Memory Storage

Another Christmas under the belt. A success.

Yesterday morning dawned cold and snowy. The day became even snowier, and it seemed determined to bury us in for the duration. As more than six inches of fresh snow fell in our yard, we wondered if we'd ever make it out of town that afternoon to spend Christmas at my parents' house.

By the time we left home around 4, the snow had stopped, but the roads in town were near impassable in places. We had to slide down a hill once because the tires started spinning. Once we were on the highway, the roads were okay until closer to Minocqua, where they became snow-covered and slippery again. We made it, though.

During the Christmas Eve church service, I drew pictures of Lightning McQueen and Mater for Ben on the back of the program. Snapshot: When we started singing "O Holy Night," Ben started jamming next to us, complete with air guitar and booty shake. It's hard to explain to an almost-three-year-old that not all songs are dancing songs.

Back at Nana's, we let Ben and Anna open a couple of presents from family to keep him occupied. Snapshot: My brother's family gave Anna a box of tissues as a present. I knew she'd love it, because she's often strewn tissues around the house like rose petals. Instead of going crazy and tossing them everywhere, she pulled one out at a time and then brought them directly to the garbage bag that was sitting open for discarded boxes and paper. Such a conscientious girl!

My brother Mitch and his family opened their presents to each other. (They gave each other Mike and Ike's ... I'm so jealous!!) One of the gifts unwrapped was one of those new Monopoly games that uses a credit card system instead of cash, and Becky (Mitch's wife), Alisha (their 14yo daughter), Chris and I played until we were near to passing out around 10. Ben and I went to bed while Chris stayed up with a sleeping Anna on his chest. He was talking to Mitch and Becky until 1:30 in the morning. Crazy man.

Morning came far too early, and we gorged ourselves on homemade cinnamon rolls (we call it by the Finnish name "nisu") and breakfast pizza. My sister Jolene and her family came later in the morning. She has a son Gage who just turned 2 a month ago. Gage and Ben were chasing each other around the house and playing so easily together. It was remarkable to watch. I got to know my new niece Mya (she's 4 months old now) while Jo's stepdaughter Taylor entertained herself with Alisha.

We opened lots of presents after lunch and just before our family was going to leave for Wausau. So many gifts. So much fun. The ride home was easy, and as soon as we got home (and retrieved Molly from the dog sitter), we started putting together the new toys. The big circus tent playhouse was erected. I put together Anna's dolly stroller (now we just need a dolly). And Chris started the gargantuan task of putting together the play kitchen.

After no few than 3 hours, the kitchen was finally completed, and Ben and Anna were delighted with the finished product. Snapshot: Ben's favorite task is to wash his hands in the sink. Over and over again. At least I've taught him something wholesome. Snapshot: Ben knew instinctly where the ladle and spatula were supposed to go, even though we didn't have a clue. He placed them where they belong... on a couple of hooks built into the backsplash. We were dumbfounded.

The grandchildren:

Coffee Cake Pancakes

Yesterday morning I had this crazy idea to invite a whole passel of people over for pancakes following the half day of work today. Because of family obligations and the crazy amount of snow, only one family joined us, but we still had a fantastic visit.

I'd promised homemade pancakes, but I'd only ever made pancakes with a store-bought mix, so I searched online for the best recipe. I even stopped by IHOP's website for inspiration, where I saw their splash page feature for coffee cake pancakes. I started drooling.

With a few changes to a few different recipes, I came up with my own version of coffee cake pancakes. Here it is, a double-batch recipe...

COFFEE CAKE PANCAKES

Streusel topping:
1.25 cups flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup soft margarine

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. After mixing the dry ingredients, I used a handmixer to blend in the margarine until the mixture was the consistency of wet sand. Toss the mixture by the handful onto a parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake for 25-30 minute or until golden brown.

I overcooked the topping, so I ended up grinding up the hard chunks in my food processor. I was left with something that looked like graham cracker crust. Right before I started cooking the pancakes, I mixed in some melted butter to make it clumpy.

Pancake batter:
3 cups all-purpose flour
6 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/8 cup white sugar
2.5 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
6 tbs melted butter

Mix together the dry ingredients. Allow the eggs to warm to room temperature. Heat the milk to lukewarm. Combine the eggs, milk, vanilla and melted butter and whisk well. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir slowly with a spoon until blended, but still lumpy. Let sit for 10 minutes.

I used an ice cream scoop to make medium-sized pancakes on a 350-degree griddle. Once the pancakes were poured out, I sprinkled 1-2 tablespoons of the streusel topping onto each cake, followed by finely chopped walnuts and almonds (optional). Flip the cakes once the bubbles reach to the center and the spatula slides under easily.

I served them with a choice of real or imitation maple syrup, homemade hot apple cider and orange juice. Delicious.

I can imagine them with a cinnamon frosting drizzled on top or even whipped cream, but I thought they were quite tasty "plain."

HOT APPLE CIDER

I filled a saucepan three-quarters full with unsweetened 100% apple cider juice. I added 2 tablepoons of cinnamon, 1 tsp of nutmeg, 1 tsp of allspice, and 1/8 cup of real maple syrup. I let that simmer for an hour and strained it through a cotton cloth. Delightful.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Much love from the Mathis Family.

Beginning to Look a Lot Like ...

We started decorating for Christmas yesterday. I put lighted garland inside the arch between the living room and dining room and hung beautiful glass ornaments from it (and only broke one in the process). Chris put up the Christmas tree, including the lights.

While reading FamilyFun magazine, I was enamored with their Sparkling Ice Crystals. They looked so beautiful and so simple to make. This morning, I bought the supplies, and Ben and I got to work.

You see, in my head I had a vision of a winter wonderland in my living room.

A back story. When I was in college, I had an awesome apartment, featuring an awesome living room. I covered the ceiling with gnarled grape vines. It felt like a winery arbor. Gorgeous. When I was going through my butterfly phase, I hotglued thread to little butterflies made of feathers. I tied the thread to the grape vine. The result was a butterfly garden effect. It felt like butterflies were flying around in the room. Beautiful.

Why not hang the ice crystals in a similar fashion? That's what I did. Well, that's what Chris and I did. We'll add more when we get more supplies. I think it's magical.

You may also notice from the pictures that I'm in the process of painting my living room. Yeah. It's taking forever, but it's so hard to find time to paint when the kids are gone or distracted.

My Cup Runneth Over

I count my blessings every day, and I try to live with as much gratefulness as I can muster. Thanksgiving comes easy to me, and it’s my favorite holiday. All the best food with no gifts.

This year, I am thankful for the small grins my daughter gives me when she’s privately delighted. I’m thankful for the wrinkle in her nose and the downcast eyes when she’s scolded and trying not to cry. I love the soft strawberry blonde curls that swirl around the nape of her neck, and I’m so grateful to have her in my life, healthy and happy.

My son continues to teach me humility and new ways to laugh every day, and for that I am appreciative. I’m thankful for his politeness (when he’s not kicking his sister) and his willingness to love openly and enthusiastically.

I can’t talk about thankfulness without acknowledging The Husband. He finds new ways to love me and value me every day of our life together. I’m grateful for the way he throws his whole heart into loving our children. I didn’t have an overly affectionate father, so it heals me to watch him with Ben and Anna.

So that’s about all the gooey, sentimental claptrap I can handle for one post. Here’s a brief rundown of a few of the other things I’m thankful for this year.

– Citizen Wausau and the Gang of Four lets me be a grown-up once in a while.
– Working part-time so I have time to be the anal-retentive control freak I really am.
– Owning our own house where I can paint the walls with color.
– Redemption and forgiveness and all of the other graces you can find around the corner.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

The Christmas Wrap-Up

It's been a season of growth and learning and trying new things. I started preparing for the holidays by thinking that I wouldn't be doing much for Christmas. After all, it's not like we were home for the actual holiday.

Then I put up a tree with twinkle lights. Then I made some ornaments. Then I started hanging cards on the wall. It was like a snowball rolling around until it became a snowman (introducing the Mathis Snowman Collection 2007).

I blame it on the Christmas Tour of Homes. I have so many great plans for next year, and I can hardly wait to start shopping the clearance bins for decorations this week.

My mom gave me some beautiful ornaments for Christmas, and they are elegant enough to stay up all winter.

I'm planning on picking up some Christmas-y children's books so I can read them for Ben and Anna next year. It's a shame that we don't own a copy of "Twas the Night Before Christmas."

Ben didn't really understand the season, though he really enjoyed all of his new toys. This brings us to a new conundrum.

My son turns two on January 2nd. He's getting another load of toys. It's insane.

So how do we separate the two events? How do I make his birthday different from Christmas? There'll be less people for his birthday since we're not having a party (though you are all welcome to join us at the Pizza Factory that evening). But really, for Ben, this will just be another toy haul.

He loved all of his matchbox cars. Now he has more than two. :) His new slide? Wow. Such a versatile item. It's a car ramp and a butt slide. It's a "Wheee!" He looks adorable in his new outfit, and he loves it when I push him when he sits in his huge tonka truck.

For his birthday? The theme seems to be Thomas. He's getting a bunch of Thomas items from a couple different people, and he's getting a Bob the Builder dvd from us.

I never wanted a spoiled child. I have this "thing" where I don't think having lots of fancy toys are necessary or even very healthy for children. Until I was a pre-teen, my family wasn't wealthy. You could call it poor. I didn't get a lot of new things every year. My mom made most of my clothes, and my toys were garage sale finds. It was a fundamental aspect for me. Being told "no, we can't afford that," my mom using delay tactics until I moved on to something else, and learning that life being "fair" wasn't dependent on having the newest Barbie.

Now I have children, and my siblings and my parents are generous, loving people who love to see a squeal and sparkle when a kid opens up a gift. How do I try to instill my values on my children? I can't exactly tell people to stop buying things for them. I'm not going to take the new toys away. Or maybe I should just be grateful that my children get to have nice things and try to keep them humble and unspoiled at the same time. It's possible, right?

Oh What Fun It Is To Ride

"Oh what fun it is to ride in a four-door Saturn sleigh"

Driving home from Christmas time in Minocqua was hazardous. The roads were slick to begin with, and a lovely blanket of snow began falling in the afternoon. Due to some miscommunication, we weren't able to leave for home until nearly five in the evening, so it was dark when we were driving. Because we are cautious drivers, we averaged about 40 mph the whole way home. Luckily, many of the vehicles on the road had the same idea, so it's not like we were impeding the flow of traffic.

More memories from Christmas:

Realizing my sister's son is looking more and more like a little boy and less a baby every day. He's growing up! He turned 1 in November.

Speaking of Gage, the entire family was shrieking with laughter when he opened his favorite present: a box of kleenex. The back story is kind of self-explanatory... he loves to pull out tissues from the box. He'll keep doing it until he's buried in fluffy white clouds of kleenex. So he got his own box for Christmas, and he started pulling them out with glee right away.

My oldest nephew realizing the hard truths about Christmas as a teenager. Your gift tally goes down a great deal once you start getting fancy gadgets and other costly items. He pouted a bit and fussed because he only had a couple of boxes to open while all the little kids had at least four. I was reminded of the Christmas when I got my first discman when I was 14 or 15. I was mad because it was my only present until my mom pulled me aside and explained how much it cost and that they couldn't afford to get me anything else. Quality costs money, and that discman is still in operation over a decade later.

Realizing that the little slide that my brother left outside was for Ben. I don't know how I can explain just how much Ben will love that slide. His first daycare had a couple of indoor slides, and he would spend all day going down. We are so excited to have one of our own. We didn't have room in our car to bring it down, so my sister and her family are going to drop it off some time today. I haven't told Ben that it's coming, so it'll be a wonderful surprise.

Going "shopping" in the basement with my mom. I got a few more snowmen figurines/dolls to add to my brand new collection. So cute. I'll post pictures of them later. We went down there for me to pick out a rag rug for me to have by my front door to put wet shoes on. I ended up with an armful of other items as well. I love shopping in her basement.

Visiting with my sisters at the dining room table at dinner time. We gathered around with our kids for dinner and had a nice chat.

Very nice time. I don't think Ben understands the Christmas thing yet. I think he just thinks that we saw our family and got lots of new toys. Next week when we have his birthday, he'll get more toys. Once this "toy season" is over with, he might be disappointed that the festivities end. I can only look forward to next Christmas when he might have a better understanding of the season and what it means and all the hoopla.

Jingle All The Way

It's Christmas Day 2007, and I'm about ten minutes away from a nice, long, child-free nap.

Memories so far:

Ben playing with a toy guitar while watching YouTube videos with Papa. He's really starting to vocalize and sing with music. He even does a new dance that is very reminiscent of Elvis's hip gyrations. I'll have to make a video of it.

My back getting really sore from holding Anna during church last night. She slept through half of the service, only waking up midway to eat a bit and then fuss from all the noise and bustle. Lots of strangers came up to comment on how precious "the darling little baby" is. She did look pretty darn cute in her red velvet Christmas dress. A few minutes into the second song, Chris took Ben to the fellowship hall to run around and play on the tables. They stayed there until the closing song. I kind of missed having Ben nearby, but he was tired and hungry and would have been very disruptive.

I dragged Chris out of bed this morning at seven so he could make the promised breakfast for everybody. I reminded him the cook is not allowed to sleep in until noon.

The rest of the family, my brothers and sister and respective spouses and nieces and nephews, all start arriving in a few hours. It'll be a wonderfully loud, chaotic four hours until we leave for home around 4. The rest of the clan is spending the night. It was kind of nice to just have a nice quiet Christmas Eve with just my little family and my parents, but I imagine the rest of them tonight will find their own special joy in the wild and crazy, overstuffed festivities tonight.

Merry Christmas everyone. Happy Holidays. I'm sleepy. Na-nigh.

Who Would Have Thought?

So. Christmas. Yeah. That holiday that I would be perfectly willing to ignore for the most part.

There is something so addicting about collecting and displaying decorations and ornaments. I can't believe I'm saying that. But it's true!

I blame it all on BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes. I posted my meager decorations on my blog, and since Anna was up at two in the morning to nurse, I was able to get my link in the top 50, which means that I got A LOT of blog traffic this week. Over 800 visits. It was incredible. But more to the point, I visited about eighty or so bloggy homes, and I totally got the bug.

You can all chuckle quietly to yourselves smugly saying, "I knew it'd happen eventually."

Since I posted my Tour, I've added some new additions to my house. So, for my regular readers, you get to see a bigger and better Home Tour. Congratulations!

Chris found a few of his ornaments from his childhood (the brown star thing, for example), and my mother and I picked out a flat of penguin ornaments from Target for my husband (he loves Linux, logo is a penguin). The snowflakes were purchased because they were cheap (no kidding), and I think they're a little pretty. For the ornaments that are within Ben's reach, I bent the branch around them so they can't be pulled off.

I made these paper flowers the day of the Christmas tour. I think they are my favorite thing I've done so far. They look so totally festive and happy and perky. They also kind of dress up our house from the outside, which is nice because we live a block away from a big office building, and we get about a dozen or so walkers past our house every lunch hour.


I've had these fake red orchids for a couple of years, but grouped with some flowery picture frames (with no glass and just red construction paper), Anna's Christmas headband around one, and some new niece/nephew pics on display, this seems Christmas-y to me now.









This isn't technically a Christmas decoration, but I just got these decadent, lovely, shimmery throw pillows from TJ Maxx, and they completely dress up my living room. They are reddish, which seems to fit the holiday season. And I wanted to show them off.


And most importantly (and deliciously), I finally made the cheesecake cups yesterday. It was a lot of fun. These are actually my "mistake" ones. I am such a klutz in the kitchen, and I was making a royal mess when I was putting the cheesecake filling in those little muffin cups. I got smart and spooned the filling into a sandwich bag and clipped the tip of the bag. I squeezed the filling into the cups like icing a cake, and they now look too beautiful to eat (but I think we'll manage). I chilled them overnight, and they popped right out of the paper cups. Some light cherry pie filling, and voila, absolutely delicious. You guys should come over and have a cup of french vanilla coffee with me and help me eat these.

PS. I knew it would happen. In April I blogged about a friend from my college years who I had lost touch with and had no idea how to contact again. Since I wrote that post, my sitemeter has logged about ten to twenty google searches for this guy's name, but still no comments or emails leading me to him. He emailed me himself last night. :) There was much joy in my living room this morning when I found it waiting for me in my inbox. Woo-hoo!

Mommy Taught Ben To Be Gross

I saw something gross on TV, and I went "Blegh" really loud, like I was vomiting.

Oh, the things you forget about when you are tired. Ben was sitting right next to me, and of course he started imitating me.

It turned into a family game. Chris, Ben and I were going "Bleeagghhhh" for about three minutes. My throat is a little sore now from all the guttural noises.

I can hardly wait for Ben to do that when we're at my parents' church on Christmas Eve.

In other news, my mom and I went shopping today, and I now have lots of cute penguin ornaments for the tree, many many glittery snowflakes, another snowman and a few more toys for Ben so we'll have stuff from Santa (an el-cheapo train set from the dollar bins at Target).

Yesterday, I was totally inspired after all the homes on the Christmas tour (I think I hit about sixty), and I made some fun paper flowers to put up in our front window. I have multi-paned windows, so it was fun to put a big flower in each pane. It looks very festive both outdoors and indoors.

We also bought a snow globe today (with the nativity), but that didn't last more than a couple of hours. Now we have damp hardwood floors with lots of sticky glitter between the cracks.

Christmas With A Bah-humbuger!

As part of the Christmas Tour of Homes, I present my humble abode's Christmas spirit.

Disclaimer: I didn't do much, but since this is the first time I've done anything for the holiday in years, I get extra credit for any effort. If it were just me and my husband in the house, I'd skip decorating, but the special Christmas decorations seem to put a certain joy in my son's heart. I'm an old softy like that.

The cowboy hat probably needs an explanation. Since I haven't decorated for Christmas in *years*, I owned only one Christmas decoration, the wooden snowman you see in the left of the picture. My mom provided the 4.5-foot tree and the twinkly lights, but I didn't have anything suitable to top the tree. I had an old teal ribbon for a while, but that was hideous, so in a fit of silliness, I put the straw cowboy hat from my son's toy box on the top. I think it looks kind of dandy, an odd homage to my husband's desert upbringing in Tucson.

Ben and I made "to" cards to put on all of our presents. I used a quarter of a piece of construction paper, and cut different shapes from other colors of paper to glue on the big piece. I made pine trees, shooting stars, and snowmen. They added a nice touch to our wrapped presents (which are almost all up at my mom's house already since that's where we'll be for Christmas). Ben really enjoyed rubbing glue on his cheeks.

My son is not quite two, and his favorite toys are balls and trucks. I am not going to set him up for failure and naughtiness by putting shiny balls on the tree. I have no desire to spend all my day putting him in a time out for playing with ornaments. We would also put on beaded garland, but he loves wearing mardi gras beads around his neck, and I know he would try pulling off the garland to drape around himself. Another naughty possibility. I got flat cards full of these little red bows on twisty ties, sixty for three bucks. Ben helped me put them on the tree by picking out where I should put them. Also, I never thought I would put multi-colored twinkle lights on the tree because I find them garish, but in the same train of thought of "Christmas is for Ben", I figured he'd like looking at the different colors. I got one strand of white and one strand of colored. He loves them, and I had to teach him how NOT to put them in his mouth because they are not candy, even if they look like magical yumminess.

A couple of years ago, Chris received the wooden snowman in a gift exchange. I liked it a lot, so I put it in my cubicle at work and left it there, all year round. In those two years, NO ONE commented on how inappropriate it was to have a "Let It Snow" sign up during summertime. I guess that's a side effect of living in Wisconsin. No one is ever surprised by snow. The small snowman lights up, and delights Ben to no end.

Now we'll leave the dining room and move into the living room.

This is our little entry way. Our charming little house has arched doorways throughout the first floor, and I thought it would be a nice touch to decorate the arches to showcase that architectural feature. I found the idea for these ornaments on Parent Dish several weeks ago, and I thought it would be fun to put them together with Ben. That was poorly thought out, since I won't let him play with either the stapler or the scissors. I let him handle the finished ornaments before I hung them up, but he ended up jumping on them, and it took a while to reshape them and smooth out the creases he created. I like the end result, though; I find them whimsical.

And now for my final decorating effort... I pinned up some twine on the wall with thumbtacks and used clothes pins to hold up every Christmas card we received so far. I also displayed the photos of our various nieces and nephews included in the cards. On the bottom row, in the middle, you may recognize our little Anna's birth announcement. Technically, it came in the mail since I had the wrong address on the envelope and it came back, so I put it up with the rest.

There it is! My addition to BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes. Check out her site for many, many links to other homes around the blogosphere. It's been wonderful having you over for a visit. I'd offer you a sugar cookie, but I ate them all over the weekend.

I'm supposed to offer you refreshments. I have Walmart-brand orange soda in the fridge and a copious supply of apple juice. I'm making cheesecake cups for Chris to bring to work this week. I'm making a graham cracker crust using some stale graham crackers in the cupboard, using a Jello no-bake cheesecake box (following the directions), and topping them with cherry pie filling. They'll be in little muffin cups, which make for terrific portion sizes, as long as you only have one. What are the chances of that, you ask? Yeah. I know. Slim. The only thing that's "slim" around here.

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Since I took pictures for the tour, I've gotten more into the spirit of things, and I've added a few more vignettes to my home. You can check them out at this post.

Our Nifty Christmas Photo Card

Like Anna's birth announcement, I designed our holiday card. Initially, I was going for something more elegant, but I ended up with this cutesy layout and font and realized that it perfectly suited the pictures.

Ta-da! They are being printed tonight, and I hope to get a bunch of them out in the mail by Saturday. The envelopes are all addressed and stamped, but I need to go back to the copy place and use their paper cutter to cut out the cards, or I'll be stuck using a ruler and an exacto knife like last time. That was a nightmare, and I cut myself twice.

In other news, I never knew that you would have to hit a laptop (like a washing machine) to get it working again. But I do. Apparently, Mac laptops are made with a magnet that, when the lid is closed, moves and activates a switch that shuts off the power. My magnet keeps moving on its own and getting stuck, and my laptop goes to sleep at random times. Wow, is it annoying. My dear husband will be opening up my darling laptop this weekend to fix it. Until then... Bam. There it goes again.

Snippets

I barely celebrate the holidays, but I find myself scrambling all day long now. I only had five people to get presents for, but it took me four days of scouring the internet to pick out gifts. What is up with that?

I'm still not done. I still have to buy two more items. A Veggie Tales video and a toddler toy. My life would be easier if I wasn't so darn set on getting the best deal on shipping and refusing to pay full price.

One thing I love about Christmas, though, is wrapping the presents. Mind you, I really don't like the commercializing of the holiday, and the "need" to buy presents, but I've always loved neatly wrapping gifts and decorating them. As soon as I was capable, my mom let me be the official gift wrapper in the family, and I've loved it ever since.

There's something so satisfying about crisply wrapped boxes. It's even better than folding the perfect tower of towels.

Here are some quick snippets of stuff going on:

When Anna is lying on my chest, she can do push-ups now and launch herself upwards and head-butt my chin. Hard. Her neck is still a little wobbly, but it's thrilling to watch her get better each day.

Ben is being treated for an ear infection and conjunctivitis now, in addition to the asthma flare-up. This cold has really done a number on him. He HATES eye drops. But his eyes got really gross. Totally gummed up with strings of gunk between the eyelashes when he'd finally get his eyes open. At least there's hope now that there will be an end in sight soon. At least my angelic son enjoys the taste of amoxicillin.

Speaking of angels, Ben is being a pretty good boy around the Christmas tree. Of course I'm making it easy for him by not having any ornaments on it.

He also has started wiping his mouth after he takes a drink. No, it's not that great. He wipes his mouth with the front of his shirt. After every sip. I don't remember teaching him that.

We gave away our couch yesterday. My brother sent out an alert that a friend of his just lost everything in a fire. We were going to bring the couch to the charity warehouse place this week, and it was nice to actually know the person who would get it. My mom brought down an extra bed, and I gave him a comforter and a big bag of men's socks that I had for some reason. Our living room feels empty without the couch, but we're getting our new ones in a few days.

Our dining room bed is also going back up to Ben's room so he won't have to sleep on an air mattress anymore. That means that Chris and I are actually sharing a bed again, which is weird. At least he's relented and doesn't mind co-sleeping anymore. She starts out in her bassinet, but comes into bed with me around midnight.

I'm getting a Mirena IUD this Wednesday, and I'm nervous. Chris is getting his V-Snip on Friday, and I bet he's more nervous.

That's all folks.

Photo Essay: O Christmas Tree

I don't know what sentimental nonsense prompted me to let a Christmas tree into my house yesterday. I think I had this sappy vision in my head of Ben lying under the lit tree, staring up through the branches like I always did when I was a little kid.

After Ben woke up from a three-hour nap this morning (his cold is terrible), we had lunch, and then I tackled the tree. The shaping of the branches took an hour, and I suffered numerous scratches all over my hands and arms (note to self: wear long sleeves next year).

The lights were annoying and difficult. It seemed much easier when I was a youth, but maybe my standards were just lower.

I plugged in the lights before I put them on the tree so I could see where I was putting them. Ben was in love with them, especially the colored ones. He kept putting them in his mouth, thinking they were candy and would taste as yummy as they look.

I think I'll be spending the next two weeks yelling at Ben to keep away from the tree and putting him in time out when he doesn't listen. But I hope he loves the tree anyway and will love me even more because I let him have this experience. We'll be buying some construction paper so we can create some ornaments.

Christmas Tree, Mathis style. The bow is temporary until I find something more suitable. There's a skirt under the tree now. Maybe Ben wouldn't think it was a toy if I didn't put it right next to his toys.

That's a toy hammer in Ben's hand. He was banging on the branches during the whole process. Now we can say he "built" our tree.

Anna "helped" too. She slept through a lot of the tree-putting-up activity, but woke up for the lights. She screamed and wailed like someone was torturing her. And instead of picking her up and comforting her, I took this picture.

Nothing says "Time to relax" like a boy watching VeggieTales. I am not full of the Christmas spirit, so I will now take my grumpy self into the kitchen to bake a batch of fudge brownies. Happy Freakin' Holidays, everyone!

Turkey Day Gobble Gone

Well, it's over. This part of the family survived anyway. It's not over for the rest of them. Those suckers have to move a piano up some stairs tomorrow.

Ben pretty much slept through the night. Anna did pretty good as well. Both of them woke up at five, much earlier than anybody else in the house. I managed to keep Ben in the bedroom until 5:15, but that was a struggle. Once we were out of the room, others slowly started waking up by necessity. At least there was coffee. There's always coffee on in the homes of Finnish people.

Ben had a blast playing with his cousins. Anna wasn't put down for a second. There was always someone to hold her.

Things did get tense, though. A member of our family is on an anti-vaccination crusade, and since I don't buy into that line of thinking, it was difficult for me to keep my mouth shut. So I walked away and washed dishes. She feels as strongly about not vaccinating children as my mother does about her faith.

Once the Packer game started, Chris, who really hates sports on TV, escaped to the kitchen to help prepare dinner. My mom kept privately gushing to me about how wonderful he is.

We celebrated my nephew Gage's first birthday. He turned one on Monday. It was a very nice moment, all of us people who love him so much, gathered around his high chair to sing to him and watch him eat his first cupcake.

Dinner went off without a hitch. The game was still on, so the die-hard fans ate on TV trays in the living room, while a few of the other adults sat around the table with the children to supervise the feasting. It was the first Thanksgiving in memory that we didn't try to all sit around tables to eat. I know it's terrible, but it was kind of nicer this way. Less of a fight. More leisurely of a dinner since half of the group wasn't chowing down quickly to finish and go back in the living room.

Tensions grew high again when we all sat down to figure out how to move a piano. Since we've been dragging that thing around the state for twenty years now, we know it requires four strong movers. We only have two, since we're not going to let my dad help. They were ready to just give up and say they'll just shove the thing in the barn up north and call it good. I suggested we ask the next door neighbors if we could borrow their twin sons who are probably home for the holidays. They were and were quite happy to help for the loading.

I told my mom to get on the phone to some of her old friends up north. Their friends may be old, but those friends have kids. She lined up two more people to help with the unloading up north. Disaster averted. The piano will be in the relative safety of a scantly heated farmhouse for the winter.

I'm kind of sad about it. We got that piano when I was seven. I started taking lessons. I took lessons until my junior year of high school. I loved playing piano. I wasn't half bad. But the piano has always belonged to my aunt, and it was time to let my mom get rid of it. Oh well. I'm sure a piano will enter my life at some point down the road again.

Did I mention we drove home in a snowstorm? Very heavy flurries. Had to drive slowly. Scary to drive in, but it was lovely to look at.

Oh yeah. And I took home most of the leftovers from the dinner. :) Shhh. Don't tell.

Friday morning: Three other things happened that I want to remember, so I'm adding them now.

1. Walking into the kitchen with Anna after I finished feeding her in the bedroom. My mom was at the stove with Gage toddling around her ankles. After she told me where all the other kids were (basement playing playstation), I asked her if I could help. She said no, and calmly explained that there's a fire in the oven that she needs to take care of first. She grabbed a jar of baking soda and after two tries, had the nerve to open up the oven door and start shaking the powder over the dancing flames. Apparently the apple pie that baked the night before had leaked more than she thought. When she was preheating the oven for the traditional Finnish pancake, the spillage started on fire. I started teasing her about how badly things could have gone, and she just said I didn't need to tell my siblings about it. "This is between me and God." Still makes me smile. We still were able to use the oven to cook dinner.

2. My brothers' family has two dogs, Snickers and Mitzy. Ben thought they were nifty. When he was jogging around the house blowing off steam, with every thud on the floor, he was yelling, "Goggies, Goggies, Goggies, Goggies."

3. At one point during the Packer game, my brother-in-law shouted, "Go, go, go, go!" at the running back scurrying down the field with the ball tucked under his arm. This was the first football game that Ben experienced. After that moment, whenever Ben looked at the TV he started yelling, "Go, Go, Go, Go!" at the top of his lungs, whether there was someone running or just giving commentary on the most recent play. I found it unbelievably precious.

Liveblogging Turkey Eve

I don't know why I do this to myself. Away from Casa Del Nana, I'm full of sweet reminiscing of the glory of family time. Once I'm here, all I can think about is how nice it would be to go back home.

The chaos is increasing a little here at my mom's house. My sister and her family will be arriving after people go to bed. They'll get the other bedroom. My nephews will be sleeping on the couches. We'll be stuck in our bedroom over night with Anna because we'll be disturbing my nephews if we come out to the living room.

It'll be interesting to see how we survive the night. I wonder if Ben will sleep at all. He's been having a blast with his cousins.

Ugh. Chris and I talked about how we could easily block youtube from my father's computer. Or how I'd be willing to give up internet access for the next 24 hours if it meant I wouldn't have to hear another child star/singer blasting out another cheesy song in a flat slightly off-key voice. It's my dad's latest passion: to find the videos on youtube and play them for everybody over and over again. Seriously. I'm going nuts here.

We can't disrupt it, though. Chris, the family computer expert is here, and he'd be called upon to fix the problem. Grrr.

This is why God invented alcohol. It's just too bad my mom's a teetotaler. I know I'll look back on these moments and smile. Right?

To Sleep Perchance To Dream

I had some messed up dreams this morning with Anna nestled next to me in bed. (Chris has decided he won't complain about me co-sleeping with her as long as she'll sleep in the bassinet for him for a couple hours.)

It started with seeing gas prices rise to 9.99 in anticipation of the Thanksgiving holiday. People were freaking out, but I was amazed at how many people were still able to go about their plans to travel even with the should-be prohibitive gas prices.

Then I was walking through our downtown carrying Anna, and nursing Anna, and burping Anna. I walked back home with her because I couldn't remember where her new daycare was. Chris didn't believe me that I couldn't remember, but I couldn't, and it made me nervous. Later when she was at daycare, I went there to check on her and take her temperature because she wasn't feeling good. I used an ear thermometer, and the little safety caps kept filling with fluid.

She woke up at five this morning, and I didn't mind though I was still exhausted. Dreams as weirdly disconcerting as those should be ended soon and not revisited. Hey. At least I was sleeping deeply enough to dream.

It's a holiday week now. I remember what work was like during Thanksgiving weeks. Over fifty percent of the staff would be out on vacation. We'd be down to a skeleton staff in some departments. We adjusted our production schedules to accommodate, so there was nothing for us suckers to do. If it wasn't for the lone supervisor per department remaining, we'd all be sitting in our cubicles reading novels or watching movies online.

Chris gets off of work early on Wednesday, and we talked about heading up to my parents' house a day early so we'd have more time for a visit. I asked my mom what the vacancy level looked like for that night, and it's not looking good. My brother Don and his family will be arriving late Wednesday night, which means that one of the bedrooms will be full.

I had hoped we'd have two bedrooms to ourselves so Ben could sleep away from Anna. We could still swing it, though the bedroom leftover only has two twin beds. Ben can sleep in the packnplay, and Anna can bunk with me on one of the beds. We'll just leave the room with her when she gets up to eat and get changed.

I thought about staying down here in Wausau and just going up for the actual holiday dinner, but we'd miss out on so much fun with my nephews. I want Ben and Anna to have holidays full of family memories, especially the glorious chaos of fitting so many people into my parents' 3-bedroom house.

For Christmas, we've already reserved a hotel room in town.

The Calendar Doesn't Lie

First of all, I don't own a calendar anymore since I stopped working. It seemed so foolish to buy one for 2007 since they've already come out with 2008 calendars. A stupid reason, I know. But there it is.

Second of all, once Anna was born, my world has been insulated and isolated from the rest of the world. I stay at home, ready to pop out a breast at any moment, watching her grow and listening to her grunt. Other than remembering to pay bills after my husband's paycheck gets deposited, the calendar date means nothing to me.

The only reason I know it's the middle of November is that they talked about the start of gun-deer season this weekend on the local news, and my mom reminded me that my oldest brother is turning 40 on Sunday.

She talked about Thanksgiving and mentioned that it's next week already. Yeah right. You've got to be kidding me. No. It's true. Next week is Thanksgiving. Actually, a week from today. Believe it or not. The holiday will happen with or without you paying attention.

As I look at my little Anna who seems to have grown three inches since she was born, I'm startled by the realization that she's already a month old. Her due date is Monday. She's about eight pounds, and it's difficult for me to understand that women give birth to babies this big (and much bigger) every day.

The days on the calendar keep flying by, and my children keep growing. I'm left on the sidelines, cheering them on in a sleep-deprived daze and holding on for dear life and dearest love.

I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, my favorite of the holidays. I have two healthy children, a husband who loves me and a house that isn't getting foreclosed. I have an extended family that is growing and loving and learning. It's November 2007, and all's right in my world (except having a baby who decides to cluster feed while mommy is blogging).

Obligatory Halloween Post

It's a day before November. Wooo-hooo. I've always like November. There are four family birthdays this month. Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away. The weather is getting cold enough to bundle up for, and if there's one thing I love, it's bundling up.

When your mother is a pentecostal charismatic evangelist Christian with a capital C, you don't go trick or treating when you are a kid. Halloween is Satan's holiday, and that is not something to celebrate. You don't dress up as scary ghosts, goblins or witches, because those are products of the devil and of the world, and you are not of the world. You belong to Jesus.

Anyway. My mother and I don't share the same religion anymore (that ended for me in high school), but my apathy towards Halloween is easily explained by my childhood. I never participated in Halloween as a child, so I don't really see the big deal about it now. Yep. I'm a big old fuddy-duddy.

Stick-in-the-mud Cheryl. That's me. I don't decorate or dress up for the holiday. In my head, I mock adults who dress in silly costumes for work. But, like my feelings for a lot of other holidays, I don't publicize my true thoughts (the blog doesn't count). I just hang back and find something else to do.

I know. I'm a mom now, and I would be depriving my kids of the chance to be like all the other kids if I don't get into the swing of things. Okay. I get that. Ben isn't even two yet, so I figure I still get a year off.

Next year. I promise. Next year, we'll dress up Ben and parade him around the neighborhood, begging for candy that we probably won't let him eat much of. Anna will sit in a wagon in a cute costume and be part of the fun. I'll attach dried cornstalks to the columns in front of our house. No real pumpkins, though. Those are just asking to get smashed by some hooligans or ruffians.

This year, Chris will be handing out candy at the front door, and Ben will wear his Clifford hat around the house. We have no decorations. I thought of putting tea lights in some weighted down paper bags with cutout pumpkins on them, but the forecast is for lots of wind, and I don't feel like chasing those down the street. We don't even have a porch light installed, so I don't know how the kids will know we're open for business. Ugh. Should be fun. I'll be playing Freecell online.

Interview With a Cheryl

Questions Provided By: Candace and Anna.

The way it works: She was interviewed by someone whose blog she reads. I read her blog every day, and I volunteered to let her interview me. Here are the questions she asked and my answers. If you want to volunteer to answer five itty-bitty questions, just leave a comment or send me an email. I love getting to know people, and it'll give me some use of my almost-received journalism degree.


1) I know you aren't overly fond of holidays. Tell me what you want Ben and Anna to remember about Christmas or Thanksgiving.

You're right. The holidays don't really mean much to me. I've never really gotten into the whole decorating and preparation thing. As a matter of fact, I usually forget to shop for gifts. Maybe my SAHM status will change my feelings about it (not this year, maybe next); we'll see. Regardless of whether or not I ever make wreaths or create a paper turkey centerpiece, I know already what I want Ben and Anna to remember about the holidays. Family. I'm blessed that all of my brothers and sisters live in the same state. As adults, we still try to get to my parents' house for the holidays, though sometimes we miss each other by a few hours.

For the longest time, the only children in the family were my nephews who are now 14 and 7. Two nieces were added by marriage, now ages 13 and 8. Then my sister and I got married and started families. Then my sister-in-law announced a third pregnancy. By Christmas 2008, there will be at least four children under the age of three gathered at my parents' house, creating chaos, joy and lovely memories. We have a large extended family that is totally wrapped up in our children, celebrating all the precious moments, exciting developments, etc. I want Ben and Anna to remember how focused we all were on the children in our lives.

2) What is the most sentimental thing you have in your home? Tell us about it.

This was the hardest question for me. Since college, I've worked very hard at editing my possessions. Maybe I watched too much "Clean House." I don't have a lot of keepsakes lying around. I have a few sentimental items, though I don't know which is the most sentimental and none of them are important enough to me to carry out with me if the house was on fire. I'd grab my children and their most loved things, not mine. I think this lack of sentimentality relates to my apathy for the holidays.

The sentimental items that I have include a framed cross-stitch that Chris's Grandpa Garrett made for us to commemorate our marriage. He finished it about a week before our wedding. Another is a painting of a lighthouse that his Grandma Dixie painted and gave to us as a present. Then there is the framed collage of our first year of marriage. It includes our wedding announcement, a picture of Chris kissing my cheek at our reception, pictures we had taken three weeks before Ben was born, one of which has Chris hugging my hugely pregnant belly, and our first family picture taken at the hospital with Ben all swaddled and wrinkly and cute.

Beyond those, there are some items I've kept from my years as a single girl. A wooden statue of a yogi in melancholic contemplation. The first carving I ever had really strong feelings for. He looked so sad in that pose, I knew I had to take him home with me and keep him safe while he sorted through his despair. It doesn't take a psychologist to realize that I transferred my own feelings onto the statue. For what it's worth, he's in a box in the attic right now. I also have half a dozen 5x7 framed prints of lovely fine art scenes. Lots of soft, subtle colors and happy images. I plan on hanging those on Anna's side of the room. I selected each print carefully because it reminded me of something from my childhood or something from a favorite book.

3) Nursing was a HUGE part of my relationship with my Anna. What is your favorite part of nursing? I know it is early to ask this question but I am assuming you nursed Ben as well. I am proud of you for your determination to keep trying with Anna!

My mom nursed me exclusively for the first year. She always told me that nursing her children was the most precious part of being a mother. She still recalls fondly the soft caresses of tiny little hands lovingly petting her bare skin. Naturally, the concept appealed to me.

With Ben, I expected to nurse him. Of course I also expected to go to full term with him. I didn't, and Ben struggled to go to breast. He latched on a few times, our lactation consultant approved the latch, and his pediatrician discharged him from the hospital at the normal time, not the standard 4-5 day minimum they now have for all babies who spend any time in the NICU. When we got home, we spent a frustrating two days trying to get him to breast again. He didn't. All he wanted to do was sleep. At our two-day follow-up at his pediatrician's office, we were quickly sent back to the NICU to be re-admitted. He had lost too much weight, was severely jaundiced and had the awful label of "failure to thrive." With a lot of tears, my life as a pumper began, and we made the decision to pump exclusively and give up trying to get him to breast.

With Anna, I wasn't going to just automatically start pumping without trying really hard to nurse. Part of it was remembering the words of my mother who still glows when she talks about how wonderful nursing was, part of it was that I knew how terribly hard it would be to pump all the time with a newborn and a toddler to take care of by myself. Imagine then, my utter joy when I not only got Anna to latch, but got her to nurse for ten or fifteen minutes at a time. We've had a few setbacks since she got home, but she'll go to breast at least four or five times a day. I'm loving it. I'm loving the close contact. I love how her eyes cross when she concentrates on a point right in front of her nose.

I'm not forcing the issue with her. When she's hungry, I offer her a choice of positions at each breast, but if she doesn't latch, we give her the bottle. It's getting to the point now where she'll usually go to breast at least fifty percent of the time. I only need to pump twice a day to make enough milk for all of her supplement bottles. Yay us!

4) Is it true? Does your love just grow and expand to make room for the second one?

This was something I thought about when we were thinking about another child and even more when we were expecting. Ben is my sunshine, he's my favorite part of life, he's a constant source of delight and wonder and bliss. How on earth could I feel that strongly for another baby? I didn't worry a lot about it. I just figured I'd deal with whatever happens when it happened.

When Anna was born, I was immediately filled with overwhelming tenderness and concern. Did I love her the same way as I love Ben? No. It's different. A lot of my feelings for Ben involve our history together, how we've bonded over the months, the love and laughter we've shared, etc. It's not just instinctual mother love. I love Anna, and I'm falling more in love with her every day. The place where Anna is in my heart is separate from Ben, so she's not replacing him or crowding him out, and my love for Ben is not constricting my ability to love Anna.

By the way, Candace, you're right about postpartum depression affecting the bonding process. When I had that meltdown a few days postpartum, I was ready to leave. Just pack up my stuff and get the heck out of town. I wanted to leave Chris, Ben and Anna and just go away and not ever have to be a mother or a wife again. It just shows you how much depression can overtake any feelings of love and commitment. My hormones are balanced better now, and I'm back to my usual self for the most part.

5) What is your dream vacation (family or couple)? Where would you go and what would you be sure to do?

In reality, any vacations we take as a family "need" to be to visit Chris's family since they live so far away and have only seen Ben once. We're going in February. In my head, I know exactly what I'd rather do.

Before I became a proofreader, I was a nanny for a lovely family in town. They weren't filthy rich, but comfortably well off and with some family money. Their extended family owns a villa in the Bahamas. They let me and a friend use the villa for a week several years back. It was lovely. Absolutely wonderful. It's a very quiet location, not very public and touristy. Perfect for children. That's where I'd go with my family. We'd wake up in the mornings and cook pancakes. Then we'd go for a walk on the beach and build sandcastles.

The End.

Christmas Meme

Pilfered from Mom-o-matic.

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot chocolate by default. I've never tried egg nog, and I'm terrified of new things.

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Wrapped, of course. It's my favorite part of the gift process, the wrapping.

Colored lights on tree/house or white?
I prefer the simplicity and clean look of white lights, although my parents' tree always had colored lights.

Do you hang mistletoe?
No. We do enough kissing on our own. Still honeymooning. And besides, we almost never have visitors. Impinges on our kissing time.

When do you put your decorations up?
Hah. Well, since moving out of my parents' house when I was 18, I don't decorate for Christmas. I imagine I'll start next year when Ben's old enough not to put everything in his mouth. Then I'll put up the decorations after Halloween.

What is your favorite holiday dish?
The mashed potatoes, I guess. Love the starchy stuff.

Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
The temperature game my father would play on Christmas Eve. As a tradition, we opened all of our presents on Christmas Eve after we got back from church. My dad liked to torture us, so he'd make us wait until the temperature dropped six degrees. We'd be calling the local time/temperature automated system every thirty seconds. It was a control game, but we thought it was fun.

When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
My mother is a devout pentecostal Christian. Therefore, no child of hers will participate in the tomfoolery and sacrilege that is the secular Christmas. I never believed in Santa. Gifts came from parents and friends.

How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
My parents' tree was always fake since my dad is allergic to conifers. We'd start with a base of twinkle lights, add on some garland or beads, and then layer on the ornaments, both the glass store-bought ones and the home-made ones that the kids created over the years. My tree with my own family will also be fake with white lights, beads and ribbons.

Snow. Love it or Dread it ??
Absolutely love it. So crisp and clean and twinkly. I love early morning after a snow fall, and the sun is hitting the snow just right and everything sparkles like diamonds. I don't even mind shoveling. It's like a meditation.

Can you ice skate?
Yes, but not comfortably. I don't think fat girls were meant to skate across an expanse of ice on two tiny steel blades. Makes my ankles hurt just thinking about it.

Do you remember your favorite gift?
Probably my Cabbage Patch doll. We were po' when I was a little kid, and as a rule, none of my toys were new. I didn't really notice, but I really really wanted a Cabbage Patch doll, and they were too new to be able to find second-hand yet. But I got a precious little doll with red yarn hair. Mom even made a cheerleading outfit for her in my brothers' high school colors.

What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Getting together with family. We never manage to get around to it otherwise.

What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Mom's apple pie. I can never get the crust right.

Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
Giving. I very much dislike receiving because I find it embarrassing. Since we're hard up for spending money, though, giving is kind of embarrassing too. I wish store-bought gifts could be outlawed for this year. I feel bad giving my siblings tins of home-made cookies when they got me a cd or a nice sweater or a giftcard.

What is your favorite Christmas Song?
I rocked out to The Little Drummer Boy last night. Pah-rum-pah-pum-pum. Ding. Ding.

Candy canes?
Not a big fan of the peppermint ones. I like the fruity kind. In the holiday season I suck on them as a substitute for the cigarettes I still miss smoking.