Christmas

Advent was a blur. We started off with the girls' stomach illness, which didn't help. And we did the usual Advent wreath, purple lights, stockings on St. Nicholas Day, Choir concert, saint's days commemoration, shopping, giving tree, etc. Plus, my husband and oldest son managed to engineer and construct a HUGE light up star on the barn. It took all 6 of us and a giant extension ladder to hang it. The picture gives you an idea of the scale. It's more impressive lit and seen from the road a quarter mile away, but this is the only shot I captured.

My parents and sister came a few days before Christmas. We weren't quite done with decorating the house when they arrived because we're an old fashioned family, and cut a tree and deck the halls only a few days before Christmas. We don't even decorate the tree until Christmas Eve. But they didn't seem to mind. And we had a nice, quiet Christmas. Well, my 3 year old is loud, and my oldest was busy turning pan lids into drums, acoustic guitar strings into an electric guitar, quarters into computer mice, and play dough into keyboards, etc. with his new Makey Makey that he got for Christmas. (A modified Arduino.) But you know what I mean.

Speaking of trees, we got some snow the Friday before Christmas, so after my husband fixed the alternator in the truck (sigh) we headed to the tree farm that we used to go to before we moved here. For probably 12 years, we went to the same tree farm, and we were feeling the need for some continuity and tradition this year. Unfortunately, between the droughts, the flood, and the lateness in the year, there were no trees of the proper size to cut! We were SO disappointed. We settled for one they had in the barn pre-cut. It was the first time in probably 14 years that we hadn't cut our own tree, so it was sad! But we still got to talk to the owner, who remembered us (my husband by name!) He even remembered our veggie oil truck. And the kids got free cider and popcorn, so it wasn't a total bust. And it will make going to the "new tree farm" easier next year.

Right after Christmas we got more snow. The roads were so bad that my family stayed an extra day or two. My husband learned the fine art of plowing with our tractor attachment and spent hours clearing the long gravel drive. My kids played in the snow as much as they could, but with me unable to fit into my boots or button my coat, my husband busy on the plow, and my family here with no snow gear, it didn't happen as much as they would have liked. After all, I couldn't keep in the 3 year old and let the bigger kids go out. And I couldn't quite trust them with his care in the cold with all the distractions. But they still managed to make a snow house in a big snow bank with our neighbor's girl, and a 6 foot tall snowman.

My husband's family arrived the same day that my family left. So I was definitely busy. We managed to outfit my sister-in-law with snow gear, and she and my nephew took the kids out to play in the snow some more. They made a snow bear and romped around. It snowed several times over the next few days, a rarity for our locality, and we ended up with about 18 inches on the ground!

I think my in-laws had a nice visit. After they left, we tore down extra beds and began laundering linens and dealing with the aftermath of back-to-back family visits.  But the next night we were hit with a very nasty flu bug that my littlest nephew brought, so much of our snow play time was wasted. The little guy had been sick all Christmas week. And although he was fever free by the time his parents brought him, he still had coughing, sneezing, and a terribly runny nose. Since he was playing with the kids' toys and hanging out in the house, we inevitably got his ick, despite my wiping door knobs and whatnot.

Of course my 3 year old turned up with it first. Nasty high fevers were a part of the illness. My girls both got fevers well over 104 despite fever reducers, and had to be sponged in tepid baths. It was most unpleasant. And then finally, after all the kids had been sick for a week, I got the dreaded bug. Fevers are scary things to pregnant women. The sinus congestion and sneezing were also unpleasant. (I felt like something was going to shoot out of my belly button when a sneezed!) But the coughing fits were the worst! Hacking, gagging, cough-for-5-minutes-straight fits had me so sore and miserable! I think I got stretch marks from coughing! And then there was the weirdness of a persistent low-grade fever, which I had the 2nd week of the illness, along with the continued coughing.

So that was Christmas... mad dash up to it... Busy, busy Christmas week... Everybody sick for 2 weeks after that. And me just wrapping up the last of the cold symptoms this week! Phew!

Thanksgiving

At the last minute, we ended up hosting my husband's family for Thanksgiving this year. I was too busy cooking and hosting to take many pictures, but here's an idea of what our table looked like. Our Thanksgivings always include Turkey Notes, cranberry relish, all the usuals (like green bean casserole, corn bake, loaded mashed potatoes and gravy, candied sweet potatoes, bread dressing, warmed spiced apple sauce, baked beans, a vegetable tray, a pickle tray, and LOTS of pies.) 

Pies are really what Thanksgiving is all about to me... after the turkey, of course! We usually have apple, pecan, cherry, pumpkin, vanilla cream, and chocolate cream pies. I've made an apple sauce pie once or twice and a sugar cream pie too. This year I only made one pie, and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law brought pies. It felt wrong, but my husband convinced me that being pregnant and cooking the rest of the meal and so forth was enough work.

My family can thank my mother for the pie tradition. She always served lots of pies (several of each kind) and frequently took special requests for pies from extended family members. (We always had large, extended family gatherings for Thanksgiving, often inviting those who had no one else to celebrate with, like an imbalanced lady named Frances who was pretty much an honorary family member.) Unlike me, my mom usually made minced meat pie. I don't think in all those years I had the courage to try it. The name was too daunting. I think she also made a cashew pie and a peanut pie at least once. That gives you an idea of the special requests she received. 

One thing my family always served when I was growing up that I have only pulled off once was "chicken and noodles." We'd make home made ribbon noodles and serve them in a homemade chicken gravy with pieces of chicken mixed in. How I loved those extra thick noodles! Maybe I can pull them off next year. 

My kids like to decorate for Thanksgiving. We have a cornucopia window cling that can be assembled in many ways. They take turns putting up. And we have a ceramic turkey my mother-in-law made. They like to have fancily folded napkins or to make napkin rings too. This year, my oldest son made some out of craft foam that were decorated with lovely leaf shapes. It was his idea and he executed the whole project himself. They worked flawlessly. My oldest daughter wanted to make a centerpiece, but our table was so long and her bouquet so fragile that we ended up putting her creation on a side cupboard. She gathered berries, dried seed heads, leaves and branches to make the arrangement to the right. Together they both strung pine cones that they collected from the light fixture in a sort of fall chandelier. Their original scheme was better than what we had to settle for, but the lights were too hot to have string hanging as close to them as they had planned.

Although Thanksgiving went off without a hitch, the aftermath wasn't fun. My girls both turned up with a terrible stomach virus back-to-back once the visitors left, and vomited and ran fevers. The clean-up was unpleasant, especially with the pregnant belly impeding maneuvers. And the fear of everyone getting the ick was no fun to deal with either. Surprisingly no one else contracted the projectile hurling, although my oldest boy refused to eat for several days and said his stomach hurt. I'm thankful that I didn't get ill, as throwing up with a huge belly is quite difficult and painful. Plus I got to enjoy turkey tetrazzini. MMMM.  

All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day

It's been over a month since my last post, so there are probably not too many folks out there still reading my blog. C'est la vie. We've been running ourselves ragged, and blogging is definitely an extra and a luxury that necessarily got put on the back burner. Since I'm probably down to a few devoted followers, here's a much belated post for you concerning All Saints Day, a Roman Catholic feast Day on November 1st. I'm sure you won't mind. 

My husband was out of town for work (surprise!) for All Hallows Eve (Halloween) and All Saints Day this year. And I couldn't pull off attending the All Saint's Day costume party that involved Mass, candy, games, and a pitch-in Dinner with the local Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. Below are some pictures of a few of my kids' costumes from previous years (in no particular order.)

My oldest as St. John Vianney and my second oldest as St. Gianna Beretta Molla

In this picture, my oldest boy is St. Don Bosco, my oldest girl is St. Elizabeth of Hungary, and my youngest girl is St Michael the Archangel (although her wings and sword aren't really visible in this pic. 

My oldest girl as St Kateri Tekakwitha

My oldest boy as St. Martin of Tours

This is my oldest daughter again, but at a much younger age... 3 maybe? In this picture she is St Katherine Drexel, of whom she was very fond at the time. She's holding an arrow head in her right hand.

My pumpkin from last year

I managed to pull off some pumpkin carving with 4 kids this year though. (That's no small feat, I assure you, especially with a giant, pregnant belly impeding pumpkin scraping!) We don't do jack-o-lanterns, but rather, for lack of a better term, saint-o-lanterns. We've kept the theme loosely religious and just followed our kids' lead. Here are some saint-o-lanterns from previous years. 

a pumpkin my sister carved when visiting

my oldest's take on symbolism for the sacrament
of Baptism (a few years ago)

marian symbol and the sacred and
immaculate hearts (oldest)

my oldest's again

a church and a monstrance

wheat, the Sacred heart

My husband was on a business trip for All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day last year too. So I didn't get out to purchase pumpkins in time. Instead we improvised and made luminaria out of paper grocery sacks. I had the little kids use stencils so that they could trace on a folded, flat bag. Then they cut out their images with safety scissors. It was actually a lot more kid friendly than pumpkins in some ways. And we even used some hole punchers and scalloped scissors. They had lots of potential! Here's what they looked like.

my youngest daughter's

my oldest daughter's (Eucharistic)

mine

my oldest son's (tabernacle)

My oldest son's

This year we pulled off pumpkins AND a themed dinner. 

First the pumpkins...

My dove with an olive branch and my youngest son's 

my youngest daughter's musical notes for St. Cecilia
and my oldest daughter's rosary.

We use the serrated, specially made for carving pumpkins, cut-proof little tools and scrapers that are sold seasonally. (My son is holding one in the picture below.) For the rosary beads, my daughter used an apple corer. In the past we've also used cork screws, potato peelers, and other kitchen utensils. Peeling off the skin or scraping parts of the pumpkin very thin can produce nice results.

If you want to make saint-o-lanterns, be creative. Think about ease of use and safety. And if you are doing this with a large family or lots of little kids, I suggest that you consider cutting lids and scraping out the insides of the pumpkins the night before without any kids about. (Or better yet, if you're lucky enough, assign a teenager this task!) This will streamline the process and will make the carving more fun and frustration free for impatient, small children. 

Here are some more tips. When cleaning the pumpkins, start by spreading brown paper bags or garbage bags on the table top. Dried pumpkin is like cement, and it dries quickly in a heated house. You can wad up the paper sacks when you are finished and throw everything in the compost pile. Or you can wad up the garbage bags and dump them into the wastebasket. (I don't recommend newspapers, as the printing rubs off and makes a mess, not to mention that you don't want to compost all that icky ink.) You'll also want some large bowls for piling the seeds, stringy pumpkin slime, and pumpkin chunks in.  

When you cut those lids, cut at an angle so that the lid does not fall in as the pumpkin dries and shrinks.  Also, remember to leave a little vent hole to let the heat and smoke out if you are using candles. 

When you scrape out pumpkin innards, be sure to wear short sleeves and aprons. Large spoons like ice cream scoops (especially the simple plastic kind) work great. Try to avoid metals that may bend, like aluminum, or your serving spoons may end up warped. The specialized pumpkin carving tools often come with scrapers (like the one my son is holding in this picture) that work well too. 

To draw your patterns on the pumpkins you can use water-based markers, like those designed for overhead projectors. (Yes, I am dating myself with that comment!) When you want to change something you can simply wipe it with a damp paper towel. And if your cuts stray from your intended line, you can wipe the line off, and no one will know. In fact, a roll of paper towels on the table is a good idea for messy hands too! 

To illuminate your creations, I suggest tea light votives in the metal cups for pumpkins, and battery operated votives if you opt to make luminaria. 

Now for the FOOD! At the last minute this year, I made a run to the local grocery store and bought some unusual (for us) mostly prepared food items to make a themed "meal". It was really a lot of snacks and finger foods rather than a meal, which my kids loved. And the food items could definitely be better, given more forethought and a larger grocery store!  Here's what I threw together...

St Bernadette's firewood
(pretzel sticks)

St. Pio's' stigmata
(sandwiches made with whole wheat bread cut into a
foot shape with a cookie cutter and pierced with a
straw to make the nail mark- the filling is peanut
butter topped with raspberry jam.)

St. Cecilia's keyboard

St Andrew's catch
(goldfish crackers)

St Francis' animals
(animal cookies)

Saint Ambrose's "Honey-Tongued
Doctor" dip

St John's Seven Trumpets of Revelation
(Bugles)

All Hallows Halos
(a cored apple cut into thin slices)

Some red drink could be the blood of a sainted martyr. Or milk could be St. Bridget's cows' milk. The possibilities are endless!

Deer Sanctuary

So the deer have been happily grazing in the hay, 

browsing at the edge of our woods, and strolling through our back yard. 

We're sort of running a deer sanctuary this time of year. 

It seems all the hunters scare the beasts onto our land, where they happily eat our hay, drink from our pond, and bed down in the grass until hunting season has passed.

Deer Season

So it's deer season in these parts. Which for those of you who are not local or rural, means that it's time to hunt deer. Right now, it's time to hunt them with firearms. Some folks hunt them with bows and arrows, so there's already been an archery season for deer. It preceded the firearm season. As well, there is a muzzle loader season for deer. It follows the firearm season. And after that there is the antler-less deer season. These are just the deer seasons.

It always seems to be a hunting season of some sort. There's red and gray fox season. There's a coyote and a striped skunk season.

There are two seasons to hunt raccoon and Opposum (depending upon whether you use a dog or not.)

There's a gray and fox squirrel season, a beaver season, a mink, muskrat and long tailed weasel season. There are four seasons for hunting turkey. 

There are also seasons for hunting ruffed grouse, pheasant, quail, rabbit, and crow. And the kicker for me? There's a season for green frogs and bullfrogs! (Don't believe me? See for yourself.)

As I've let you know, I was worried about hunting when we moved here. I still am a bit. Lately we've been put in an odd spot concerning hunting. Here's the deal. There's a lot of classified forrest behind our property. It seems to be owned by folks on the east coast, as they inherited it. Shortly after we moved in, some local gents were clearing the logging road that runs through it and my husband went out and introduced himself. They told him that they cared for the place in exchange for the right to hunt. And they gave him permission to walk back there any time deer weren't in season. This all seemed reasonable.

The logging road also happens to be the right of way for the telephone and electric companies, as our phone and electric lines are strung along the first 3/4 of a mile. And near the back of the property there is a buried gas line and underground fiber. So the entire length of the logging road is the access point for those utilities. 

Anyway, ever since we have moved here, there seems to be an endless string of people back there at odd times. There have been compact cars in the middle of the day, folks walking down saying they are turkey hunting, a group of teens on foot, various utilities vehicles, random trucks and off-road vehicles. We've even had some young guys on our driveway asking us how to get back there as their friend had told them they could hunt back there. They showed us a print-out of a google map.

It's a bit weird as the road passes along one side of our property line. It's also a bit weird because   the  patriarch of the aforementioned family of hunters/caretakers would stop by at intervals and ask if I'd seen anyone go back there. And I'd answer yes, but never have any knowledge of whom. I'd only have a vague description of a vehicle glimpsed through the trees or what have you, and he'd seem put out. 

He complained once of finding beer bottles. He complained another time of someone else's deer stand on the property. He complained once of some no trespassing signs that appeared (which he did not put up.) It annoyed me. I wondered why he didn't just put a lock on the gate at the end of the road. Why didn't he have his own non-trespassing signs? Why didn't he leave me his phone number so that I could call him whenever I saw a vehicle back there? Then he could come and check things out himself. 

Well, this year there's a new twist. The local hunters/caretakers showed up a few days before deer season asking if they could park on our drive the first day of deer season and walk back into the woods as the culvert  had washed out and they couldn't drive back on the logging road. We knew that the culvert had been partially washed out since we moved here, so my husband agreed. But the day after permission was granted, a front-end loader and a few off-road vehicles went back down the drive. Later I saw that the culvert had been repaired, some gravel had been spread in some particularly mucky places, and the gate had been chained and locked. 

But on the first Saturday of hunting season, the hunters/caretakers still parked in our drive and went hunting. They proceeded to come for the next few days too. So they don't have the key to the gate. But someone does. I've seen cars parked just inside the gate since then. So is the story the hunters/caretakers gave us false? They haven't seemed to be in touch with the owners. They didn't repair the culvert. They didn't hang the "no trespassing" signs. And now they are locked out. 

Oddly enough, we just found out that the eldest hunter/caretaker is the brother of our new insurance agent. But we can't exactly tactfully ask her for information. I guess we'll have to look up the tax information and get in touch with the title holders of the land. That will be awkward too. I'm trying to imagine how to initiate that conversation or how to succinctly describe the circumstances since we moved here. We'd be internet stalkers after all. And in the mean time, we are negotiating with men with guns. :)