Christmas

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Friday Randomosity: Holiday Detritus Edition

It’s Friday, my house is a mess, there are wrapping paper scraps literally everywhere (LEO), I have overcommitted to Fun Things that currently feel less like fun and more like stress, so let’s get into some bullets.

* In addition to overcommitting to Fun Things, Past Me also apparently set up eight thousand appointments for the weeks leading up to Christmas. Last week was the dentist which led to yesterday’s repeat visit so I could get a filling. After several teeth extractions as a child, and a lifelong issue with getting properly numb from anesthetic, I get severe anxiety about going to the dentist. Yesterday was no exception. I hadn’t had a filling in decades, and all I could think about was getting those huge, painful shots in my mouth. Now that I am a grownup, I understand that it’s okay to TELL THE DENTIST a) that I am anxious, b) I have trouble getting numb, and c) WHEN I AM IN PAIN. Either dental practices have dramatically improved since I was a kid, or my childhood dentist was not very good (or some combination of the two), but my filling experience was as good as could be. The shots hurt, but they weren’t as unbearable as I remember, and it took the dentist maybe ten minutes to remove the cavity. The rest of my time in the chair was with the Filling Specialist. The worst part about the experience (outside of the anticipatory anxiety) was the music. They turned on some instrumental Christmas music which turned out to be an epic rendition of “Jingle Bells” that lasted the entire forty-five minutes I was in the chair. That is too much “Jingle Bells.” Way, way too much.

* Most of my holiday gift-buying is complete; my husband and I have a date this weekend to go shopping in an actual physical mall to find the final couple of items on our list. So now I am turning my attention to the monetary gifts we give out every year: sports coaches, tutors, special teachers, mail person, trash collection, hair stylist, housecleaner. But I am – as usual – dithering about amounts. The mail person and trash collectors are easy, because I just give them gift cards in the $10-$20 range. Others feel less simple. Usually, like for the hair stylist or the housecleaner, I give what amounts to double their normal fee. But this year, my daughter started seeing my hair stylist, too, so I suppose I should combine our typical appointment costs and give that? Also, for the first time ever, my hair stylist has had the same assistant working with her for the last three or four times I’ve gotten my hair cut and colored. Do I give the assistant a separate gift, or does my hair stylist give her a portion of whatever she gets? And, if the latter, do I need to bump up the gift a bit to account for whatever she distributes to others? The other thing that’s stumping me is people whose normal fees are weird numbers. Like if your normal fee is $35, then I would give you a $35 gift. But $35 seems like a weird amount for a gift, doesn’t it? Should I just round up to $50? But that’s a BIG roundup. If your normal fee is $90, somehow $100 seems like a much nicer gift than simply doing an extra $90. I am overthinking this, right? But what would you do?

* By the way, if you have a Trader Joe’s near you, mine has an assortment of cute holiday cards for ninety-nine cents apiece (a STEAL for any card, let alone a cute one). I bought a big handful of these cards to accompany the money gifts.

* Should I get bangs? This feels like a non-sequitur, but I was just thinking about my hair stylist and how last time I visited her, we briefly discussed Forehead Minimization Tactics, and she said she thinks I would look good with bangs. I haven’t had bangs since elementary school. I don’t think I could DEAL with bangs, honestly. But also, more and more lately, I have been staring at the immense freckled and beginning to crepe expanse of my forehead with despair.

* Speaking of despair, I have a Fancy Event coming up in January and I need Fancy Clothes to match. I’ve been looking at dresses for months now, refusing to try anything on, hoping that I would somehow magically shrink to fit one of the many many beautiful dresses I already own and have kept lo these many years. And now the time has come when I have to face reality and buy a new dress. Nordstrom has a bunch of dresses I’ve had in my digital shopping cart for awhile. I really like this one; it’s fancy, the fit-and-flare style typically looks okay on me, it’s not too short. I don’t love the straps, though; I feel as though my bare shoulder days are behind me. Also, it’s more than I’d like to spend on a dress I may wear ONCE. But then again, maybe if I buy a higher quality dress, it will fit me better? This one is pretty, and has sleeves. I like the color, the price is decent. It also looks itchy, and maybe too short. I love the look of this one – I swoon for a navy dress – and it also has sleeves. And it’s VERY on sale. But is the neckline too restrictive? Does it read too youthful for a middle-aged mom? I like the look of this one, and it looks elegant and very comfortable. The pattern is not exactly my typical style, and I’m worried it’s slightly too casual for an event with cocktail attire. Which one would you suggest I try? I’m toying with buying all of them, trying them on, and returning three. I’ve done that before, but it always makes me nervous.

* This is kind of a dumb, low-stakes question, but what is the protocol for food procurement when you’re meeting someone? I met a friend at a bakery the other day. I wasn’t sure when she would arrive, and she had declined my offer to get her something, so I ordered my little pastry and drink and was standing in line to pay when she got there. But then it felt awkward, like I hadn’t waited for her? Standing in the bakery without buying anything would have felt awkward, too, though. I can also imagine grabbing a table, waiting for her, then going to place our orders together, and feeling awkward about THAT. (There is something unbearable to me about paying for something for myself and NOT for the other person.) Clearly I will just feel awkward about anything and everything.

* Here’s another dumb thing I am feeling awkward about. As I mentioned, my husband and I are going to The Mall this weekend. I rarely go to malls, but I realized we will be in the proximity of several stores that have something I want very badly: a cake stand with a dome. The thing is, I put this on my Christmas wish list that my husband sends around to all his family members, so there is a chance I might be getting one for Christmas. I don’t think anyone (except perhaps one person) who takes part in this gift-list-sharing process really feels like the items are Must Buys, they are more like suggestions. Plus, we haven’t received any gifts addressed to me at all. So it’s a small chance, but it’s still a chance. But… should I take advantage of being in The Mall and just buy myself a cake stand??? This one is kind of exactly what I’d envisioned, and it’s on sale. Or this one is so simple and elegant. I like this one, too, with the marble base. I should just wait until after Christmas, right? I should just wait.

* Leo is loving Christmas. Or hating it, it’s kind of difficult to distinguish between the two. I made the mistake of bragging to Elisabeth recently that I make my own bows out of wrapping paper. I do do that; it’s fun and the results are cute, but they take FOREVER to make. And, of course, Leo thinks they are for his personal entertainment. Or he takes them as a threat to the safety of his home and targets them for immediate destruction. Hard to say. Pride goeth before the fall and all that, I guess.

All right, that’s all I’ve got this morning. I have a Fun Thing today, plus cleaning, plus at some point I still need to address and mail our holiday cards.

What’s on your mind today?

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Recipe Report, Holiday Status, and, Sigh, Dinners This Week

Oh yes, it is Monday already THE EIGHTH OF DECEMBER, why does time behave the way it does? (I read an article recently about time that made my head spin but kind of addressed this very thing, in case you are interested.)

Let’s see. I wanted to update you on the cheesecake I made for Thanksgiving. I used the America’s Test Kitchen recipe and followed it to the letter, except I used gingersnaps for the crust instead of graham crackers. First of all, my oven WOULD NOT HOLD A TEMPERATURE. So I may have used the broil function to bring it up to the appropriate level… and then the top of the cheesecake got a little broily. Then, the recipe said to remove the cheesecake when the center registered 160 degrees F, and it NEVER DID. I finally removed it after A Very Long Time, and, predictably, the cheesecake was very dry. My parents were gracious about it, and ate every bite, but it was not my finest hour.

I did also make a back-up apple cake, and THAT was a bust because the alcohol flavor did not cook out and it tasted unpleasantly of rum. Sigh.

The pumpkin caramel sauce was, however, delicious, and really helped with the dry crumbly cheesecake.

I also made a delicata squash recipe, in an effort to recreate my delightful in-restaurant first experience with delicata squash. It was a bit fussy, the recipe (and I omitted the parsley because blech), with lots of steps and chopping and whipping… but the end result was quite yum. I think the whole thing could have used a bit more acid – even with the pomegranate seeds I added. I will definitely make this kind of squash again, though.

How are you feeling, holiday-wise? Did you know that Hanukkah starts THIS WEEK? We don’t really do a whole lot for Hanukkah, besides opening a present on the first night, eating Trader Joe’s latkes, and lighting the menorah. I picked up some gelt and a giant chocolate coin from Trader Joe’s, though, and I remembered to buy candles for the menorah when I was at Michael’s. The list price was something like $16.99, which seemed EGREGIOUS for candles, and then they were 50% off, which helped, but still felt pricy. But I don’t think we have a present for the kiddo yet? Is that possible??? Maybe I will requisition one of her Christmas gift books and use that. Goodness knows she will get PLENTY of gifts this season, even though I keep fretting that we haven’t gotten her anything FUN.

Speaking of gifts: a) I LOVED Swistle’s take on Christmas for the non-religious among us. Whenever my kid has gotten too carried away by the gift aspect of the holiday, I’ve said something like, “Gifts are not the reason for Christmas.” But then it seems like the correct follow-up is some stuff about Jesus, when really, we don’t DO a whole lot with Jesus in our family. I grew up Christian, but I’ve always been pretty agnostic, and then I married a half-Jewish guy who believes in science over religion, so I’ve always felt a little at sea with the whole “what does Christmas MEAN” thing. With Carla, I’ve usually defaulted to things like “it’s about being together with people you love” and “it’s about thinking of others instead of yourself.” But I’ve never really been able to explain why the season feels important and special despite our mostly-secular take on it. Swistle said it so well, in the words I would have wanted to use had I Swistle’s wisdom and eloquence.

Well, that list item got a little out of hand so let’s regroup. We were speaking of gifts, and we are at b): I think I am pretty well done with the gift buying portion of holiday prep. There’s one thing left to get my dad, but beyond that I think everyone is accounted for. Does my husband have enough stocking stuffers? Hmm. I need to think about that. The next BIG task is to wrap everything and mail all the things to our out of town loved ones. And, of course, some of those things have yet to arrive, which is a little panic-inducing.

In other holiday status news, our tree is up and Leo seems interested but not to the point of leaping on it. We have been taking a staggered approach to putting ornaments on the tree, and so far he has been more interested in the part where we hang ornaments on the tree than the part where the ornaments are already hanging on the branches.

“Just admiring the tree from this vantage point, not contemplating how best to climb it.”

I ordered our holiday cards last week and am anxiously awaiting their arrival. I probably need stamps and should go take care of that. My husband and I have not yet gone through the Christmas list to update addresses; we need to tackle that next.

We are also at that point in the holiday season where boxes seem to be arriving on our doorstep continuously and I feel gross and over-consumer-y and like I’m single handedly destroying the environment.

Leo, on the other hand, LOVES IT.

“When are you going to OPEN these boxes so I can BE IN THEM?”

Okay, let’s talk dinners, which I have delayed for 700+ words already.

Dinners for the Week of December 8-14

Are you incensed that we have to think about DINNER when we are in the midst of HOLIDAY CHAOS? How are you feeling about holiday prep?

I feel a little weary of it all, to be honest, and would love something else to think slash post about. If you have any ideas or questions for me, my Ask Me Anything form is ready and waiting.