HO Ho ... ho ... humbug.

This weekend, we picked up the Christmas photo card -- no small feat, as first I had to take a decent photo of three Hufflings, preferably all looking the same way and smiling nicely.  This of course took three separate shoots to do, and the outcome was not three Hufflings all looking the same way and smiling nicely, though it definitely captures their character -- made a list of who will be receiving them (it's an elite group this year, what with the insane cost of stamps and all) and pulled out the recipes for the baking we’d like to do.  At this point, it feels like we’re done, but I can’t help thinking that we maybe haven’t actually sent any cards or baked any cookies.  Or shopped.  Huh.

At least the tree is up.  

Saturday’s fun included getting the living room ready for Christmas, which is a ritual in itself, before the tree even goes up.  This is how it goes down:  First, mandatory Christmas music plays.  ALL TOYS get put away in their designated spot (upstairs or downstairs, just not in my living room), donated, or thrown out.  This is actually a lot more fun to do than it sounds to most people.  I looooove to declutter.  Any non-Christmas books also get put away - upstairs or downstairs, just not in my living room!  The end tables get moved out, the couch gets moved, the 57 toys under the couch go through the keep/donate/throw out exercise, I sweep again and again, and Chris brings the xmas bins from the garage and the lovely, pre-lit tree in its old, dilapidated cardboard box, onto the back deck. 

This year, I cut through the 8th layer of packing tape holding the box shut (it is, after all, 8 years old) and take out the tree, one piece at a time.  Top piece (still on the deck):  shake shake shake, so extra loose “needles” fall out now while it's outside, bring it in.  Middle piece:  shake shake shake.  Bottom piece:  shake sha--- wait, is that mouse poop?  The bottom of the box is full of mouse poop.  On inspection, the last tree piece has several fluffy nests wending through its branches (also full of mouse poop).  I shake and shake, get the vacuum (Chris’ recommendation…which I was surprised by, because he has a very strong reaction to mouse poop and its alleged murderous properties, which is why I refer to any mice that he sees as “hantamice”), vacuum for a while, wonder how good is good enough... when I see a bunch of wires all chewed up.

My scream of BAH!  HUMBUG! was heard by the children inside the house, on the other side of the sliding glass doors.  My lovely tree is not only a hantatree,* but it is a fire hazard.

Vaughn was gearing up to get upset when I said that we had to throw out the tree, but cheered right up when I typed in “Canadian Tire” on the google.  He and Chris went out to pick it up at once.

The new tree is lovely and pre-lit, too.  It's 7.5 feet tall, and combines real-feel tips with less-real-feel tips, but was on sale, and was the last one in the store, so that's alright.

The old tree was dragged to the curb, clearly marked with a sign saying "Please leave for garbage:  Fire hazard, full of mouse poop and chewed wires."  It felt strange to leave such a sign, as most things we put out front are gone within 30 minutes, to be rehomed.  Chris even had to talk a woman out of taking it.

All this to say, even if nothing else is ready, even if the rest of the house is a bit of a disaster, and if the living room has a magnetic attraction for every non-Christmas toy or book to reappear every 15 minutes, ruining my imaginary holiday kingdom, and if we're out of Bailey's... wait, where was I going with this? 

* Am quite disappointed in myself for not somehow working Hanta Claus into this one.

DG Decorates for Dictators

Little dictators, that is.  Cute ones. 

The challenge of putting two strong-minded Hufflings into one room, and keeping it fun, organized, and, well, to the taste of each actually wasn't too hard.  The main challenge is keeping it neat, as we're still housing half of the basement toys up here, and, as a friend recently said, the "entropic power" of small children is quite staggering.

The other challenge, of course, is making two best friends go to bed and stay in bed, when really, they just want to giggle and sing and poke at each other all the time.  It's completely, utterly adorable.  Until about 8:15.  Ailsa, who used to barely stay awake till 7:30 and have to be woken up at 8 am or later, given her druthers, is now a willing sidekick and emissary to her brother, who likes to inform us at, say, 2 am, that his blankets are tangled, or that at 5:40 am that he has to pee.  He sends in his messenger first, who informs us that "Vaughn needs you." 

Awesome.

The room was already a nice sunny blue, and we had put the super-cute animal decals back on when it was just Vaughn's room.  But since his favourite sister moved in, we thought we should change it to suit both of their tastes.  Which meant that neither would get what they wanted, although alternating trucks and "pincesses" might have been interesting, but I knew that one curious little monkey could bring them together.

There were plain white Eclipse curtains up on the walls before (to keep out light and insulate the large window a bit more), but the new decals required some colour so that everything looked finished. Being on bed rest, I naturally decided to take the kids to Fabricland for a horrifying stressful fun adventure. I don't think we'll be welcomed back, as it is apparently the most fun store ever. So many colours! So many patterns! And for Ailsa, so much PINK! "More PINK!" she squealed.... "Mommy!  Lllloook!  PINK!"....over and over and over...

Anyhoo, I finally sat down with my trusty sewing machine (which hasn't been used since the last Curtain Debacle of 2010) and put these beauties together.  The Warden (who has returned home now, as Fis is back) (daily internal debate over which is worse continues) wouldn't let me hang them, but we both agreed that they give the room a nice finishing touch, non?

Next project:  insulating the windows in the new baby's room.  The baby turtle, being a third child, gets hand-me-down decor from Ailsa, but I think I can update it enough so that it's none the wiser... until it's old enough to read my blog.

The Domestic Goddess Proceeds Gingerly

Well, since nobody seemed to care about my last foray into Domestic Goddessity (the peanut butter sammich), I thought I'd try to step it up a notch.

I've been playing around with my classic bran muffin recipe, trying to combine it with a gingerbread, to make a fantastically awesome GingerBran Muffin. I developed a taste for ginger during the "morning sickness" weeks of my pregnancy, and let's just say that I developed a fondness for bran muffins, too.

I recruited my favourite Test Pig for the trials. My other Test Pig informed me flatly that she doesn't care for ginger in baked goods. Fine, then. More for me.

The first attempt was ok, but rather blah. Who knew that bran had such a strong presence? I had followed my original recipe, but then added a tsp each of cinnamon and ginger. Meh.

Batch two (three weeks later, after we ate the first batch) also had the addition of some crystallized ginger, chopped up fine. Somehow, it all sank to the bottom of the muffin cups. It added something, but not enough.

Batch three was last night's endeavour; I not only added the cinnamon, ginger, and crystallized ginger, but walnuts and about an inch of grated gingerroot. I also mixed the batter less, in hopes of keeping the chunks suspended.

The result? Not bad, I felt, but my Test Pig graded it a complete success (however, he also really enjoyed the first batch, so his opinion shouldn't be trusted) (this is also the same man that ...well, most of you have seen him eat, so enough said). With a bit of margarine or salted butter (aside: what's the point of unsalted butter? Seriously. It has no flavour.), it would be quite good, but I want something that doesn't need extra fat added.

I should mention that it's a pretty healthy muffin, with only 1/2 cup of molasses for sweetener and 2 Tbs of butter in the whole recipe. But I don't want a GingerBran muffin that's good "for being healthy". I want it to be good, period.






So, all in all, it's a qualified success. We'll freeze this batch, and next time add another 1/4 tsp of salt, and another 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and ginger, and perhaps a pinch of cloves too. And then I'll post the recipe for all to enjoy.





Except for Test Pig #2. You wouldn't like it.



DG confession:

Along the lines of the PB&J, the DG often falls short of her title.

Like last night, when, in a desperate attempt to trick the DGB (Domestic Goddess Spawn) into sleeping past 5 am, she taped two black garbage bags over his windows, creating gorgeous White Trash Curtains.

Hey, the sun is up and his room is bright at 5 am (even through the double-layered flannel curtains that the DG so lovingly crafted) and the DG has noticed that once the pooper wakes up and it's light out, he is NOT well-disposed to going back to sleep.

The DG has also noticed that she talks about herself in the third person too much.

Anyway, it seemed to work, so the DG will have to look past the hideousness until she can find the time to make an opaque (perhaps lead?) liner for the existing curtains.