. We don't actually have any purple legos, though, so it's darker pink and lighter pink. She's very serious about it. She asked whether she should remove the white Christmas candle from the center before the advent party. I said I thought she was okay to leave it in.
We actually got around to decorating a little bit outside this year! I haven't done that since the first year we lived in the house, I think. That year the big evergreens that used to flank the house were still short enough (and neatly trimmed enough) that I could get on a ladder and wrap them in lights. They quickly outgrew my abilities, though, and each year the weeks before Christmas have slipped away without my finding time. This year, I took inspiration from the tomato-cage tree idea that's been all over pinterest for years. In lieu of tomato cages, I used the stalks of our dead zinnias on the left side, tying bunches of them together with twine and wrapping them in light. On the right, Nathaniel suggested bamboo gardening stakes, which worked perfectly in the urns we already had. I love simple and pretty, and these are that!
Back at the party...
This is seriously the one time of year I get my kitchen clean enough to really welcome people into it. There was hot cider on the stove top, coffee and water (with cranberries and lemon) on the counter, and my friend Sarah brought the "Santa Sangria" which was delicious! I could have drunk it all night!
I kept food simple this year, with the goal of keeping it all to one table to leave more room for mingling. On the invite, I encouraged guests to bring a bottle of wine or other beverage to share (knowing that a few of them, at least, would bring food out of the kindness of their hearts). Then I contacted a handful of friends for specific additions to the food table. This photo is just as the party was starting, while I was still waiting on a few food items to arrive. The plate stand filled up with home made baklava and oreo truffles, and there was a big platter of almond bark in the open space in front of the stand. One friend brought amaretto nut bars that were a huge hit! All I made myself were a crock pot of cranberry-chipotle meatballs, a big bowl of home made Chipotle guacamole* with chips and salsa, and peanut butter balls (of course).
I asked Renee to bring cheese and crackers, or something similar. She (and Phil) did not disappoint. I got more compliments on the pretty cheese labels than just about anything else on the table. (I didn't keep all the credit, I promise.)
We had a great turn out, with over 40 guests here at various times. Several people were attending The Nutcracker, so came after the ballet. We even had guests arrive at 11:15pm and 11:30pm (the 11:15 folks cheered "We weren't the last to arrive!" when the last couple showed at 11:30 - ha!).
There were, at one point, two tiny phone screens showing sporting events. Apparently Nebraska had both basketball and volleyball games going strong during the party. Volleyball is huge here, with the women typically in the top few teams in the country! Who knew? (I mean, I've known for a few years now, but had no idea till I moved here that anyone really followed college volleyball).
We were excited to have the bishop join us this year (that's the back of his head in the front of the photo above - the priest further back is our own Monsignor).
I love to see my house full of people! It always makes me laugh when people compliment me on a "great party", since all I provide is the space (and some refreshments). Our friends are responsible for making it awesome. We're blessed to have so many amazing friends; without them, there could be no great parties.
The next morning at mass, Father spoke about Gaudete Sunday and the church's call to Rejoice!, and I love knowing that we're doing that each year in a special way. I hope my kids will remember these parties, even though they spend most of the time in the basement with movies and pizza, then in their rooms, sleeping through the white noise of grown up conversation and laughter, and always remember what a beautiful time of year Advent is.
*The Chipotle guacamole recipe is delicious, and I definitely recommend it. There's a video tutorial by a manager at Chipotle teaching how they do it at the link above. I'm not sure I'd say mine tasted just like the restaurant version, but it was yummy. That said, I learned an important lesson about working with spicy peppers while making this recipe. Each batch requires 12 serrano peppers. I knew to be careful not to touch my eyes or face while chopping them, but I didn't take the time to protect my hands. Within an hour of working up the 24 peppers I used, my left hand was ON FIRE. The whole night it was on fire. The next day it was on fire. Anytime water touched it, it was worse. CRAZY! Most people probably know already, but just in case you decide to use the recipe I linked, take care - wear disposable gloves or something. I have never had that experience before, and I hope not to do so again. The funniest part is that the guacamole is not all that spicy. It's got a kick, but nothing outrageous. Clearly the peppers carry some heat, though. Sheesh.
Is it weird to say that I've always wanted to have a holiday party tradition? It may not happen every year, but I like to think it'll happen most years. So far the only two years we haven't done it since starting were the years I gave birth to babies in November. I hope we'll be celebrating Gaudete Sunday for years to come - it's a fun way to draw attention to a liturgical celebration many people never notice beyond the pink candle on the advent wreath and the crazy rose vestments that the priests wear, AND it's a fabulous time to visit with a big group of friends. Win-win, for sure.
I took a handful of photos, and I will share a few, but the truth is, they look pretty much the same as last year's. I used my pretty burlap garland that I made last year again. Rather than spend time stringing cranberries, though, I bought a few strands of wooden beads made to look like strung cranberries. I figured if I used them for a couple years, they'll have saved me money, and they've already saved me loads of time. I once again clipped a couple poinsettia plants and placed individual branches in small vases - an idea I got from Real Simple (or Martha?) years ago and love. I don't especially care for a big poinsettia plant, but I love the way each flower/branch looks on its own. My one new pinterest idea this year was using silver jingle bells around candles, to add a festive touch. (You can kind of see one of the places I used that on the photo below of the food table.)
I took these pictures of the living room when it was cleaned the day prior to the party, then told the kids they weren't allowed into the room anymore till after the party. I was tempted to go so far as to make them use the side or back door all weekend, but I didn't let myself get quite so crazy. They could tell you I was close.
My decorations are simple, and my furniture is still the same old grubby stuff (see how badly those couches need some pretty new throw pillows?! not to mention new slip covers...), but I mentioned to a couple people that this is one time of the year when, despite how many things I might like to change, I LOVE my home. The touches of decor make it feel so warm and peaceful to me. Also the fact that I really cleaned - the walls washed free of marker of the cobwebs out of the corners. It feels very ME, to me, you know?
Marianne made a lego advent wreath, and each week, when she adds a new flame, she takes a few legos out of the "old" candles to make them shorter. We don't actually have any purple legos, though, so it's darker pink and lighter pink. She's very serious about it. She asked whether she should remove the white Christmas candle from the center before the advent party. I said I thought she was okay to leave it in.
We actually got around to decorating a little bit outside this year! I haven't done that since the first year we lived in the house, I think. That year the big evergreens that used to flank the house were still short enough (and neatly trimmed enough) that I could get on a ladder and wrap them in lights. They quickly outgrew my abilities, though, and each year the weeks before Christmas have slipped away without my finding time. This year, I took inspiration from the tomato-cage tree idea that's been all over pinterest for years. In lieu of tomato cages, I used the stalks of our dead zinnias on the left side, tying bunches of them together with twine and wrapping them in light. On the right, Nathaniel suggested bamboo gardening stakes, which worked perfectly in the urns we already had. I love simple and pretty, and these are that!
Back at the party...
This is seriously the one time of year I get my kitchen clean enough to really welcome people into it. There was hot cider on the stove top, coffee and water (with cranberries and lemon) on the counter, and my friend Sarah brought the "Santa Sangria" which was delicious! I could have drunk it all night!
I kept food simple this year, with the goal of keeping it all to one table to leave more room for mingling. On the invite, I encouraged guests to bring a bottle of wine or other beverage to share (knowing that a few of them, at least, would bring food out of the kindness of their hearts). Then I contacted a handful of friends for specific additions to the food table. This photo is just as the party was starting, while I was still waiting on a few food items to arrive. The plate stand filled up with home made baklava and oreo truffles, and there was a big platter of almond bark in the open space in front of the stand. One friend brought amaretto nut bars that were a huge hit! All I made myself were a crock pot of cranberry-chipotle meatballs, a big bowl of home made Chipotle guacamole* with chips and salsa, and peanut butter balls (of course).
I asked Renee to bring cheese and crackers, or something similar. She (and Phil) did not disappoint. I got more compliments on the pretty cheese labels than just about anything else on the table. (I didn't keep all the credit, I promise.)
We had a great turn out, with over 40 guests here at various times. Several people were attending The Nutcracker, so came after the ballet. We even had guests arrive at 11:15pm and 11:30pm (the 11:15 folks cheered "We weren't the last to arrive!" when the last couple showed at 11:30 - ha!).
There were, at one point, two tiny phone screens showing sporting events. Apparently Nebraska had both basketball and volleyball games going strong during the party. Volleyball is huge here, with the women typically in the top few teams in the country! Who knew? (I mean, I've known for a few years now, but had no idea till I moved here that anyone really followed college volleyball).
We were excited to have the bishop join us this year (that's the back of his head in the front of the photo above - the priest further back is our own Monsignor).
I love to see my house full of people! It always makes me laugh when people compliment me on a "great party", since all I provide is the space (and some refreshments). Our friends are responsible for making it awesome. We're blessed to have so many amazing friends; without them, there could be no great parties.
The next morning at mass, Father spoke about Gaudete Sunday and the church's call to Rejoice!, and I love knowing that we're doing that each year in a special way. I hope my kids will remember these parties, even though they spend most of the time in the basement with movies and pizza, then in their rooms, sleeping through the white noise of grown up conversation and laughter, and always remember what a beautiful time of year Advent is.
*The Chipotle guacamole recipe is delicious, and I definitely recommend it. There's a video tutorial by a manager at Chipotle teaching how they do it at the link above. I'm not sure I'd say mine tasted just like the restaurant version, but it was yummy. That said, I learned an important lesson about working with spicy peppers while making this recipe. Each batch requires 12 serrano peppers. I knew to be careful not to touch my eyes or face while chopping them, but I didn't take the time to protect my hands. Within an hour of working up the 24 peppers I used, my left hand was ON FIRE. The whole night it was on fire. The next day it was on fire. Anytime water touched it, it was worse. CRAZY! Most people probably know already, but just in case you decide to use the recipe I linked, take care - wear disposable gloves or something. I have never had that experience before, and I hope not to do so again. The funniest part is that the guacamole is not all that spicy. It's got a kick, but nothing outrageous. Clearly the peppers carry some heat, though. Sheesh.
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