Author: brookeshelf

Occupy Candy Land

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Brian’s family loves making an elaborate gingerbread creation every year, especially something topical or impressive.  Past years have included a castle, the White House, and an aquarium.  This year, they decided to recreate the Occupy Wall Street protest in sugar, frosting, and cookie dough.

BEHOLD!

Let me take you on a tour.  Here’s the facade of the New York Stock Exchange:

And the statue of the bull on Wall Street.

Inside, the 1%-ers are sipping champagne, smoking cigars, and snacking on caviar and toast points.  (I made these guys and gave them all monocles.)  Note the stock ticker on the wall.

Meanwhile, there are hippies in a drum circle (I made the ones with dredlocks).

Protesters surrounded by riot police and being casually attacked with pepper spray:

Hipsters with nerd glasses and goatees attend a protest meeting. Major props go to my sister-in-law’s husband Jake, who hand-carved the glasses out of clove-flavored gumdrops.  Oh, can you find Candy Waldo in this scene?

Zuccotti Park is populated with Fruit Roll-Up tents, piles of sleeping bags,  and a gigantic stack of donated library books made from Andes Mints.

Finally, Jeffrey insisted that there be a ninja scaling the building, which Caitlin says sounds exactly like the kind of stunt the real occupiers would pull.  Jeff says his ninja is named “PG-13 Spy Man.”  I like that guy.

WE ARE THE 99%!  The delicious, delicious, 99%.

Cookie Day & Christmas Village

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My kids have no school this week, and boredom isn’t an option.  Fortunately, there is a wonderful grandma in our life who is more than willing to let her grandkids trash her kitchen.

Jeffrey: expert cookie cutter

William: supreme dough roller

Eleanor: takes on any and all flour-sprinkling duties

June: absolute best at smiling for the camera

We made this many cookies.  Lo, the sugar rush was great in size.

To shake off the sweets, my mom and I took my kids to Ogden’s Christmas Village afterwards.  For those of you not in the know, this is a series of miniature cottages, decorated inside with holiday-themed dioramas.

Some of the cottages have little nooks especially designed for children to climb and explore.  Others have buttons to push for special effects (like an animatronic Santa waving his robot arm, etc.).  We were there early in the day, so my kids didn’t have to compete to see the special effects.

I loved this “Hansel and Gretel” house, although I’m not sure if my kids recognized the story.

My mom and I really liked this scene of snowmen at a lunch counter.  The snowman on the center stool foolishly ordered hot chili and, as you can see, has melted, much to the dismay of his friends.

The children’s favorite was a house showing a nutcracker workshop.  There were probably over a hundred nutcrackers on display in the little house — so fun for playing “I Spy.”  Thanks again, Mom, for a lovely winter day out!

And EVEN MORE Saints and Angels Sing

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In my family, this is when Christmas really begins:

This is our ward Primary’s nativity pageant.  This year featured a very nervous Angel Gabriel:

A cow with sideways horns (my mom said, “Hey, there could have been a unicorn in the stable, right?”):

Three kings who couldn’t stop smirking:

Best of all, there was an adorable singing angel Eleanor:

A happy shepherd Jeffrey (he’s to the right of the kid with glasses):

And a sweet star William.

During the performance, poor William was stuck in the glare of the spotlight, so he looked like this:

Don’t nobody scowl like Wimmy.  But he was cheered up afterwards with one of these beautiful angel cookies:

Trust me, they tasted as good as they look.  They were made by a lady somewhere on the other side of town who bakes and sells custom sugar cookies out of her home.  SO IMPRESSIVE.  Brian and I bit the wings off first, to make them “ecclesiastically correct” angels.  Eleanor said she liked them because “they look just like me!”  You be the judge:

Best of all, all of the grandparents were there to watch.  Shoulder rides from grandpas are very important, especially if you’ve worked hard at memorizing the words to “The First Noel.”

Here’s Why I Didn’t Blog Much in November

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Due to popular demand, here is a picture of the advent calendar my mother and I made together:

VOILA!  It’s modeled after a calendar my mother made when I was little.  Her calendar uses stuffed ornaments that attach with Velcro; I liked the 2-D look better for my tree.  The background was sewn two years ago and sat in a paper sack in my basement until my mom twisted my arm to get it finished.  I designed and cut out the ornaments, and she sewed them together, using Pellon to stiffen them up.

Here are close-up views, in case you’re curious.  (My sister insisted I do this; if you’d like to see her equally cute calendar, go here.  My sister in law also made one .  It’s been interesting to see what variations each of us came up with.)

Here’s a gingerbread house, a reindeer, and a Scottie dog.  Remember, my mom did all the embroidery, not me.  That’s why it looks so amazing.

Candy cane, Santa, ice skate.  We used a paper clip for the blade; it’s based on a Christmas ornament a friend made for my parents long ago.

Mitten, cardinal, penguin.  There’s a tiny row of beads on that mitten.  The penguin was made at William’s request.

These characters from the “Nutcracker” were my design, and I’m really proud of them (look how my mom used sequins for the Nutcraker’s eyes!  So clever).  From left to right: Nutcracker, Clara, Sugar Plum Fairy, Mouse King (which is modeled on my mom’s ’70s calendar, that’s why he’s hot pink).  The flower-shaped piece of lace on the fairy is a snippet left over from my wedding dress.

Stockings for all four children.  I’ve put them in the order my mom sewed them, and as you can tell, she got more elaborate as she went on.  I’m so impressed with her skill.

Wreath, bell, angel.  The angel design is once again based on my mom’s calendar, only her angel is pink.

Snowman, pear, holly leaf.  And yes, that’s the bling-iest pear you’re ever going to see in your life.  PEAR FROM SPAAAAACE!

Finally, the star and a heart.  When I was a kid, my sibs and I agreed that the star should be put on last, and it should go on top.  And then we argued over it.  Guess what?  My kids are doing the same.  It’s funny to see history repeat itself.

And Saints and Angels Sing

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Here in Salt Lake, the hottest holiday ticket in town is for the Christmas on Temple Square concert.  It’s free, but do dadgum popular that the tickets are issued via an online lottery.  This year over a million people entered.

Brian and I didn’t win, but our friends James and Laura did (er, rather, Laura’s dad won, but passed the tickets on to his daughter), and they invited us!

Whee!  A big, spectacular musical extravaganza!  This is what it looked like:

Big, brassy and sassy.  There’s the big choir, and and orchestra and a handbell choir (who, bless them, wore the dorkiest vests imaginable.  They made my heist-movie gloves look positively stylish).  Also featuring: the most modest dancewear money can buy!

Yup, the theme was “Christmas Stories,” which somehow translates to “Renaissance Faire Folke.”  Hence, a stage decorated to look like a castle, and heralds playing trumpets, etc.  I did think a line was crossed when a guy in chain mail started doing ballet.

But, whatever.  The choir (along with Jane Seymour) did a lovely “story-behind-the-story” monologue/choral arrangement of “Good King Wenceslas,” which is one of my favorite carols.  Brian and I did have a bit of a snicker when we noticed that the choir changed a line in one of the verses.  Instead of “bring me flesh and bring me wine,” they sang, “bring me flesh and fruit so fine.”

So, now “fruit so fine” is our codeword for any kind of alcoholic drink.  (“Dude!  That guy on the corner totally reeks of fruit so fine!”)

Believe it or not, though, my favorite part of the evening was just hanging out with our friends James and Laura.  It’s been ages since I’ve been on any kind of double date, and it was plain old fun to sit and chat while waiting for the concert to begin, and stroll through Temple Square before and afterwards.   If you’re reading this, J&L, thank you again so much!  It was just the right amount of holiday cheer to get me through a very busy, stressful week.

Quasimodo vs. Frankenstien

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So, I play in this handbell choir at Christmastime.  This is what the bells look like:

These are the four bells that are in my charge:

This is me and my mom just before a performance (although I will admit that the black gloves don’t say “holiday music concert” so much as “bad heist movie.”  C’mon, Mom!  Grab your F7 and we’ll knock over a casino!):

And THIS is the text message I got from Brian 2 minutes before that performance:

We are at PCMC ER getting Wim stitches

ME: Whaaaaaa???  Also, WHAAAAA?!?!?

There was just enough time before the performance began for me to call and find out the details.  While Brian was getting the children in the car to take Jeffrey to his Tae Kwon Do class, Wimmy tripped and bashed his head against the corner of the big coffee table in our living room.

It wasn’t a big wound, but it was deep.  Off to the ER, ho!  With Jeffrey still in his Tae Kwon Do uniform, huzzah!

I raced home as soon as the performance was over (hope you enjoyed it, residents of Valley Mental Health).  They were just leaving the hospital when I got back to Salt Lake.  Wimmy had a nasty raw-looking thing on his forehead, laced up with that horrible black surgical thread.  Everyone praised him for his bravery (he didn’t cry a bit while the doctor sewed him up) and he was whisked off to bed.

Brian was the real hero, juggling four kids in the ER by himself.  I am so thankful for such a resourceful, trustworthy husband.  And I’m also so thankful that William was Frankenstien for Halloween.  It’s just a little too delicious that the kid with fake stitches is now the kid with real stitches.

Kentucky Fried Tree

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Brian’s parents asked if we would bring our kids down to help them decorate their Christmas tree.  We were more than happy to oblige.  Here’s what it looked like at the start of the process:

You can see exactly how high the kids can reach — look at how all the ornaments are clustered together.  Distribution improved once the grownups got involved:

Cute, eh?  I enjoyed finding ornaments that had Brian’s baby pictures on them.  He was a really cute chubby baby and yes, William pretty much looks exactly like him.

Brian’s family has a tradition of putting some odd unusual object on top of the tree.  This year, my kids nominated Colonel Sanders.  Some of you may remember him from the Ugly Lamp Party:

I tied a ribbon around his neck to attach him to the tree, and we decided to say that the loops on the bow were his “angel wings.”  (Maybe Buffalo Angel Wings?)  It’s Finger Lickin’ Good!

The Best Wreath is an Edible Wreath

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Today is St. Lucia’s Day, a holiday observed in many Scandinavian countries.  Basically, the legend goes like this:

In the Oldene Dayes, Christians were being persecuted, so they hid in caves.  A woman named Lucia risked her life to bring them food.  In order to keep her arms free for carrying supplies, she put candles on a wreath and wore it like a crown on her head.  That way she didn’t have to haul around a lantern, although she did increase the risk of setting her hair on fire.  I like this story a lot; there’s a lot of delicious allegorical potential going on there.  No lie: Eleanor was almost named Lucia.

The traditional way of observing St. Lucia’s Day is to have the oldest girl in the family (or the most popular girl in the village) get up early on Dec. 13th, put on a white dress and a candle-wreath-crown, and bring breakfast in bed to everyone else.

Option Two is simply to EAT a candle-wreath-crown.  One made of pastry, of course.  I’ve wanted to obeserve St. Lucia’s Day for years (hey, I like pastry, and with Brian’s Scandinavian ancestry, it feels legit) but it’s only been until today that I’ve found a candle-wreath-crown recipe easy enough to pull off on a weekday morning.

This is mainly thanks to the cans of Pillsbury “full sheets” of crescent roll dough I’ve recently found in stores.  It contains one big giant rectangle of dough that you can transform into anything you want.

St. Lucia Day Wreath

  • two cans of Crescent Roll sheets
  • 2/3rd cup of brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
  • 3 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 375.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and coat with baking spray.

In a small bowl, combine sugar and spices.  De-tube or whatever a can of dough and roll it out.  Brush butter down the center third of the dough and sprinkle half of the sugar-spice mixture on top, leaving the rest of the dough plain.

Cut diagonal strips on either side of the filling, then overlap the strips into a “braid.”  I took a picture to show you how it’s done:

Repeat with the other tube of dough and remaining mixture, then form both braids into a wreath on the baking sheet.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a nice golden color. I suppose the more proactive among you could form the wreath the night before, refrigerate it, and bake it off in the morning.  If you do, it’ll probably take 30 minutes of baking time.

The fancy-schmancy among you have probably already had the idea of putting on a butter, milk, or egg-wash glaze before baking and/or sprinkling it with white sugar.  Good for you.

You’re supposed to light candles in the wreath before you eat it.  It looked pretty, but I didn’t have time to wait for the wreath to cool before I stuck the candles, in, and the bottoms melted a bit into the hot pastry.  Silly me.

Delicious anyway, eh?

Sweets & Treats Reprised

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Last year, the women in my family attended the Santa’s Tea Party at the Grand America together and enjoyed it SO much (scones!) that we decided to do it again this year.

MEET THE CONTENDERS:

From left to right: Katie, Eleanor, June, and Emmaline.  Ready, set, tea par-tay!

Emmeline spent a good amount of time on Grandma’s lap:

And naturally Kathryn and Katherine were also party buddies:

I was buddies with the food:

NOM NOM NOM.  I am a total sucker for teeny sandwiches.  You can pretty much get me to do anything for a sandwich the size of a postage stamp, so think of the possibilities if you had a sandwich the size of a football!

Even the children’s sandwiches were cute.  This is a fancy pb&j idea that I have to steal:

Orders of hot chocolate came with little cappuccino cups of whipped cream:

This was all fine and good, but what Eleanor was really interested in was meeting Santa Claus.

Katie came along with her, and we were worried she would cry, but instead she was far more interested in getting Santa’s beard.

Meanwhile, dessert:

I was in heaven.  My mom was of the opinion that it wasn’t as good as last year, but I suspect that was mainly because my sister and her children weren’t able to come (they are awaiting a new baby brother back in Pittsburgh).

However, pates des fruits and citrus madelines did do a little something to assuage the pain of missing Liz.  Eleanor was completely satisfied afterwards:

NOM NOM NOM.

Lights! Camera! Action!

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Here’s the secret to successfully visiting Temple Square at Christmastime:

  • Go early in the month
  • Go on a weeknight
  • Get there before 7 pm, to avoid hordes of youth groups (bless them, but they obliviously walk through family groups and kids get lost)
  • Avoid snowy days
  • Hats, gloves, scarves.  And a big ol’ bunting for baby.
  • If you’re lucky, you’ll have all the above factors and there will warm-ish temperatures, too.

Comparing this year’s visit to last year’s, I must also say that not being 7 mos. pregnant also increases the quality of the visit.

Smaller crowds were definitely a plus.  This was the first year the kids have been able to see the automated “Nativity” program that plays every 20 minutes or so. Usually the audience is massive and impossible to penetrate.  The kids were wowed, especially when they projected a star on the side of the Tabernacle.  Hey, you would be too, if you were six!

Smaller crowds also meant I had time to take a shot of this cool luminary.  It’s made of die-cut metal, and there were several, all depicting scenes from the life of Christ.

Eleanor noticed the seagull statue next to the Assembly Hall:

I used the moment to tell the story of the “Miracle of the Seagulls,” but didn’t mention that the Seagull Monument was the world’s first public statue commemorating bird heroism.  And if birds get to sit on statues of human heroes, shouldn’t humans get to sit on statues of bird heroes?

Dashing in and out of the various buildings on the square does wonders for numb fingers and toes.  Jeff was miffed that we didn’t stay to do some impromptu family history research.

It was beautiful, although I must admit that my favorite part was the walk to and from the car.  We parked next to City Creek Park, and all the man-made “streams” and “ponds” had been drained for the winter.  The kids went wild with running in and out of the dry stream beds and dashing under the bridges.  Adorable.

Last tip for a successful trip: lots of cream on top of the hot cocoa afterwards!