"Over the River and Through the Woods" 2012

It will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who has ever known me that I am big on tradition.  And as might be expected from a traditionalist, I'm not fond of change.  In fact, I resist and drag my feet over every occasion when change is forced upon me.  From that you could justifiably assume that holidays around my house are filled with a lot of  "But we've always done it that way..."  And Thanksgiving is second only to Christmas for following the same traditions year after year.  The meal is generally the same:  Turkey, mashed and sweet potatoes, gravy, apple/onion stuffing, a green vegetable (sometimes 2), pickles and olives, cranberry sauce (the gelled kind),  plus the family favorites -- Creamed Leek and  Cinnamon Jello.  And of course, homemade pumpkin, pecan, and sometimes peach pies.

After dinner and dishes but before dessert, we play a couple of board games (depending on the age of any children in attendance.)  That generally deteriorates into reminiscing on family stories about relatives that are no longer with us.  For instance the Mom and whipped cream story, the Dad and the mashed potatoes story, the Aunt Marilynn mashed potato story (we like mashed potatoes in our family), the year it was like -30F in Chicago, the year the dog ate the leftover turkey while we all sat not 10 feet away playing Monopoly!  We add new stories as they occur, but mostly our stories are about years gone by and the people we miss.

What it boils down to is that I have celebrated Thanksgiving pretty much exactly the same way for all of my life.  That's a lot of Thanksgivings....a lot of turkey....a lot of tradition!  Up until my Dad died, dinner was always at my Mom and Dad's place.  It switched to our house after that and since coming to Austin some years we do the dinner and some years it's at Rachlet's.  Other than the actual venue however, it's the same dinner with whatever variety of relatives might be in the vicinity.

I expected the holiday to stay pretty much the same for all of my remaining Thanksgivings as well.  It is what we did.  It was TRADITION.

But this year, out of the blue, we changed!

Because of TA and Ratchlet's work and social schedules, this year's holiday just wouldn't neatly fit into the calendar as it usually did.  As we were talking about it, I rather jokingly said that we could go out to eat, so no one would have to cook a huge dinner.  Somehow, the little joke seemed a lot less of an travesty as it had at other times when the response was a resounding NO! from everyone!  This year it seem like it might be a good alternative.  Ratchlet volunteered to find out what was available, just on the off chance there was something we could all live with.

Guess what?  She found the perfect solution....she found paradise!  So we went!

Just outside of Bastrop, TX, a small town about 46 min. southeast of Austin, there is the Lost Pines, Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa, and they offered a Thanksgiving brunch/dinner fit for kings!  Although a bit pricey, it was worth every single penny!  The dinner was held in their Grand Ballroom (huge room) which was beautifully decorated, each family group had a private table configuring in a comfortable arrangement for the size of the group.  We only had a group of 5, still 2 waitstaff were assigned our table and they were very skilled and attentive throughout our meal.  The food was perfect!  I kid you not!!  Everything was delicious, nothing weird or odd, very traditional, plus hot (or cold), plentiful, with great variety, and attractively presented.  The carving station offered turkey, ham, prime rib, all of the traditional potatoes, gravy, stuffing, veggies.  In addition there were oysters on the half-shell, shrimp cocktail, salads, antipasti, Ahi Tuna, lox and bagels, fresh made omelets, a full range of breakfast offerings.  There was also the largest selection of desserts I have every seen at an event of this type.  Cobblers, pies, cakes, bread pudding, and brownies, cookies, and other small dessert offerings.  There was a separate buffet for young kids with mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, turkey and PB&J. It was a big hit with the 3-9 year olds!  They had a bouncy house for the kids, ping pong, and were showing movies just down the hall as well.

There was live music that was pleasant and unobtrusive.  There were six chefs manning just the carving stations!  Every single staff person was friendly, helpful, greatly attentive to detail, and genuinely glad that we were enjoying ourselves.  It was truly perfect!

The resort is on beautiful grounds and we strolled around after dinner to see all it offered.  Geared for families, there were many activities available, several places to eat, several bars, an ice cream shop, a gift shop, a huge pool, canoeing, horses, spa, and supervised games for the whole family.  We were impressed and may actually plan a stay at some point.

The entry to the property was actually "Over the river and through the woods", but the final destination was a whole lot nicer than just any old 'grandmother's house"!

We had a great time, a great meal, and a great Thanksgiving!  Rumor has it that we might never have a Thanksgiving at home ever again!  I vote Yes!

"Tradition"

If you have read my blog for any period of time, it will come as no surprise to you that our family is big on "Tradition."  Usually, the traditions we have relate to holidays, like always making leek for holiday dinners, or singing Christmas Carols while we clean up after Thanksgiving dinner, or going en masse to see fireworks on the 4th of July.  Nothing particularly unusual or interesting....just habits we have developed over the years.  Some of them are more important to us than others, but if we repeat something for more than two years in a row....bang!  We've got a new tradition!

I have recently realized that we seem to have another tradition, that isn't so great.  In truth, it probably can't be classified as a tradition exactly.  It's more of a curse!  A mild one, but a curse nonetheless.

The women in my family seem prone to falling....and in the process of falling, manage to break something....usually a wrist!   For example:

*  I fell at age 11 and sprained my right ankle so badly the doctor said it would have been better if I had broken it.
*  Ratchlet fell off a horse when she was 11 and broke her right wrist. 
*  Maddie-the-Great fell during a soccer game at school when she was 8 and broke her left wrist.
*  I fell while roller skating at about age 25 and broke my right wrist.
*  I fell at a dance rehearsal at about age 42 and broke my right wrist AND my left elbow.
*  Little Sis fell at home while getting dress last week (her age is lots younger than mine) and broke her left wrist. 

M-t-G and her broken wrist
just in time for her First Communion!

Other than my additional elbow and ankle injuries, all the casualties of our falls have been the wrist!  Weak wrists must run in our family!  Or maybe we all fall in exactly the same way, i.e., putting out a hand (or 2) to catch ourselves.  Ergo, most of the weight is then borne by the wrist and voila, compression fracture!  In a cast for 4-6 weeks!  Major inconvenience! 

For those of us who are right handed and broke the right wrist (that would be Ratchlet and I), it is amazing all the things you cannot do with your right wrist out of commission.  Things like writing, holding a pen, picking up a telephone (the old style receiver), combing, washing, or styling your hair, putting on socks or hose, cutting your food, carrying anything heavy, driving stick shift, or typing with any speed whatsoever.  We got very inventive in finding new ways to do things!  Those breaking left wrists have a somewhat easier time of it.  For them, their "main" hand still works!

Luckily, our breaks were mainly simple or greenstick fractures not even requiring much in the way of manipulation to get the bone re-aligned before the cast was put on.  Little Sis was not so lucky.  She had to have it repaired surgically.  So she not only has a bone that must knit back together, she also has an incision that has to heal.  Major ouchie!!  Heal up quick, LS!

So as you can see, the females in our family have a tradition, or a curse, or just stupid bad luck that results in a similar experience we all go through.  It ain't fun and it's a pain we all could have done without.   

So far Little Sis's daughter has remained on her feet and has all of her bones intact!  I'm pulling for her to stay that way!  This is one tradition we really don't want to extend to any more of us!! 

"A - You're Adorable" -- 2011

I stole this idea from my friend C.Beth, two years ago . I really enjoyed doing it too. I haven't re-read last year's list(or the year before's) to avoid planting a word in my head.  I hope that will keep me from duplicating.  Amazingly enough, I actually remembered in time to do it again this year! So here is List #3....that's right! It is the

Third Annual Alphabetical List of

Things I Am Grateful for this Thanksgiving Season

(Whoo Hoo!!)

Here is my A to Z list of things I am grateful for, like.......

A - Accessories!  They can make (or break) an outfit, a room, or a lifestyle!  In the words of the insightful Clairee Boudreau ("Steel Magnolias"), "The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize!"

B - Bacon!   Cooked crispy and just right, there is no finer companion for pancakes and a BLT is hard to beat.  However, keep it out of my casseroles, potatoes, salads, and so on. 

C - Children!  Their innocence, their curiosity, their observations, their cuteness, their potential.  They bring joy just by being there!

D - Driving!  I've always loved it.  Long trips, short trips, makes no difference.   Being on the road is the ultimate freedom!  I dread the day when I can no longer drive, it pretty much is the end of independence.

E - E-Books!  I never thought I would embrace anything electronic, but having a gazillion e-books on my Kindle actually has improved my reading experience in the area of convenience and ease of access.  Not to worry, however, I still must hold a book in my hands from time to time!  It's like comfort food, sometimes you've just got to have some!  :)

F - Friends!  After my wonderful visit in April with my two dearest friends, I realize how much I am grateful for friendships that last for decades!

G - Green!  For months and months we had nothing but brown, but at last,with just a little rain and cooler temps, the grass, trees, shrubs, and plants are green again.  Now the weeds aren't the only thing green outside.

H - Highways!  Thanks to President Eisenhower over 50 years ago, the U.S. has a highway system that makes it pretty easy to get from any Point A to any Point B almost all the time!  Except of course, this also requires one of the greatest annoyances of modern life....ongoing and never ending road construction!

I - Insurance!  Most of the time the concept of insurance irritates me.  You are essentially betting against yourself.  However, when insurance pays the bulk of hospital charges, collision repairs, dental work charges, to the tune of thousands and thousands of dollars, I realize again how grateful I am.  I'll try harder to remember that when I pay those premiums!

J - Jonquils!  One of the early spring flowers that gives me hope every year that winter is really over!

K - Knowledge!  I am grateful to those who pursue it and share what they learn with the rest of us.  I am continually amazed by the things that I learn everyday.

L - Love!  The love we give, the love we receive, the love we seek, the love we find.....love for people, love for things....the search for love, the comfort of love....in all its permutations.  Life would be unbearable without it.

M - Mikey!  Speaking of love, how grateful I am that we met and had the good sense to recognize that we were soul mates, best friends, true loves, and partners.  This man is the perfect man for me!  And I am grateful beyond measure for the life I have lived with this man.  My guy, Mikey!

N - Nuts!  Love them all....peanuts, cashews, pine nuts, walnuts, almonds....healthy, natural, crunchy, easy, good for snacking, good for cooking (i.e., peanut butter!).  An essential part of Thanksgiving!  Really!  What would Thanksgiving be without Pecan pie??

O - Orchestras!  Music is one of the essentials of life, but the human voice is limited.  It can only make one note at a time; but put a bunch of woodwinds, strings, percussion, and brass together, playing a gazillion notes together and you have the beauty of the fullness, harmony, rhythm, and joy of music at its best.  For everything from sonatas to marches, an orchestra can make the music come alive.

P - Puppies!  Simply the definition of cute!  Funny, clumsy, excited, joy on four legs.  If a puppy can't make you smile, you must be emotionally stunted!

Q - Quince!  I am grateful for the lovely quince, because if it weren't for quince I wouldn't have any Q to be grateful for!!  :)

R - Retirement!  Retirement is a wonderful concept.  Before it became financially possible (thank you FDR!) for people to stop working and receive social security, people would either work till they dropped or relied on the good graces of their children after they were too old  or feeble to work.  retirement is much more dignified.

S - Solitude!  I have always enjoyed time to be alone.  Time to read, to think, to sing, to wonder, to just be alone.  Sometimes I absolutely must escape from crowds, even a crowd of just 1!  Without periodic solitude, I would lose my mind.

T- Theatre!  Watching, Acting, Directing,  great writing, wonderful stories, humor, pathos, tragedy, farce, music, dance, drama, mystery, all of it!  I am grateful for every minute I spend in the theatre!

U - The United States of America!!  With all its foibles and follies, it is still the only place on this Earth I would be willing to call home!

V - Veterans!  For every man and woman who served, fought, or died with any branch the U.S. Military in defense of our country or for the concept of freedom anywhere in this world, I give my thanks and gratitude, especially Uncle Norb, Uncle Tom, Uncle Joe, and most particularly my dad, Jim, who served with the Americal Division on New Caledonia and Guadalcanal during WWII in the South Pacific.

W-  Words!  English Words!  Because of being a big reader I have accumulated a vocabulary that is better than some, not as good as others.  I am grateful that our language is complex enough to support tens of thousands words.  I don't pretend to know even half of them, but I know enough of them to make it possible for me to write a blog that some people find amusing, or thoughtful, or interesting.  Without words how confusing life would be!

X - Xerox!  I was already working at the time of the debut of the first photocopiers from Xerox.  Oh my, how those machines changed how America (and the world, I guess) did business.  As a working secretary at that time, I was more than glad to discard carbon paper, mimeograph machines, and onionskin!  Of course, instead of making 2 or 3 copies of anything, we could suddenly make 50 copies (with a lot less work) and sending them to every single soul who might possibly be interested!  It was definitely a good news/ bad new situation!  Still, it made life easier in the long run. 

Y - Yellow!  My favorite color.  It makes me happy to wear it, to decorate with it, see it in artwork.  I just love yellow and I undoubtedly always will.

Z - Zoos!  There is something fascinating about watching animals in synthetic habitats that call us to see these creatures up close.  A well-run zoo is a joy to explore.  I've spent many happy hours visiting my favorite animals.


Whoo-Hoo, I did it again!  26 things that I am truly grateful for.  There are others, of course.  The things we are all grateful for....our families, our health, our friends....those never change.  But it's nice to be thankful for some of the less universal things that bring joy to each of us!  The point is at Thanksgiving, we take the time to look at our lives and recognize those things.  So what are you grateful for this Thanksgiving?

"This Old House"

Wallpaper is a home fashion that comes and goes.  Right now I think it is out of favor, which is too bad.  There are some beautiful papers out there that can give a room real warmth and character.  Nevertheless, putting up new wallpaper is not easy, especially if you have to remove the old stuff first.  Some people don't even attempt to do it themselves because of the difficulties they have heard about.   Luckily for me, the times that I have chosen wallpaper for a room, the Big Guy has always been up to the challenge.

I was reading a blog the other day about the horrors of removing old wallpaper from walls.  Anyone who has ever done it knows that it can be tedious at best and impossible at worst.   Although many people don't do it, removing the old paper is really necessary, even if you're just going to paint a room.  Otherwise the wall will be bumpy and a mess.

The saga detailing the other blogger's experience reminded me of the last home we bought in Chicago.  It was an older house that had great bones but it was definitely a fixer-upper decor-wise! 

It wasn't a wreck, but it had been "decorated" in a manner that was more suited to a bordello than a nice family home!  Very dramatic window treatments and wallpapers were in the living room, dining room, bathrooms, and one of the bedrooms.  None of it was to our taste, and it all had to go!  We began doing our re-dos in stages. 

One of the bedrooms had obviously been occupied by a teen aged boy.  It wasn't as bad as the other rooms, but it definitely had it's own problems.  Two walls of the room were covered in an okay wallpaper that was white with evenly spaced dark blue stripes.  The stripes were only about 1/4 in. wide.   There were several pennants from various major league and NFL teams.  Those two walls didn't look bad, it was kind of reminiscent of a baseball uniform.

The other two walls, however, were covered from floor to ceiling with sports posters of various kinds.  Not a wallpaper of posters, you understand, they were the actual individual posters in a kind of collage effect.  It was great if you were a 14 year old sports nut, but not so great for my 22 year old grad student daughter who would call that room home!!    We moved into the  house in early Fall while she was away at school, but she would be home in just a few weeks.  And she wasn't coming alone!  She was bringing her boyfriend whom we had never met!!We had to fix it asap!  We promised her it would be presentable by the time they got home for Thanksgiving.

I really hoped those posters would just peel off easily.  They didn't!  We tried all sorts of  things. Ultimately the Big Guy did practically all the work himself.  It took him days and a huge amount of scraping and steaming and chemicals and more scraping to get them off.  The posters came off in little bits only a couple of inches square.  It was an enormous mess! 

I don't know what kind of adhesive they used to stick those posters to the wall, but getting them off the wall was one of the worst jobs the Big Guy had ever undertaken.  Quite a lot of cussing and yelling went on and he almost threw in the towel several times....but eventually my guy finally managed to get all traces of those posters off the wall.  The walls below ended up in horrid condition (with gouges and lumps and unfinished drywall beneath the posters), but that was a project we could put on hold for a few weeks. 

In the interim, he just painted those two walls and called it done.  When Ratchlet made it home with her beau, she was grateful to no longer have all those athletes surrounding her as she slept, and she wasn't embarrassed to have a guest see her room.  The Big Guy was grateful the job was finished for now and that the former owners lived far, far away; that way he didn't have to track them down and knock some heads together for leaving such a horrible job for us to do!  And me, I knew when we bought "This Old House", that we had a lot of work ahead of us.

Mostly though I was just so grateful that it hadn't been worse; after all, their son could have been older and decorated his room with posters of nudes!

"Sing, Sing, Sing, Sing"

An important milestone has been reached in Maddie-the-Great's life!!  It probably wouldn't rate all that much attention in most families, but for us???  It's a biggie!

M-t-G participated in her very first Choir Concert!!  Whee!  Hmmm, I know what you're thinking, oh yes, I do.  You're thinking "So what?"  Well, music and singing are a major portion of our lives in this family.  We are, after all, a show-biz family!!  Two employed theater professionals, three who have been singing all our lives (kinda), four who play or have played a musical instrument, one who knows an enormous number of songs....well, actually it's two but the songs we know are from different eras, two who performed off and on for a significant portion of their adulthoods.... and that's just the immediate family!  (Um, just to clarify, there are a total five people in the family, so who does what is kind of mix and match!)

Okay, maybe I'm over-blowing this whole thing just a bit!  (Hyperbole is my greatest fault!!)

The thing is that for a period of about four years, M-t-G REALLY didn't like being in the spotlight (so to speak).  She wouldn't let anyone sing Happy Birthday, because she didn't want people to "look at" her.  She very nearly didn't join the softball team for the same reason.  She wouldn't participate in the recital the first year she was taking violin lessons.  Those kinds of moments scared her and we hoped she'd grow out of it, but it lasted a long time!

The funny part of it was that when it was just one or two of us (family folks), she loved being the center of attention!  She would put on "shows" for us to watch her!  She had the Cowboy show (she can "Yee-Haw! like nobody's business), the Knights show (complete with English accent!) and the Pirate show (Arrggh!  Aye, Matey!)  She would dance, she would sing, she would "play" the harmonica.  She had costumes and props!  One of us would have to introduce her, "Presenting Miss Maddie, doing her interpretation of Cowboy Joe.  Let's hear it for Miss Maddie!"  Then we had to applaud wildly and make the "roar of the crowd" sounds and then she would make her entrance, take a bow, and begin her show!  It was really a hoot!   Clearly, she understood the concept of entertaining, she just didn't want to do anything in front of people she wasn't completely comfortable with, so her audience was limited to her mom and dad, Poppa (sometimes) and me.

It was obvious from these shows that she had a generous portion of "ham" in her personality, but she hid it most of the time!

This year (4th grade) is when the elementary schools around here invite interested kids to join the choir which if made up of 4th and 5th graders.  150 of them, as a matter of fact. 

At first, M-t-G didn't want to do it, even though she loves music and loves to sing!  (She told me she "didn't love it all that much!"  Ha!)   The hang-up was that the kids had to "audition" for the choir and standing up and letting somebody she didn't know hear her sing, was just too scary for her.  Her mom had to work really hard to reassure M-t-G that she wouldn't have to sing alone (2 at a time for try-outs) and all the teacher was listening to was whether she was an alto or a soprano.   Well, she finally agreed to audition.  She told me her mom was "making her" do it!  Double Ha!!

When the day arrived, she did the audition and she survived to tell the tale.  She came home after the first rehearsal all atwitter because she "loved" it!   Triple Ha!!!  She told me after that first rehearsal that they wouldn't have a concert right away but they would have one soon.  She actually sounded excited about it!

So tonight was the first concert.They all wore black skirts or pants with white blouses/shirts and a bright blue bowtie.  The even had a name....the K Keynotes!   They used taped instrumentation to accompany them and they only sang four songs (they've only been singing for about a month!)

But oh my goodness!  They were adorable!  They sounded good, although if the key they were singing in were any higher, there would have been dogs howling all over town!!  I give the music director a lot of credit.  Trying to get 150 kids to memorize 4 songs (one with harmony and motions) and then sing them in front of their parents while behaving themselves as a choir should, that is an accomplishment for any teacher!

And Maddie-the-Great?  She did just fine!  Her movements were "full out", she was animated, she watched the director, she didn't fidget (well, not too much).  And when it was over, she was so excited she was nearly bouncing off walls!!  She LOVED it.  She had picked up the mantle of choir singer just like the rest of us!   The family tradition goes on!  Yeah!  "Sing, Sing, Sing, Sing!"  Who knows where she'll land! 

None of which came as any surprise to either her mom or to me!  Not at all!  After all, we were big fans of M-t-G's Cowboy Joe!! 

"Easter Parade"

One of the things I always loved best about Easter when I was a little girl, was getting a brand new outfit for Easter, complete with Easter Bonnet!  Hmmm, does anyone even get an Easter Bonnet anymore?  There wasn't exactly an "Easter Parade" in our town, but there were multiple mini-parades all over town in every church (and our town had a lot of them!).  Each congregation would stand outside and chat either before or after the service.  In had the effect of a de facto "Easter Parade".  It made no difference what the denomination, all the church-going ladies, gentlemen, boys, and girls would wear their very best  outfit to church on Easter; even if it wasn't new, it was the best they had.

I loved it.  Crisp, new white gloves, brand new shiny, shoes and socks or tights (depending on how cool it was), and a pretty dress  in soft, pastel Springtime colors, sometime even a lightweight Spring coat (again depending on the temperature). and of course, the most important of all, the hat!  I have always been one of the lucky ones.  I look good in most hats.  And I like wearing them. And Easter was the day to wear the prettiest one you could find!

At the time most women wore hats to church on Sunday, in fact, they still wore them to most places.  It was part of what made a "lady".  After Jackie Kennedy and the changes in the Catholic Church, blew the hat industry out of the water, many women still wore hats on Sunday , at least to church.

But for kids, hats were pretty much reserved for that Easter outfit.  You still see a few women and little girls who wear hats on Easter, but not so much anymore.  I was one of them for a long while, but bit by bit life got more and more casual and you can't even find pretty hats very much anymore.

I miss them and I miss the gloves and the new shoes, and the pretty new dress.  And I miss the gathering with friends at church on Easter morning for our version of the "Easter Parade!"

Have a wonderful Easter all you lovely ladies!  Whether or not you're wearing an Easter Bonnet!