Oodles and oodles

Kitchen time

As my kids get older, the holiday celebration changes. I don't mind at all that there are fewer school obligations (Does any parent actually like classroom parties, or was I just a bad mother?)  I kept busy in the kitchen instead. No matter what cookies I make, the little brownies are always the favorite. Sticking a few cupcake picks on a tray of them makes them even more festive.

I had a little party one evening for some of my favorite people - the women who work at the post office, who make my almost-daily trips there a delight instead of a dreaded chore. (Pretty sure our post office is staffed with the nicest, friendliest, smartest people anywhere.) Fussing with table arrangements is one of my favorite holiday activities.

Good use for silverware tray.

Good use for Christmas action figures. If you put them on the table, people can't help but play with them.

Good use (and in fact, about the only use I know of) for tiny Santa mugs.

Where most of the cooking takes place. (Note diminished supplies of flour, sugar and salt in canisters.) I had a lot more on these shelves when I first started decorating. Then I took a lot of it away.

This was the year to let the NOEL people take center stage. There were NOEL people in pajamas and slippers.

And NOEL angels and Santa mugs.

The view from the kitchen.

Even better with food.

Today's the first day I felt that little tug of wanting to get started on the new year ... plans and projects racing through my mind, goals I'm pretty excited about. But there's another part of me that wants the festive season to last. I suspect the holidays are going to win. That's just fine with me.

p.s. Etsy shop has reopened, and everything is 30 percent off when you use the coupon code ENDOFYEAR30. New ideas for the shop are among the things racing through my mind!

 

 

Welcome to the 2012 AOVCOA&S Awards!

Hi!!!!!!!!!!! The last time you saw me I was announcing the date of the 2012 Academy of Vintage Christmas Ornament Arts & Sciences Awards!!!!!!!!!! It's TODAY!!!!!!!!!!! I AM VERY EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE NEVER BEEN ASKED TO HOST THE AWARDS BEFORE!!!!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

(Just in case Santa is making some last minute checks to his naughty and nice list, I should probably clarify that I wasn't exactly "asked" to host the awards. But the founder of the Academy is really really super busy. She's cooking and shoveling snow and wrapping presents, and yesterday while she was wrapping presents she was watching the White House Christmas specials on HGTV and sighing and saying things like our house looked "under-decorated." So I decided to volunteer to host the awards!!!!!!!!!! That's even NICER, right, Santa ???????????)

OK, I'm a little nervous, because I've never hosted before, but first of all I'm going to make sure everybody who wanted a good seat is all set. Amy, Carol, Renee, Jewels, Lisa W., Kim, Laurie, Gina and Diane are right up front!!!!! And I see Mitzi, Patty, Patti, Linda, Michelle, Robin, Maureen, Kathy and JKaye next to them!!!!!! I bet you're really surprised I know all of you!!!!!!!!!!! (I read your names on the snowman post, tee hee!!!!!!!!!!!!)

As soon as Skating Snowman gets to his seat, we'll get started!!!!!!!!!!

Let's meet our judges!!!!!!!!!!!! The founder always keeps the names of the judges a BIG SECRET but I believe in transparency!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our judges are Wax Snowman, Pinecone Snowman and Pipe-Smoking Snowman!!!!!!!!! I don't want to give too much away, but a little birdie told me we might be seeing more of these gentlemen when it's time to announce the best Wax Snowman, Pinecone Snowman and Pipe-Smoking Snowman Awards!!!!!!!!! (I took the opportunity to tell the little birdie we won't have time for the Best Bird ornament award this year. Sorrrr-eeeeeeee!!!!!)

Most Sentimental Ornament

It's about time the Academy handed out an award for an ornament with special meaning, like Martha and Whit suggested!!!!!!! And who better than our good friend, the pink coated cardboard snowman????? It's kinda weird, but the founder doesn't really have any ornaments that came down through her family, because her family still has them. But the founder made her dad sit through THREE HOURS of a really SUPER BORING auction until a box of these snowmen came up for bidding!!!!!!!! Time well spent, founder!!!!!!!!!!

I'm happy to see our first award is a big hit with our audience!!!!!!!!!!!

(If you guys don't mind, I'm going to stop using so many CAPITAL LETTERS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!!!! Because my PINKIE is about to MELT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EEEEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!!)

 best panorama ornament

we cannot even believe the pink panorama snowman ornament got overlooked for so many years if it werent such a happy moment we might boo

super sparkly ornament

ok its really hard to tell from the photo but this is a great big pink ornament with a super sparkly snowman and ruthann wanted to see a sparkly ornament and this is the sparkliest snowman on the tree. also even though we arent very interested in this there is some fancy beaded garland on the right that the founder painstakingly restrung and jkaye was wondering about honoring an ornament that had been repaired so there it is but lets hear it for the snowman.

Best new ornament

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! (My pinkie's feeling better, thanks.) As soon as the spun cotton pinecone snowman in the silver cage came in the house I knew he was going to win the best new ornament of the year award!

We're going to kind of rush through the next 25 awards because it looks like the founder is finishing up in the kitchen and so our next award is the best use of a chenille stem to create a snowman accesso....

 

 

Dec. 23, 2012: Today the Academy of Vintage Christmas Ornament Arts and Sciences (AOVCOA&S) released the following statement: "We wish to apologize to anyone who was offended, confused, disappointed or befuddled by the unauthorized broadcast of the 2012 awards ceremonies. The authorized broadcast will now begin."

Best bird ornament

Despite rumors to the contrary, there is certainly a Best Bird Ornament of the Year award, and it goes to this cheerful and glittery pinecone bird that despite the odds has retained both starry eyes and a complete beak. (From the judges' notes - and we do not mean those three fake judges - Bravo, little bird!)

Indent of the year

The Academy regrets to admit this, but it had overlooked the wide variety in styles of indents. Some are pointed, and some are geometric, or star shaped, or like a flower, like this one. A winner for sure!

Best Shiny Brite

Unusual shape, delicate colors and a sprinkle of snow on top ... this Shiny Brite has it all! (From the scoring sheet: Note also the intricacy of the indent design. Rare to see an ornament do so much, and do it so well.)

Best Merry Christmas ornament

Small, silvery, sweet and almost shy - the little "Greetings" Shiny Brite adds just the right note of gentle cheer. (From the judges' notes: Awesome typeface!)

 Friends, our time is running short, and while some popular categories (Best Santa, for one, not to mention the Best Christmas Ornament Reminiscent of a Joni Mitchell Song) had to be eliminated this year due to snowman hijinks, the Academy does not really disagree with many of the snowmen's choices. The snowman in the silver cage? The Academy knew it was a winner from the start, too.

The Academy would like to take this opportunity to thank you for coming, and to thank Brenda, a neighbor from Western New York, for making a brilliant suggestion: Perhaps a special ornament should come with the attendees, as a sort of ticket to the festivities. It is not too early to start planning for next year, or to start looking for the very special ornament you will want to send directly to the Academy.

As always, Merry Christmas, and when it comes to the cocoa and eggnog, please: Drink responsibly.

 

 

 

The snowmen have something to say

One of my favorite places to decorate is also the hardest to photograph.

The landing on the stairs.

Don't think I haven't considered building some kind of temporary platform for a better angle. I have. The fact that I haven't followed through on it shows I've maintained at least a tenative grip on sanity.

Old and new, wax and wood, they all seem to get along well.

There are plans to decorate the shelves with a little garland or trim, and the snowmen might want to say that there's no time like the present to finish up the decorating. But they have something even more important to announce.

Yes, the date of the 2012 Academy of Vintage Christmas Ornament Arts and Sciences Awards.

As long-time followers of the AOVCOA&S Awards - and by long-time, I mean since 2009 - are well aware, the Awards always are held the Monday before Christmas, unless that is inconvenient for the founder of the Academy. (Italics added for emphasis; you can read the bylaws in the founding document here.) The traditional time this year, however, coincides with Christmas Eve. This seems less than ideal to the founder, who suggests moving the time forward a mere 24 hours to Sunday, Dec. 23.

Please feel free to reserve your seat by leaving a comment, along with any suggestions you may have for this year's ceremonies. Should you like to relive the excitement and grandeur of previous years, you may do so here:

The 2009 AOVCOA&S Awards

The 2010 AOVCOA&S Awards

The 2011 AOVCOA&S Awards

 

 

How to bake the perfect spritz cookie

Baking seemed just the right thing over the weekend, in all the weirdness and sadness and the sense that we should be getting ready for Christmas even when it didn't feel quite right. So I baked. It's a comforting way to spend a few hours, quiet and reassuring and contemplative somehow. 

It's not Christmas unless I bake my mother's spritz cookies. Which I probably should call the spritz cookies my mother used to bake, since she is constantly tinkering with new recipes. This is wrong on so many levels. In addition, I have been accused - some years justly, some years not - of being impatient and even unpleasant when I make spritz cookies. Sometimes they just don't want to come out of the press right. Some years I make them late in the evening, and I start cleaning up the kitchen, and I forget there's still a pan in the oven and I burn them. One year I dropped a whole pan of just-baked cookies on the floor. Some years the spritz cookies have made me curse out loud.

My technique has improved over time. Still, the house generally empties out when I mention what cookies I'm about to bake.

In recent years, it has become something of a tradition to make spritz cookies for our friend Bill. He very much looks forward to them. In fact, this year he posted on Facebook that it would be only a few more weeks until he would be getting spritz cookies. The pressure was on.

And - maybe it was dumb luck - but I think I have finally mastered the spritz. I have been making spritz cookies every year for at least the last 20 years, and this was the first that every single cookie came out of the press properly, and none of them burned.

Here is what I have learned:

Do not let the butter get overly soft. It should be just soft enough to cream with the sugar, but not slumpy, and absolutely not melted.

Do not overmix the dough. Stop mixing as soon as the ingredients come together.

Don't re-press the dough. If you have a cookie that doesn't come out of the press right, put the dough aside in a bowl. When you're done pressing the cookies, take any leftover bits and chill them slightly - maybe 15 minutes in the refrigerator - and then press them.

Don't grease the cookie sheet. If you're reusing a cookie sheet for a subsequent batch, make sure it's cooled off. (Either pop it in the refrigerator or run it under some cold water and dry it off.)

It's kind of a science with me at this point.

I don't know if my technique works with other recipes, but here's the recipe I use:

The spritz cookies my mother used to bake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) of butter, room temperature

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1 cup of sugar

1 well-beaten egg

4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

A pinch of salt

Sugar or sprinkles for decoration

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cream together the butter, vanilla and sugar. Add the egg and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Place dough in cookie press and shape cookies. (I think trees are the most foolproof, not to mention festive.) Decorate with sugar or sprinkles. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, but check them at 7 minutes. Take them out of the oven when they're barely golden on the edge. Let them sit on the cookie sheet for just a minute, then remove and cool on a rack. This recipe makes dozens and dozens of little cookies.

Then you can package them up and take them to your friend, and that part is the best of all.

 

 

 

The Putz village expansion project

Until very recently, the Putz village seemed fairly complete.

A little heavy on churches, perhaps - 1.5 for every household - but with a nice mix of sizes and architectural styles.

And then I was reading an article in an old Christmas magazine. It was about Putz villages. And it mentioned a magic word.

Barn.

As in: at one time there were Putz barns. But now they can be hard to find.

I assumed this had to be true, since I had never seen one. And since I had a vacation day, I decided to build one.

It took me all day. By all day, I mean from the last half-hour of "Morning Edition" to the beginning of "All Things Considered," for those of you who measure time by the NPR schedule.

To make your own Putz barn, you will need to draw a pattern for the barn and a roof. You will need cardboard, corrugated scrapbook paper, an old box lid for a base, vellum or cellophane for windows, paint, glue, Mod Podge, glass glitter, little bristly things for trees, mercury glass beads for the little bristly things, and a tiny wreath. You also will need pinking shears, scissors, a ruler, paintbrushes and an exacto knife.

Also, if you happen to have one, a tiny hen.

Did I mention that you will need a vacation day?

It's possible I could have made a pretty good start on a real barn in the time it took to make this one.

But no regrets. The village feels a little more complete. At least until I hear about some other structure I haven't managed to collect. 

 

 

Dressed for the holidays

This Putz house is my favorite - at least it's this year's favorite.

So I put it where I would see it often, on top of the Hoosier, which is all decorated for the holidays.

Went with a Gurley choir theme this year. The set in the original box was one of my first vintage Christmas purchases and still a favorite.

A silverware box is a good way to collect larger choir boys.

And if they forget the lyrics, they can consult the sheet music - a lovely gift from the lovely Heather.

A few happy snowmen.

Christmas tablecloths stacked inside an old vegetable bin.

And my favorite addition to the Christmas linens collection - this perfect Christmas towel, a gift from dear Renee. The Hoosier is all dressed for the holidays, and to me it's more than a piece of furniture. It's a home to little objects that each come with a story, and even better, a reminder of friendships. 

Before and ...

It was a nice day Thursday, so the pup and I decided to tackle some outdoor decorating.

Carson's job was to guard the lights. He'd already had an exhausting day. He got a bath, which he doesn't like. I call it a spa treatment, but that doesn't make him like it any better. If you've ever bathed an uncooperative 70-pound dog, you know that he's not the only one getting wet.

Surely he knew I wasn't going to just leave him alone with a string of lights. 

So I did a little dog decorating.

He did not resist being strung with lights as much as he did the bath. But he did not like it much. Before long, he was shivering pitifully. He was cold. He wanted to go inside.

I felt sorry for him and took him back inside. I wasn't back outside 30 seconds until I heard the side door slam. That's the sound an escaping dog makes.

He made quite a recovery for someone who moments before had been quite exhausted and cold. Ran to the neighbor's field. Ran through our meadow. Ran through his best friend's back yard. Ran down the lane to the pond, up over the hill and through the hay field, back over to the pond.

I knew how this was going to end: with one of us laying in a field, panting, too tired to move. I so hoped it would be him.

And it was.

I have no photos of how the outdoor decorating turned out because I didn't get it done.

Carson got his second bath of the day.

And so did I.

So many questions

Do I really want to stop at the thrift store this late in the evening?

Is this a good price?

I know I should sell it, but would it be OK to keep it?

Having answered yes to all of these questions, there's just one more.

Multiple choice: What should I fill it with? Egg nog, Tom & Jerry, milk punch or something else?

Easiest Christmas project ever

While my mom and I were out shopping a few years ago, the song "Silver Bells" began to play. "That was your grandma's favorite Christmas song," she said. Although I thought I knew everything about my grandmother - in many respects, I think I am my grandmother - I didn't know her favorite Christmas song. Every time I hear it now, I instantly think of her. I am right back in her perfect 1950s bungalow, with its pink kitchen and candy-cane striped Holt Howard figures, a stack of Christmas albums ready to play on the hi-fi. 

So here's the easiest Christmas project ever: Ask your loved ones what their favorite Christmas song is. That's it. And when you hear it, you'll think of them.

My husband's favorite is "Sleigh Ride." My mom's is "White Christmas." My dad probably would have picked "White Christmas" too, but he heard my mom pick it, so he went with "Silent Night."

Then there's my grandfather's favorite Christmas song. Which I can't imagine you've ever heard, unless you're a fan of the incomparable Yogi Yorgesson. Without further ado, here is Grandpa's favorite Christmas song: "I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas":

 

If I had to pick a favorite, I think I might go with a traditional, non-synthesized version of "Carol of the Bells." How about you?

 

 

Eye exam

There are two ways to make sure your eyes are working properly.

One is to go to an eye doctor and read that chart with all of the letters.

The other is to go to a fairly large thrift store with aisles so narrow and crowded that they are fairly impassable. From your spot midway through the menswear, look at the far wall where the linens are located and try to see if there is anything worth a closer look.

If you see this tablecloth, your vision is fine, and you should proceed first to the linens, then to the checkout.

Once home, review the results of previous eye exams.

Conclude that your peepers are working fine, and continue with household duties such as washing the vintage Christmas tablecloth collection, even though supposedly higher priority items have not yet been laundered.

 Iron, fold and stack. Remember: Eye exams are important to your overall health. Make sure to get at least one every year. During the Christmas season, weekly exams may be advisable.