O' Tannebaum

Last night on Twitter, I was talking to my friends Deb and Skip about Christmas trees ( hey Deb, hey Skip) and lamenting that my living room this year is very small. That means I will have to get a small tree since my other tree is just too big for this house. Skip said, '' you could always go minimalist.'' to which I answered, ''I cannot, repeat cannot go minimalist'' he said, '' you may reassess when the kids get older.''

No, that will never happen and I told him that I would explain why. So I am going to share why, I was raised in a family where the Christmas tree is a revered, most sacred object! My Grandma was of German descent so ornaments were precious treasures and a certain kind will only do.

My favorite family Christmas picture

I remember after Thanksgiving, on the weekends Grandma would start her hunt for the perfect tree. I loved going with her and Grandpa to look for a tree. She would make him hold up the tree and spin it around, it had to be a Noble fir with no holes and just right. We would go from lot to lot to lot to lot looking for the perfect tree. One year, in the midst of her search, I found a Charlie Brown tree and begged to have it. She bought it for me and let me decorate it with candy. I named it ''Spunk'' because it was a spunky little tree.

In our house,we would get the same kind of tree and decorate it with our precious ornaments. I always remember thinking that my Aunt Nette didn't have the right kind of tree ever since she bought Shasta firs and they were bushy.

Yes, I am a Christmas tree snob from a long line of Christmas tree snobs.

We love blown glass ornaments, brightly colored glass balls and crystal ornaments. My aunts all have beautiful large trees with beautiful ornaments. My cousins Rissa and Sarah have beautiful trees, we love a good Christmas ornament and tree.

Then I met Marty, his family had a three foot tree they sat on a table. I couldn't imagine such a thing!! It was cute but..........a tree must be at least six feet tall!

The next year when I lived with his family, I was sure to remedy that! We had a giant seven foot tree with the full aray of the Timms family ornaments on display. It was the last Christmas his family had together and really special.

I remember the first time Marty went looking for trees with me. He wanted to send me back where I came from! He didn't think holding up trees was fun at all! He didn't see why we couldn't get a little spunky tree that fit on a table.

However, the next year he did buy me some really cute ornaments that I still hang on the tree to this day. Now that is a big deal because I am an ornament snob too. You know that scene in ''A Christmas Story'' where the husband accuses the wife of breaking the Leg Lamp. Marty accuses me of breaking an ornament that he loved and had since he was little. I just put his ornaments on the back of the tree.

Then there is the issue with the kids, they have given up trying to decorate the tree. They know that I will just move the ornaments when they go to bed. I have tried to stop that behavior and did pretty good last year with not moving them back.

My tree is special, it has ornaments from Marty's family, our family, some of my grandparents ornaments that my Dad gave me that were his growing up, my kids ornaments and our family ornaments. It doesn't have a theme, I don't put a fancy ribbon, garland or bows on my tree. It is just special ornaments from special times gone by.

I like them dripping with ornaments. Tree 2010

The blown glass pickle just like Grandma had that is hidden in the tree on Christmas day. The family then hunts for the pickle and whoever wins gets candy and good luck for the year. It is my favorite ornament to give away.

Eventually Grandma did get an artificial tree

The Gold Standard of Christmas trees. My Grandma's last tree and last Christmas. I love that I took this picture and have it to look at

My favorite ornaments are spun glass icicles that I inherited from Marty's grandma. They are the last thing I put on the tree and some dear friends have given me more over the years. I love looking at all the ornaments and will sit for hours doing just that during the holidays. Right now, I am in a panic, I fear opening my ornament bins because surely some have broken in the move. I cannot bear the thought of which ones those might be.

I did let Marty have a little table tree one year. Conner 1999

Did I mention I am banned from buying ornaments? the kids get a new one each year but I cannot.( of course, if people GIVE me ornaments, I cannot turn them down) I have too many and need a bigger tree or five. During my conversation with Skip and Deb, I mentioned that when we buy our house next year, I am solely looking for a living room big enough to have a twelve foot tree. They thought I was joking, I was not...dead serious.

Today I was dreaming of this tree in Costco. It looks like a Noble fir and the lights can go clear or colored. My dream come true! I will have this tree someday

Really I love the tree because it was something instilled in me from a young age. Christmas meant spending time with family, eating good food, being together and being happy. Who wouldn't want to relive those memories again and again? and make new memories to go along with those.

So there you have it Skip, the story behind why I will never downsize my tree. It's tradition to love the tree and obsess over it.

My Grandma called Conner moon face because of this favorite ornament of her's. I bought Conner his own above.

( we go back and forth between real and artificial trees. This year will be real, artificial is preferred because they hold more weight)

Love Carries on Through Cooking

"Thankful for tradition. Going through pantry making sure I have everything I need for Thursday, thinking we always make the same things and realizing that's what its all about! Family, tradition, and still tasting moms cooking even though she is no longer at our table."

Last week my Aunt Maggie posted that as her Facebook status. It was profoundly touching and really moved me. She put something into words that I hadn't ever been able to get down on paper or in a coherent sentence.

I love the song "There is No Place Like Home for the Holidays" every time I hear it my mind immediately goes to my grandparents home at the holidays. Even though their home is gone and I live far away from my family through cooking I am never very far away.

We were raised steeped in tradition at the holidays. My Grandmother loved the holidays, she had the most beautiful home at the holidays and her food always tasted good. We just never thought of the day she would be gone and we would be left to carry on the traditions.

Grandma's beautiful tree

 

Last week, my friend Mary asked for a stuffing recipe. Our family makes the easiest, most flavorful stuffing recipe that grandma passed on. For me that happened over the phone after I had moved away from home and family. I never had written it down, simply put I hear Grandma in my head when I go to make it. The recipe is in my head and I like recalling the phone conversation where she taught me. I wrote it down for the very first time to share with her. ( she loved it by the way)

This year was my cousin Caiti's first year away from home and family. It has always amazed me how I can live a few hundred miles away yet still eat the same meal as my family. The recipes and traditions have allowed me to carry on far away from home. I make all the same dishes as my family by myself every year for my own family.

This year as I was cooking, I thought about Maggie's quote and realized that Grandma is never very far. I could feel her close while making the stuffing. I can always go "home" to my childhood, when I smell the food cooking and the smell of " home" invades my home.

Traditions and recipes are a way to stay behind and love our family someday when we are gone. They are a mother's love for her children leaving a part of herself behind. I love cooking my grandmothers recipes and feeling them near once again. 

Now we are teaching our children the recipes and traditions to carry on, My kids already know the menu and shopping list by heart. Elizabeth is already asking about our cookie baking list for next month. Conner already knows how to make the cranberry relish on his own.

Someday when we are gone, the traditions of grandmother and great grandmother will live on. In fact, yesterday I made a apple cake recipe of my Aunt's which is the closest recipe to my Nana's recipe. I can still see my great grandmother making that apple cake for me in Kansas. Tasting that is like sitting in Nana's kitchen in Pittsburg.

Grandma, Gramie and Nana are never coming back but I still feel the close in the kitchen and home. I am thankful for a family that teaches each other tradition and honors our elders. I am thankful to have learned from wonderful women and help carry on their legacy. 

Thankful that someday, my children will carry the legacy on also. The saying is true, " A Mother's love lives forever"

Do you have family traditions? Recipes that you make? Do you have things that bring loved one's gone before us closer?

A/N Thank you Maggie Z for allowing me to quote you. Also to my friend and reader Teri for asking me to write a blog on this subject.

Thanksgiving feast.

This is for my Brits! A lot of them asked for pictures of Thanksgiving dinner.

I cooked all of this by myself. The kids helped chop and stir.

The haystack controversy

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas this year? We had a great Christmas. It was quiet with just the four of us staying home and enjoying each others company. One of our favorite things is baking all kinds of goodies to enjoy. This year we made six kinds of cookies to enjoy over the holidays.

A family favorite is haystacks. My Grandma Brown made them and Marty's Dad made them, they are Marty's absolute favorite. I really never eat them personally but Marty and the kids love them. They are the easiest cookie to make, all you do is melt butterscotch chips and pour them over chow mein noodles. Simple enough, watched Grandma do it a million times.

WRONG! Starting a couple of years ago, the chips started burning in the microwave. No matter what power or how short a cooking time, the chips would burn. So I switched to melting the chips in a double boiler, but still the wouldn't melt and tended to be chalky. My haystacks would crumble.

I found several recipes online and most of them called for peanut butter mixed in. I tried that and they crumbled. One year, my Dad came and told me to melt the peanut butter. WAH LA, success the chips melted and you couldn't taste the peanut butter. I would put the peanut butter in the double boiler and melt it, then melt the chips pouring the peanut butter slowly in.

I was talking to my cousin Sarah on the phone. Their haystacks crumbled and there was quite the difference of opinions on how to make them. One thing we all agree on is, Nestle must have changed their recipe within the last several years because the chips just won't melt. One aunt thinks you put parafin in, one aunt thinks butter, everyone else thinks just the butterscotch chips. This year even melting the peanut butter in the chips wouldn't melt. So I added some cooking oil and was successful. I guess my other cousin burned her chips and my cousin Sarah said their's crumbled.

I am going to forward this blog to Nestle customer service. We all want to know what happened. Here is a picture of my new placemats made by Elizabeth, my new dishes from Marty and the cookie in question.

Hustle and Bustle

Ahh, the holidays there is nothing like them. If you are a faithful blog reader, you will know that I love the holidays and the traditions they hold. My family loves Christmas and I grew up with super festivities every year and many traditions to pass on. My kids now thirteen and ten are sticklers and remind me what is a must have tradition.

We added the stocking exchange but skipped the town Christmas parade. Instead, we went to the historic Fox Theater and watched our favorite Christmas movie "A Christmas Story" on the big screen. We had so much fun listening to the organ prelude which harkened back to the days when going to the movies was a big deal. We laughed and recited our favorite lines in the appropriate places.  Definitely a great memory.

Friday my mom came for a short visit to celebrate Christmas with my little family. We took the kids down the street to a nursing home which has put up millions of lights. This used to be a nursing home with a bad reputation in our town. It was bought over the summer and we have been watching them build gardens throughout the summer. To our surprise after Thanksgiving lights started to go up, everyday we pass by and more and more lights would appear. They offered a open house this weekend complete with Santa falling from the night sky ( this was canceled due to rain, but Santa was going to be parachuting.) So we took my two year old great nephew to view the lights and we very impressed.

 What a great service to the elderly and their family, also to the neighbors who get to drive by each day. There is nothing like this in our community and we were very impressed. They had a barn with live goats and nativity. A house with Santa and Mrs.Claus, snow machines going, a gingerbread house, painted streets and so much more.



Then last night we attended a Christmas musical at our good friend's church. We have two sets of friends who attended church with us years ago and now go to the same church. It was great to see their kids singing, one friend running a puppet show, her daughters acting in a skit. One friend played drums and shared his emotional testimony of losing his sister. It was really a wonderful night and great to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, Jesus birth.

We ate soup and tamales, watched old movies. It has been a great week before Christmas. One last party to attend tomorrow and then we will settle in and enjoy the holiday very quietly. It is the perfect year to try new things and to skip out on some things. We needed a change this Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

I have many things to be thankful for. Instead of doing thirty days of thanks on Facebook, I thought that I would write them out here today instead;

I am thankful for

1. Marty
2. Conner and Elizabeth
3. My parents
4. My aunts and uncles
5. My cousins
6. my many wonderful sisters of the heart
7. my many wonderful friends
8. a roof over my head
9. Marty's job that allows me to stay home
10. health and healthy kids
11. our church family
12. food in the cupboard
13. our dogs
14. laughter and joy
15. memories of my grandparents
16. insurance
17. dialysis that can be done at home
18. That Marty has never had a infection
19. for the donor and their family
20. for the doctors and medical staff who care for Marty
21. our flex spending grant
22. our homeschool group
23. that we got to go home twice this year ( maybe more as the year goes on?)
24. that I got to see many old friends this year
25. the kids are making great progress in school especially Conner
26. the kids are learning to cook and often give me a break
27. for new friends
28. Facebook the helps me have a outlet
29. for my prayer group of 10 special ladies
30. For you my blog reader

Phew, that was tough!

Black Friday and food hangover

I went out at 4 am, I am nuts! This is the earliest that we have ever gone out but we wanted a tv from Target. I got it, but it had been dropped and didn't work. So I ended up taking it back. The best deal of the day was towels for a buck fifty! We mostly got a lot of necessities and stuff for regular everyday use.

We just got done eating leftovers and now we are going to watch Elf. I love that movie, my favorite quote is " The four main Elf food groups are candy,candy canes, candy corn and maple syrup." Conner has Chase over to spend the night and hang out.

Deck the halls

Here are some Christmas decoration pics, we added some new decorations this year.

My new advent calendar

I thought the little cupboards would be bigger and I have not found candy small enough to fit just yet. The doors are currently hanging open with the candy sticking out.

Our little tree


You see, I grew up seeing the most perfect, beautiful, impressive tree at my Grandma's. I remember driving around for a week looking for the perfect 8 foot Noble fir with her. Then the ornaments, almost all blown glass. I grew up with the notion the tree had to be just so, then I worked at Disneyland where my shop turned into Christmas every year. Then we got a contract with Christopher Radko where I learned all things blown glass. After I moved away, I ran a trim a home shop at the local department store and spent weeks decorating. All that said, I am a bit of a tree control freak( there is another less p.c. term) and I made Elizabeth cry while decorating. I move everything they put on and it hurts their feelings, I can't help it. Then they came home from friends and thought they could touch the tree, which is a big no-no. Maybe I will buy a second tree for next year and let them have their own.

Here's a pic of Grandma's beautiful tree, it brings true sadness when I hear " I'll be home for Christmas" knowing that I can only go" in my dreams."

"It's a major award"

Fragile'

We are getting a little nutty with the "A Christmas Story" thing this year and actually bought a leg lamp!

Full Thanksgiving dinner

I must first explain to you that I grew up eating at Grandma's house, never at home. Everyone in the family had a job to bring a certain dish or two. My mom always brought rolls, carrots and rutabega's and a garnish everytime. We would go to her sister's house and she would bring carrots and rutabega's and rolls.

10 yrs ago when I moved to V-town, it was too hard to drive down for every holiday. So I called my Grandma Brown and she taught me how to make a full Thanksgiving dinner over the phone. My mom came up to supervise and taught me how to make a few things. I couldn't skip dishes and not have them, so I learned to make them.

My cousin Andy called me on Thanksgiving this year and passed the phone to his mom. Aunt Al was really blown away that I make almost every dish our family eats. She says she would cut back and really we only have that many because so many people make them. I can't do that and little does she know, I have been doing this every year for 10 yrs.

So heres the rundown:
Turkey-18 pounds
Stuffing with sausage
carrots and rutabega's- boiled carrots and rutabega's mashed with salt,pepper and butter
cranberry relish- recipe on the back of Dole cranberrries
green jello salad
pea salad
mashed potatoes
gravy
artichoke dip

And this year, I made two pies myself! Marty wanted a pumpkin pie with walnut crumble on top. I found a recipe online and it was super yummy.

Timms family turkey platter, I got this when Marty's dad and grandma passed away:


Turkey


Artichoke dip


Table set(Conner set it and I let him do it however, not to shabby)

First day, easy post

Happy Halloween and welcome November all at the same time. It hardly seems like fall when we have 80 degree weather everyday. I haven't even gotten out my fall decor yet, I need to do that this week since I have been putting it off. I have to get back into writing, grammar and sentence structure things have gotten out of hand lately. So bear with me as I start out on my 30 day blogging journey, I promise to get back into proper writing. I hope that my readers will comment along and share in this journey with me, I am excited to see what my fellow bloggers have to say.

Happy Thanksgiving

We are staying home today and I have been cooking up a storm. I made cranberry relish, Waldorf salad, green jello salad and started the stuffing. Today I am cooking stuffing, mashed potatoes, carrots and rutabaga's and pea salad. I usually bake the turkey this year is different my friend's husband offered to fry the turkey for us. We usually go to their house but Marty wanted to stay home this year. We might go visit a couple of friends but will have the dinner at home and eat pie for dessert later. I am debating on whether to make an apple cake or not since I do not like pie but it depends on how ambitious I feel. We are getting ready to watch the Macy's parade a tradition I have had all my life.


I give thanks for my husband, my children, my husband's job, our home, my parent's, our family and friends.

What are you thankful for? What are your traditions? Let me know.

In honor of Memorial day

I would like to honor my Grandfather's and cousin who served this country. My mom's dad was a cook in World War 2 and served in the Army. Hey, soldiers need to eat too! I never knew him so I dont know much about his service except what Learned from My Grandfather Benjamin Brown. He was proud of his time in the army as a heavy artillery truck driver. He lost his eyesight in service to our country even if it was just the result of two other soldiers getting in a fight and throwing rocks. Up till his dying day he still talked of his time in the army and even thought he was back in a few days before his death. Then my cousin Jimmy who died almost 20yrs ago in the Persian Gulf at the hand of a Iraqi missile. He gave his life so long ago for a battle that rages on today. He was proud of his service in the Navy and gave his life for our country. Thanks to them and many others I am free!

Christmas day

Christmas day was good this morning with the kids opening their stockings and then me making french toast. We went to church and it was really great but I got a weird feeling about my grandma during service. I missed Gramie because today was her birthday and then I started thinking about Grandma and how she has not been well. Then going home in the car I called my mom to wish her Merry Christmas and she told me that grandma wasn't well. Then I hung up really quickly to call my Dad for Christmas and he told me Grandma was not having a good day and needed to go to the hospital. They thought that it could wait until tomorrow but she ended up having to go tonight and she is not good. I wasnt ready for this and cant stand it that I am 200 miles away and cant do anything about it. I need to go to sleep but I cant I am waiting for the phone to ring............... Thankfully two friends came and sat with me tonight. I dont know what I would have done without them.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to Everyone!!!! Hope you have a great holiday and enjoy yourselves.

Phew

If you decide to have a Christmas party get a maid! I am exhausted and in pajama's at 4:53 pm. We had Conner's homeschool group over today for a party and the preparation and time is exhausting. It went well but I am tired! I think that I am almost done with Christmas Cards and stuff. Now I just need to bake cookies and decided what to eat for christmas eve. probably something simple. I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas!

winter vacation

We went on a trip this week to the old hometown. We had a good time seeing the family and going to Knott's and Disneyland. It is so fun to watch your kids experience new things. Disneyland was great truly a happy -homecoming the fireworks are great and I got to see to old co-workers. It was fun catching up and seeing all the 50th decor. It was great to see my Grandma and Grandpa but hard to see them getting old and having a hard time. Glad to be home and relaxing!!! See the pics I loaded up.

Redeeming Marty the continuing saga of the xbox 360

Ok we finally got it! Last friday Blockbuster finally delivered a part of what they promised a core Xbox 360. Finally Marty could enjoy the holiday weekend. I can tell you having 2 t.v.'s has helped and he has been great to not play it all the time. I am proud of you Marty!

I love Christmas

I love Christmas especially decorating! I know you think after all those years of schlepping ornaments at gottschalks and having glitter up my nose, in my hair and eyes I would totally revolt. I love it! I am obsessed with having the perfect tree and decorations. Poor kids I let them decorate and then I go back and move it. If you wanna see my tree you can see pictures look in my profile.

Holiday weekend

That went fast! my mom came up for turkey day and we had a huge meal for 6. Then yesterday morning her and I ventured into the madness of black Friday. I got a couple of good deals and so did she. Then she watched the kids and Marty and I went on a long overdue date. We went to dinner at Fugazzi's it was great. I had a apple martini and a watermelon martini. Then we went and watched Walk the Line. It was a great movie very good date movie. It is well done and highly recommended. We had a great time and nice break. Some things do get better with age