pumpkin spice candle day

ahhh...
it is september first, and all is right with the world.

Slainte!

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Merry Christmas

omelets "boiling" away
individual omelets, cinnamon button bread and clementines
the boy who STILL believes

with full bellies and full hearts,

the ericksons wish you a

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

silent night, holy night

solstice solace

wow, today had some really stressful moments. jack, a child who *needs* routine, meandered and whined his way through the first day of vacation. our day started rough, and was heading right back to it as we arrived home to begin the business of dinner and downtime (fortunately, my mom assures me that he did NOT threaten them with his wrath while they entertained him this afternoon.)



thank goodness for solstice. thank goodness we have a tradition of eating foods that can don't need to be cooked and fussed over. thank goodness we sit together in the glow of the tree and candles and count our blessings. thank goodness i was able to keep it together and not let jack's temper tantrums propel us all into winter doldrums. thank goodness.



welcome winter. today is the darkest day of the year. we light candles and welcome the return of the sun.

the return of sunshine on our faces and smiles for each other.

"no snow" days

so, pretty much the rest of the east coast/mid-atlantic region is having the White Christmas of their lives. unfortunately for one 8 year-old, we live just a little too far east for the historic snowfall.

oh, we had precipitation. it rained and rained and RAINED on friday. literally put a damper on our third annual holiday drum circle. but that did not deter us from heading out with our festive finger foods.



i saw a link to this tree of pinwheels over at not martha. (you can see a snazzy photo from the Cook's website here.) i have to say that it took me a ridiculously time to stack the pinwheels so that it looked somewhat like a tree (and not a bizarre shrub.) the Cook's promo shot is decidedly more "Seussian" than mine.


after our clothes dried and our fingers unpuckered on Saturday morning, we went for the trifecta: oh, yes, we managed to sqeeze in "gingerbread house making" "Christmas cookie baking" and "turning all 1,000 pieces of the Christmas puzzle face up" in one day!

i've made a certain peace with gingerbread house making over the past few years. once again, i thought maybe we might "forget" about this little tradition. thank goodness i have jack to keep me on my game!! (if you need a laugh, or just a refresher on my gingerbread woes, might i direct you to '06 and '07.




i had the brilliant idea to have a little cookie exchange with my mom and sisters this year. i can't even tell you about the obscene amount of cookies we had to exchange. (i think next year we should all bring about one dozen cookies. period. end of story.) i seriously have no idea what i'm going to do with all of these!!



the puzzle is out, and ready for working. this year we set it up on our kitchen table. i have been drawn to it more than once today, and jack and i just finished up a good hour of puzzling together. ("mom, you have to double check that all of those border pieces are correct. IN ALL MY YEARS OF PUZZLING, that's been my experience...")



to recap: snow? no. sugar? yes.

merry christmas week!!

Thanksgiving Dinner

there is nothing quite like the woodfire smoke smell and the homestyle embrace of the Cracker Barrel. (i'm not usually a fan of the Cracker Barrel. or "homestyle cooking, in general.) however, in this case, it was the perfect end to a great day.



"do they have any Thanksgving specials?" asked Jack.


oh, yes. yes, they do...

the giving tree

remember last fall when my family made the giving tree? and i knew it somehow had to make another appearance?







happy easter!

for prosperities' sake

my mom makes a batch of "hoppin' john" every new year's day, so this afternoon i went to her house and retrieved enough servings for matty, jack and i.

in the south, it is said if you eat a serving of "hoppin' john" on new year's day, you will be blessed with good fortune throughout the year.

i just learned that if you eat it the next day (when it is called "skippin' jenny"), you have an even better chance at prosperity.

wish i'd known that about an hour ago...

in lieu of gingerbread

the gingerbread wasn't going to happen this year. (do you know how i really feel about gingerbread houses?!? if not, you can read about the gingerbread escapades here and here.)

in fact, not much holiday *baking* was done at all. well, aside from the gorgeous loaf of herbed cheese bread i made. have i mentioned the herbed cheese bread yet? (note to self: track down photo of gorgeous herbed cheese bread...)

never one to be swayed from his routine, jack *settled* for another project. he got out his cookbook and landed upon the *perfect* holiday dessert... shortcake. in december. really, i couldn't have been more thrilled. (never mind that it called for out-of-season fruit, and for more of that covering-the-counter-AND-my-hands-with-that-awful-flour stuff.) it was to be shortcake. (thank goodness my recent triumph over the herbed cheese bread had me feeling like i could handle the flour thing again!)

slicing the fruit (this kid has serious knife skills.)

sprinkling the sugar.

here he is, ladies and gentlemen, your next food network star!!

O, holy night

O magnum mysterium,

et admirabile sacramentum,

ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,

jacentem in praesepio!

O great mystery,

and wonderful sacrament,

that animals should see the new-born Lord,

lying in a manger!

the giving tree

as i was putting away the fall decorations yesterday, i stumbled when i came to our giving tree. this is the first year we have done one. it created a wonderful visual for us throughout the Thanksgiving season.





this is definitely a tradition we will carry on. although, it might become a more permanent addition to our decor!

thankful outside of the box

this year, our extended family members are all out of town. which leaves us behind in southport. to feed all of their pets...

this happens every few years. when you are the oldest of four girls who are all now married, there are times that your sisters go to spend a holiday with their *other* families. and i sort of enjoy the quiet holidays from time to time.

i started the day here, which is a really nice way to start Thanksgiving Day, especially when you don't have to go home and prepare a feast!

we had leftover turkey breast, and we struck upon the idea of skipping the feast altogether, and going right to the leftovers. (did you see that the Food Network did an entire show on leftovers?!?)

of course, we didn't have leftover "anything else." just the turkey. so i set about making some Thanksgiving dishes so that we would have the "leftovers."

(does that seem a little twisted to you? jack thought so. but, anyway...)

cranberry smoothies!

"turkey and green bean casserole" pot pies! (i didn't have puff pastry in the house. so... i made my own. i know!)

fried stuffing with cranberry pesto! (what is better than bread dredged in bread crumbs and fried to perfection?!? nothing, i tell you!)

all in all, a lovely, if not-so-traditional, day.

i am giving thanks for all of my wonderful blog friends today. thank YOU all for GIVING so much!

the witching hour

it is 8:25 pm, and i am alone.

i don't know if 8:25 pm qualifies as the *witching hour.* it should be midnight or something. but all is quiet, and i'm enjoying every minute of it!

truth be known, i've been alone all day. what a rarity!! matty works on sundays, so he was long gone by the time i awoke at 7:30. jack and i had to catch up on a few episodes of Top Design. just before the second episode ended, a friend called and offered to take jack for the day!! matty had to go straight from work to Dracula, then picked up jack on the way home. i had beef stew in the crockpot, and they arrived home just as my vocal group was leaving. and they were both asleep by 8 pm!

ahhhhhh.

i really don't mean to blog the night away (i have had the film "Chocolat" from Netflix for over three months!! it is calling my name tonight.) but before i go and cuddle up on the sofa, a few images of our halloween.

jack insisted on a "buyable" costume this year. and i was finally willing to oblige. he wore his costume to his cousin's birthday party in atlanta last weekend, and to our town's trunk-or-treat on halloween. and i don't have a single photo of him with the mask on. eh.

matty was a crazy chef (not really a stretch for him!)

you cannot see them in this pic, but i wore my very subtle *horns.* we make a lovely couple, don't we?

somehow, trunk-or-treat always sneaks up on us. we didn't do anything elaborate. we draped the back of the car with black sheets, and set out this lovely table of goodies. the "drink me" and "eat me" props were just for show, but they were a fantastic conversation piece. matty had to leave early for Dracula, so jack and i held down the fort.

i never thought i would be a trunk-or-treat fan. growing up, we walked our neighborhood with our dad, while our mom stayed home to hand out treats. then one of them would drive us around to the homes that were to far to reach by foot. so the thought of parading around a parking lot (or park, in our case), seemed a bit off to me. however, i have grown to really enjoy it. jack doesn't seem to be a huge fan of trick-or-treating, so he makes a pass to the different cars, and then parks himself at ours to help hand out candy. it is over promptly at 7:30, at which point we head home, under a dark porch light, and enjoy the rest of our evening quietly.

waning and waxing

Easter morning found us *finally* dying eggs. jack has been asking for about two weeks now, but my enthusiasm was definitely waning. i don't know where i picked up this tip, but using wax paper under your project is a lifesaver!!

hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend!

happy heart day!

i remember always waking up to a little treat from my parents on each holiday. it might have been something tucked away in my lunch bag, or a collection of silly treats (pencils, plastic jewelry, etc.). in later years it might have been care packages sent to college, and in even later years, an unexpected check would flutter out of the envelope.

in the spirit of taking back the day, i wanted to make sure that everyone in my house woke up to a little treat. so before i climbed into bed last night, these little bags were assembled in the kitchen. little treats. stickers and gum and glittery pink accessories.



of course, the day would not be complete without valentines for school. last weekend, i picked up some cookie dough that was marked down to a clearance price (i have not ever been a proponent of "break and bake" cookies - these were a total impulse buy if ever there was one...) however, jack immediately decided we had to have MORE so he could bake them for his teachers. (we can't make home-baked treats for the kids at school, but apparantly, the staff isn't scared of a few germs!!)

i was exhausted last night, and when he said, "it's time to bake the cookies," i almost collapsed into a puddle right there on the kitchen floor. but he persisted. "let's just pre-heat the oven," he said, and before i knew it, he had "breaked and baked" (i couldn't resist) 4 dozen cookies, almost by himself.

i had bags and shred and twine, and he quickly set about counting out and bagging the cookies. and then, he jumped up and said, "we have to go turn on the computer! for labels!" (if you ever have wondered about the far-reaching effects of creative blogging, my friends, may i present my son, who absolutely appreciates the value of good packaging!!)





i sort of dropped the ball when it came to photographing his treats, but here are a few shots. the labels simply read "happy heart day love, jack" simple and RED (his favorite color).

they have decided to have a *dance* at school this afternoon. oh, my. jack is beside himself ("will i have to dance with girls, mom?") here's a shot of us getting ready to head to school this morning. they were allowed a free dress day (no uniform), so here we are, red clothing and all!



i must come back today and pen a few more words about how i'm feeling this holiday (inspired by april's tandem post, and amy's idea that she might tell a great love story.)

in the meantime, hope you have a happy heart day!

happy birthday, jen!! start a blog already ;)