Riot and Frolic

Holiday Cheer : Day 14

Advent Adventures

Day 14 : visit Santa and watch The Grinch

How else do I celebrate the day before my birthday, other than getting violently ill?  Send my husband and little ladies out for a tasty and hilarious Breakfast with Santa, of course.  

I never plan on bringing the ladies to see Saint Nic, it just happens.  If we're in town, my great-auntie invites her great-GREAT-nieces out to her country club for a Christmas shindig.  It's always fun: good food, adult beverages for the...adults, SANTA, an adorable jazz trio of octogenarians playing "The Hokey Pokey" and other classics, cookie decorating, etc. 

This year, Mae Cake stumped Santa by boldly walking up to him, poking him in the leg, and asking, "Where's your reindeer?"  The G was surprised the big guy didn't have a pat answer for this one, but she can be a little alarming.  When Mae was done telling him what she wanted, she asked Santa if he wanted to dance.  Again, Big Red wasn't sure what to say to the wee Cake. She shrugged and said goodbye.  Priceless.

As you can imagine, I don't have pictures of the goings-on, but if The G sends his evidence to me, I'll post them ASAP.

Do you take your kids to see Santa?  Do you avoid Santa?  DO YOUR KIDS ALREADY KNOW ABOUT SANTA?

Holiday Cheer : Day 13

Advent Adventures

Day 13: take the train in to Minneapolis and watch the Holidazzle parade.

Otherwise known as, Holidon't,  Holidisappointment, or, my personal favorite, Holi-diaster.

Here's the problem with the Holidazzle parade: it's a winter parade... IN MINNESOTA.

We have forecasts that are described as "BITTERLY COLD".  "FEELS LIKE -19°".

NINETEEN BELOW ZERO, PEOPLE.  You Californians, just. don't. know.

Parades are generally for the children and in the name of making happy memories, us crazy Minnesotans will drag our wee ones out into the SUB-FREEZING TUNDRA of Minneapolis and stand on a curb for an hour.

But wait, we won't, because 1-3 of our children will need to go to bathroom and THERE ARE NO BATHROOMS.

You think I'm joking, but IT IS A FACT.  There is ONE bathroom open in the evening in downtown Minneapolis and it is so far in the recesses of Macy's that you think you're in an employees only area.  And it is strangely hot in the bathroom and your children have 9 layers of clothing on because you were planning on the Antarctic-like atmosphere outside, not the rainforest you've just encountered inside.  

And you want to get a coffee SO BAD (and put some of that whiskey in it, that you brought in your new birthday flask), but the line at the Caribou Coffee is INTIMIDATINGLY LONG.  So you hunch your shoulders and head back outside without a hot toddy. *sigh*

The two floats you end up seeing are really neat and you're impressed by the parade marchers' enthusiasm, but you have made up your mind that A) the best part was the train ride and B) you're not going again until the girls are 14 years old OR  it's 34° out.

zoo looked like she grew up in NYC

 

IT'S SANTA! SANTA'S COMING! OH MY GOSH!

 

the big guy in his sleigh

 

chillin' on the curb

HAPPY HOLIDAYS.

 

Holiday Cheer : Day 12

Advent Adventures

Day 12 : Borax snowflakes.

Yo.  Today I channeled my Martha Stewart and made Borax snowflakes with the little ladies.  It was neat.  There was science involved.  I loosely tied this in with the three wise men and their charts and science-y stuff.

Yeeeah.  Loosely.

here's mae cake showing off her snowflake pipe-cleaner shape. in the background are mason jars prepped with borax, waiting hot water and dangling ornaments

 

zoo is stoked to be putting her ornament over a pen. SO STOKED

 

experiment has started. the jars start out cloudy (like the one at right) and then clear up as the borax settles to the bottom

 

12 hours later, out of the jars and onto a paper towel to dry

finished product! so cool!

 

mae cake's fluffy snowflake

 

zoo's modern circle

 

v's upside down heart

When I first saw people were making these as gifts, I thought it was LAME, but they look totally BAD ASS on the tree.  I want these as ALL MY ORNAMENTS and support making these for ALL THE GIFTS for ALL THE PEOPLE.

And who didn't love crystal gardens and rock candy, so now I have "keep children busy" acitvities for another part of the year.

BOOM.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS.

Two years ago: Because I Can, in which I ramble semi-coherently while working off a sugar buzz, I assume.

Holiday Cheer : Day 10 & 11

Advent Adventures

Day 10: shopping for sisters.

In theory, the girls really liked this one, but when they opened up the bag, they were awfully disappointed it was "just a card".  [When there's an action to be accomplished that day, it's just written on a notecard.  Not a great motivator for the pre-reading set.]

We haven't actually done the shopping yet since The G and I had a 10 meetings and pick-ups for this other crazy thing we're doing (the soon-to-be Mill City Ballroom), but I'm curious to see what they'll pick out for each other.

Day 11: marshmallows, AKA THE WAY MORE FUN THAN YESTERDAY ONE.

If someone tells you marshmallows are hard to make, they are liars.  I vaguely followed the recipe at Smitten Kitchen for marshmallows and still they turned out great.

Things I did wrong that still produced better-than-store-bought 'mallows:

• don't have a candy thermometer and just eyeball what 240° of boiling sugar water looks like.
• beat the egg whites WITH the vanilla, instead of beating the egg whites AND THEN adding the vanilla.
• use a hand-mixer.  The ye olde Kitchenaid works magic on marshmallow fluff, but mine is in need of a worm gear after mixing too much pizza dough.  That was one very tired, hot, 30 year old Cuisinart when all was said and done.

Mostly the little ladies were overjoyed at making them "princess marshmallows" by each of them adding a few drops of food coloring... and getting to lick the beaters.

 

not williams-sonoma, but i'm complemented by the reference

Have you ever made marshmallows?  Do you make other candies?  

 

Holiday Cheer : Day 9

Advent Adventures

Day 9 : stars.  

The wee book told of the star seen by the three wise men.  We took that star and ran with it by making star garlands (AKA decorations for the little ladies' bedroom).

While you all (yes, you) have been very complimentary of my mothering skills, let's not kid ourselves: I do some swearing under my breath during these festivities.  Stringing 24 cut-out stars (WHICH I CUT BY HAND WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING, YOU INGRATES) onto a length of yarn was "too hard", "taking too long", and "exhausting."

As usual, the payoff  is after the activity is completed, when they get to oooo and aaaah at their work.  Or 6 months later when they ask "Remember when we did that thing...?"

i drew a star on a piece of paper for a template and cut the shapes out of scrapbook paper from Michael's. V hole-punched them. TEAMWORK!

 

here are the Cinderellas hard at work

 

Zoo says "cheese" even though her stars are all backwards

 

V enjoys her stars and new twinkle lights

 

Mae Cake models her garland

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

this is happening next year

Two years ago: Dance What You Know, in which I pray for ballroom professionals.