Holiday Plans

Mr. Fob and I spent our first Thanksgiving in our hotel room at the Park City Best Western. We got married on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and spent a few days in Park City for our honeymoon. We'd planned to go out to eat for our meal, but the first snow of the season arrived on Wednesday night. We dug the car out and started driving, but only managed to make it as far as Alberstons. At least we found microwavable turkey dinners and some sort of "pumpkin cream" from the deli (it was nasty). Our second Thanksgiving was hosted at our house, with my sister and my brother and his wife. They were two hours late because she had just had a baby a few days before the holiday. I was newly pregnant with S-Boogie so they were the first ones we told. The third year we went down to Saint George to spend time with Mr. Fob's extended family. It was a fun trip, but our first time travelling with a baby. We didn't bring enough clothes to deal with the copious spitup, and we forgot the pack-n-play. None of us slept very well that whole trip. But we did play a lot of Settlers of Catan and ate lots of food. The next year we visited my extended family in Salt Lake; more food and fun, plus we got to sleep in our own beds that night. The next year I was extremely nauseated from morning sickness. I still feel bad because Mr. Fob's brother prepared a gourmet feast, and just the smell of garlic potatoes and sausage stuffing made me spend the entire day trying not to vomit. I was crabby that whole week and S-Boogie was sick. I feel bad about that holiday--not my finest moment. Last year we celebrated with our own little family here. It was fun. A lot of work, but fun. I love cooking and I love planning meals. I'm already getting excited about next week. My sister is coming for a few days, so it should be a great holiday. This year I want to try some new recipes too. Instead of pie I'm going to make a pumpkin cheesecake. And I want to try these sweet potatoes, and probably some real homemade cranberry sauce instead of the stuff from a can. Then it can count as a serving of fruit, right? I'm sure by next Thursday night I'll be regretting my enthusiasm, but for right now I'm getting excited about all that cooking.

Then after Thanksgiving we get to start thinking about Christmas. Mr. Fob and I both have nearly a month of winter break, so we're pretty sure we are going to go on another big road trip again. Plans aren't firm yet. Besides trying to decide if we can afford a road trip or if we're crazy enough to drive in winter, my other big dilemma is Christmas presents. You see, I can't think of anything to get for the kids. Nothing. We generally try to keep gift-giving for birthdays and Christmas to a minimum, but I am honestly stumped. They have a bunch of good toys and they play with almost all of them. We've got dolls and doll furniture, a kitchen with play food, two boxes of Duplo, a few Little People sets, stacking blocks, stuffed animals, books, a few puzzles, Mr. Potato Head, art supplies, a small train set, and a few other things. I've tried to build a collection of quality toys that kids can play with for a long time and use their imaginations, and it's working. We have a small apartment so there's not much more room for stuff. We already bought them new church clothes that are festive. I've considered just not getting them anything, but then I worry about what we would do on Christmas morning. I guess we could start a new tradition instead of opening gifts. Maybe have a nice breakfast and go for a nature walk. When I asked S-Boogie what she wants for Christmas, she told me "Play in the snow. There's supposed to be snow for Christmas". I guess we'd better go on our road trip so she can get her Christmas present.

Comments

Zillah said…
You probably already know about them, but there is a great company called Hearthsong (www.hearthsong.com) that has high quality, traditional, and educational toys and crafts for kids at pretty good prices. They have lots of different craft projects and sets for kids of all different ages, and pretty cool science stuff and toys for traveling, if you do end up driving for days in search of snow. If you do decide to get a couple presents, you might want to check it out. I still wish that my mom would buy me stuff from them.
Samantha said…
I know I've raised my kids in unorthodox ways, but we encountered similar obstacles when they were small. We started a tradition where we would buy unusual consumables (things we generally couldn't afford) for their stockings--things like starfruit, pomegranates and ugli fruit, unusual dried pasta, rice or popcorn. We also bought small boxes of breakfast cereal and one year we found small jars of Nutella. One of my kids loves kumquats and brussels sprouts--so he always got those. Before Christmas we would go to the grocery store, let them point out the foods that looked fun and we'd make a list. Then we made sure there was one tangible gift item, as well, (non-consumable) for each child.

The up side of all this is that my kids love to try new things and will taste almost anything. They still love doing this and are old enough that they stuff my stocking with similar fun things each year.

Don't know if this helps--but I couldn't resist sharing. :)
Desmama said…
I'm impressed you can remember your Thanksgivings--each of them--for several years back. My memory blends all mine together, 'cept for the one about five years ago when we had a disastrous dinner conversation at the in-laws that we still joke about (between ourselves and the friends we happened to invite that year). It was so . . . weird.

I haven't gotten any toys for the kids yet this year. I've ordered some more board books for TinyDes, mostly because I love Kevin Henkes's stuff. I bought some read-aloud chapter books that DesTot hopefully likes. I'm not feeling much urgency to get them a whole lot more. Maybe snow clothes (if we ever get snow, that is).

Let us know how the Thanksgiving fare turns out. It sounds like it will taste lovely.
Sir Jupiter said…
Many thanks for being patrons of the Best Western. Inadvertently, you two had a hand in me being able to afford my internship here in Seattle, my furniture and trips to Salt Lake City.

Of course, one downside was having to write "free continental breakfast" 500 times.
Anonymous said…
Okay, I know this is a small point, but I'm still in shock and laughing about your canned cranberry sauce comment. I'm just stunned that you use canned cranberry sauce. This from the woman who once told me that it was the epitome of laziness to make cake from a box or bread in a bread machine! (And yes, I think of you when I do either of those.) And yet all you do with cranberries, is stick them in a pot, add sugar, and boil 'til they burst. Now, I don't want to load you with guilt about using canned stuff or anything like that. I'm just going to feel a little bit better when I actually use a cake mix. Vive la laziness!

P.S. I really do love your blog both for the humor and the very powerful moments.
FoxyJ said…
I think it's partially a throwback to childhood--we always had the canned cranberries so that's my default. And I actually prefer the texture of the jello-ish kind of sauce to the whole berry kind. I still do most of my baking from scratch and I still don't have a breadmaker. However, it's amazing how much laziness with cooking can set in after two kids and grad school. I even did Rhodes rolls for Thanksgiving last year, although I am definitely going to repent this year.
Lady Steed said…
How do you remember so much?! I barely recall last year's Thanksgiving.

Cranberry sauce, not from a can, is great and SO SO easy--Theric really enjoys making it. I think he has used a different recipe each year we have been married to make the cranberry sauce, but it always turns out delicious.

As for the gifts, have you thought about giving them a game? Big O LOVES memory--in fact we have three different versions of memory in our house. We are planning on giving Big O a game called Zingo, which is kind of like bingo but better. The whole family can play, I played it with him and a five year old friend of his, and we all had a good time. I think S would love it, and I am sure when would love having a game you could all play together.

Also, I had no idea that by your cooking standards I was so very lazy.
Earth Sign Mama said…
It is amusing that for all my cooking from scratch, my favorite cranberry sauce flavor/texture is that lump of can-shaped cranberry jelly. I used to bake the bread I made the stuffing from...talk about fanatic...But, nothing beats a cake you make from scratch. Seriously.

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