A Little Bit Of Sunshine

My great-aunt Anna gave this to me for Christmas.

Actually, she gave it to the entire McCall family, but I'm a bit miserly with such treats. I call it A Little Bit Of Sunshine In A Pretty-In-A-Rustic-Sort-Of-Way Jar. You might call it stewed apricots. Whatever you call them, they. are. simply. divine.

I would like to make apricot fried pies with them, but since I'd be the only one eating them, it seems like a lot of work and mess for just one gal. So instead, I've eaten them on whole grain toast and rolled them up into crescent rolls to bake. The crescent rolls were good, but I think I would have preferred a shortbread-like dough instead. However I've eaten them, they are just like a little bit of sunshine in my mouth while the wind howls and the snow falls outside.

Dear Aunt Anna,

Thank you so much for this delicious treat. I have truly enjoyed it all by myself. If I return the empty, clean jar to you in a few weeks would you fill it up with such yumminess again? :)

Just kidding.

Sort of.

Love,
Your great-niece Jordan

Before The Internet Goes Out. Again.

I've been trying to download these pictures into a montage for three days and the Taj McCall keeps having major internet difficulties. As in, it just plain won't work. At all. Brad has it working right now, but I can't guarantee the duration.

In the meantime, peruse our Christmas pictures.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'll just be here waiting. And putting up Christmas. And doing laundry.

I lead a very glamorous life.

All The Cool Kids Are Doing It

...eating mashed potatoes off the beater, that is!

The Stockings Were Hung By The Chimney With Care

Merry Christmas to all,
And to all a Good Night!

In Search Of Christmas Fun

Well, I certainly didn't mean to let 3 days lapse between my last post and this one, but it's the holidays and there are roads to travel and new baby cousins to meet and menus to plan and marathon grocery store runs to make and last minute gifts to buy and Santas to find.


And since we've been having so much Christmas fun, I'll just leave you with several pictures from the last three days.

Enjoy!

On The Third Day of Christmas

On the third day of Christmas,
The teachers were so cute!
They each got aprons that I made
And not a basket of fruit!

I'm running out of words that rhyme. Can you tell?

Fulfilling My SAHM Destiny

There are just certain things stay-at-home moms are supposed to do.

Wear yoga pants.

Drive an SUV.

Be a Home Room Mom.

I thought I was doing pretty well at this whole stay-at-home mom thing (you'd think I should since I've been doing it for six years now!) until last week when it dawned on me that I needed to plan Eli's kindergarten Christmas class party. Usually I enjoy planning a good party, (you can check out a few here, here, here, here, and here), but this one seemed to be more overwhelming. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was the fact that we only had one hour. Or maybe because it was for people I don't know very well. Or maybe it was because I waited until the very last second. Whatever the reason, I was worried.

But I pulled all my creative energies together and "facebooked" a question for ideas. When that generated no outstanding ideas I realized that school parties do not have to be creative and inspired and memorable (I couldn't remember any of mine). They just have to be well-planned. And that, dear readers, is something I am very, very good at! After a trip to Wally-World and Hobby Lobby (the mecca of all school parties apparently), making Eli put together one of my crafts so I could time him, and baking 2 dozen cupcakes for the children to decorate, we were ready!

Well, not quite. This is what Phoebe looked like this morning.


The party went off without a hitch or a hiccup! I had other moms to help me run my centers. Eli's teacher had a few transitional activities (like the quiet game with a paper Santa) to keep those who finished early occupied, and we spent exactly the amount of time on each event that I thought we would.

There were even a few smiles!



Now I just have to start thinking about the Valentine's Party.

We've Got An In With The Big Guy

Eli is convinced that we are related to Santa Claus.

His logic makes pretty good sense...if you're six. My maiden name was "Jolly". It's also Eli's middle name. He is sure that Santa Claus's last name must be Jolly, too, because he's "jolly old St. Nicholas" and a "right jolly old elf" and "tis the season to be jolly".

I'm not sure why I never thought of it before.

He also thinks that my grandfather might actually be Santa Claus. When asked about the absence of a long white beard, he says that maybe it only grows long when he's in the North Pole and "shrinks up" when he's not. If he's not actually Santa Claus, then he must at least be Santa Claus's cousin.

Our next trip to the farm is going to be very interesting.

I can certainly see the family resemblance.

It's No Harlem Boys Choir...

...but it made my sweet Phoebe so very, very happy.

The girl really, really loves to sing...by herself...in front of people. Go figure.




I know this isn't the best video, but Brad shot it with his iphone in one hand while filming it on our big video camera with the other (he's just that talented!). I haven't yet figured out how to post from our big video camera...maybe that should be my New Year's Resolution! I was busy snapping pictures with my camera like a good mommy-razzi should.




It might have been the highlight of Phoebe's week.


And this post may by the highlight of her grandparents' week. (I'm pretty sure they may be the only ones who will read it!)

This Is What We Had For Dinner Last Night

I made this and this for dinner last night.


It was out-of-this-world-divine. Brad declared it one of the best meals I had ever made...and that's saying something after almost 10 years of marriage. (He did say that the key was in the gravy to polenta ratio. Lots of gravy ladled over the cheesy polenta.)


You could invite the fanciest people you know over for dinner and serve this and they would be very, very impressed. I might serve it on something other than your red holiday dishes, though.


It's just that good.

Cookies: Bite-Sized Lessons From Huddles

If you asked me to tell you my very favorite children's book, I'm not sure that I could name just one. I could probably tell you my Top 25, maybe even my Top 15. There are just too many wonderful children's books.

But I do know that this book would certainly be on the list. As well as this book and this one. If I had to choose a favorite of the three, I might choose the Christmas book because I might like it just a teeny-tiny bit more than the other two, but I have teared up reading each of them...and the pictures are amazing! If you haven't read them you need to head down to your nearest library or Barnes and Noble right this very second and take a look. You will be hooked! If you know anyone who is having a baby or already has children or just has a love of good children's lit, then these would make a spectacular gift...like for Christmas maybe.

The whole idea of the book is taking hard to understand concepts (like "loyal") and making an example of the word with cookies. "Loyal means that even though the new person has a much bigger cookie, I'm sticking by you and your little cookies because you're my very best friend."

Awesome, huh?


So the other night, as we had our Huddle kids over for dinner and gingerbread cookie decorating, the pictures we took made me think of those books. We've been with this group for three and half years now and we've grown quite fond of them. I'm not sure what we're going to do come May when they graduate and go away. But we'll think about that another day.


Independent means getting ready to make the cookies all by myself...even if someone else can do it better and make less of a mess.


True Friendship means that even if you laugh at my cookie, I know you love me anyway.


Huddles means decorating cookies with a group of people that you love and that love you back.


Inner Beauty means that your cookies are good not because they are pretty on the outside, but because the ingredients are superb to start with.


Teamwork means working together to make the cookie look just right.

This is our youth resident, Cole, helping Phoebe with the icing that was still a little cold. I tell you the way to a mommy's heart is through her children! Cole just might be one of my new favorite people!


Imagination means making your cookies look like a mangled gingerbread boy and Yoda.



A Good Attitude means decorating a cookie even though you decorate them all the time because your mom makes wonderful cookies for a living.


Wonder means being impressed by a two-year-old's cookie creation.


Hero Worship means wanting your cookies to look just like his because they are so cool.


Trust means playing with someone while waiting for the cookies to be finished when you wouldn't have anything to do with them a year ago.



Unique means that even though your cookie looks exactly like your sister's, your cookie is special in its very own way.


Anticipation means being hardly able to stand it while your cookies are baking in the oven.


Boredom means agreeing to eat an entire cinnamon stick in one minute while waiting for the cookies to finish baking. Or maybe that's stupidity.


Forgiveness means that even when someone breaks your cookie masterpiece, it's all okay because you're her friend.


Thank you, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, for giving me beautiful and endearing books. And, thank you, Red Huddle for giving the me inspiration to feel such wonderful emotions. I love you each and every one!

So As Not To Play Favorites

Phoebe's first Christmas came after a few really tough years for our little family. We had struggled to get pregnant again after Eli and so she was literally an answer to a thousand prayers that we felt had fallen on deaf ears. Three years that tested our strength and made us question our faith. Eli's third and fourth year were pretty rough. They made the terrible two's look like a cake-walk and I had cried myself to sleep more nights than I could count wondering what to do with this child. Our family had walked through the fire of returning cancer, surgery, hospital stays, recovery, medication that made me redefine what feeling "normal" actually felt like, and discovering that our sweet baby had a hole in her heart.

By the Christmas of 2007, we were emotionally spent and I remember wanting that Christmas to last forever. To be able to savor every moment with loved ones far and near and just relish my sweet baby and 4 1/2 year old. Of course, I had been on the look-out for an ornament for Phoebe. I had already found Eli's sparkly car at Hobby Lobby, but I just wasn't happy with all the "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments I found everywhere. They just seemed a little flat.

And then I found this at Target.

It was the ornament that just made sense. She was my little angel. A sweet-tempered, funny, precious blessing we were more than thankful to have.

The next Christmas was just before her two-year birthday and by that time we had discovered that the girl liked to eat...alot. In fact, she relished it. A cupcake ornament was perfect!



This Christmas has been a little harder. She loves everything "Princess-y", but again, I'm having a hard time finding blown-glass Princess ornaments. She's still just as funny and bubbly as ever, but how do you capture such a spirit in a single ornament? And then I found this.

It made me think of all the times she single-handedly drags out our big step-stool to help me cook and bake. How she always mommy's little helper and shadow. How she loves pink and cookies and sparkles. How we have several matching aprons.

I think next year I'm going to stay away from food-themed ornaments. I don't want her to have a complex or anything!

There's just not another one like my little Phoebolicious!

A Mommy Christmas Confession

I don't let my children help trim my Christmas tree.

That's not entirely true. I let them put on a few select (read: unimportant) ornaments on and then I put in a Christmas DVD and let that distract them while I trim the rest of the tree. I also tend to re-arrange if an ornament needs to be moved. And I never relegated the ornaments to the top 2/3 of my tree when I had crawlers or new walkers. After a few (or several) trips to time-out, they just figured out not to mess with the ornaments. It's a battle I chose to fight. What can I say? I'm a bit of a control freak. I know, it's a complete surprise because I hide it so well! :) I don't mind it though because I can pull out my sentimental (breakable) ornaments all by myself and reminisce about Christmases past in peace.

My children will have plenty of time to trim their own tree with their very own sentimental ornaments after they are married. I've been collecting them now for seven years.

(We are having big-time internet troubles here at the Taj McCall. It probably has something to do with the 78 miles per hour winds we had yesterday or the fact that Brad is always messing with the internet to make it work better, but really just results in it not working at all. Whatever the problem, I can only download the pictures of Eli's ornaments today. I'll post Phoebe's tomorrow or the next day!)

When Eli was just a teeny-tiny six-months old, I had a visit with my friend, Rebekah. She already had a daughter and was an old pro at this "tradition-making" thing. Every year, she bought her daughter an ornament and when she got married, Rebekah was going to package them all up and give them to her as wedding present. (I know it's not revolutionary...thousands of you do this very same thing, but it was a brilliant idea to this new mama!)

So I went out and bought this precious little snowman.

It made me think of the gourd snowman my mom had made for us that made Eli giggle and laugh and sent the rest of us into fits of laughter...enough to make us cry. That first year, I wrote his name and the year (2003)on the bottom of the ornament.

The next Christmas, I found this ornament.

It seemed like Eli's entire had a "western" theme. His bedroom, his birthday party, his Halloween party. Although Brad did point out that it was a pretty sissy looking cowboy boot...but it matched my tree and that's what was important!

I added this one the next year.

Oh, how I miss this sweet, precious baby! I'm afraid he's been replaced with a long-legged, skinny boy.

The next two years were all about cars.

>
When I found the second, "sparkly" car, I made the decision to make all the ornaments on my tree try to be blown-glass. I've collected a few vintage ornaments (and quite few reproductions) and these seem to give my tree a bit of cohesiveness. Although there are a fair share of homemade ornaments on there, as well. :)

The Christmas of 2008 was marked by his fascination with Elvis. Well, that and the fact that Eli is just a little bit rock n' roll!

He gets that from his Nena!

This year, our biggest thing has been starting Kindergarten. (And I haven't been able to find a blown-glass, "sparkly" Star Wars ornament. I'm keeping my eyes peeled, though!) I thought this little school house was just perfect.


And what am I going to do when I give all my ornaments away to my future daughter-in-law and son-in-law?

Buy all new ornaments that match, of course.

And then hire someone to decorate my tree!

Look What's Under My Christmas Tree!

"All for me! All for me!
That is all the beauty of the Christmas tree!"

Family lore has it that one of my mom's cousins sang this little song in an elementary school program and everyone thought it was so clever, we've all been singing it ever since. Except that I only know those two lines.

And while Phoebe is not thinking that ALL the presents are for her (although Eli claims that they are), she asks no less than 23 times a day, "Time to open presents now?" Two-year-olds don't have a very good concept of time...or patience...or the joy of anticipation.


And, really, aren't these presents just too pretty not to open?

On The Second Day of Christmas...

On the second day of Christmas
I thought my stairs looked bare,
So I made these cones
To "fancy" up my stair!

Eli has been making his bed for about 2 years now. It was the first "real" chore I assigned him and my standards were pretty low. He's gotten much better (and his bed has gotten smaller) s0 my standards have gotten higher. Soon after we moved, and he had done an especially good job on his bed-making, he told me that it "looked like a magazine." We both knew exactly what he meant and a phrase was coined. He even told his dad that mom likes it best when his bed looks like it came out of a magazine. When he does a really great job, I tell him it looks just like a magazine. When he's kind of sloppy and in a hurry, I ask him if he's ever seen a bed like this in a magazine. It's our little code.

And it got me thinking. Why did Eli think I wanted my house to look like a magazine? Could it have something to do with the fact that I have four "home" magazine subscriptions? Or maybe because all my old Mary Englebreit magazines are organized by season in my attic? Maybe it's the giddy squeals of joy I emit when I find the latest Southern Living in the mailbox? Or maybe the way I curl up with Country Living and a hot cup of coffee? Whatever the reason, my boy knows his stuff! I do love me some magazine inspiration (even though there are never legos on the floors of the magazine or noodles from a noodle tub in the pantry).

So last week, I spied a lovely home in Birmingham in my December issue of Southern Living.Check out page 122, if you've got one. (Here's where my random, albeit endearing, story about Eli plays into my crafting song. Aren't you glad you stayed with me this long?) On the banister the homeowners had some grapevine cones tied to their garland...very similar to the one I had wrapped around my banister! Except that mine has lights. I thought it was it just what my staircase needed. So after a trip to Hobby Lobby (my heavens, was that place busy!!), I came home and assembled my very own staircase cones. They took about 15 minutes apiece and look so sparkly and festive...my two favorite holiday themes!

It's not a great picture, I know, but since it's the second craft project, I thought you needed to see two crafts. Get it? How do you like the way I covered up the cord from my lit garland? It was all I could think of short of moving electrical outlets and Brad told me that was out of the question. He's such a Grinch.

How about you? Anything inspire you to get the creative juices flowing? (We all know that all good ideas are stolen, not invented!)

Our Very Own Elf On The Shelf

Last Christmas, I discovered this little guy about a week before Christmas Day. I knew it was too late to invite him to our house that year, so I eagerly awaited this year to unleash our little guy and read the book. (I have since heard about a family who's elf is waiting for them when they get home after Thanksgiving. Next year, folks, next year!)

The other night as we read the book, I'm not sure the children actually understood. Despite the fact that our elf was sitting in the same room, they did not spot him. He's a tricky little elf and an expert hider! The next morning at breakfast, Jack B. Nimble had hidden himself in a saucepan hanging from my sled/pot rack where he wouldn't be missed. Eli named him Jack B. Nimble because, as you all know, Jack B. Nimble is super-fast and only super-fast elves can make it to the North Pole and back in one night. Eli told me that "B" was his middle name (not just a verb)...just like my Grandfather who has the same middle name! For real. Phoebe's elf name suggestions were a bit unhelpful. Pink. Two. Five. She's a practical little thing, isn't she? When Eli saw him over his bowl of cereal, he said, "He looks fake. (Long pause to consider the ramifications of accusing an agent of Santa as being an impostor) But I believe him anyway!" Phoebe slept in a little so she didn't see him until Eli had already left for school. It produced a long, in-depth conversation about what Jack did and why he was there and the general outline of the book he brought to which Phoebe then asked, "Did you get him at Target?"

I didn't realize I was raising such cynics.

This mama is hoping that the magic of the season will over take my sweet little darlings and visions of sugarplums will soon be dancing in their heads. In the meantime, Jack is going to have to get extra-creative in his hiding places because I'm not certain curious little hands won't just pull him down and investigate.



Then again nobody messes with Santa's goodwill...or his spy!

J-I-N-G-L-E Bells!

Tis the season for me to play dress-up in our holiday clothes everyday, have daily mini-photo sessions, and revel in the fact that I have a precious little girl who doesn't have an opinion on what she's going to wear yet!

Seriously, it's so much fun. What am I going to do when she shakes her curls at me and refuses to wear a bow...or pettiskirts...or red cowboy boots?!









It's too bad Phoebe's not a ham, isn't it? :)