Diary of a Metal Mommy

Usually, I am the Christmas Queen. I LOVE Christmas. Even before it has a right to be there–like before Halloween–I get excited to see all of the stuff going up on the shelves in the stores. I love the decorations, the preparation, the food, the cookies, the music, the shopping…everything about it. It’s the only thing that makes flu season worthwhile. But this year…I don’t know. For some reason I was feeling cluttered even as I was pulling the Nutcrackers out of their storage container. What is up with that?? We have the tree up, it looks beautiful (despite the fact that it is sort of a Charlie Brown tree, being crooked and all…this is what you get when your husband insists on the cheapest tree…!)–and the house is decorated with all of the stuff I love…but yet I already find myself looking forward to the day I can put it all away. I wonder if that has anything to do with 40? When you’re 40, you just want to simplify? You’ve dealt with so much clutter and crap in your life, at 40 you sort of feel like you are ready to cast it all aside and not let it box you in so much anymore? Of course that is a good thing, but it’s not so good at Christmas time when your kids want to put every single ornament you have on an already over-stocked tree, or they think you’re a fuddy-duddy because this year you’d really rather have just white lights instead of the chaotic feeling multi-colored ones. Kids definitely get used to what they see every year, and if you change something on them, it’s not a good thing. Especially their Christmas. At least they don’t mind if I ADD stuff, like the lovely menorah that Stephanie got me as a gift last year. A tree and a menorah! Ham and challah! Yeah. We cover all the bases here.

So anyway, I’ll just deal with the clutter, I guess…what else can I do? But seeing the kids’ faces light up at the magic is definitely worth it, I have to say. I suppose I’ll just concentrate on trying to clean up my own inner clutter instead. Merry Christmas! Or whatever cram-packed holiday it is that you celebrate…

Check us out, we ARE a box of chocolates! Can you stand it?? Kim was worried she would get the same coat as I and did so inadvertently, and then Stephanie boldly went right out there and bought a white one to match us both. I LOVE IT! It’s Charlie’s Angels, Whitman’s Sampler style. We’ve got the dark chocolate, the white chocolate and the caramel. All right, hold it right there!

Our guest Jason joined us for Cosmos and a podcast soon after to talk about Interior Decorating–what a blast! I have to say, I’m liking the Cosmo thing. I never thought lightweight me would be able to handle a ‘hard’ drink again, but you know, it actually seemed to effect me less than wine usually does. Interesting. Of course it could be all of the many snacks we had around as well–nothing like a little Poppycock to keep one sated. We covered all the bases…Kim brought the Poppycock, and I had the nuts. Yeah!

Am I the only one that sees a resemblance to our Feminine Hijinx photo with this picture from Andrew Zimmern’s Chow and Again blog? I think Andrew is copying us. Because you know big-time Mr. Zimmern wants to be just like us Feminine Hijinx minxes. Stephanie is a good friend of Andrew, and we’re trying to get him to be a guest on our humble little podcast. We just may get it to work…wouldn’t that be great?? I recently saw a photo of Andrew in the newspaper holding up skewered teriyaki tarantulas from his television show on the Travel Channel,Bizarre Foods. That would make for some interesting conversation…!!!! I know my first question would be, how in the hell does one eat something like that???

As it is, tomorrow we are having a different guest and I’m very excited to have him on the show as well! His name is Jason Trujillo, the interior designer I’ve mentioned previously here in my blog. I’m sure he’ll have some good decorating tips for the holidays! Woo! Maybe he can tell me where I can find some Metal skull China?

Another year, another turkey. And I have to say, this one turned out amazingly well!!!!!!!! I usually do okay by roasting mine in an oven bag–nothing to complain about. But Stephanie inspired me to be a bit more gourmet this year and go outside the box…or I should say, outside the bag. I followed her steps to a perfect turkey–brining a couple of days before, drying out the night before…I TOTALLY recommend doing the bird that way, if you don’t already. It was delectable! It was a total Metal Turkey!

After I got the turkey in the oven I watched some of the Thanksgiving parade with the kids. (including Digby, our newest child!) That’s not something I grew up doing, but it sure is fun. The hour before the parade starts is almost the best part–kind of like the pre-show before a football game. Talk about cheezy stuff, definitely good for a few laughs. At some point in the cooking frenzy mother-in-law Connie joined us. It’s been a very relaxing, lovely day…even with the cooking frenzy. A Thanksgiving to be thankful for, indeed.

I have so much to be thankful for! It would take up a few pages just to list everything. All I will say is that I’m very thankful that I have so much to be thankful for. I hope it’s the same for each and everyone of you out there. Now go get a good nap!!!!

I did the quintessential Good Parent Thing yesterday and went into Sullivan’s school to help out with their ‘Thanksgiving Feast.’ Is there anything cuter than a bunch of Kindergartners in homemade pilgrim hats?! At Vivian and Sullivan’s preschool they did the pilgrim AND the Native American thing, but I guess public school is just too PC for that. Too PC for Native American headdress, but apparently not PC enough to tell the children about how we really stole the poor Indians’ land.

Here’s our Thankful Tree. One of the crafty things that really makes me feel like a Good Parent. I bought a pot, craft foam and that grassy stuff at Michaels and then hunted around the yard for the perfect branches. You then cut up leaf shapes out of different fall colored paper and have the kids write (or they tell you and you write) what they are thankful for on them. Then you punch holes in them, tie strings through the holes, and hang them on the tree. Oh, and I also spruced it up a bit with some glittery twiggy-type things. The tree’s gotta bling!! It’s a good thing I’m secure and know that my son really loves me, because he mentioned food, his cousins, even his furniture…but not mom and dad. It wasn’t until big sister smugly wrote down ‘my family’ on a leaf that Sullivan decided he should have that, too. I guess I’ll let it go….this year…;-)