Category: holidays

Starting.

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I’ll admit it. I’ve never made my child a baby book. I have one and I have stashed things in it, but I’ve never spent much time putting together. Putting together photo albums? Ha! Edie’s baby pictures are in boxes on the shelves under the stairs. Anything since I moved up to the digital age are stored on my hard drive. I know, I know. I’m awful about printing any out. The only current pictures of Edie on display are some awful school pictures or ones friends have taken and printed out for us. Bad mother, I know. And I have one child. I have no excuses.

I keep saying I’m going to print some out. This year I really wanted to make Edie a book of pictures. My mom used to make them for her and I know she enjoys them, so I promised myself I’d do this. Even signed up for snapfish and got on their deals mailing list.

Tonight, I am uploading pictures from our NYC trip to their website. I intend to make a nice picture book for Edie of our trip. One she can pull off a shelf and look at time and time again. I need to do more of this. I need to upload more pictures and have them printed. This is me starting…….

I can’t wait to see how it turns out. Even better, I can’t wait to see how much she likes it.

Thinking Ahead.

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Last August, when it was so hot and dry, but yet the pole beans were doing fabulously production wise, I spent alot of time canning. And harvesting seeds. Yes, I was putting things away for next summer’s garden as well as for the coming winter months. While I was at it, I was thinking about Christmas gifts.

I hate the consumerism of the season. Hate buying a bunch of stuff. Hate receiving it too actually. The year I got a new crock pot for Christmas I was ecstatic, because I love getting everyday things I can use. Part of me feels old and boring with this, but I suppose that’s what happens when you are married with kids at a certain age. I got alot of handmade gifts growing up. My Aunt Loretta gave me the most wonderful handmade gifts. I still have alot of them, like the paper bead necklace, the ornaments she made me, the story she wrote for me and best of all, the recipe for the cherry cheesecake she would make me some years. She would bake gifts for everyone – there would be a pie or cake for every member of the household. I’m still in awe of the amount of baking that woman could pull off at Christmas every year. I aspire to bake like her, but even the years I do 25 dozen cookies and 3 cakes, I’m not sure I come close. That woman baked.

In that tradition, I give handmade gifts. I used to sew everything, some years I still do alot of sewing, but I have come to figure out things I can work on all year long. Which makes me feel slightly uptight and way too on top of things, but right about now, when I’m starting to get overwhelmed thinking about everything that has to happen between now and the big day……..I really start loving myself. Sort of like the years I get Pat’s January Birthday peach pie in the freezer in August, so after all that holiday and Edie birthday baking, I can pull something out of the freezer and have it be homemade and good. And last year, when I was out flat recovering from surgery, I was giddy to discover a stash of things I had already knit for Pat & Edie throughout the year, so they still got a hand-made mommy gift. I know I wasn’t that good this year (admittedly, I’ve been working on the same pair of fingerless gloves since last winter’s swim lessons), but I do have some good garden treats ready to go. If I learned anything from last Christmas, it was that my little bit of planning ahead is a very good thing.

It was good.

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Fried Sage Leaves, with goat cheese and Sea Salt.


Pickled Watermelon Rind. Crunchy and slightly sweet, with a nice savory undertone, no doubt the work of the cloves, ginger and cardamon. Definitely worth the effort and the wait. I will be making them again.


The loaded table. Turkey and all the trimmings. Many of which got sent home in a second cooler purchased just for us to bring it all home in. Our freezer is officially stocked for weeks to come….

And my dessert contributions. The pecan pie was declared perfect looking as it came out of the oven Wednesday night. The pumpkin pie came from the volunteer pumpkin from our garden. Both were quite tasty if I do say so myself.
And now to gear up for the next round…..

Best Holiday Ever?

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So, we headed east to Urbanna for the Oyster Festival this weekend. I call it the love child of SEC football and Mardi Gras, but way more family friendly. Urbanna is a tiny town of about 500 folks or so that plays host to this festival that has an attendence of about 50,000. There are RV’s everywhere you look. And parades, daily. And booth upon booth of just about every fried food you can imagine. Fried Ho-ho’s. Fried Pecan Pie. The Seafood Fritter, which is the size of a plate, with all manner of seafood in it. The air is heavy with the scent of french-fried-corndogs-funnelcake-fried goodness. I’m pretty sure my arteries hardened just walking around this weekend. Someone said they saw a sign for deep fried butter. Serious fried food.

Friday night, all roads into town close at 6 pm for the Firetruck Parade. This parade consists of 60 firetrucks from all over the state of Virginia – although there was one from Maryland this year. Last year, we timed how long we could hear the parade before we could actually see it – about an hour. And then it was another 20 minutes until we actually saw the trucks and not just the lights.
This year, they reversed the parade route, so as soon as we heard it, we had to trot out to see it. It was nicer being on the front end, it moved faster and so therefore was easier with the kiddos.

We stay with dear friends who live in town. They both work at the school and Smiley raises oysters – so all weekend long, we just eat his oysters. As well as all the fried food you can imagine, not to mention some fabulous things we have all cooked up. Saturday morning, we set out to walk the town, see the sights and get something to eat. Crab bisque from the ladies at the church on Main Street, along with a ham biscuit for your pocket is a must. As a devotee of funnel cake, that’s a must for me as well.

The roads into town are closed again all day Saturday, with the big parade starting up at 2. Shriner’s from all over the state, local marching bands, Miss Oysterfest, Little Miss Spat and their courts are all featured. Our friends live right off the parade route, so once again, we have a great spot for viewing and then head back to the house to start up some dinner. The festival ends about 8 or so I believe – and then , just like Mardi Gras, clean up begins. Into the night you can hear the sounds of dump trucks and street sweepers and when you walk around town Sunday morning, you can only see small remnants of what happened the day before. The air no longer smells of fried food.
The best part though, is the friends.
It’s a certain group of friends that gather for this and sometimes this is the only time all year we see each other. The kids get along wonderfully and really are like cousins. Edie is 3 years older than the closest one to her in age, but she is dream child, so, so far, we’ve been okay. She’s really awesome with the younger ones. The first year Owen realized Edie was one of them, but could read to him was pretty magical and since then, he’s been in awe of her. They all are actually. This year it was pointed out to me that she’s becoming a ‘tween’. I’m not sure I’m ready for this development, although, I have noticed us heading towards that, but since I’m around her every day, I haven’t been as quick to acknowledge it. Mollie however, who first met Edie when she was barely 24 hours old and hadn’t seen her since July, noticed it Friday night, in a loud shocked pronouncement. Everyone else still has a while before their kids move into this stage, but, with the first baby moving into it, it’s now inevitable for all of them.
Oysterfest is how we mark the year- it’s just after Halloween, but before the ‘real’ holidays we spend with family. Someone remarked this might be the best holiday all year and I can’t agree more. We spend it with the friends who are the family we’d choose if we could. We really are an assortment of kindred spirits and we are all completely comfortable being around each other just doing nothing. We have little traditions we carry on every year – most notably, Saturday Afternoon Women’s Wine, Sunday Planting Ceremony, among others. We spend days planning and everyone brings all sorts of goodies to share – and a good deal of it has been raised, shot, canned, baked ourselves or by someone we knew, from the moonshine we drank to the goose on Saturday afternoon, the sausage Sunday morning to the oysters all weekend long. This year when we said goodbye, the boys had already set a date for our next get together, so us gals didn’t have to wait all year to see each other again. Because truth be told, our husbands manage to get out and visit each other, take fishing trips, but it’s rare I get to see any of the wives. I can’t wait.
Now to just make it through the holidays….