i forgot to post the halloween outfit pictures, too

so pretend this post is dated october 31. happy halloween!

i forgot to post the raking the leaves pictures

so pretend this post is dated, like, november 4.

christmas traditions: part 3 of a 1 part series

i seriously didn't intend to start writing this much about christmas, but maybe a topical assignment was just the thing i needed to jump-start me back into this blog.

one of the most important christmas traditions in our house is not one of my favorites--but it's still one of the most important.

as most of you know, we have a split household. princess lives with us half the time, and with her mom half the time. the three of us (me, J, and princess's mom) work very, very hard to ensure that princess has a seamless transition between households. we share duties with regard to her activities, we communicate, we modify the visitation schedule liberally to accommodate each other's activities, family functions, and princess's needs. which is not to say that there aren't times that we argue, but we try to never let princess see it. ever.

even though they split up when princess was only 2 years old, she has a hard time with her parents being divorced. her 1st grade teacher actually brought this up a few months ago at parent/teacher conferences, and we were all astonished since the three of us are the MODEL of a successful co-parenting situation. but when you think about it, it makes sense that because she sees us all getting along so well that it would make perfect sense that Mommy and Daddy and Stepmommy and Princess and Kitten should all just live in one house together. i think if she saw J and her mom actually fighting, it would ironically be easier for her to grasp.

at any rate, as with any divorced household, holidays have to be split. with princess, every year one parent has her for christmas eve and morning, and the other parent gets her on christmas morning and has her christmas day.

ever since my first christmas with J, we've had a tradition where Princess's mom comes over on Christmas morning after we've exchanged gifts, either to pick up or drop off Princess, and has breakfast with us.

i'm not gonna kid you. do i want to have breakfast on christmas morning with my husband's ex-wife every year? yeah, not really. i mean, i like the woman, but christmas morning is a very intimate family time. but you should see the joy that princess gets from being able to share her excitement over this or that gift from Santa with both her parents for an hour or so on Christmas morning.

and that is what i feel is really the spirit of Christmas. setting everything else aside and giving your loved ones joy. not stuff, but joy.

and with that, i will step down from my tinsel-trimmed soapbox.

more traditions

thinking more about christmas traditions, another one of my favorites that lingers from childhood is my mom's party mix. you know, good ol' chex mix. my mom makes a crazy mean batch of party mix and everyone always wants a bag. she's famous for it in our family, and it disappears fast. you have to get there early and hide a bag of it in your purse.

i remember the party-mix-making-night when i was a kid. a few days before christmas, usually on a friday or saturday night, mom and dad would set up shop in the kitchen and make a massive batch of party mix. we're talking 5 or 6 boxes of cereal, plus tons of pretzels and nuts, many many baking sheets. mom would melt an obscene amount of butter in the microwave and she and dad stood at the bar, adding dashes of worchestershire, seasoning salt, and tabasco until it was juuuuust right. then mom would bake batches all evening long. toward the end she'd spike up the rest of the butter with a bunch of extra tabasco and make spicy batches for my dad and uncle russell. by the time she was done, you couldn't walk past the oven without your eyes watering.

christmas memories are very sensory for me. when i think about the things that really mean "christmas" to me, i think about karen carpenter on the stereo and spicy cereal on my tongue, the smell of beer in my dad's moustache as he kissed me goodnight and the feel of my mom's smooth, cool hands on my chapped cheeks.

it's influenced the way i celebrate christmas in my house, and the way i create traditions with the girls. i don't care about ornaments like jake does. he wants to keep every single little paper ornament the girls have ever come home from school with, and i'm not big on that. i can take them or leave them. jake is sentimental about those things, and that's fine, but after the fire i completely lost my ability to be attached to things--which is a point of contention in our household as i am constantly throwing things away.

but what you will find is a house full of the sounds and smells of christmas. instead of coming home from school and work and turning on the TV, i throw in christmas cds to listen to all evening long. cinnamon and vanilla scented candles burn virtually nonstop this time of year. i've been baking cinnamon rolls like crazy and i can't wait to start on gingerbread men.

these are thing, i feel, that the girls will be able to carry with them for the rest of their lives when christmas comes around, after i am gone. not the baubles and bows, but the tastes and the sounds.

traditions

my friend maria is hosting a contest on her blog this month, asking her readers to post their own blogs about their favorite christmas traditions.

i've been thinking this over for a few days, and i've come to one conclusion: my favorite christmas tradition is karen carpenter. more specifically:

i love christmas music, and i don't care how uncool that is. and when i was very small, my mom had this ONE christmas album, on tape. every december we'd unpack the christmas ornaments, and there the tape would be, year after year. at night, mom would turn the lights on the little ceramic christmas tree that always went on the dresser in the bedroom i shared with my sister. she'd put on that tape and let us fall asleep to it. i remember the feeling of barely being able to contain my excitement under the scratchy blue electric blanket with my pink care bear and strawberry shortcake sheets.

i bought the album on CD last christmas and i play it all the time around christmas. i'm sure jake wonders why i am so obsessed with a cheesy 1978 carpenter's album, but it is THE album that just screams CHRISTMASTIME!!!! to me and gives my heart back a little bit of that childhood feeling.

leftovers

today J came home from work and made himself a plate of thanksgiving leftovers. he sat it down on the coffee table and returned to the kitchen to get a glass of water - and lo and behold, Kitten followed him and got one of her forks out of her drawer and joined him for a second dinner.

oh hai. can i have some?

these noodles taste better on your plate than they did on mine:

trade me forks:

here, i'll feed you:

now i'll feed me!

daddy is the funniest.

by way of developmental updates: she says, "mama," "dada," "bye-bye," "dog," "kitty," "hi," "baby," "blanket," and "uh-oh" (her favorite). she hates bananas and meat. she loves grapes and green beans. she races up the staircase every time i leave the baby gate down. she is very attached to Lucy, her baby doll, and "flat bear," a--well, a flat stuffed bear. she takes her shoes and socks off as soon as we get into the car and throws them into the floor. she steals my cell phone and says, "hi!" into it, and then runs away shrieking. she refuses to keep any hair bow in her hair - she swats at it like a gnat. she kisses smooshy wet kisses and thinks it's hilarious. she has two teeth (finally!) - the two upper center. she points at everything she wants. she feeds valkyrie when we're not looking. she thinks the word "no" is hilarious, and does not understand when we scold her. tonight she was tossing the sorted mail off the coffee table so fast that i couldn't stop the tornado and considered throwing myself on top of all the papers just to make her stop so i could get it all picked up. she loves somersaults (with assistance from J or Princess).

i could go on and on, but i'm sure i'm boring everyone but me. but it's a nice way to track her milestones, this blog. i wish i did it more often.

fantabulously frugal

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