Happy New Year!

Yes, I have emerged from hibernation.

The decorations are packed away, the house is tidied to within an inch of its life, we've played with all the new toys, iPods, pink electric scooters and electronics, tried on the new clothes, and found homes for every new item. I'm fat as a squealing pig from holiday cheese and cream and sugar and it is now time to slowly re-enter the world of reality.

I love Christmas.

It is always a bit of a let down when it is over and you sit amidst the rubble that took months of preparation and only mere hours to scatter to wit's end. I think the rubble is nature's way of saying "There now. Aren't you glad that is done? Now you can be off and on to bigger and better things."

So. Tally ho!

Another year. 2009? Isn't that weird? I feel like it was just last year that people were panicking over the dreaded Y2k ordeal and filling their tubs with water and storing canned food for the eminent doom that was to befall us.

We are looking forward to spending our New Year's Eve with several families at our close friends' house who happen to live just down the block. So no venturing out into the drunken mania that is New Year's Eve.

I don't make New Year's Resolutions. I think they are silly, overrated lists of high expectations that most normal people forget and never keep. I think we should all be living our best lives every day of the year and that you should always set your standards high and not compromise your own integrity by making it into a list that you can't possibly accomplish and only set yourself up for failure. Sorry. Soapbox. But I will say that I think January is the perfect time of the year to reevaluate and refresh. It seems like we all slow down in January and make time for things that should be a priority. Like closets and projects and new habits.

One of the new habits that I am very much looking forward to this year happens to my very favorite Christmas gift this year! 12 pre-scheduled date nights with my husband. One a month every month for the entire 2009! Alternating months with both sets of grandparents to share the wealth that is my glorious children. And beginning this Friday night! So excited!

Isn't that an awesome gift? Sigh. And it doesn't end with the Christmas season.

I watched a clip on the CBS Early Show today about how excess is out and simplifying is in for 2009! I had to laugh out loud because Jason and I have always lived by that rule. Last year friends and neighbors, you called us eccentric and now look at us-we are trend setters! Not really, but the clip was about scaling down on the size of your home, the size of your car, the amount of your belongings and in this tight ecomony appreciating the simple joys in every day life.

Duh.

Isn't it sad that a situation like a faltering economy and joblessness had to happen to spur people to reflect on this? But a good and refreshing reminder of how to live our best life every day in 2009.

So Happy 2009 to you! May you enjoy the simple pleasures of a New Year!

"Year by year the complexities of this spinning world grow more bewildering and so each year we need all the more to seek peace and comfort in the joyful simplicities."

-Woman's Home Companion, December 1935

Merry Christmas!!!

Wishing you a warm and toasty holiday season! May you have marshmallows by the fire, hot cocoa in front of the tree and lots of snuggling under the afghan! Shut out the noise and play with your family-no matter how young or old! See you after Santa comes!!!!

{Yes Virginia}

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.



Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.




You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Francis Pharcellus Church wrote The Sun's response to Virginia

High Maintenance

We had three snow days at the beginning of the week where the girls were out of school. We used the time to rest rest rest! We have been busy busy busy. I feel the need to say things three times in a row like Eloise's nanny. The girls used this time be play the princesses role up good with breakfast in bed each morning.



I think I have created a monster.


Even the dog wouldn't get out of bed. Sigh.

Oh no she did-n't!!!!

Wanted.

One violin teacher who values and respects her pupils. A teacher who understands that a busy parent cannot spend endless time driving to appointments at which said teacher does not show up and several rescheduled lessons to which said teacher forgets to write down said schedule change.


Wanted.

One violin teacher who will actually remember what her pupil has worked on and pick up where she left off at the last lesson. Who will put her damned dog outside in the backyard when she knows that her pupils have a lesson every Tuesday at four o'clock and not make said pupil stand outside in the cold while the dog barks and pre-paid lesson time ticks away on the clock.



Wanted.

One violin teacher who will not forget to call when the Christmas recital has been &^%$#@!@ canceled due to inclement weather after her pupil buys a ca-yute black and white polka dotted dress and red sparkly "click clack" shoes and said pupil paints her fingernails a shiny red and puts curlers in her hair and a big red polka dotted bow and when said pupil makes homemade gingerbread with her mommy to take to said Christmas recital and when said pupil has practiced for 5 weeks and memorized her little song-y and said pupil's grandparents haven't committed to drive an hour to see said Christmas recital.

Wanted.

A violin teacher who carries a calendar, has common courtesy and respect for her students and a desire to teach children the art of music, not make a fast buck to help pad the budget.

Shut. Up.

Look! I caught a picture of Santa under the tree in our living room! No, really it came from this AWESOME site that I should have thought up myself years ago that my new friend just turned me on to. Here I have been, year after year, working my ass off to try and spread a little Santa magic to my kids and I could just lay the matter to rest once and for all with a big ha-yuge lie (thanks for pointing that out, yes, I do lie to my kids about Santa) and a pic of him standing in our living room. Hello? He's actually supposed to be kneeling on the floor distributing presents but I seem to have cut him off at the knees and he looks a little small...hmmm.

We have gone to such extremes to spread a little magic at the Archer house in years past. One year we threw some gifts up on the roof and didn't "discover" them until later that day as we were leaving to go over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house. (You know, like they fell out of his bag when he was getting out of the sleigh?) One year Jason drug ha-yuge steel poles through our soft front yard to create huge gashes that were supposed to look like sleigh runners. (He's such a good dad, he even pawed the ground with the hoe to look like reindeer marking.) Last year I dipped one of Jason's boots in baby powder to make a dirty Santa footprint. It goes on an on and on. We are obsessed, I know.

But this year, well, this year will quiet all the little rumors. Thank GAWD they don't know the full extent of Photoshop yet, although our wonderful computer teacher at the girls' school, has already introduced Molly to the wonderfully addictive habit that comes with knowing Photoshop! I'm a junkie. I know this.

Wanna spread the magic and lie to your kids with me? Please go visit Capture the Magic!

This weekend is our cheer competition and this child is so stoked!!!!


For those of you cheer moms out there, or those past cheerleaders who remember, you will sympathize with me about what a looooooooonnnnnngggg day cheer competitions are. Especially if you are like me and you are the coach! I have learned learned learned what to prepare for, though, and what the essentials are and how to anticipate disasters ahead of time now! So I am packed with my rolling suitcase and carry-on and I'm ready to board, Captain! Sigh. My little cheerleaders have worked so hard this year and they are competing against some older girls this year and I just want them to do well. Actually I just want none of them to be dropped in front of hundreds of people. That's the truth. Just catch them all. That'd be great. They do some crazy stunting and it's hit and miss sometimes.

Jacy had a little program at school yesterday and she was a bookworm telling the story of Ludwig Von Beethoven and it was PWECIOUS! Do I need to tell you who the best bookworm was? Of course, I do not.



Here she is with her little friend, Ashleigh. They had to wear those huge glasses as part of their bookworm costume! Jacy kept telling me about Ashleigh's pimped out antennae. You'll notice hers are pipe cleaners tied to a headband. Ashleigh definitely has it going on with the antennae. I'll get the DL from her mom next bookworm costume I make, Jacy. She also had a pocket on her costume. For what, I'm not sure, but Jacy was not happy that she didn't have a pocket as well. Poor neglected child. Ghetto antennae and no pocket. Whadddyregonnado?

Christmas cookies anyone?

On the ninth day of Christmas...

Saturday we made the ca-yutest aprons that my mom gave us for our gingerbread house making frenzy on Sunday! You know, you have to look the part! Even Dad got involved since he is essential to the foundation of the gingerbread structure. The one year that I tried to make it myself was less than successful, let me just say. I ended cursing all of Christmastide, throwing it in the trash, getting in the car and driving to the craft store to buy the accursed Gingerbread house kit!



Look at those faces! Oh, honey!

The kit had the ca-yute gingerbread aprons with red ribbon ties and all the pieces to make a darling project with, thankgodinheaven, no cutting or sewing involved!


Jacy did the hot glue gun all by herself this year. Sniff, sniff. She's a big crafter now!


Dad had to break with tradition and re-do his pattern so he could be a boy gingerbread man. The rebel. He never follows the rules!


Look how stylin' we are! We are ready to bake some gingerbread! Gingerbread in the house! Holla!

Amber's Recipe for the most festive, yummy smelling Gingerbread house on the street!

Whisk together:

6 cups flour

1/2 t baking powder

4 t ground ginger

4 t ground cinnamon

1/2 t ground cloves

1/2 t salt

Beat until fluffy and well blended:

1 1/2 sticks (12 T) butter

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

Beat in:

2 eggs

1 cup dark molasses

1 T water

Beat in half the flour mixture until smooth and then stir and stir and stir in the remaing flour. Curse because it is stiff. Holler for your hubby to help you. Holler again. Dammit, Jason I can't mix this stiff dough come and freaking help me! Plop it onto the counter. Knead it like bread dough. There. That works. Never mind, sweetie. Why are you mad?

Place in a big ziploc storage bag overnight in a cool place. But NOT the fridge or it will get too hard and then you'll really curse.

(Aside: you can actually store this dough for up to 3 days in the fridge, but just bring it to room temp before using!)

Have someone (not me) who is very precise with their measurements do the following:

Cut out the pattern pieces from sturdy paper:

Front and back of the house:

5 1/2 inches wide by 7 1/2 inches high

This will be your front and back so the peak of the house will be at the 7 1/2" point.

You can also cut out a little door!

You will have two of these!

Roof:

7 1/2 inches wide by 6 1/2 inches high rectangle for the roof.

You will have two of these!

Sides of the house:

5 inches wide by 3 inches high for the sides.

You will have two of these!

Chimney:

1 inch wide by 3 inches high for the chimney front

1 inch wide by 1 1/2 inches high for the chimney back

1 inch side, 2 3/4 inches high on one side and 1 1/2 inches high on the other.

(this is cut on a slant so that it fits on the roof slope!)

Heat the oven to 350. Roll out the dough to a very even 1/4 inch thick on a piece of waxed paper!

Have someone precise (not me) cut out the pieces!!!!! They need to fit together very well to hold correctly!

Bake until the edges are just tinged with brown. 11 to 15 minutes for the larger pieces. 6 to 8 minutes for the smaller pieces.

For the icing:

Microwave 1 large egg white and 2/3 cup powdered sugar 30-60 seconds until it reaches 160 degrees.

Add and beat on high 2/3 cup powdered sugar until the icing is cool and holds stiff peaks.

This icing dries out quickly and hold like glue!

It's a lot of work but so much more fun than the perfunctory Gingerbread house kit! And the whole family gets involved and the house smells SO good!

Oh what fun...

While our beautiful Shabbee White tree in the living room has been up since Thanksgiving evening and even has a big pile of wrapped and tagged gifts under it, the girls really wanted a fresh cut tree again this year. So yesterday Jason took the day off and we told them we were headed for a fun outing. They love fun outings because they are always a surprise and as many nagging questions as they give us, we never tell until we get there!

We went to the ca-yutest little tree farm in our town. We usually alternate every other year using our white tree, which my mom bought me a long time ago, for our living room and having the fun tradition of a fresh cut tree. Last year we did the cut your own thing and I loved it, but dearly missed my beautiful white tree. So up it went this year and we indulged the kids with their own sweet smelling tree for their bedroom!

They were so excited! They love this place and run between the rows of trees until they are lost and we have to call to each other back and forth to find them.

After about 30 minutes of carefully looking over each small tree, they finally found "the one"!

What a perfect size for them!

Jason insisted they cut it down themselves which they thought was woooonderfulll!

Then they just picked it up and hauled it to the wagon themselves! Well, it is OUR tree, Mommy.

Funny girls.

Look how strong! Just plop that baby up while the funny guy in the face mask who drives the wagon looks at us like we are child labor abusers!

Then up on the wagon they went with Mommy and Daddy trailing behind!



Wait for us! I love their tree so much! It is covered in homemade ornaments that they have saved and collected since they were preschoolers at Yellow Balloon! Yes, Miss Diane, we still have all those fun meat tray thingy's with the tinsel and pipe cleaner that they made at the construction station! I never throw anything handmade from my girls away!!!! Their tree has cranberry and popcorn garland and a big wooden star at the top and is covered in tiny teddy bears, popsicle stick snowmen, big handpainted Christmas balls and trains and bells and gingerbread men and ha-yuge old fashioned blinking colored lights. I'll take a picture after they put the finishing touches on it so you can see how wonderful it is! They are cutting glittery snowflakes out as I type to put on it!

Wait until you see the fun craft we are doing today...I looooooove Christmas!

Christmas Train

Last night we took a ride on The Christmas Train, a fun Christmas attraction in our area. It is a big old fashioned steam engine that takes you on a wonder-filled ride into the ca-yutest old fashioned western Christmas town around! (Aside: I should probably preface this by saying that these were some of the worst pictures I have ever taken in my life because I was so excited about the festivities that I didn't change the aperture on my camera and all the photoshopping in the world won't make these pictures better. But you get the idea. I also managed to not take one single picture of the darling train. I think I get so caught up in the moment I do well to take any pictures at all! I love festive-ness!) We loooooooove the Christmas Train and it has been a tradition to go with my mom and dad every year since the girls were babies. It has been closed for the past couple of years because they made some major improvements on the town and boy was the wait worth it!


The town is a real fantasy town complete with hardware store, mercantile, restaurants and fun stuff! Every inch of the place is decked out in Christmas garb and they have an endless stream of old western Christmas music over the loud speakers!


I actually made a lot of little Christmas purchases in their many little shoppes!

There are friendly people everywhere offering to help and waving at you when you're on the train, standing at the doors to business opening the doors and holding packages for you. They constantly say "Merry Christmas!" and are decked out in the ca-yutest old fashioned outfits ever!

I don't know if they'd let me work there. After a while wouldn't you get a little cranky and say something like "Look, just get on the flippin' train already willya? I'm freezing my ass off out here!" But they never lose their Christmas spirit.

There are stagecoach rides on a real old stagecoach!


There are pony rides and bumper cars and a carousel and a playground and freezing cold wagon rides around a wooded path that tells The Night Before Christmas Story.

And of course, Santa's Palace.

Complete with Mrs. Claus.


It is a Church-run operation with a very non-invasive message about the true meaning of Christmas. I really appreciate what they are trying to do with their operation and they definitely don't leave out the magic of Christmas!

Fun!

Why I love Tasha Tudor

Confession.

I am obsessed with Tasha Tudor.

I have been for years.

There is something so remarkable about this woman, who died at age 92 last June, that compels me like almost no other.

Please tell me you know who I'm talking about. If you don't, you must visit her family website or, better yet, go check out some of her fantastic books at the library. Start with Tasha Tudor's Garden-it's a fabulous read on a cold winter's day. Then read Tasha Tudor's Heirloom Crafts and then follow up with the delightful Private World of Tasha Tudorr better yet, just watch the only documentary ever made on her called "Take Joy".

My obsession started with the reading of Tasha Tudor's Dollhouse years back. I could hardly contain myself when I found out that there were actually people out there who still loved to play with toys and, in fact, had made it a lifelong career. My girls were babies at the time and so I began to collect her books with a sort of fanatic hoarder's glee and they have been well indoctrinated in the art and life of Tasha Tudor. Molly's favorite, and I concur, is her beautifully detailed "Corgiville Christmas".

Here are some reasons why I love her so. Just some.

1. She played with toys. And spent hours when her children were little, and then her grandchildren, and then she grabbed any passing neighbor child making marionettes, putting on puppet shows, building dollhouses, and indulging in a land of fantasy. She made a whole story about the dollhouse family that she made so lovingly from hand. The story even included a family scandal wrought with a divorce and remarriage by Captain Thaddeus Crane (dollhouse man). The wedding of Captain Crane was so intricate and involved that Life magazine did an entire article and attended the wedding of these dolls. Tasha outfitted her children with daisy wreaths and made a beautiful wedding cake and had a ceremony fit for any princess on her wedding day.

2. She was called eccentric and accused of living a hermit lifestyle wrought in a land of fantasy and she "poo pooed" all naysayers and continued on in her reclusive funny style. She loved the age of the 1830's and had her son build her a house with only hand tools that mimicked the style of the 1830's cabin so accurately that even the floors and doorways were slanted and jagged. She had a hand pump at her sink and roasted chickens in a tin kitchen that was made by a master craftsman in New York, who also made her an exact replica for Captain Crane's dollhouse kitchen.


3. She gardened with a passion, delighting in the simple joys of the everyday and knew that a life worth living was one that was fully appreciated for its daily blessings. Her favorite quote was from Thoreau's "Walden"

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

4. She drew from "real life" often keeping dead animals in the freezer to pull them out and shape them as she thought they should be, sketching them and popping them back in before they thawed. She had an owl she kept in the deep freeze for over 6 years!
5. She loved animals and all things natural. As a child she dreamed of owning a farm and always had her beloved Corgi dogs, goats, a one eyed cat, doves, pigeons, chickens and a parrot that once belonged to a sailor who often got reprimanded by Tasha for cursing and she would put him in a bowl on his back and pretend to serve him to guests for dinner! She even had a tame crow named Edgar Allen Crow that she took traveling with her!

6. She treasured a happy childhood and, though they were poor, endeavored to make sure her children had as happy a childhood as she had. She tells stories of her father's pet seal that used to ride in the car with him and her beloved mother who transferred her love of art and watercolor to her and thank goodness she did! She made "Sparrow Mail" for her children and said the birds delivered the post and they would rush home from school gleefully to check their "mailboxes" for the latest arrival that Tasha made for them.


7. She was a woman who knew her own mind and wasn't afraid to speak it. She was a liberated woman, if ever there was one, with a career of her own, supporting her own family with her illustrations at times. And was comfortable with her own eccentricities, donning the attire of her beloved 1830's era complete with bonnet, long skirts and shawl.

8. She loved growing old and said it was "exciting" and that she was "thoroughly enjoying herself" telling a friend "as you are all coming to it in due time, you can look forward to it with relish-it's marvelous!"


9. She walked barefoot through her yard and gardens saying it made her feel more connected to nature and that she didn't spray or use pesticides because "we are all part of nature and if you abuse it, you are abusing yourself". However she did admit to shooting the occasional deer if she was eating her garden entitling that "self preservation"!

10. She loved being alone and when the curious onlooker would drive up looking for the renowned children's illustrator she would direct them on down the road about 15 miles.

But I think the main reason I love her so dearly and wish there were more of her life to share with us is best summed up in her favorite poem by Evelyn Underhill that she said perfectly described her life philosophy.

I COME in the little things,
Saith the Lord:
Not borne on morning wings
Of majesty, but I have set My Feet
Amidst the delicate and bladed wheat
That springs triumphant in the furrowed sod.
There do I dwell, in weakness and in power;
Not broken or divided, saith our God!
In your strait garden plot I come to flower:
About your porch My Vine
Meek, fruitful, doth entwine;
Waits, at the threshold, Love’s appointed hour.
I come in the little things,
Saith the Lord:
Yea! on the glancing wings
Of eager birds, the softly pattering feet
Of furred and gentle beasts, I come to meet
Your hard and wayward heart. In brown bright eyes
That peep from out the brake, I stand confest.
On every nest
Where feathery Patience is content to brood
And leaves her pleasure for the high emprize
Of motherhood—
There doth My Godhead rest.
I come in the little things,
Saith the Lord:
My starry wings
I do forsake,
Love’s highway of humility to take:
Meekly I fit My stature to your need.
In beggar’s part
About your gates I shall not cease to plead—
As man, to speak with man—
Till by such art
I shall achieve My Immemorial Plan,
Pass the low lintel of the human heart.

New Stuff

I am so excited to introduce new products on my website! I am now offering Limited Edition Blog Designs that can be personalized and installed! They are less costly and much faster than a Custom Blog Design! We have two ca-yute templates up for sale at this time with 3 more set to launch by the end of the week! And as a special offer to all my blog friends if you follow this link to purchase the limited edition designs, you get an extra 20% off!!! (The 20% off is for Limited Edition Designs only, though!) Yay for you! It's always nice to have a design change, especially in time for the NEW YEAR! Can you believe it is going to be 2009 soon????