We’re still here

Hullabaloo aside, we are all still here on December 22. Yeah! Cate and I are excited to go to Maurice Sendak’s Nutcracker this afternoon in Seattle (with Sherry & Breklinn). A twirly dress is in the mix. Eleanor arrived late last night. Presents are being purchased last minute. Christmas cards may turn into New Year’s cards or they may just fade away this year.

I may have had a massive stressy, freak-out moment, or series of moments yesterday. I had to apologize to the girls. Jane kept nodding and saying knowingly, “Mommy is frust-er-a-ted.” Yes. But today is a new day and grace has been given and received. But back to yesterday: I realized that Jane had another ear infection and so we went to the pediatrician. Then there were a whole series of people I realized suddenly I still needed to give gifts. Thankfully, Telfer got done early and I was able to get most gifts bought and delivered. In some ways, I know it doesn’t matter that much but then again, showing gratitude to those who take care of my kids, who work for my husband all year, is important. I can say thank you and give a gift. It’s pretty simple really.

tea & madeleine’s, a photo by telfandrea on Flickr.

One of my resolutions for 2013 (starting early) is to bake something with the girls so we can have a tea party every Wednesday afternoon. Of course I had to go into work for a meeting this Wednesday afternoon so we had our tea party at 11:30 in the morning instead. We made madeleine’s for the first time. Cate and Jane “helped” spoon the batter into the molds and then helped me “clean” the bowl and then “lightly” dusted powder sugar on top when the cookies came out of the oven. The madeleine’s tasted wonderful but we learned a few things: don’t overfill the molds and be really careful when taking them out of the oven. I dumped ALL of them out of the pan into the bottom of my very dirty oven. Non-stick pans!