Recently in Holidays and Special Events Category

The Fella and I have been trying to socialize more, a resolution that butts up against our natural inclination to hole up alone together in our dollhouse-sized apartment and make fun of movies. The more we go out, and the more we have people over to our dollhouse-sized apartment, the more I daydream about parties I'd like to have:

- an easy brunch. Nothing too fancy, and no on-the-spot cooking: I'll bake sweet rolls and let people help themselves to homemade granola, macerated fruit, yogurt, and slices of cold frittata. Mostly, this is a chance to catch up with friends who work weekday jobs, to show off the espresso maker The Fella gave me for Christmas, to break open the "extra" bottle of champagne my mom casually palmed off on me during a recent visit. (Which tells you something about my mother: she's the kind of person who gives away champagne. Thanks, Mom!)

- a Star Wars viewing party. Okay, this one belongs to The Fella. I mentioned wanting to watch the trilogy all together some night, and he perked up. "We'll have people over!" ....yyyyyes, okay, let's! I'll bake swirly cinnamon rolls, so we can hold 'em up to our heads Leia-style. He can take charge of everything else.

- a birthday party. Can you imagine a better birthday cake than this? Pistachio cake, marzipan, apricot preserves (or maybe I'd use bitter marmalade, mmmmm), and dark chocolate ganache. Swoon. Do you suppose making actual petit fours would make it any simpler? No, perhaps not.

- a proper tea party. I want to unpack the box of porcelain teacups that Mom gave me, make some dainty little sandwiches and tiny pastries, and sit in the garden with friends, all wearing sunhats and sipping tea with our pinkies prinked out from the handle. I foresee only two possible obstacles: I have no teapot and no garden.

What party would you give? What party would you attend?

We had a wonderful opportunity to follow a tv crew and 4x4 magazine while shooting a story in the red centre. Of course I want to tell you all about it and how fabulous they all were, but we're rushing like mad to get ready for our next trip which is 12 days and includes several of the couples from the previous trip. More photos to follow in about two weeks and hopefully I can keep all this great stuff in my head!

JM's dad is visiting us and about to embark on his first outback excursion. Wish us well!

Several of my friends undertake penitent post-holiday resolutions (jog every morning! fit into my high school jeans! abstain from all liquor! elimate all unnecessary spending immediately!) for the New Year. And for some of them, this draconian approach proves fruitful.

Others become so disheartened by their failure to adhere to the near-impossible constraints they've established that they give up entirely, dive headlong into a vat of premium ice cream and bitter invective (ew --- invective is sticky!), and wallow there until March.

I fall in the second camp. Accordingly, when I plan to better myself or my life, I establish goals more gradually and incorporate them into my life, and when I remember to make New Year's resolutions, I make certain that I can achieve them. This year's resolutions:

- find more occasions to drink champagne.*
- sing more. (Sorry, everyone.)
- eat more eclairs.

*I've already fulfilled the first; we attended a marvelous New Year's brunch where the hosts urged mimosas on us again and again. I accommodated their demands to drink. I am nothing if not gracious in these matters.

update, for those who yearn to know: The Fella and I spent New Year's Eve nursing our colds by lounging sedately in bed, him at the head reading and me flopped toward the foot watching season 1, disc 1, of House, M.D.. Then he clambered over to kiss me in the middle of an episode. Only after my gratifying response of "huh?" did I glance at the clock: exactly midnight.

He's the romantic in this home. I'm just the beneficiary of it.

Thanks to horrific dial-up, the e-mail I wrote Elsa yesterday got eaten by the internet and now I can't even load any mail, so I must send my holiday greeting to friends and family thusly. I love you all (you know who you are because I've probably mentioned it before) and wish you happy holidays, merry festivus or christmas or celebratory occasion. It's a sunny morning and there's sure to be lots of swimming and summery cheer over here. Hoping you all are as warm and toasty, you know, inwardly. Throw a snow ball for me...

Love, Elli

A snippet of phone conversation to illustrate Christmas giftgiving in my family:

Gaoo: Well, it's kind of a spoiler, but I thought you might like this present before Christmas... I bought you a tin of yeast*.
Elsa: Did you? YAY!

*It's the enormous catering-sized packet of yeast, bigger and cheaper and inexplicably better than I can buy at my grocery. It's a great present that Gaoo gives me every so often, and one that routinely baffles friends if I mention it.

It's odd to be lolling about in bed this late on Thanksgiving morning. Some part of my brain, trained for years, thinks I ought to have spent the past four hours bustling around the kitchen chopping, braising, and marinating. I'm not used to this indolence and luxury.

But I could get used to it.

I have a slew of nieces and nephews, most of them far enough away that I rarely get to visit them. As Christmas approaches, I'm always casting about for ideas for fun, inexpensive presents, a task made more challenging by the distance: I'm not clued in to their crazes of the moment, and I don't know what they already have. This demands creativity.

I detailed some of my more successful handmade or creative kid-gifts in response to the question "What are good cheap gifts for kids this year?" and this line from my answer sums up my gift-giving philosophy pretty succinctly:

I like to make as much as I can, partly for frugality's sake, but largely because I know the gift will be unique or unusual and because the kids really seem to like the idea that I've been investing time and thought.

This year as last year, the two older boys (Thing One and Thing Two) are proving the toughest to figure out. Last year, I had the perhaps brilliant (perhaps misguided) idea of making book safes, which I then loaded with candy, dollar-bill rings, and tiny toys.

This year, for Thing One, I'm researching games. Knowing he has a passion (and a remarkable aptitude) for games of strategy, several years ago I made him a traveling pente set. He played with it all day, exhausting all possible partners in the house. I'm hoping for another hit like that. Just this morning, his fantastic step-mom gave me a much better idea. Thanks, T!

For Thing Two, here's my best idea so far: a copy of How to Draw Funny Monsters, a set of map pencils or markers, and a gaggle of those wiggly rubber fingertip monsters that he can wave in his sister's face until she rolls her eyes, blows her bangs out of her face, and says "Oh, grow up."

I am participating in NaBloPoMo.

As you can tell from the above photo we’re not in Switzerland anymore. We’re on holiday in lovely Australia, yes, again! Now you know why I cursed long and hard when I hurt my foot (besides the pain). Still we’re enjoying a few tours starting in Perth, leading us who knows where.* So I’ll be blogging from the road for a while with a photo thrown in from here and there to make you guys up top a little warmer. Until the next internet cafe...

*Well, we have a vague idea. Okay, a concrete idea. Still that’s all future posting material, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

When putting shoes on a dead person, it's nice to have one size larger because they go on that much easier. At least that's my experience.

It's been a week of birthdays, goodbyes and few odd surprises. I will likely not forget turning 37.

I hate flying, not like JM does because of the lack of space, but because at some point during the ten hours when I'm trying to get some sleep, my brain keeps reminding me that, hey there, nothing is holding us up, how on earth can you sleep? I usually spend the trip trying to ignore the state of suspension by watching movies and reading, but the last airplane was terribly old-fashioned with its monitors hanging from the ceiling, tiny-assed headphones, and lack of free wine with my meal. Added to the list of airlines I will never fly again are KLM and American Airlines. Continental may be cutting back on their services (where's my warm, moist washcloth?) but at least I can choose something other than "Catch Me If You Can" while avoiding thoughts about our altitude.

We just returned from our last family reunion for a few years. I really enjoyed the trip and ate as much Tex-Mex as I could, along with two pints of Bluebell Homemade Vanilla ice cream, and only gained one kilogram. Yes! I was thinking it would be at least three thanks to all the chips and cheese, oh and Dr. Pepper.

My German test is in three weeks and I'm nervous, more so than usual. I feel like I'm in a constant state of tension these days what with flying, moving, work, tests, the future and all that entails... but I need to wait a while before revealing that one. A clue: it involves more flying. Egads.