Over the River and Through the Woods

Ethan and Abby sang the Over the River song to me yesterday as we went to Grandma's house in Gainesboro. 
Today we are going a bit farther afield.  Kirk and John are going over the mountains and to the beach.  The children and I are going down the hill to the flatlands to Martin to help Beth with her move into her first new house.  They are very excited about it. 
Kirk and Eric loaded an antique dining room table and (6) chairs into the back of my van last night.  Eric is very creative at getting everything to fit in and still leave room for people.
We will put on Christmas music and sing loudly for four (4) hours in thecar.  Ethan and Abby will know all the words to the Christmas songs by Christmas day!  Right now they want songs about the reindeer since they were able to meet and actually pet Blitzen and Dancer on Saturday. Singing is much better than asking, "Are we there yet"?

The Night Before Thanksgiving

It was one year ago today that Suzy had a seizure in the parking lot of Kirklands and was taken by ambulance to the hospital.
It was one year ago tonight that I got the phone call telling me she was in the emergency room.  From the time the children began driving, I began dreading phone calls.  I just never expected that one.
I am grateful that we are able to be together as a family this year.  We need each other.
Ethan and Abby helped me cook tonight.  We tried to get as much done tonight as possible.  I brought my "Macy's On Parade" pop up book and we read it together this morning.  We are all excited about watching the parade tomorrow.  Ethan asked if we could go see it and I told him that I've been planning on taking him to see that parade since before he was born.  He just has to be a little older before we can actually do it.
When we were shopping for our turkey, his main stipulation was that it have bones.  He really wanted our cousin to take him out and let him shoot a wild turkey.  He wanted feathers and everything.  Since turkeys are not in season, we compromised.  Grandpa and I took him to Hobby Lobby and bought a bag of turkey feathers!  He is planning to take them to school on Monday and give them to his classmates.  I'm not real sure what he wants with the bones. 
Abby asked me what I'm wearing tomorrow and then told me what she's wearing.  She already has plans for her hair too.
I made sweet potatoes and a butternut squash casserolle that Ethan can eat and I baked a pumpkin pie that will be allergy free for him.  The cranberry fruit conserve and the Waldorf salad are all going on his plate too.  It's really not to hard to convert recipes to get around the allergy ingredients.
Tomorrow we'll bake the turkey and the Tofurkey.  Mama is bringing the ham.  Another Thanksgiving where we could feed the neighbors!  Oh well, the left overs are my favorite part,

The Nashville Nativity Scene

I have this print hanging in the hallway of my house in Virginia Beach.  The picture above is of the artist, Elaine Speed Neeley.  The picture depicts the life size Nativity Scene in front of the Parthenon in Centenniel Park in Nashville.  I keep it up year round.  The nativity scene was sponsored by the Harvey's Department Stores.  It had colored lights and it glowed.  I remember thinking it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.  Mama would come home from work, fix supper and then we'd pile into the car and drive across town to the park to see the Nativity Scene.  It was there every Christmas from 1956 through 1967.  I wish my children and grandchildren could have seen it.

Thanksgiving in Cookeville

Eric called me and suggested we have our Thanksgiving celebration in Cookeville.  What a good idea!  Ethan and Abby can help me cook.  I love it.

The Tradition of Flexibility

Beth's loan officer told her yesterday that the closing has been put off until next week.  All is okay, just next week now.  The underwriter's are all overworked because of the end of November cut off on the first time buyer incentive.  Well,  okay.
We'll just  have to do Thanksgiving dinner somewhere else.  See, flexibility is important.  Maybe, this is a good way to move in and put up Christmas decorations at the same time.  We'll play Christmas music and watch Christmas movies while we put dishes and tupperware in the cabinets.
It really doesn't matter what we'll be doing, we'll be together.

Christmas in October?

I wondered why the department stores begin decorating for Chrsitmas in October, so I asked a lady who works at K-Mart.  She told me that it's because things are so expensive that shoppers need the extra time to be able to afford them.  Also, K-Mart still has a lay away program.
I think most people I know put up their trees the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We didn't used to, but when we moved back to Virginia in 2000 we began decorating that weekend to have time to enjoy the fun there before we headed back to Tennessee for the actual holiday.
Driving through Martin, Beth and I noticed houses that already have their Christmas lights and garland up.  That's too early for me.  I need Thanksgiving to be a seperate holiday.
When the girls were little we put up the decorations to coincide with the Christmas break from school and kept them up until New Year's Day.  At some point we began putting the ribbons from the Christmas packages on the tree and calling it our New Year's tree.
Seems like I remember growing up the tree was a two (2) week event.  One (1) week before Christmas and one (1) week after.  Of course, we had cut trees back then instead of artificial.  Even the white flocked tree that Mama got from a florist one year was a real tree underneath.  It was beautiful.  She put blue and silver ornaments on it and we painted lots of other decorations silver.  (I associate painting pinecones, hedge apples, old ornaments etc with Christmas decorating - maybe that's why the smell of spray paint doesn't bother me).
A couple of years ago, I decided to decorate the house at the beach in other ways and not use the big tree in the living room.  Mainly because of our cat.  For those of you who know Oberon, no explanation is needed. For anyone else, he is a twenty five (25) pound tom cat (fixed) with an attitude problem.  I have done battle with him over the tree for years.  I never win the battle.  One year I even tied lavender scented moth ball packets to my tree to keep him out of it.  It didn't work.  I have tried everything that anyone has ever suggested to me to keep that cat out of my tree and none of it has ever worked.  He has broken more ornaments than you can imagine.  The last time we put the tree up, he climbed up the middle and tried too lay himself across some branches about half way up toward the front of the tree.  His weight tipped the tree over.  It fell on it's side across the coffee table.  The tree stand broke.  Luckily K-Mart sells replacements.
I'm not sure how we will be decorating this year, but I know it won't be until after Thanksgiving.

More on Life With Ethan

I did pick up the Penny's Toy Catalog and a small one for the holiday season.  Wal-Mart has also produced a toy catalog and I brought that home too.  Ethan and I looked through them and he finally told me, "Granny, when you go to Santa's workshop and see  him, just tell him everything Star Wars." 
He has asked me a couple of times now if I really believe in Santa and just why is it that grown ups get to go to the workshop, but kids don't and why doesn't Santa bring grown ups toys too.  He thought about that and amended it to say other than their stockings.  He is working this out too fast!!
Last December we got a Santa's Elf that lived here for the month, moving around and playing tricks during the night while we were sleeping.  And of course, reporting to Santa. 
All during this year we've made Fairy Houses and hidden them in the trees so the fairies will have a nice place to sleep.  I've hidden fairies in the houses for them to find when I leave Tennessee each time and they always call me, too excited for words, when they find them. 
This trip I found two (2) really beautiful Autumn Fairies, a girl and a boy, and have them in the house just like the Christmas Elf.  Every morning, first thing, Ethan and Abby look for the fairies to see where they moved during the night.  It is so wonderful to see their belief in magic and fairies and Santa.  I am really not ready for this stage of their childhood to end.
I'll just have to be as convincing as possible for as long as I possibly can.

The J C Penny Christmas Catalog, etc.

I am sitting here at the kitchen table next to Ethan as he marks his name on every item in the Lillian Vernon for Kids Catalog.  They personalize many of their items and he is diligently searching for an example of luggage with his name embroidered on it.  He found a rolling suitcase with Abby on it and was very excited about that.
I remember making a list from the Sear's Christmas Book and giving it to Grandaddy.  It must have been a mile long.  Suzy and  Beth always loved all the catalogs that came in the mail.  But as I recall they were a little more discriminating than Ethan is being tonight.  He has even marked a pink electric mixer!
I will check at Penny's when I go out tomorrow and see if their Christmas Catalog is out yet and if it is I'll bring it home and we will sit down together and do some serious marking.
If I had just been thinking of traditions, I don't believe I would have listed marking the catalog as one of ours, but it really is and it's another one that I wouldn't trade for the world.

Holiday Food

I like food.  I love finding something new and wonderful and sharing it with other people.  I really love all the wonderful food we have that is associated with particular holidays.  When I think of Easter, I think of ham, asparagus and potato salad.  Independence Day is cookout food; burgers, ribs, corn on the cob, baked beans, deviled eggs and, again, potato salad.  Valentine's Day is chocolate and Halloween is more chocolate!  Then we have Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Feasts.  Food so rich you only have it once a year.  Last year I learned to brine a turkey from the class at Williams Sonoma.  It was the best turkey I have ever made.  I always make sweet potato casserole from a recipe that Peggy gave me many years ago.  I found a cranberry conserve recipe in the Victoria Magazine over 20 years ago and it is now a standard that we have to have every year.  I make Gina's chess pie every year too.  Aunt Nyta used to make jam cake at Christmas every year.  I haven't tried that, but I don't need to because Peggy does it!  Geni makes the coconut cake now.  A few years ago, when we found out about Ethan's allergies, I figured out how to make an "Ethan Friendly" pumpkin pie.  When we were kids, Mother made these great Christmas breakfasts.  We always had country ham and biscuits.  Christmas is the only time I eat country ham these days, but it is absolutely necessary on Christmas morning. 
Sharing great food with family and friends, now that's a tradition I'll never change.

Games

I picked up a Scrabble Jr. game today and it made me think of all the games we've played on Christmas Eve over the years.   I'm not really sure when we started doing it, but it's been going on a long time.  When John was little we would go to the 5 pm church service most years because he would be in the pageant and then we would head down to Ann & Jack's in Gainesboro for our Reeve family Christmas celebration.  When we got home after that we would play some sort of board game before going to bed.  We haven't played as much since Ethan and Abby were born, just too much going on, but now that they are older, maybe it's a tradition we can begin again.  I really love Cranium, but even Old Maid would be fun. 

Tree Ornaments

I ran in to Hobby Lobby today to pick up goggly eyes and pipe cleaners so Ethan and Abby can help me make pinecone turkeys.  Of course, I had to look at the aisles and aisles of Christmas decorations.  They are all 50% off right now.  Some were fun and some were pretty, even at 50% off, some were quite expensive.  I was standing there looking at the crystal snowflakes and a lady standing next to me said, "I don't know how anyone buys new ornaments every year for a theme tree."  Actually, I can't imagine using all new ornaments every year.  I cherish the old ones and they seem new every time I unpack them because it's been a year since I last saw them.
We put a small "theme" tree on the sideboard in our dining room every year.  It has beautiful Lenox and Wedgewood ornaments and the fillers are little porcelain angels.  And in the kitchen, we put up a garland around the window that has gingerbread people and Coca Cola ornaments.  The fireplace is in the den, so that's where the stockings go.  It's sort of a "North Woods" theme, lots of dark red and cream colors and all of the Mooses that John has gotten from Harry & David's over the years.
It's all pretty and I love it, but my absolute favorite is the big tree in the living room.  That's the tree that has the "kid made" ornaments.  There's a silver Legg's egg with glitter and a red yarn cord that Suzy made at school one year and a picture of Beth in a paper frame that she made in kindergarten and a clothes pin reindeer with goggly eyes in odd places that John made for me.  Lots of others too.  And there are the ornaments that each child picked out on a Christmas shopping trip every year, they are on that tree too.  Of course, we gave Suzy and Beth their ornaments when they started putting up trees of their own, but John's are still on the tree at home, including a tiny wooden angel from his first Christmas.  We still put the breakable ornaments up higher on that tree.  We did it for so long to keep them from getting broken that they just look like they belong there.
Better Homes and Gardens will probably never celebrate a tree like our living room tree, but I think it's the most beautiful Christmas tree in the world.

The Tradition of Travelling Home for the Holidays

On my long drive from Tennessee today I thought about other trips from Virginia to Tennessee.  There have been plenty of them and most of them were fun.  Even when we lived in Cookeville, we still had traveling to do to get to Mother's for the family gathering and dinner. 
Having books on CD make the rides better for me.  In earlier years, I would read aloud to Kirk and the kids with only a few breaks for breathing!  I enjoyed reading to them, still do.  But I really appreciate the books on CD for my car trips.  My audio books, music CD's and movies this time are all Christmas themed.  I used to start playing the Christmas music at home and in the car right after Halloween so the kids would know all the songs again by Christmas.  Today I listened to Mary Higgens Clark/Carol Higgens Clark, "Santa Cruise" and John Grisham "Skipping Christmas"  I also listened to the music from the Muppet Family Christmas.  I really love it.  Miss Piggy is too fabulous.

Lists

Does everyone make lists?  Today is my day to pack for November in Tennessee and I have multiple lists!  The newest is a Christmas shopping list.  I had a gift idea while I was changing the laundry and decided I better write it on a list quickly lest I forget it.  Mine are paper and pencil lists.  Not modern technology.  I like to mark through accomplished tasks.  That black line is satisfying.  Back to packing!

All Saint's Day

Frankly, this has been a tough weekend to get through.  It is very easy to remember all the wonderful times with all the children on Halloween, but very difficult to not feel sad that Suzy won't be here to repeat the process with Ethan and Abby.  This is the first year since Ethan's birth that Suzy hasn't sent me Halloween pictures as soon as they got home.  It was just part of our routine.
Even more difficult for me was Sunday, All Saint's Day.  When Suzy and Beth were little, we attended St. Anne's in Nashville.  On All Saint's Day the children dressed up like a saint.  One year, Suzy was St. Suzanne, a Roman martyr and Beth dressed like St. Elizabeth.  Part of the service was having all the children come up front and sing St. Elizabeth's hymn.  It was a charming service and such a happy time.  It's a wonderful memory.  Until, it hits me again that it's another thing that horrible disease stole from her.  She's at peace and resting now, but I am angry for her.  If only cancer could be eradicated.