Taking Sides

No, this title does not mean another blog about football.  It’s about how relieved I am that, once again, wonderful friends have invited us into their home for a Thanskgiving feast, which, among other things, means I’m only responsible for contributing sides to the turkey dinner.  This delights me to no end.  I’ve only done the traditional bird on my own (full disclosure:  my mom was there for advising) twice in my life.  Scandalous, I know. 

While I hate not seeing my family, I’m pretty used to Thanksgiving without them.  I moved to Oregon for grad school when I was 23, and I couldn’t afford to go home for both Thanskgiving and winter break. Those two years I was invited to friends’ houses, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciated people taking  me in to (somewhat) alleviate the homesickness.  That first year I was invited to a Thanksgiving unlike anything I’d experienced before: about 25 friends (rather than an extended family) gathering, and it was somewhat potluck.  There were so many new dishes I hadn’t tried, and it was good for me to see how much fun could be had that day even around strangers (I know about 2-3 of the people there, and one was the host–a Unitarian minister–who had much to do that day).  I come from a small family, and growing up my biggest Thanksgivings included, at the most, about 10 people. 

Now that I’m married, Chris and I have in the last few years begun our own traditions over the break.  Since I often have work to do, it’s okay not to travel, and now that we have a house we put up decorations.  I’ve also started to make some of our fave Thanksgiving sides from both families.  This year I’m taking green bean casserole and pumpkin pie with me to our Thanksgiving dinner, but I’m also making a cranberry salad and corn souffle (just about the best comfort food you can find), two dishes Chris grew up with, for us to munch on over the long weekend.  Luckily, all of these dishes are on my level; I even surprised myself the other day thinking, “it’s going to be fun to spend the morning  making my sides.” I’m not someone who looks forward to lots of kitchen time.

So:  this year I’m grateful for the kindness of close friends and even acquaintances who have generously opened their doors and gotten a big enough bird that I can partake in their good cooking and fellowship.  I’m grateful that even though I can’t be with my family I know exactly what food will be on their table (we’re traditionalists, y’all:  the menu is the same every year, which I love) and will get to talk with them all.  I’m grateful that Chris and I have our own traditions underway.  And, of course, I’m grateful for so very much more, and I’m glad that this country gives us a day to focus on our gratitude. 

Have a wonderful holiday weekend, whether that takes you to stores at 4 a.m. on Friday or in front of the couch for some good football or to the storage closet for your Dept. 56 villages or none or all of the above.   And thanks for reading my blog.

 

Red vs. Burnt Orange

Okay, y’all.  Don’t tell my Longhorn husband about this post, but between you and me, there are two things I want:  I want TCU to be able to play in the national championship, and I want to see my dear Huskers, after a decade, beat the Texas Longhorns (and we’ve only beat them once since 1996).  If the latter happens, then the former may happen.  So all you Horned Frog fans and all of you Huskers and all of you Longhorn-haters (I know you’re out there) need to come together to cheer on the Huskers in the Big XII Championship.  I’ve already had visions of Ndamukong Suh sacking Colt McCoy* dancing in my head. 

Saturday night I was on pins and needles as Nebraska faced Kansas State; the winner of this game would be the Big XII North winner and play the Big XII South winner in the championship game on December 5.  And we won!  And we played pretty well!  I knew that a Husker victory over Kansas State would be wonderful and also bad for my marriage.  [Megan:  whom are you going to root for?]

Once someone asked us: “It’s better for the marriage if who wins in a TX/NE game?”  Without hesitation, we both said:  “Nebraska.”

But  here’s the deal:  as a Longhorn, he doesn’t see us as a threat.  With our record and the–I’ll call it attitude–that seems to come w/ being a Longhorn, I understand that.  I guess what’s changed is that even though I will be seething if they beat us–and if I’m being honest, that’s the likeliest possibility–I know how happy Chris will be if they make it to the national championship, and so after my anger cools down I’ll able to genuinely root for the Longehorns in the bowl game.  In fact, I knew it was the real deal with this fella when I found myself rooting for Texas a few years ago, something I never thought would occur.  And I know that it’s the same for him:  if we did achieve an upset, after his anger subsided, he would think back to the many games where I have cursed and cried at the screen, and he would be happy for me that my Huskers are back.   That’s love.

In the meantime: the smack talk will elevate in the coming days, and the game will be tense as we sit side by side in our red and burnt orange.  And whatever happens, it’s good to be back in the Big XII championship.

*Chris heard this weekend during the Texas game that his name is really Daniel McCoy.  One of the insufferable things about their team is their QB names: Major Applewhite, Colt McCoy.  We would say, who names kids this way (only in Texas)?  (Now Vince Young, that’s a cool name.) But knowing his name is really Daniel is almost more annoying.

 

Real-time Blog: Cozy in Action

So here I am at my neighborhood Starbucks, where I’m debuting my coffee cozy.  What does this mean?  This means after giving the barista my order (decaf peppermint mocha:  THE HOLIDAY DRINKS ARE HERE!), I proudly showed him my cozy.  He emphasized how handy the elastic for the button was so the cozy could fit all sizes and told me to show the woman making my drink.

So I did.  She also raved about the cozy.  They said they’ve seen people  come in with store bought cozies, and I said, “but this one is fancier…and homemade!”  And they agreed

Here, in action, is the cozy:

Have a good weekend, y’all!

 

Belated Goodness

Imagine my surprise and delight to come home from a long Monday at work to see that I had not one but two belated birthday packages awaiting me! 

The first was from Rae, a lovely mug from our hometown’s centennial celebration that she knew I hated missing.   I’m not sure of the draw of the large glass mug (beer glass?), but it’s the same design as our prom mugs from high school. I believe I will display this somewhere in my office:

The second was from Erin, and Chris also scored a present:  most delightful and homemade coffee cozies (the sleeves you can put over your Starbucks cup).  I think these are both so cute.  The polka-dot one is for me, and the one with the burnt orange is for Chris:

I mean:  how adorable are these?  We will be the envy of all the others at Starbucks.  This is extra motivation for going there to grade once the stacks of portfolios coming in. 

Thank you, Rae and Erin, for these awesome presents! 

(By the way:  I suspect that upon request one could commission his or her own coffee cozy from Erin–she should have a whole little cozy industry going.  I’m not sure what she charges, but it’s well worth it for these cute, eco-friendly coffee cozies.)

 

Angel Tree

One of the nice things about my parents’ visit was that it was low-key.   I got to enjoy a homemade birthday dinner made by my mom, complete with my favorite childhood birthday cake, Stripe-it-Rich Cake, or as I call it, pudding cake.  Yum. 

We didn’t have many items on the agenda besides the TCU game and a model railroad show that my dad wanted to attend (perhaps the real motivation for the visit, truth be told).  One afternoon as we were out toodling around, we went to the nearby mall, where I was excited to see that the Salvation Army Giving Tree was already up.  Last year I did my Angel Tree shopping late, and it proved more challenging because all that were left were tweens and teens.  Don’t get me wrong, this demographic needs their gifts, but I knew it would be harder to find just the right thing.  This year, though, I found a four-year-old girl, Ashley, whose need was listed on her card as a coat and whose want was a princess doll.  Her tag was attached to another card, and the volunteer told me that indicated it was her sibling, an eleven-month boy named Juan.   He also needed a jacket and wanted a “light and sound toy.” 

I told my parents I could shop for them another day if there were other things they wanted to do, but before you know it we were off on a mission selecting a lovely coat for Juan that had a liner so it could serve for two seasons and then found a nice coat with an attached polka-dot scarf for Ashley.   Then we headed to the toy section at Target for the “wants.” 

It turned into a bit of an endeavor, as I picked a toy for Juan but grabbed the same toy behind it because the batteries wouldn’t be so used.  I didn’t test this one, and when we got home, it didn’t work.  We all tried, and then my smartie husband tried, and nothing worked.  I returned it, only to have the clerk tell me that it had a strip to remove to preserve the battery.   Well!  Good enough.  I took it back home, only to discover the siren button didn’t work.  So a third time we went to Target where I found one that worked and got some extra batteries, too.  Here’s all the loot:

All in all, it was a much more enjoyable shopping excursion with all of us pitching in.  Check out where an Angel Tree is in your area–it’s most enjoyable to pick out gifts.  If you’re too busy to go out and shop, you can also do it online. (I used to donate to nursing home residents, as I figure they are forgotten more than kids this time of year, but my local Walmart no longer has a tree for nursing home residents.  This is a bummer, as I had a blast picking out cute sweaters for the older ladies.)

All in all, a delightful visit from my parents, as usual.  I wish they didn’t live so far away.

 

Froggie Went A Courtin’

Well, as I’m sure you know by now, the TCU Horned Frogs creamed the Utah Utes 55-28 last Saturday.  The stadium was electric, the game riveting throughout. We tried to park two hours before game time and not a spot was left.  Luckily, Lisa and Rob, who live close to campus, let us park (for free!) in their driveway.  Crisis averted.  Then we had nachos to buy at the concession stand (purple tortilla chips, y’all) and to get situated in our seats.  By the end of the first quarter, my mom was doing all the cheers alumni have been saying for years like she’d gone to school there.  I wish I had a picture of us all in our purple shirts of varying shades, but alas, I forgot my camera.  You’ll have to take my word that we were a festive bunch, my mom sporting her Horned Frog earrings, natch.

I told my students today that I didn’t see any of them on ESPN College Game Day but that I hoped their signs were puncuated correctly (a little English prof humor there).  The ESPN gang, except, of course, Lee Corso, raved about how well TCU fans came out for College Game Day–Kirk Herbstreit said it was the best crowd he’s seen all year–and that they’d be back.  I think we’d rather have a fair shot into the national championship like other undefeated teams, but whatever.

And this was just one of the highlights of my parents’ visit.  More to come.

 

Open Sesame

Happy Anniversary, beloved Sesame Street.  Here, for your enjoyment, an awesome Bert and Ernie gangsta remix.  Really–it’s a good one (only a minute and half). 

 

High Stakes

Though my beloved Huskers had a great victory over OU last weekend, we’re not back to our glory days yet.  Lucky  for me, I’m also a fan of the #4 team in the nation, the undefeated TCU Horned Frogs.  Saturday is their second sellout game since 1984, and we’ll be there cheering them on, frog earrings and all.  They play Utah, ranked #16, and Utah has beat TCU the past three years.  It looks to be an intense game.

So don some purple on Saturday and root for your Horned Frogs  to continue to be BCS spoilers.  And below is a little video to get you in the mood.

 

Birdie Baby

Regular blog readers and good friends Lisa and Rob had a baby boy recently!   I got to meet this cutie-patootie while he was wearing his Tigger Halloween costume.   I gave  him the baby quilt I’d been making for him with some colors and fabrics I hoped he would like and that I strongly suspected his mommy would like:

And the back is a sunny yellow for this sunny Texas-born boy:

Welcome, little one!

(I got the tutorial for this quilt here, by the way.)

 

Birthday Goodness

I noticed, after the fact, that my last post was my 300th!  Just  marking that for y’all, too.

So Friday was my birthday, and goodness ensued, with highlights as:

• wonderful cards from as far as Wisconsin and Nevada
• tons of e-wishes on Facebook
• a sweet birthday voicemail from New York City
• my annual, wonderful birthday lunch with Nancy, complete with quilting gifts!
• these:

• a card from Chris with–get this–a chorus of cat meows singing Happy Birthday
• yummy dinner at P.F. Chang’s
• going with Chris to see Michael Jackson’s This is It, something I’m not sure he’d have done so graciously were it not a special occasion
• the Huskers beat Oklahoma over the weekend and were ahead the whole game (and how was OU still ranked with three losses?  At least Brent Musberger wasn’t calling the game with his blatant OU/Stoops love)

And this week, more goodness, with some special guests coming to town, one of whom is going to make me one of my old birthday favorites:  pudding cake!  Whee!