Christmas Favorites: Children's Books

Our top three:

What are yours?

hark how the bells..

Remember this post?

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Since we couldn't see it in person this year, this video we took last year helped us ring in the Christmas season. It really is one of my

favorite New York moments

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(Have I mentioned we were complete New York wannabees while we lived in Jersey? We were. I love New York City, especially at Christmas. )

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When we first saw this, we were standing in Rockefeller Center gazing up at the gigantic Christmas tree. All of a sudden across 5th Avenue along the side of Saks, this started:

To quote myself from last year,

"It was so loud, so full of energy, and oh so Christmasy!"

you might want to reconsider your stocking holders...

These are the new stocking holders I found. They're cute, aren't they?

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They looked great surrounding our Nativity Scene on the mantle, for about 5 minutes before this happened:

48 hours later, it already looks so much better.

Can I just tell you how terrible I feel for not realizing what a dangerous decoration the blasted stocking holders would be?

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They were quickly returned and replaced with the adhesive hooks we bought to hang our outdoor house lights (which went up successfully on the second attempt, by the way). The hooks work great for the stockings too.

After Thanksgiving Day Drama

Today included:

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~Black Friday shopping at Toys 'R' Us. It was so not worth it.

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~1 missing garbage can. Either it blew away or someone stole it. I guess it's also possible the garbage man accidentally dropped it in the truck with the garbage this morning. It's nowhere to be found. I'm really not looking forward to another experience with waste management.

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~A failed attempt at hanging Christmas lights on the house . The end of the long story is that after about 2 hours we concluded that we will not be hanging Christmas lights, at least on the second story. Matt was stuck on the roof for almost an hour. He nearly broke a few bones trying to get down.

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~1 stocking holder pulled down from the mantle landing Lydia in the Emergency Room . The scary scene could have resulted in something terrible, but ended up up being just a couple of superficial cuts on her eyelid and 2 scratches on her eye. She's on antibiotics, and we'll follow up with the Ophthalmologist on Monday to be sure it's healing. Poor girl. (The stocking holders have been removed.)

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What a day. At least we finished it off with some chocolate fondue!

I'm going to bed with the dishes still in the sink, and the house somewhat of a mess. It'll all still be there tomorrow.

we are thankful for...

Matt: my family

Mary: that we are all healthy

Ethan: family

Uncle Dustin: a lot of good food

Garrett: school

Lydia: binky

Happy Thanksgiving.

the food that binds us

I love the way food brings people together. I don't just love how it brings us together physically to eat the food (although that is always fun). I love how food somehow continues to bind us to people that come and go in our lives or loved ones we cannot always be with.

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For example, as I am planning and preparing my Thanksgiving spread I'll be thinking of:

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Suzy in New Jersey. Suzy is a great cook, excellent seamstress, exemplary mom, and really just a cool person. Suzy's Maple-Glazed Sweet Potatoes are on my Thanksgiving menu.

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Mom in Missouri. Mom is in Missouri this week to spend Thanksgiving with Erin. Mom taught me how to make Apple Pie when I was oh, probably 10 years old. I've had the job of making the apple pie just about every year since. It's my favorite part of Thanksgiving preparation. It's really just not Thanksgiving without homemade apple pie. It's even more fun when I get to make it with Mom.

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Maressa in California. Maressa and I were roommates at BYU 8 years ago. We were bridesmaids at each others weddings. 7 years later, we get to live near each other again. Our boys are friends, and I'm sure Lydia will be great friends with the little girl Maressa's growing right now. Maressa's Creamed Corn has been a Glauser family favorite for years. It's also on the menu.

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Kerri in Arizona. I honestly think of Kerri every time I make gravy. As I'm throwing spices into the gravy, I always hear the phrase, "a little of this, a little of that" in my head. She's said that to me a few times and it just stuck. The gravy always turns out great.

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Jane in Idaho. Jane has got to be one of my favorite people in the world. She deserves a post all of her own. In fact, she got one. Read about Jane here. Jane brought me dinner one night. It was Shepherd's Pie. At the time Jane was preparing for a downsizing move, so she also gave me the beautiful mustard colored serving dish she brought it in. I'm using Jane's dish to serve the rolls. I'm also making Jane's Sweet and Sour Meatballs for Christmas Eve.

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Erin in Missouri. Matt and I spent our second Thanksgiving with my sister's family and she made a really good cranberry dessert. Every year I think about calling and getting the recipe, but after planning the rest of the meal I opt for Ocean Spray's canned cranberry sauce. I don't really like cranberries anyway. Erin also took me on my first Day After Thanksgiving Shopping Marathon that year. It was awesome. It hasn't been nearly as fun going alone in the years since.

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Dori in New Jersey. For my birthday last year, Dori gave me the cutest little bowls in an assortment of colors from Anthropologie . I love them. I think if Dori everytime we use them. I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to use the fall colored ones for on my Thanksgiving table.

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Kathleen in Heaven. Thanksgiving rolls remind me of my mother-in-law. One Thanksgiving earlier in our marriage, I was in charge of making the rolls. I did something wrong and they didn't rise. We baked them anyway thinking they'd rise a little in the oven but they just turned out to be more like wafers than rolls. Kathleen was so sweet and kept saying how good they were. They weren't, but she wanted me to feel appreciated anyway. She was always making us feel good about ourselves.

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Kristin in New Jersey. While I'm planning my Thanksgiving menu, I have to plan my meals for the rest of the week right? Wednesday night we're having Sweet and Sour Haystacks with Kristin's fabulous Sweet and Sour Sauce recipe.

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I can go on and on. I love the fond memories that pop in to my mind when I'm cooking of friends and family around the country that are somehow tied to the food I'm preparing.

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At this time of Thanksgiving, I'm grateful for my family, friends, and all the people who have touched and blessed our lives in one way or another.

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Who does your food remind you of?

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While I'm at it, does anyone have a good pumpkin cookie recipe?

One more thing, and then I'll get over it...

A few weeks ago, Matt brought home a paper from work entitled Fall Activities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It lists 15 fun ideas for cultural/recreational day trips around this time of the year.

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The last idea on the list struck us as particularly applicable to the title of the memo, so I thought I'd share:

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15. Most of our tress stay evergreen but if you want to see spectacular color changes of various trees, go to Vermont or Canada.

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Well that's a great idea!

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Just so happens we've seen those color changes in Vermont. They were spectacular.

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Want to see them? Here you go. There's a few more here too.

Thursday evening

My report following my last post,

here's what we did:

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Great book. Chocolaty cookies. Cozy fire. All snuggled together.

oh what do you do in the summertime?

I was talking to my friend Kristin today, and realized why I'm so anxious for fall to arrive for good. ,

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First of all, I know I sound like a spoiled brat complaining about the 70's and sunshine which seems to prevail in this part of the country. It's wonderful, but it gets a bit monotonous. After experiencing seasons that other parts of the country participate in, I've really come to enjoy the changes that come with each new seasons. ,

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The biggest reason I'm anxious for the season to change is because this little Glauser family is pretty much stuck in a year full of summers. ,

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Really, we are. ,

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We're just getting over summer '07. It's a lot cooler today. Hopefully fall will stay for a few weeks. Then, we'll have a short preview of winter (a California winter, mind you) right before we move to Brazil in January. ,

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Guess what January is in Brazil? ,

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Summer. ,

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We'll enjoy a sunny summer in the southern hemisphere, a rainy fall, and just at the start of winter, we'll move to Texas.... in July. ,

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So, instead of shopping for coats and gloves this winter, we're stocking up on flipflops. ,

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Like I said, it's a lot cooler today and cloudy. We're all so excited about it that we're building another fire in the fireplace. Maybe we'll turn on a Christmas movie, just to get things going.

like a little child...

A couple weeks ago Lydia and I were in Redlands with my mom. Our evening went a little like this:

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6:30- Mom, Lydia and I take a break from packing to sit down at a semi-clean table in the Downtown Redlands Hogi Yogi and enjoy our Chicken Salad Sandwich for dinner.

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7:00- We walk out to the car which is parked right in front of the restaurant. Lydia smiles and waves goodbye to everyone as she walks out with my wallet under her arm.

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7:02- I buckle her in the car seat, at which point she throws a tantrum because Mom's car seat is the old kind with the big thing across the front type of a buckle. I bribe her to sit in it with a little of my chocolate M&M's frozen yogurt.

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7:10- We arrive at home.

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7:35- Lydia's asleep. Mom and I start packing up her bookshelves.

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7:48- I get this call from Matt:

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Matt: "So, you're probably looking for your wallet and cell phone. Walmart has it."

Me: "Huh?"

Matt: "Walmart, just called. They have your cell phone and wallet."

Me: "That's not possible, we didn't go to Walmart. We just got home from dinner, I have it."

Matt: "No, they have it."

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(This goes on for a few minutes. It finally dawns on me that I'm probably wrong and that they must have my phone and wallet because Walmart doesn't likely have our phone number on file.)

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8:00- I arrive at the customer service counter at Walmart. They indeed have my wallet and cell phone. I explain to them that I haven't been there in at least a year, and that I had my wallet in hand a little over an hour prior to that.

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8:04- They call the cashier that brought it to them.

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8:10- The three of us (me and my 2 new customer services representative best friends) solve the mystery of my wallet.

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Here's what we concluded:

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Either I took the wallet from Lydia to put her in the car seat, set it on top of the car and it fell off when I drove away, or she kicked it out of my hands during her tantrum and I didn't notice it falling in the street.

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Some guy picked it up and high-tailed it to Walmart to buy himself a new Ipod~ my treat. When he tried to use my American Express card, the cashier noticed that he didn't match my picture on the back and questioned the impostor. He "went to get the owner of the credit card" and split. They called "home" on my cell phone and told Matt they had my things and he called me.

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8:15 - I call home to tell Matt that I retrieved my wallet, and Garrett answers the phone. We have the following conversation:

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Garrett: "Hi Mom. Did you find your wallet?"

Me: "Yes, tell Dad I have it back and everything's there except my cash."

Garrett: "What happened to your cash?"

Me: "Well, someone made a bad choice to take my wallet and steal my money, but I got my phone and everything else back so it will be fine."

Garrett: "Mom, I have an idea. I'll get my piggy bank and you can have all my money since you lost yours. You don't even have to pay me back."

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What a generous little man! It was a nice little glimpse of the good in our world after a disturbing experience with the not so good in our world.

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What did I learn from this experience?

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1) Never let a 1 1/2 year old be in charge of my wallet (duh)

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2) There are some Wal-mart employees that actually check credit card ID(bless them)

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3) Credit cards with my picture on the back are a good thing

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4) Children are pure and innocent and make this world a little brighter