Year: 2011

We ended up having one of Caroline’s best little friends spend most of the weekend with us. And on Saturday morning when the weather was rainy and miserable it became apparent that we’d need some sort of activity to get us through the day.

Or maybe just to get me through the day.

So I took the girls to see the new Muppet movie and I might have cried during the scene where they all sing “Rainbow Connection” because I am a big sentimental sap and Kermit holds a place in my heart.

But that only took up a couple of hours.

Which is when I decided we needed to go to Hobby Lobby to load up on some craft supplies. Sadly I’d forgotten that Hobby Lobby isn’t the best place to be on a Saturday during the Christmas season when everything is 50% off. But I persevered in the name of crafting. Just like Martha Stewart would do.

I could lead you astray and make you think it was all for the love of the craft but the truth is we were already there and it seemed pointless to leave. Plus I had a goal. A crafting goal.

It’s like I don’t even know who I am.

If you’ve been reading the blog for a few years you may remember that my very favorite Christmas decoration is the flowerpot nativity that Caroline made at preschool when she was three. Here it is:

I’m not sure there is a more accurate depiction of the night of Jesus’s birth. Look how bedraggled Mary looks. And her hair is a wreck. As well it should be after what she’d just been through. A donkey ride. Labor in a stable surrounded by animals. That drummer boy that wouldn’t quit banging his drum.

Pa-rum-pa-pa-pum.

And so I thought it might be fun to have the girls make new flowerpot nativities and since Gulley is now the teacher of the preschool class that makes flowerpot nativities, I called her to ask what we needed to make them other than the obvious flowerpots.

Here’s the list in case you’re interested. We found all of this at Hobby Lobby.

2 medium flower pots
1 small flower pot
acrylic paint
2 medium wooden balls (for Mary and Joseph’s heads)
1 small wooden ball (for Jesus’s head)
fabric for their head coverings
doll hair (or you can just color it in with a Sharpie)
roll of grapevine to create headpiece and staff
moss
silver pipe cleaner (for the halo)
hot glue gun or gorilla glue

We waited in the checkout line at Hobby Lobby until I thought Jesus might return before we made it back to the car and then drove home with our craft supplies. And a few hours later we had created two brand new flowerpot nativities. Here’s Caroline’s:

Sure it lacks some of the charm of Mary’s wide-eyed frightened look from the earlier version, but it’s still pretty sweet.

And if I’m feeling really ambitious and brave before Christmas is over I might go back to Hobby Lobby and get us some more pots so we can add three wise men and an angel.

And maybe even a drummer boy.

Pa-rum-pa-pa-pum.

Sometime last week P informed me he was going to the ranch for the weekend. Which didn’t come as any surprise because I’ve been married to him for fourteen years now. I told him that was fine with me but I’d appreciate it if we could go buy our Christmas tree at some point before he left and if he’d get the decorations down from the attic for me.

And he happily agreed to both these things.

Which is why last Wednesday was the day we went and bought our Christmas tree. Or as I like to call it “The Day of The Year that Tests Our Marriage and Makes Us Question the Whole Concept of TIL DEATH DO US PART”.

It all began when I called him on my way to pick up Caroline from school and told him I was going to Target after I got her. And he said, “But I thought we were getting the tree today”.

Apparently he only thought that in his own head because I was under the impression we were getting the tree on Thursday. But I am NOTHING if not flexible and I told him Caroline and I could forgo our trip to Target in favor of getting a tree.

So we drove straight home from school, met him at the house and we all drove to the tree lot. I realize a tree lot really lacks the pizazz and charm of a tree farm, but we live in South Texas and that’s our option. We have to buy imported trees. Don’t let the fanciness of that fool you. It’s a lot on a busy street with a festive red and white striped tent and some workers that I think spend the rest of the year traveling with those carnivals that you see set up in mall parking lots.

Once we arrived at the lot it became apparent that the pickings were slim. (I feel like that should be “pickins'” instead of pickings given the atmosphere.) The tree selection was sparse at best and filled with a variety of pine that I don’t believe in. (Not because I don’t think it exists, but because I believe it’s ugly.) I like a Noble Fir. Christmas for me might be ruined without a Noble Fir.

Caroline and P found one they liked and I agreed that it was a pretty shape but it was only six and a half feet tall. And what’s the point of having nine foot ceilings if you’re going to buy some sad tree that’s barely taller than your husband? Caroline kept trying to sell me on the tree and P finally told her to give it up because he knows that I will not be satisfied until we find a tree that might not fit through our front door.

Ultimately I asked the tree salesman if he had any other Noble Firs in the 8-9 foot range that I could see. And to his credit he dragged out three more trees for me to examine until I found a tree we all agreed on. I’d actually liked the first one he pulled out but P asked me why I wanted “a fat shrub” in our living room so that killed it.

We bought the tree and then they shook it and netted it FOR FREE. Oh yes. Buying a Christmas tree is a real bargain. But then the tree salesman agreed to let Caroline stand on the “shaker apparatus” (probably not its real name) and her entire Christmas was pretty much made at that point. She also may have shaken loose a few molars.

It was only after we got the tree back to the house and made our first attempt to put it in the tree stand that we realized it had a very crooked trunk. P met this discovery with some decidedly un-Christmas like words and went to get his drill to try to fix the problem.

And that’s really when the Christmas spirit took a downward turn.

Caroline decided she was bored with the whole process and ran to play with the next door neighbors. In the meantime, P began to drill a new hole in the tree and we had this conversation.

P: “Why did we even get our tree today? It’s not even December. It’s November 30th.”

M: “We always get our tree at the end of November. That’s when we bought it last year.”

P: “You don’t know that. How could you possibly remember that?”

M: “Because I remember you griping about it last year too. I like to have MAXIMUM TREE ENJOYMENT. I WANT THIRTY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS TREE.”

P mumbled to himself as we made our second attempt to get the tree in the stand and I commenced with my yearly tradition of telling him, “IT NEEDS TO GO A LITTLE MORE TO THE RIGHT. NO. OOPS! I MEANT TO THE LEFT. IT NEEDS TO GO TO THE LEFT. I THINK IT’S STRAIGHT. GET UP AND LOOK AND TELL ME IF IT’S STRAIGHT.”

He stood up from under the tree, stepped back to survey it and said, “THIS TREE IS ENORMOUS. THE STAR ISN’T EVEN GOING TO FIT. I DON’T KNOW WHY YOU INSIST ON GETTING SUCH A BIG TREE.”

Which is when I’d had it. “You know why I want such a big tree?”

“Why?”

“Because it’s the ONE TIME OF THE YEAR that I can make that dang antelope look proportional to anything else in our living room.”

And, lo, an antelope of the Lord appeared.

Except this year it’s a Santalope.

Ho. Ho. Ho.

So I was going to write about our trip to buy our Christmas tree yesterday but have decided the pain is all too fresh. As opposed to the tree whose freshness is debatable. But I’m planning to lift it up in daily prayer in the hopes it will make it to the 25th of December.

However, there is still some Christmas joy afoot today. And not just because I was able to use the word “afoot” in a sentence. Yesterday as I was visiting various blogs I noticed that the Nester had a little favorite things going on. Kind of like Oprah but without the free cars or the Blackeyed Peas performing in a snowglobe on the stage.

And I thought it might be fun to share a few of my favorite things right now. And the best part is most of them are budget friendly. You may also want to go check out all the Favorite Things over at the Nesters. TONS, I tell you, TONS of great ideas. It makes me want to host my very own Favorite Things party.

1. ruffled infinity scarf

I love this ruffled infinity scarf. I have a red one kind of like it that I bought last year and it’s the perfect thing to thrown on when there’s a chill in the air. Or even when there’s not a chill in the air. It just looks good.

2. monogrammed return address rubber stamp

I don’t currently own a monogrammed rubber stamp. Because I really don’t send letters anymore. And every year around Christmas I wish I had one and think that I should order one and then I procrastinate and I don’t think about it again until the next year and then it seems too late to bother with it.

Welcome to my brain.

But I really, really like them and Etsy has about 872 million different style options.

3. red letter words canvas

I love every single thing at Red Letter Words. Seriously, if given free reign I might be tempted to just line my walls with all the words. But for now I am just really tempted to order this one to put on my mantel during Christmas.

4. love came down advent calendar

This is a great Advent calendar. Perfect for remembering the whole reason we celebrate Christmas and helping you find your joy and peace after shopping for a tree.

5. hummingbird farms lavender lotion

This is my favorite lotion in the world. IN THE WORLD. In fact our entire family is addicted to it. We ran out last week and I am embarrassed to tell you that one of us heated up the last bottle in the toaster oven trying to get out the last little bit of lotion.

True story.

And it smells like real lavender because it’s made with real lavender. You think you’ve smelled lavender stuff before, but I bet you’re wrong. It’s so much better than all the lavender-scented things out there. They’re all just posers.

Now I’ve gone on and on about it and you’re probably thinking SETTLE IT DOWN, NANCY, IT’S JUST LOTION.

Oh but it’s so much better than that.

6. mrs. meyers kitchen basics set

Speaking of smells I love. It’s hard for me to pick just one Mrs. Meyers fragrance or product because I adore them all. In the summer I like the lemon. In the fall I like geranium. And around Christmas I like the pine but it’s hard to find.

Just know you can’t go wrong. Mrs. Meyers won’t let you down.

7. merry christmas y’all jumbo mug

You know what I love more than a large coffee mug? A large coffee mug that is extra cute. That’s why I’m such a fan of the Glory Haus mugs. And picture frames. And everything else.

But we’re talking about coffee mugs right now. I need a big mug to get the right proportions for my hot choffee in the morning and these totally work. And how cute are they?

8. laptop case

This would make any laptop so happy.

9. baker’s edge brownie pan

Have I ever mentioned that I just like the edges of brownies? I mean I’ll eat the whole pan but the edges are the best. I’ve even been known to cut strange configurations in a pan of brownies in my quest to just eat the edges.

Don’t judge me. P doesn’t even like brownies which I think may be unconstitutional.

Needless to say, my love of the edges is why I believe this pan is perfection.

10. frye jackie button boots

Yeah, so these are a little extravagant. And I’m pretty sure Santa isn’t going to think I was good enough to deserve them this year. But OH MY WORD I adore them and didn’t feel like I would be authentic to list my favorite things and not include them.

That little bit of a heel? DIVINE. The beautiful cognac color? SWOON.

And so that’s my list of favorite things. I’d love to hear about some of yours if you feel like sharing with the group.

This is one of those times when I LITERALLY have not one thing to write about. Or maybe I do have something to write about but I’ve forgotten it. Either way, I’ve sat here next to P for the last hour and griped and moaned about how I have nothing to write about (as opposed to the riveting expose I wrote on the You Curl curling iron yesterday) and he’s looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and gone back to watching the Outdoor Channel as if that’s the most important thing.

The problem is I spent all day at home doing laundry and trying to create an air of organization before I haul out all the Christmas decorations and my living room becomes a study in chaos. Although I did try out the sock bun curl technique that was mentioned in the comments on my hair yesterday, so there’s that. I wasn’t thrilled with the results but the YouTube tutorials specifically say to leave it overnight and I only kept it up for about four hours.

However, I put Caroline’s hair up in a sock bun for the night so I’ll report on that tomorrow.

(I know you won’t be able to sleep until you know how it turns out.)

(The suspense is killing me.)

It would be such a score if it actually looks good because she is in the midst of a hair crisis and doesn’t even realize it. She’s so thrilled with her long hair, but it’s very fine and I prefer it in a ponytail or braids. She prefers to go to sleep with it wet and then wake up and wear it down to school. Which makes me cringe because it is full of crimps and random indentions and OH THE STATIC CLING. The other day it was cold outside and I asked her if I could blow her hair dry and she said, “Oh, I’ll just wear a hat until it dries.”

Because everyone knows that’s the secret to good hair.

But I really didn’t mean to talk about hair. Again.

Here are a few other interesting things that you might care about:

1. Burger King announced yesterday that they are making their french fries thicker. I don’t really know what that means and I really don’t care because I can’t remember the last time I ate at a Burger King, but I found it fascinating that someone actually did the research and determined their fries need to be thicker.

2. Beyonce announced her baby is due in December. I’m not sure why this interested me but it did and I might as well own it.

3. A sweet reader named Whitney emailed me to let me know that she’s selling Stella and Dot Jewelry and is donating all of her commissions (25% of sales) to Compassion International, specifically to their Clean Water, Unsponsored Children and Disaster Relief funds. It might be a great place to do some Christmas shopping and help Compassion at the same time. You can check out their jewelry here.

4. On that note my friend AJ’s organization, Arise Africa, has a Christmas catalog this year where you can give friends and family the gift of knowing they bought school supplies or meals or classroom textbooks for kids in Zambia. You can check it out here.

I don’t know that there’s a better gift than that.

5. Lastly, I am sad (and embarrassed to admit) that I’m almost finished with Army Wives on Netflix. Yet I feel that there are still plenty of good T.V. times to be had, especially considering that we are early on in the hunting season and I will have a lot of time to watch whatever I want on T.V.

Any suggestions for a great T.V. series? I already watch or have watched Friday Night Lights (obviously), Mad Men, Gilmore Girls, Grey’s Anatomy (though I quit watching about two seasons ago), 30 Rock, The Office and Veronica Mars.

I’m sure there are others but those are the high points. Or the low points depending on your perspective.

Y’all have a lovely Wednesday.