Sentimental time of year

This is from the home we sold- the empire fireplaces were gorgeous!

I just noticed it has been two weeks since I updated, which means it has also been two weeks since I visited my friends blogs. :-\

This is my very favorite time of year. I am a sap for all of the "made for t.v." Christmas movies, although granted, have less time this year to savor them as I have in years past. Instead I am savoring my moments with my family, and enjoying the little times of quiet and solitude as they become available.

Something has happened in my family that makes me sad. They have lost Christmas. Only one of my mothers sisters is "keeping Christmas" and its spirit of family and generosity. The others are all bogged down in family problems, health crises, and everyday mundane tasks and either can not or *will not* take the time to honor and appreciate what we have been blessed with- the family ties that we should be working to hold dear. By the same token, only one of Duanes sisters is keeping Christmas as well. Not to imply they aren't exchanging gifts. No! Everyone exchanged gifts and signs up for gift swaps, etc. I am not speaking about presents. I am speaking about the gathering together of loved ones to celebrate family and friendships. The warmth and cherishing the Christmas of yesteryear, while creating new memories for others to come to celebrate and remember fondly later on.

No one grasped this as much as my dear friend Eleanor Chapman.

Eleanor and her husband Gerald lived next door to my duplex apartment in the middle 90's. They were in their middle 80's, and she and I became friends when our dogs became friends. I began walking their small terrier, Lady, when I would walk my shihtzu Smitty, and afterwards she and her husband would invite me to dinner or to a long chat on her screened front porch. I was new to the town and the neighborhood, and appreciated being adopted by them as my surrogate family. I believe they appreciated my friendship in return, as I never tire of listening to an elderly persons stories of their youth, and enjoy looking at their photo albums and listening to them fondly relate about their children, grand children and great grandchildren.

Eleanor and I went to lunch usually about once a month. She had only learned to drive at the age of 80, and would joke that she was able to pass her drivers test because she made a promise to God to never exceed the speed limit. Nor did she! Cars passed us on the left and on the right, and she would smile and laugh and say "God told me 'Eleanor, you go one mile over the speed limit, and you are on your own!'" She took this warning to heart, and made sure to never come within 15 miles of the limit, incase she should accidentally pass it and be left without a co-pilot. After one of these loooong drives to lunch, we decided to get takeout and eat at her house with Gerald. When the order came through, she slapped my hand as I gave her the 2 cents over the dollar amount. She said "Thats alot of change!"

When we returned to her house, she showed me her jar of change. All year round, she would save every bit of quarters, dimes, nickels and even pennies left over from any expense and add it once a month to her Christmas Club at her bank. Having an entire 98 cents was alot of coin to add to her jar, and she forbade me to tell Gerald that I had offered her two cents instead.

She started wrapping her gifts in October. Everyone had multiple gifts in their large family, and all of them purchased on a senior citizens fixed income. She would ask me to come help her wrap and we would share stories about Christmas while she baked a cake or a pie in the kitchen. They had a forced air furnace that burned oil and her entire house smelled so delectably warm and toasty. My house never gets that warm!

But it wasn't her jar of change and her gifts that made me feel like she kept Christmas in her heart. It was the smile she would share with her husband pointing out the ornament their youngest son (then 45) had made as a child on their tree. Showing me the hand painted snowman their great granddaughter had made. Smiling at how beautiful her multi colored tree had "turned out" and expressing surprise that it was "even prettier than the year before!" and the fact that all of her grown sons and her daughter traveled across the globe to share Christmas with her and her husband. Every year. She cooked a huge feast in her small kitchen, and sons, daughter, grandchildren and great grandchildren smashed so close together you would think they were vying for a seat at a 5 star restaurant just to get a plate of Eleanors food and visit with family. I loved visiting her late in the afternoon on Christmas Day and seeing the reminents of the mornings festivities- tattered gift wraps and ribbon lying about (she hated the pre-fab gift bags), cups of coffee and cocoa steaming on the furniture (without coasters!), and everyone commenting on what a lovely day it had been thus far. Brianna would bang on the piano and everyone would beg Eleanor to play.

I wasn't living next door to the Chapmans when her son called me in 1997 to tell me she had terminal cancer. Her daughter had flown out from California and her son from Ohio to stay with her until the end. Eleanor wanted to make sure everything was taken care of and tended to her own funeral preparations. She worried over where Gerald would go. And two days after the last day I visited her, she passed on quietly at home.

A couple months later, Gerald called me and asked if I could come by their home on my way through town. He said Eleanor had left something for me. Not sure what, I stopped by that week. It was a couple weeks before Christmas. And there on the table was a CHRISTMAS PRESENT. Wrapped in Eleanors clumsy way of tying off the bow, in right festive paper.

Gerald confided that she had spent her first month after her diagnoses Christmas shopping so that everyone would have a present from her that year even if she were not there to celebrate.

I nervously unwrapped my present and burst into tears and laughter when I saw it was a bottle of "Forever Crystal" perfume from the middle 80's. I have no clue where she found it. Shopping for over a dozen people with only coins from a large jar stored at your bank doesn't afford a person with much capital. It was the funniest tackiest gift anyone has ever gave me. And also the most loving. Because she really did adopt me into her family, and at a time when she knew she had very limited days left on this earth, she wanted me to have a special Christmas to. If the "thought is what counts" then hers was worth millions.

The bottle sits in a medicine cabinet at my mothers. Next to it is her half empty bottle of "Emerald" perfume which I asked for. One I occasionally open to remember her, and one I like to pull out and giggle about when I am feeling sentimental and wanting to keep Christmas in my heart.

Decorating

Thats the only picture I have on the computer of my celluloid santa collection on the Lincoln's Buffet. That primitive piece now belongs to my mother as we didn't have a niche for it here that displayed it well. This home is so bright and traditional that it looked chunky- where as before I always managed to find one little spot where I could have a country type vignette. At Christmas I love folksy things!

This past weekend we put up the outside lights and the big tree indoors. As well as lined up my entire collection of Santas on the mantle. I will have to take a picture of my tree to share, I am proud of it! But, I don't know if I will show you the lights or not...

I believe that Christmas decorating outdoors is primarily for Children- and the bits of the child that survived to adulthood in each of us. And I so remember sitting in the backseat of my parents car and driving around to look at lights each Christmas. Even the car itself was Christmasy- an old Pontiac with plush burgundy velvet seats! The outside was speckled with rust and my mom called her car "Freckles". She wouldn't trade it in because it was such a cozy ride! Each year we would venture out to popular neighborhoods in search of the BEST lights. My dad would carry a pen sized flashlight and put it on his nose and say he looked like Rudolph driving a Pontiac. My dad was such a dork. Remember the word "Dork"?

The BEST lights were the TACKY ones. Neon Orange thrown onto a tree, green on a shrub, multi colored blinking lights on a porch railing. The tackier the light display, the more "ooohs" and "aaahs" it garnered from my sister and I. We would ask my mom and dad to please oh please make several passes by those homes. And those classy all white numbers that shimmered in the "best" neighborhoods and cul de sacs? YUCK. Booooring.

We would end up driving through the neighborhoods populated by senior citizens (and their glorious older decorations), save one lone ritzy neighborhood where every year the home owner paid someone to decorate a 40 foot pine in the yard with multi colored strands.

So, I am the owner of a Tacky Christmas House. Our tall shrubs (like mini-trees) are strung with solid green and overtop that solid gold. The midsize shrubs have blue lights, and the ground covering has white lights. I am excited about a tree on the porch that I am putting multi colored blinkers on.

By the time I am through I am probably going to make neighbors wince at the spectacle we are creating. But, I also hope to make children in the backseats of their parents cars say "ah".

Babies update:

Ewan and Rowan have officially gave up their midnight bottle. They take their bottles at 8-9 p.m., then sleep until 3 a.m. YIPPEE! This is really giving my husband extra rest since before he would sit up to midnight with colicy ole Ewan (who is less colicy, too!) because the only way I would get any daily rest was to sleep from 8-midnight in ear plugs. I still go to bed about 9- but he can go to sleep earlier now too since the ear plugs aren't necessary to get decent slumber now.

I am getting a larger chunk of sleep in one resting, but less sleep overall since giving up the midnight bottle has made them very fussy and agitated from about 5-6 to 7. I LIKE sleeping until 7. *sighs*. I like the little bit of chill in the air, and snuggling back down into the blankets as Duane leaves for work and knowing I can sprawl out for an hour. Hmpfh. But, on the whole I am much more rested now- it might not be the sleep I like, but its good sleep. An added bonus is on weekend morning we take turns letting the other one sleep until about 8.

Rowan has become the projectile refluxer. He is like a little pukey timebomb. He gets this look in his eye then spews 6 ounces. ACK! I have started feeding him a little less at once and then returning to his bottle after Ewans and that seems to be helping.

They both smile all the time and Ewan tries to hard to talk that he gets exasperated with us, and then lets out a big heap of a "hmpfh" at us and sighs.

As far as Lucas and Matilda- we have given up documenting her vocabulary. She is off the charts developmentally there. She learns a new word or two daily. She knows what animals say, she expresses empathy, she tells you what episode of Mickey is her favorite- "Doctor Daisy", etc, etc, etc. Lucas... I just don't know. I ask him to say something and she over talks him. Today he ran past us as I was playing with a See and Say with Tilly and as I said "What does a cow say?" He yells out "Mooooooooo" as he dashes by. I hadn't heard him say that before and excitedly tried to get him to repeat it. I then asked him to tell me again and he growled at me. However he understands language. loves to play with his sister and his parents, so I need to stop comparing him to Tilly and just let him be Lucas.

Babies Special Pumpkin

Halloween picture

OK, here is Lucas and Tilly at Halloween.

Autumn pics

You would think from these pictures that I had an easy time photographing Lucas and Matilda, when the truth is I spent thirty minutes saying "Don't eat that!" and jerking leaves, dirt and grass out of their mouths. Boo. But, they sure made pretty pictures!

I am going to share some pictures this week of my sister in laws home, which is gorgeous. I had hoped my aunt would get to see it when she was visiting here, as she loves to decorate as much as I. Instead, she can view the pictures here on my blog.






Here is Lucas and Matilda at 12 weeks.



Rowan looks so much like Lucas. These were taken at 11 weeks. If Rowan had a tad more weight on him, they would look identical!



Rowan had his eye exam the same day Matilda had her cranial appointment. Good news for both babies! Rowan doesn't have cataracts. He is just severely nearsighted like me. The doctor said that this would cause the light to refract differently and he is guessing it is what confused my pediatrician. As far as Tilly, her sutures are OPEN so she won't need surgery, but, he doesn't anticipate her flat pancakey noggin to finish rounding out until she is around 15 years of age! With her personality the DOC Band would of been monsterous.

Ewan just looks like... EWAN! He doesn't favor Matilda in the least, but looks a teensy bit like Lucas... sometimes. He is the most unique in appearance. He has blonde lashes and eyebrows, and light hair, too. Maybe there is hope for a blue eyed boy, yet!



Here is little Ewan... SMILING! This is what a baby boy looks like who finally has some relief from reflux. We tried 5 different formulas (including those over priced 26 dollar a small can ones!) and none worked. We tried baby zantac and that didn't work. Last, we tried mine and everyone elses grandmothers cure for spit up issues- rice cereal. Bingo. Now he is a happy smiley boy.

House Guests, SCARY Babies, Smilie Babies

My aunt and uncle came to visit for two days last week! This is my favorite aunt, my mothers baby sister. My mom is one of four girls, and my father one of five children- and the only boy. I have many aunts, but, none as generous, kind and all around lovely as Mae.

They brought some of my things from West Virginia- like my Department 56 Halloween and Christmas Villages. We had a lovely dinner, and I had the dining room decorated for Autumn. I served a pork tenderloin in a mushroom cream marsala sauce, broiled asparagus, pineapple bread pudding (as another side to compliment the pork) and rolls. I made the applecake I shared below (yum!) for dessert and it worked as a lovely centerpiece too, I think. It was so nice o have family stay with us. I don't have much opportunity for entertaining, and am so thrilled when I am able to- especially for wonderful people. My aunt is very much like me in that she enjoys giving to people and making them feel special. It is nice to reciprocate!



A friend of mines 20 month old son learned the word "Scary" and uses it at times to avoid things he doesn't want to do. When they visited me a couple weeks back, he said that Lucas and Tilly were "scary" to avoid getting in their play yard with them. I mean, that *has* to be the explanation, because my children are NOT scary. They are sweet little angels who would never try and intimadate another baby.



Rowan has been flashing us the biggest gummiest smiles for a couple weeks now, but this is the first one I have managed to catch on camera. Ewan is still the "angry baby" with his colic, but he is on zantac now so we hope that will clear up soon and he will be just as smilie.



They had their 8 week check up on Wednesday. It certainly could of went better for Rowan. We are making him an appointment with a pediatric optometrist because the pediatrician thinks he has cataracts! Egad. It isn't as horrible as it sounds and I have learned they are fairly common in infants, but stressful none the less. Rowan just can't catch a break right now.

I will try and update again soon.

It's Here!

Just Desserts- A Sideboard of Sweet Temptations



My new issue, the very first new issue of Victoria Magazine arrived today!

Rowan hasn't had any Apnea episodes so far, and Ewan will see about reflux medicine this Wednesday.

Hope your magazines arrive soon- its WONDERFUL!