Saving Christmas: Now what?

The last two weeks have been just a little hectic.  My daily to-do’s frequently got jumbled and spilled over to the next day.  Even though I’m a pretty active person, the relentless pace of those days pushed me beyond my comfort zone.

Saturday’s shindig was small and intimate, but a lot of fun:  we seated nine for a festive sit-down dinner of prime rib, potatoes au gratin, cherry tomato crisp, green bean bundles, topped off by cheesecake.

Sunday was supposed to be a catch-up day, but it turned into a catch-up-on-sleep day and I took a much-needed nap.

So what remains to be done during the twelve days before Christmas?  This week’s list is blissfully light – the reward for cramming in so much during the last two weeks. 

Monday – mail the Christmas cards.  They’re going out about 10 days later than I had hoped, but that’s the way the Christmas cookie crumbles sometimes.

Tuesday – put the finishing touches on gift baskets for Mr. Official’s staff and wrap our own gifts (despite my good intentions, gift wrapping took a backseat to the other to-do’s.)

Wednesday - make up gift bags for my third grade Bible class students:  Christmas mugs filled with packets of hot cocoa mix and bags of homemade marshmallows.  It’s also my last day to finish up some last-minute baking (one red velvet roulade coming up!)

Thursday - finish packing for a weekend getaway and set my alarm for a really early wake-up.

Friday – our plane departs extremely early and will take us as far south as you can get without a passport.  We are reasonably confident the kids and pets and house will be fine while we’re gone.

Once we get back, we’ll be counting down the hours to Christmas Eve and the big day itself.  There will undoubtedly be a few last minute trips to town for this’n that, but all in all, it’s beginning to look a LOT like Christmas here.  I hope it is for you, too!

Happy holidays!

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Seasons of love

Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Six hundred minutes,

Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Moments so dear.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand

Six hundred minutes

How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights

In cups of coffee

In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife?

(“Seasons of Love” from the musical “Rent”)

The evening of December 18, 1982 was cold and crisp in southern Colorado.  On that night I promised to love and honor the young man who is my handsome husband, right there in front of God and everybody.  By my estimate, tomorrow night will be the 10,220th dinner we’ve shared since we said our vows.  He says I snagged his heart with my spaghetti, and I still happily fix a big pot for him as often as he wants it.  We’ve experienced almost a quarter-million hours of married life, and I love that he still holds my hand and can make my heart go pitterpat with a glance and a smile.

Life has been exceedingly kind to us, handing us way more ups than downs, but we’ve weathered a few storms, always side by side.  We’ve watched each other graduate from college and helped each other deepen our faith.  We’ve attended weddings of friends and family, ushered nieces, nephews, our friends’ children, and our own children into this world.  We’ve welcomed a great-niece and a grandpuppy into our family. We’ve mourned the loss of our grandparents and my father-in-law, some of our aunts and uncles, and we’ve grieved with friends in their times of sorrow.

Since we said “we do”, we’ve witnessed triumph and tragedy on the gridiron for 28 seasons, voted in 7 presidential elections, watched the economy go up and down, and up and down again.  We’ve spent most of our life together raising three children, and we’ve proudly watched two of them graduate from high school, and one from college.  If God grants us a little more time, we’ll celebrate another college graduation in another year, and then the swimmer girl will walk the line with her BHS classmates the year after that.  If my memory serves, we’ve housebroken 6 dogs and 4 cats, said goodbye to all of them except for Spice and Luci(fer).  We’ve quietly flushed an untold number of fish when they went belly up in the aquarium.  (Ssshhh, don’t tell the boys.  We let them think the backstroke was a special fish trick.)

So how does a person measure a lifetime with the love of their life?  In years, months, weeks, days or minutes?  Or in all the moments that made us throw back our heads and laugh, along with those that dropped us to our knees?  Either way, as long as we’re together, count me in for every minute and moment ahead.

Happy anniversary, baby – I still love you millions of bunches.

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A few of my favorite things

“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings

These are a few of my favorite things“

Ahhh yes.  Bright copper kettles and brown paper packages…a few of my favorite things, too.

I have been officially in the market for a few new pieces of cookware for a while now.  My current set is almost 15 years old and I’ve had to toss a few pieces along the way. The remaining pieces consist of a large saute pan (it’s held up well to constant use, but the non-stick coating is starting to get scruffy) and a couple of saucepans and stockpot, also starting to show their age.  My favorite stockpot is a hand-me-down stainless number; it has lost one of its handles.  My lone skillet (a gift from younger son a few years ago) is also starting to show signs of wear and tear.  I think it’s time.  And I’m ready to graduate to stainless.

Yesterday, I spotted and began immediately coveting a big All-Clad saute pan at Williams-Sonoma.  (Okay, yes. To be honest, I heart almost everything W-S sells.  Doesn’t everybody?)   Fortunately I had the girl along and she dragged me out of the store before I did anything rash and foolish.

Here’s where my current infatuation with beautiful cookware meets reality:  just how many saute pans and skillets do I really need, and how big do they really need to be?  It’s one thing to lust after a full cadre of skillets and saute pans, but let’s be serious.  I’ve managed to cook for my crew with just 2 or 3 skillets, a handful of saucepans and one big saute pan over the years.  Does it really make sense to expand my ensemble when I’m scaling back the quantity of food I’m serving?  Will my cooking improve if I use these pans?  Quite frankly, that single All-Clad saute pan retails for more than I’ve spent on skillets and saucepans our entire married life.

Practicality took over: I’ve read reviews and compared several high-end cookware lines against each other.  I scoped out eBay and several cooking sites to figure out the going rate for All-Clad, Caphalon, and Cuisinart.   

And…then I marched over to Amazon and placed an order for this Cuisinart 5.5 quart saute pan.  I’ve had a Cuisinart saucepan for a couple years, and it is my favorite saucepan ever.  The Multiclad line got good reviews, even when stacked up against All-Clad.

But then Amazon did what Amazon does best:  it immediately began showing me additional items I “might” like, including a set of Cuisinart Multiclad skillets, saucepans and a new stockpot with steamer insert, plus lids.  All for a very low price – about 60% off list.  (About the same price as one full-price All-Clad from Williams-Sonoma.)  AND free shipping.

Soooo…of course I caved into temptation.  There is more than a little irony here:  I will have the best and biggest set of cookware I have ever possessed, and use it to cook for an ever-dwindling crowd of regular diners.

I can rationalize this purchase in two ways:  one, today is our “when we met” anniversary.  Exactly 28 years ago, I laid my eyes on the cutest boy I had ever seen.  He made my heart go pitter-pat, and my pitter-pat go booga-wooga.  (He still does.)  I figure my well-timed purchase lets him off the hook for a gift – I couldn’t be more delighted with my gift and he didn’t have to worry about what to get me.  I’ll be giddy with excitement (if not surprise) when the UPS guy drops it off next week. 

And since I had a gob of Amazon rewards points, it cost me $6 and change.  I think I’ll be humming “Favorite Things” until my brown paper packages show up next week.

P.S. To a couple of my favorite people in the whole world: I hope the cruise was wonderful and you have a safe trip home! Can’t wait to see the pictures!!!

Seattle:  60 and rainy.  KC 94 and dry.

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