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Boy, they really go all out in New York! The Christmas Spectacular is very aptly named -- from the amazing stage, sets, and costumes, to the onstage ice-skating and camels, I've never seen anything like it.

Of course, the stars of the show are the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. They appeared as toy soldiers, Santa Clauses, lingerie models, reindeer, and Christmas ladies in green velvet dresses. They kicked up high and got the crowd cheering every time. My favorite parts were the dance of the many Santas, and the reindeer number (which also featured guys in Lederhosen, lounging around in the background!).

Almost the entire show was about Santa, and Christmas in New York, but at the end they constructed a living nativity tableau onstage, with real live animals (sheep, ponies, and camels). Strangely enough, what it reminded me of most was the Krippen in the Bavarian National Museum.

I find Radio City to be one of the most beautiful theaters I've seen, with its art deco interiors (even down to the bathrooms). The lighting there is so beautiful that even though some of my pictures turned out blurry, I'm going to share them below.

1. Ice skaters in Rockefeller Center, before the show.
2. Radio City by day, with the "toy soldiers" falling down on the marquee.
3. Big balls across the street from Radio City Music Hall.
4. The orchestra traveled the stage thanks to a special moving platform.
5. How does Santa deliver all those toys at once? He gets a little help... from himself.
6. More dancing Santas.
7. The living Nativity.
8. After the show.
9. I had a very good time. (And yes, I'm holding two of those bags for someone else!)

We finished up the evening with dinner at Victor's Cafe, a Cuban restaurant. What a fun day!

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Guess what we're going to see today?


Click to enlarge.

I took this picture three years ago on a visit to New York City around Thanksgiving. Today, my mother-in-law and I are going to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular show. Featuring the Rockettes!

I can't wait!

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This icy lady sits outside The Elms, a mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. We visited on Monday and toured the three mansions that are decorated for Christmas right now (The Breakers, The Elms, and Marble House). A new blanket of snow was deposited on Sunday night -- for our picture-taking purposes, no doubt -- yet the roads were pretty clear and easy to navigate. As Marty said, "No problem for the Subaru."

Here are a few more pictures from Newport; click on them to see larger versions.

1. The gates of The Breakers, Newport's most lavish (and famous) mansion.
2. The back door of The Breakers.
3. Winter wonderland, 1.
4. Winter wonderland, 2.
5. Winter wonderland, 3.
6. The Elms, my favorite of the three mansions we visited.
7. A snow-covered cherub, riding a sphinx.
8. Marble House, a house made completely of marble -- inside and out.
9. A beautiful London Plane Tree outside Marble House.

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Happy Boxing Day! Did everyone give boxes of goodies to their service people today, in keeping with English tradition? No, I didn't think so. We didn't either.

However, we did uphold American tradition by going shopping at the outlet malls down in Clinton and Killingworth. I got cute accessories for my downstairs bathroom (the first time I have ever bought matching bathroom accessories!) and some kitchen items I needed. And a few goodies (on sale) for next year's Christmas boxes!

We had a fun Christmas yesterday. Marty and I woke up and opened presents. The knitted slippers my mom sent were a big hit:


Click to enlarge.

(Please ignore the fact that my slippers are on the wrong feet. It's not exactly easy to tell the difference.)

Ziggy enjoyed the discarded wrapping paper and my new basket, as you can see. I love the basket too, so he'll have to fight me for it.

After the gifts were opened, I got down to some serious work in the kitchen preparing the Christmas feast. Everything all turned out very well and we ate right on schedule, about an hour or so after Marty's mom and her husband arrived from Georgia. What a nice Christmas!

The fun continues. Tonight it's supposed to snow! And tomorrow we're going to Newport to see the mansions decorated for Christmas. I can't wait!

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The last Christmas Eve post.

Up above, a picture of one of my favorite items we brought back from Germany. It's a Christmas pyramid, and the lighted candles make it spin. To see what it looks like when it isn't lit, click here. It's so sweet. We found it in Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

If you've been following along on my Christmas Eve updating marathon, you'll be glad to hear that the divinity was a success. Even though I forgot to add the vanilla until just before time to spoon out the candy onto the trays, it tastes just right. I may even make it again before the end of the year. I'm very pleased.

Tomorrow I'll have lots of cooking to do for the Christmas feast. The first order of business in the morning will be peeling the grapefruit for a fresh grapefruit salad. The menu will look like this:

Roast turkey (with cranberry sauce and gravy)
Southern cornbread dressing
Garlic green beans
Mashed potatoes
Fresh grapefruit salad
Honey wheat rolls (already made and in the freezer)
Bourbon pecan pie (already made)

And that should be plenty.

Marty's mom and stepfather will arrive late tomorrow afternoon and should be here in time for dinner. We are planning to have a fun visit with a trip to New York and also a day in Newport. I hope the weather won't be too cold.

Since it's Christmas Eve, we got our stockings out tonight so Santa can fill them up. I've had my stocking since my first Christmas. All of my cousins have similar ones with their names on them as well. That stocking is in pretty good shape for being 35 years old!

And Marty has a new stocking this year. If I were a knitter, I'd love to knit him one. But I'm not, so I bought him a knitted one. To personalize it, I used green wool and chain-stitched his name on there, freehand. It only took me a few tries to get it the way I wanted it. I think it looks pretty wild. I really like it.


Click on these pictures to enlarge.

Of course, looking at them side by side like that reminds me of the old song: "All the stockings you will find, hanging in a row; mine will be the shortest one, you'll be sure to know..." How did mine get to be the shortest one?

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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I think this may be my most difficult-to-photograph ornament. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to take a picture of this one. Laura gave it to me a few years ago, and boy, was I happy to see it when I unpacked my ornaments this year. That little black cat! It's another Tannenbaum Shoppe alumnus, hand-painted in Austria.

Here's a tip: the shopping on eBay is great right now. I often find that on Christmas nobody else is bidding, and I can get real steals. Is that weird? If it is, I don't care! A little while ago I got a great set of Bavarian cross stitch patterns that I'd never even seen before. I was the only bidder!

And finally... I just made divinity for the first time in my life! My mom makes it almost every year, and I love it so much, but I've always been intimidated by the need for a candy thermometer and the effect humid weather can have on it. But this month it was one of the cover recipes in Cooking Light magazine, and I figured -- if it's on the cover of Cooking Light, how hard could it really be? So, it's setting up downstairs, and we'll find out soon whether I did it right or not. Cross your fingers!


Click to enlarge these photos.

1. Water and sugar. Boil to 250F.
2. Eggs -- but you only use the whites.
3. Pecans, toasted.
4. Yum!

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This wooden cat came from the Augsburg Christmas Market

Holiday News Roundup

Here's some holiday news from the three newspapers I read online daily:

• Children Eagerly Await Santa's Visit from the Valdosta Daily Times of Valdosta, Georgia.
  
  
• Returning the Gift of Kindness from the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania.
  
  
• With Christmas Trees in Short Supply, Hawaiians Improvise from the New York Times (requires free registration).

Unfortunately, the Hartford Courant website is full of terrible news about murder trials, our former governor's jail sentence, and other not-very-festive things today. No wonder I never read that page.

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Boy, I was not prepared for that alarm clock this morning. Marty's on vacation today, but I'm going to work. I think my brain has already switched over into vacation mode.

Above, one of my favorite ornaments. A little wooden snowman playing the clarinet, just like I did back in high school. Like any high schooler, he's very contrary. When I first hung him on the tree, he turned his back to me immediately. When I took him off the branch to turn him around, he jumped out of my hand and landed on the floor, breaking off one forearm and his clarinet. Well, I wasn't too surprised, because last year he did the same thing (although only the clarinet came off last time). So he's already quite familiar with the application of Elmer's. This time, Marty took him off to the basement and performed reconstructive ornament surgery on him, and the next morning he was sitting next to my place at the breakfast table ready to go back on the tree.

So I hung him on there and he immediately turned his back on me. I just left him like that this time, though.

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My cunning little squirrel! She came from the Tannenbaum Shoppe (aka Ursel's Web) in Middletown. Her sister lives two towns away.

What a busy day! After work I stopped by HomeGoods in New London to check on Steinbachs -- no Aramis down there, and actually most of the Christmas stuff was already very picked over. I thought I'd find a new Christmas tablecloth but there was really nothing left that I could see.

Marty and I went to dinner at Taj in Middletown, then did a big Stop & Shop run that should at least get us through Christmas day. I wanted candy canes for the stockings, but at Stop & Shop all they had were strawberry, blueberry, and cinnamon ones. I settled on the cinnamon since they were at least red and white. Then we stopped by CVS to see if they had any good old peppermint ones, and all they had were Barbie and Nascar candy canes, and "stuffed" cherry-flavored candy canes with cream filling. I don't know what to think about all these new-fangled candy canes. I'm a little horrified.

I've been feeling very good about getting all my cards and presents out on time this year. I always tell myself that it doesn't matter if things arrive late, but mostly that's to take the pressure off of myself so I don't go absolutely crazy trying to get too much done and end up in a bad emotional state. Really, I like to get everything out on time but sometimes that's just not possible, and it's better if I don't pressure myself or let anyone else pressure me. This year it worked out. However, today I realized something that took me down a notch or two. I sent someone a homemade CD as part of their gift and I think I left something out. Something like, oh, the CD. I found it today in my CD holder in the car (where I'd been testing it) and it made me think I may have sent an empty case wrapped up in someone's Christmas box. Oops.

Still, if that's the biggest thing I forgot in the last two weeks, that's not so bad. Hopefully the person will see the humor in the situation when she unwraps the case, and the anticipation will help her enjoy the CD even more when I send it along after Christmas.

Recently we watched a Netflix DVD called Saturday Night Live: The Best of Phil Hartman. I don't know that it was very accurately named, as I remember Phil Hartman as being way funnier than this DVD would have had you believe, but it did have some good moments. One of the sketches I liked best was called "Cooking with the Anal Retentive Chef." It was a cooking show with Gene, the Anal Retentive Chef, who got so bogged down in the details that he never got to cook anything. I especially loved his description of how we throw things away. By the end of his program on making pepper steak, he had set all his raw ingredients aside and was about to give his entire kitchen a thorough cleaning.

I thought of this sketch today because I was hunting for a cookie recipe I made this summer and wanted to make again. Crackle-top Chocolate Cookies are yummy (although I made them with some significant alterations, like nuts and no powdered sugar, so they were more like brownies), but I think the recipe was inspired by the Anal Retentive Chef. Who really needs that much detail in a recipe? It could so easily be condensed to about five lines. I suppose it's really meant to read more like an article than a plain old recipe, but a straightforward and concise recipe appeals to me more. This is my favorite part:

Turn into a small bowl. Chill at least 2 hours (or overnight), covering tightly when cold. While dough chills, adjust rack to center of oven. Line cookie sheets with aluminum foil, shiny side up.

As if it's going to take 2 hours (or overnight) to adjust the oven rack. Heh.

This Raspberry World entry has been brought to you by my anti-linear brain.

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No time for an update this morning, but I promise I'll get to it tonight!

In the meantime, enjoy my little Steinbach guys (notice the "devil," whom I now suspect to be a Krampuss). And check out the continuing coverage of Cincinnati's HOLIDAY STORM 2004, over at the Magic Beans Workshop. Preserve us all from such icy horror!

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Dear Santa,

I'm writing on behalf of all those people who visit Raspberry World and don't find what they're looking for here. Can you please help them get what they want this Christmas?

I'm talking about the folks who came here via search engines, looking for the following (my comments are in parentheses):

• batman cuban painting (the latest art craze)
• lyrics for Bing Crosby's God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (the which, his mother Mary...)
• Kartoffelhaus Munich (there are two!)
• pictures of chad smith of red hot chili peppers with wife (pretty specific)
• comfortable sexy chair (I'm sure they mean the Colin Firth chair)
• olympia diner (try the tuna salad sandwich!)
• scott weiland naked (hahahahahaaaa)
• Awesome Xmas Presents (they are even more Awesome when capitalized)
• Trader Joe's chicken pot pie (yum!)
• klausen furniture (even the Rumpelklaus needs a comfy chair)
• grumpy with the feds (you naughty thing, you!)
• crispin mcgregor... perhaps you (huh?)
• harry met sally and penguins (the sequel that went direct-to-video)
• wife swapping tails (I think I'll keep my own, thank you)
• jeff goldblum naked pictures (!!!)

Well, at least nobody got here looking for MONKEY PAJAMAS. (Oops. Now I've gone and done it...)

So, Santa. I'm sure all of these people have been very good this year, and if you could bring a little Trader Joe's chicken pot pie to put in their Christmas stockings, I'm sure we'd all be very grateful.

Love,
Susie

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Late Night Update

12:55 AM:

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Have I mentioned I like birds? Well, I do.

There are lots of preparations to make here, and time is getting short. Tonight I need to bake some cookies and treats that I've already mixed up the dough for. It shouldn't take too long, but of course things often take longer than they should.

Tonight for dinner I made potato and broccoli soup, and cornbread. The leftover cornbread will make our dressing for Christmas day, because I am cooking a turkey dinner on Saturday.

Today when I got home there were three packages waiting. One was a box from Pennsylvania, which was so nicely decorated that I put it directly under the tree without even opening it. One was a gift I ordered for a holiday that happens in early May. And one was a CD sent by the Human Rights Campaign, an organization that I have never contributed to, but one that I would certainly not be averse to supporting. However, the packaging made me think the CD was a thank you gift for a contribution. All I can assume is that a contribution was made to the HRC in my name, but there was no explanation on the packing slip. It's a total mystery. Please do write me if you can shed any light on this.

And with that, I leave you. Here's one more bird for the road.

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All is Revealed

Have you ever wondered what your pet does at home all day while you are at work? I've long suspected that Ziggy spends the entire day sitting in one spot. Well, today I worked at home on my laptop because the roads were all snowy, and lo and behold...


Taken at 10:00 this morning.


Taken at 4:00 this afternoon.

And I assure you, I didn't see him roaming the house at all, the entire day. Every time I passed the couch he waved one whisker at me and keep right on snoozing.

I guess now we know the truth. If Ziggy doesn't get his full 18 hours of sleep a day, he's just not good for anything.

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Today I'm answering the Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week.

Besides framing, what other ways do you finish your cross-stitch pieces?

I have always been a big fan of functional art. That's what drew me to other activities in the past, like wheel-thrown pottery. It's also one thing that turned me off about cross stitch for a long time. When I was first stitching, as a young teenager, I had no idea you could do anything but frame your pieces.

When I got back into cross stitching earlier this year (having been inspired by my friend Renee), I was pleasantly surprised to find options I hadn't really known about as a young stitcher. Tablecloths and hand towels with aida insets were my first projects. In Germany, there's a wonderful selection of high-quality table linens intended for needlework. I bought several of these cloths before I moved back to the US, so they should keep me going for a while. I'm still working on my first one:



When I returned to the US, I found that although there weren't many tablecloths available, there were a lot of functional ways to finish cross stitch pieces. One of my favorites for small pieces is an acrylic trivet. I have made several of these and I'll post a picture next week. I am still working on two for myself, which I hope to finish by the end of the year.

I also found acrylic coasters for very small pieces. I'll post pictures of those later, too. (I'm sure you can all guess why I don't want to post pictures of any of these things right before Christmas...)

I even found a little snow globe with a place to insert a small piece of needlework. How cute that would be with a snowman in it! It's not exactly practical, but it's not just framing, either. Maybe I'll try that one next year.

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Snow!

We heard it's supposed to snow tonight! I hope it does. But only 1-3 inches like they're saying. Otherwise it could create difficulties getting places like the post office (yes, again!) and the furniture warehouse pickup place.

It was a busy weekend around these parts. Yesterday I sang my first performance with my new chorus, at a Christmas party. It was great fun! I've really missed performing.

Then, at 4 pm yesterday afternoon, the buyer of our blue and white recliner arrived to pick up the chair. Yes, it's the end of an era. If you've visited our home (wherever that may have been) anytime in the last ten years, you probably remember this chair. You can barely see the back of it in this picture of our family room at our old house in Hamden. We bought it at one of my favorite stores, the fabulous O. W. Houts in State College, Pennsylvania. It was a hardworking little Action by Lane recliner that traveled with us to Connecticut and later to Munich (and back). It was Marty's (and Ziggy's) favorite place to relax.

When we got back from Munich, we decided it was time for a change. So we got new living room funiture. We didn't know what to do with the chair, since neither of us had a vehicle big enough to carry it away, so I finally listed it on eBay. After one false start (where a man from Indiana bought it, not noticing that he'd have to pick it up in Connecticut), we found success! Now our old recliner is in southern Connecticut with a nice lady who showed up yesterday in a Jeep and took it off our hands. She even wrote me a note to let me know it was all settled in! I'm happy it's going to keep on being used. And now we can get new chairs for our dining room table! (We didn't have room for them as long as the extra recliner was still here.)

Yay for eBay!

Today we ran a bunch of errands and finished up the Christmas shopping, mostly down in Hamden. I intended to do some baking today, but with all the other stuff I had to do this afternoon, I just didn't have time. Guess it'll have to wait until tomorrow after work. Maybe I can at least make some of the cookie dough before bed tonight. I'm not doing many things, just cheese rounds and butterballs. And if I'm feeling brave, maybe divinity. (I can't believe the cheese rounds aren't on the recipe page. I'll have to rectify that.)

Hope everyone's had a nice weekend!

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If you thought the Krampus was scary, check out the Icelandic Yule Cat. I sure hope all you knitters have been sufficiently productive this fall!

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The Beautiful:


Click pictures to enlarge.

Two of my favorite Christmas decorations! The bird in its nest on the left came from Pennsylvania, although I've forgotten now whether I bought it at Dank's department store (before they went out of business years ago) or whether it was a gift from Shannon. She and I both enjoyed bird ornaments and had several of them. The gold bird on the right is glass, and it was given to me by Mary, who has impeccable taste in Christmas ornaments. I always think of her when I unpack my Dank's ornaments, since we usually shopped there together for them. Dank's a lot!

The Busy:

Today, besides going to work, I mailed off a bunch of things at the Post Office, went to happy hour with my coworkers, stopped on the way home to buy new dinette chairs, and made dinner. After we eat (in a minute) we are going out to Petco for some Ziggy supplies. And hey! I still need to learn my chorus songs for tomorrow! Whoo!

The Bizarre:

If you go to this site and hit the button for "home," it brings you here. To Raspberry World. Ha!

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Money Matters

So, we're starting to use Quicken to track our finances again. I'm getting into the habit of entering all my transactions when I get home at night. Choosing the category for each item is also required.

Me: So, if I go to the Lindt chocolate outlet store and spend $20, do I enter that as "groceries"?

Him: Well, duh.

I guess that's a "yes."

Today I went to IKEA and finished up a little holiday shopping, Swedish style. Then I stopped in at the Tannenbaum Shoppe here in Middletown (also known as Ursel's Web) and spoke some German with the proprietress. It's lovely in there right now, with lots of handmade German ornaments for sale.

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Blogger's not letting me publish, which means yesterday's entry (and probably this one) won't show up right away. But I'm still writing! Check below once this entry appears and there'll probably be another new one.

It's cold this morning. I'm wearing two sweaters, and it's still cold. I can only imagine how it'll feel when I go outside. Frozen tundra!

Or is that tapioca tundra?

I have chorus tonight, so it's a big driving day for me. From Middletown down to New London for work, then back to Middletown for dinner, then up to Simsbury for chorus, and back home again. It's about 3.5 hours of driving, total. The funny thing is that although I dread the driving, I always feel much better after going to chorus. It's totally worth it.

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Today was a Jonah day. All you Anne fans will know what I mean.

But dinner was good (pork loin, papa-style, except made in the slow cooker). And this evening I've been wrapping presents. I like doing it, especially now that I'm getting to use some of my old favorite wrapping paper again. It's been in storage for the last two years, and seeing it again is like seeing old friends. I have pretty little scraps of paper from years and years ago -- some even came on gifts I received, not off rolls I bought -- and I love getting to use them on the tiny boxes.

Plus, there's always the delight of knowing someone's going to love the paper you picked. For a few people, using the right paper is almost as much fun as choosing the right gift.

On a completely unrelated note, this hasn't been a good month for restaurants in Centre County, PA. The Bellefonte Waffle Shop burned earlier this month, and last week the Mount Nittany Inn (up on Centre Hall mountain) burned to the ground for the second time in three years. What's going on over there, people?

Yes, Virginia, there is a Rumpelklaus

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake

Those two lines from "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" created a lot of anxiety for me when I was a child. As far back as I can remember, I liked the idea of Santa Claus, and I sure liked all those presents on Christmas morning. But the idea of Santa -- or anyone -- watching me while I was asleep? That really freaked me out. I can remember being very stressed on Christmas Eve, worrying that Santa was going to come to my bedroom door to check whether I was sleeping or not. The thought still makes me vaguely uncomfortable.

However, I'm counting myself lucky that I never knew about the Krampuss (also known as the Rumpelklaus) back then.




Yes, that does say Munich. And although I was there for two Christmases, I assure you that I never saw anything like that roaming the streets during Advent. In fact, I was quite shocked when I saw this picture, not to mention these, which are more than a little reminiscent of the Insane Clown Posse. (Thanks to Mike R. for forwarding these items!)

So I asked my friend Sonja, who comes from the Allgäu (a region in southern Bavaria) and now lives in Munich, how we could possibly have missed noticing such a thing. And she explained it like this:

I think I can reassure you. You didn't miss this because you weren't aware of what was going on in Munich, but because this was the first time that Krampusses made their way to Munich. And do you know where they came from? Yes, from the Allgäu.

This is something very typical in all Allemanic areas, i.e. Baden-Württemberg, Switzerland, Vorarlberg and the Allgäu. They have various names, in our region they are called "Krampus" or, more commonly, "(Rumpel)klausen" (pronounced something like "Rumplkloasa"). There is also a female version called "Bärbele" in the region around Sonthofen and Oberstorf.

Klausen are an old heathen tradition. They were originally meant to scare off bad demons. Today, they accompany Santa Claus when he visits homes on the night of the 5th or the 6th. You might know that parents can hire a Santa Claus to come around to their house and read out the vices and virtues of the children from his golden book. This is usually rewarded by one Schnaps (at least!) per house (for Santa and his helpers, not for the children!). I used to drive our village's Nikolaus from one appointment to the next, so I can tell you, you'd better make an early appointment ... Usually, two Klausen go into the house with Nikolaus. In our region, they wear old furs, have belts with cow bells, horrible wooden masks and a birch/rod with them... they sure are scary. When Santa reads out bad things from the book, they would jump up and down, making a terrible noise, or show their rod. So you can be sure that the threat "I'll tell Santa if you don't..." works very well on children in the region! My parents never let the Klausen in the house cause they knew I'd be too scared, so the first time I saw one was in our first year at school. I nearly peed myself, I was so scared!!!!

There is also the tradition of "Klausentreiben" on the same two nights. Unmarried men dress up as Klausen and walk around through the villages beating up passers-by with their birches - they really do. They wouldn't beat adults or elderly people, but they love scaring children and especially chasing after young girls. I'm sure you can imagine that I was dead-scared on those nights when I was younger but loved them in my teenage years... Because you normally knew who was going to go as a Klaus... But! You had to make sure to wear thickly padded skiing pants! Otherwise your bum was sore for days!

A couple of years ago, this whole tradition escalated somewhat when the Klausen in some towns got more and more violent and hurt people. Now they have to register and have an ear tag, like cows. And they are only allowed to use birches, no more iron sticks or chains like they used to have with them in earlier years to be more impressive.

This is a living Christmas tradition, as you can see from the websites of some of the groups: Klausenverein, Die Berghofer Rumpelklausen, and Der Krampus.

Sometimes while we were in living in Germany it seemed like US culture had practically overrun German culture -- television, movies, food, advertising, and shopping were so Americanized that it was easy to forget, at times, that there were real cultural differences. But no matter how many Wal-Marts there are in Germany, and no matter what kinds of movies people are watching down at the Mathäser multiplex, I hope the Rumpelklaus will continue to stalk the Allgäu and terrorize children on December 5 and 6.

As long as he doesn't come in and check to see whether I'm sleeping or not. I may never sleep again!

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I'm sad that I can't seem to find anything to write about, now that I've committed to participating in Holidailies this year. My brain doesn't feel very creative these days. I think I just have too many other things I'm thinking (worrying) about.

That doesn't mean I'm not enjoying Holidailies. How else would I ever come across wonderful journal entries like this: Nothing says "summer" like a crazy-ass badger. Truer words were never spoken, man.

I guess since I can't think of anything interesting to write about, I'll list the things that are blocking me, instead:

• Wondering whether I have the time to do any holiday baking this year. I had hoped to make at least cookies and divinity, and maybe I still will, but I'm just not sure I have time now. I even got new tins to use this year. (And really, this is probably some stress about getting everything ready, not just the baking. I don't like getting stressed about not doing enough.)
  
  
• Worrying about getting the house in decent shape before our guests arrive on December 25. If you want to know what kind of clutter we're dealing with here, let me tell you what I'm looking at right now. Lying next to my computer keyboard is a clipping from the Centre Daily Times of October 16, 1991, listing the members of the US Senate and how they voted on Clarence Thomas's confirmation. I wish I were making this up.
  
  
• Being sad about Ziggy scratching up my beautiful chair and ottoman, despite the addition of Soft Paws. (Although they do help.)
  
  
• Trying to figure out what to cook this week (and, you know, next week). I have been doing really well about cooking most nights and keeping us from eating out (which is actually a little easier now that we live in Middletown where there aren't that many restaurants to choose from). But sometimes I just get uninspired.
  
  
• Thinking too much about work, medical stuff, money, and other things I never really talk about here.

I think I'd better just go find something for dinner and then do some cross stitching.

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Glückszeichen

Here are a couple of good luck symbols from our tree:


Click to enlarge photos.

The ladybug is a clip-on, which makes it special. Marty said, "It looks like it's jet-propelled." It does seem to have a little exhaust pipe sticking out the back. Vroom!

Ladybugs and mushrooms are symbols of good luck in Germany, and these are German ornaments. The funny thing is, though, we got both of them before we ever moved to Munich. It's nice to see some of my old favorites again.

We spent the day ensuring it won't snow in Connecticut this winter, so all of you folks who live nearby can thank us for that. This evening we watched the movies X Men and X2. I had never seen them before, but I enjoyed them. I really like Patrick Stewart, so I'm not sure why we never watched them before. Just behind the times, I guess.

Holidailies 4

Back in the Saddle Again

Yes, in case you were wondering, I did cheat on Holidailies yesterday. I totally meant to update before bed last night, but then we watched Love Actually (which I had never seen before) and I forgot all about updating before hitting the hay. Sorry! I did it this morning and set the date back. Oh, well.

But now I'm back on track!

I was just noticing the other day what a lot of pictures I posted last December. I'll have to start taking more pictures this month, as well. Perhaps this weekend. Unfortunately it's just been so rainy that I haven't been inspired to take photos.

We have plans for the weekend that include snow blower delivery, cake baking, and card writing. We should also spend some time unpacking boxes in the guest room, so there's somewhere for guests to actually sleep. What an idea!

But tonight it's Friday night, and we're getting ready to head out to Eli Cannon's for dinner. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that Eli's is one of the reasons we were both glad to move to Middletown. Cheers!

Holidailies 3

Um, oops.

Well, anyway! Here's a funny German/English Christmas poem (which I stole from Neil, who stole it from Anna).

Yes, Marty and I STILL talk something like this, at times.

Ein kleines Weihnachtsgedicht (A small Christmas Poem)

When the snow falls wunderbar
And the children happy are,
When the Glatteis on the street,
And we all a Glühwein need,
Then you know, es ist soweit:
She is here, the Weihnachtszeit

Every Parkhaus ist besetzt,
Weil die people fahren jetzt
All to Kaufhof, Mediamarkt,
Kriegen nearly Herzinfarkt.
Shopping hirnverbrannte things
And the Christmasglocke rings.

Mother in the kitchen bakes
Schoko-, Nuss- and Mandelkeks
Daddy in the Nebenraum
Schmücks a Riesen-Weihnachtsbaum
He is hanging auf the balls,
Then he from the Leiter falls...

Finally the Kinderlein
To the Zimmer kommen rein
And es sings the family
Schauerlich: "Oh, Christmastree!"
And the jeder in the house
Is packing die Geschenke aus.

Mama finds unter the Tanne
Eine brandnew Teflon-Pfanne,
Papa gets a Schlips and Socken,
Everybody does frohlocken.
President speaks in TV,
All around is Harmonie,

Bis mother in the kitchen runs:
Im Ofen burns the Weihnachtsgans.

And so comes die Feuerwehr
With Tatü, tata daher,
And they bring a long, long Schlauch
An a long, long Leiter auch.
And they schrei - "Wasser marsch!",
Christmas is - now im - A....

Merry Christmas, merry Christmas,
Hear the music, see the lights,
Frohe Weihnacht, Frohe Weihnacht,
Merry Christmas allerseits...

I promise some real updates this weekend...

Holidailies 2

Now I've seen everything. Mötley Crüe is doing a reunion tour. I'm honestly pretty surprised they're all still alive.

To me, the Crüe was really the pinnacle of late-80s hair metal flamboyance and excess. There were many other bands, but none were as good as MC. Poison, Warrant, Slaughter, and all those other hair metal bands only wished they were as Mötley as the Crüe. (Especially Poison.)

Apparently, they're coming to Hartford on February 28. Hmmm.

Holidailies 1

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

No, seriously, it really is. I'm not just singing a song. We've been having a lot of freezing rain this week, which always makes things exciting when your car doors freeze shut under a quarter-inch thick layer of ice, or when you walk out the front door of your house onto steps coated in that same layer of ice. Freezing rain is probably my least favorite thing about winter.

The weather's been so bad that my evening commute has been taking even longer than normal. Luckily, I have a bunch of Christmas CDs to listen to. Some are old favorites that I first loved on vinyl (the Elvis Christmas album, Bing Crosby's White Christmas), and some are CDs I bought long ago (The Carpenters' Christmas Portrait). I also have some oddities in there -- a German double CD called "An American Christmas," for example, which I found at Karstadt last year when I was feeling a little homesick. And one of my favorites right now is the Houston Symphony Orchestra's Christmas Festival. It's not just because I know someone in the symphony!

Bing Crosby's album was a special favorite of my sister's and mine when we were young. Dixie had a whole dance routine worked out to "Christmas in Killarney," and I loved the songs featuring the Andrews Sisters best of all. I'm still mystified by the presence of "Faith of our Fathers," though. As far as I can tell, that's just a regular old hymn, not a Christmas song, no matter how many vocal flourishes Bing Crosby gives it. Also, this album always reminds me that the lyrics to God rest ye merry, Gentlemen are somewhat nonsensical to the modern ear. Especially when Bing sings three or four verses of it, past the part where it sounds like he's calling the virgin mary a "witch." (Of course, any Christmas carol that mentions Satan is a little unusual these days.)

There are many Elvis Christmas albums, but the real one begins with "Blue Christmas." Accept no substitutes! That first deep "uh-huh" is the true harbinger of the holidays in our house. (My other favorite songs on that album are "Santa Claus is back in town" and "Santa bring my baby back to me.")

Even with my long commute home, I managed to get dinner on the table before 7 pm tonight. Ph3ar me (and my slow cooker)! We had a German theme dinner, with "Bavarian beef" (a crock pot recipe), real Spätzle, and gravy thickened with crushed gingersnaps. Plus, homemade whole wheat bread from the bread machine. Not too shabby!

In case you can't tell from the dark picture I took, this is our advent calendar for this year. Direct from Munich! Thanks to our friends Sonja and Pete, we're enjoying German goodies every day from these cute little stockings.

Today we played the Elvis Christmas album and put up our tree. Because space is at a premium here, we decided to use our little artificial tree that I got last year in Germany. It's tucked away in the corner of the "dining room" (not an actual room), decorated with our German ornaments and a few of our old favorites. It looks festive! See below for pictures.

In other news, I've decided to participate in Holidailies again this year. That means I'll be trying my best to update Raspberry World every day between December 7 and January 6. I know, I know. You'll believe it when you see it. Last year I think I managed to update 14 times during Holidailies, which was actually pretty good (for me). So I'll at least try to beat my own performance from 2003. It starts on Tuesday.


Click on pictures to enlarge.

1. Unpacking that tree like I'm a pro. Actually, this is only the second time in my life that I've used a fake tree. Real ones are still my favorite, when space allows.
2. After several trips up to the attic, the tree is decorated.
3. This picture captures the Gemütlichkeit a little better.
4. After all the excitement is over, Ziggy lends a paw with today's crossword puzzle.