Don — Page 205

Holiday Nesting

December 26, 2012 at 8:08 am by Claudia

afghan

I needed something to keep myself occupied over the holidays. With a lot of time to fill, I pulled out the afghan/throw I started crocheting….well…a long time ago. It was put to the side when I started crocheting all the Obsession Scarves. I’ve spent an enjoyable few days plopped on the sofa in the den, watching The Bishop’s Wife and Meet Me in St. Louis and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (that movie breaks my heart, every time) and old episodes of The Rifleman and The Big Valley.

This is a variation of the ripple stitch in seemingly random colors ( but not really). It’s a scrappy throw for the den. Because it’s so big, I usually leave it on the sofa between bouts of crocheting.

Of course, my little nester had her eye on it and it wasn’t long before I saw this:

scoutafghan

and this:

scoutcrochet

That girl sheds like crazy and everything in me wanted to move her back down to the other end of the sofa. But it was Christmas and, let’s face it, her hair is going to get on it anyway, especially if we use it in the den.

Besides, she’s awfully cute.

I’m glad Christmas is over. It was a long day, punctuated by a couple of Skype calls with Don and phone calls with my sister and dad. I got to say Merry Christmas to my mom, which I’m grateful for. Any sort of phone conversation with her nowadays is very rare and very short – she is not doing well.

I did make myself a special vegetarian holiday dinner: mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy, steamed asparagus, some Quorn (which is a chicken substitute – no meat for me), jellied cranberry slices ( I love them) and my grandmother’s Cloud Biscuits:

biscuits

Ummm mmmm good.

I’m off to run a few errands as we have a winter weather watch up for this afternoon and tomorrow. Yuck. I want it to be out of here by the time I have to drive to Hartford on Friday.

Thank you for all the holiday greetings!

Happy Wednesday.

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A Blue Christmas

December 23, 2012 at 9:08 am by Claudia

sunparakeet

sunlamp

sunmonty

sunrileydish

sunpiano

sunsnowglobe

sunjumpingjacks

sundollhouse

suntree

Yesterday was raw and windy and the cold seemed to penetrate my bones and heart. All day long, relentless wind, which always leaves me feeling edgy and restless. I watched old episodes of The Big Valley and The Rifleman, which I found strangely comforting.

I’m feeling blue. As the day draws nearer, the realization that Don and I are going to be apart on Christmas has finally hit me. Our Christmases are never elaborate, always simple. We are used to being away from our families on the holidays. My family is spread out all over the country. Don’s is out in California. And, though I missed them all terribly, I knew that I had our Christmas to look forward to. Our little nuclear family.

This year, everything is different. There is a place right in front of me where Riley should be resting. He isn’t here this Christmas. He should be. I miss him so very, very much.

We made this choice, Don and I, because the job opportunity was such a good and rewarding one. And I’ve stayed positive the whole time, becoming the cheerleader I never was in real life, saying ‘yes! you have to do this,’ downplaying the Christmas part of the whole thing. But it’s caught up with me. And I’m blue.

That’s where I am on a Sunday morning.

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Christmas and Coffee Cake

December 17, 2012 at 7:42 am by Claudia

The Christmas Coffee Cake that I bake every year and that is an annual Christmas-morning-in-between-opening-presents-tradition had to be moved up on the calendar this year. I couldn’t let Don leave for California without a few warm yummy pieces of coffee cake in his tummy. So I baked it on Saturday, put it in the refrigerator overnight (this step is essential) and warmed it up on Sunday morning. And again this morning.

Best coffee cake ever.

I only make it once a year. We decided it must be this way. Otherwise, it would no longer be special.

The story of the coffee cake: When we were living in California, we used to shop a lot at Whole Foods. (I’d still shop there a lot if one was nearby. Sob.) One day, I grabbed a free holiday recipes booklet at the checkout and took it home to peruse. This particular recipe looked promising, so I made it for Christmas morning.

A huge winner.

We couldn’t believe how yummy it was, how moist (due to lots of sour cream), how perfectly perfect it was. Our annual tradition began that day. Fast forward a few years. We moved to New York. As I got things ready for that first Christmas out East, I realized two things. We had inadvertently put all the boxes of Christmas ornaments in storage (all decorations that year came from the local drug store) and I couldn’t find this recipe. Anywhere. I looked through all my cook books. I scoured every box in the eaves. I looked everywhere. Nothing.

In a panic, I emailed Whole Foods. I explained my situation and what booklet I thought the recipe had been in and asked if they had a record of it somewhere. The lady I was in contact with looked everywhere. She had no record of it.

I explained to Don that there would be no coffee cake this year. There was disbelief on his part. On mine, too.

I resigned myself to finding something else, though I knew it could never be as special, as tasty, as magical. A few weeks later, I got an email from that same lady. She had been cleaning out some shelves and, lo and behold, there was the booklet. She kindly copied the recipe for me and sent it my way. I’ve hung onto it for dear life ever since.

We’ll have another piece this morning and then, later today, I take Don to the airport. He’ll be gone for two months.

Scoutie and I will miss him terribly. She adores Don. So do I.

It’s going to be a little glum around here for a few days.

Happy Monday.

Holiday Nesting

A Blue Christmas

Christmas and Coffee Cake

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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