A cynical kid at heart

There are few advantages to living in L.A. around Christmas time. The palm trees swaying in the background only make a mockery of the front lawn Frostys and if you stare at the Christmas tree at The Grove long enough, you start to wonder where exactly they had to truck it in from, because it surely isn't local. This year has been more festive-feeling due to the "winter" weather we've had the past week or so. Temperatures in L.A. proper have dipped into the 40s and people have totally lost their shit over it.

It's about as plausible for Santa to make his L.A. rounds in the slightly warmed driver's seat of a Lexus SUV, his sack made by Louis Vuitton and his fluffly white eyebrows styled by Anastasia - as it is for him to glide around the solar-panneled roofs in a sled hoisted by flying cousins of the moose.

But then again, there is Disneyland. And a chilly day spent dodging strollers at the happiest place on earth amid the lights and decorations is just what I needed to lift my Christmas spirit.

Truth be told, it was even better than I was hoping for. It's shocking to discover how wonderful it is to feel like a kid again - if only for a day.

The best part of Halloween: Cute Kids

I know I’m a couple of days behind, but hopefully the cuteness of Tigger, Piglet and Pooh will provide more than enough compensation.

And, a picture of my favorite part of Halloween... When my mother kicks the kiddos out of their own house and has them practice proper trick-or-treating etiquette, with the treats being healthy granola bars taken from Popi's personal supply.

Don't they just look so angelic and polite while practicing at their own house?!

Hope you had a happy halloween! I know these three munchkins sure did.

The rock, the sea and this year's me

2007 was a dang good year, providing more happy moments than I could have wished for. The last couple of weeks kept in tune with the rest of the year and were like the big shiny bow on top of the Lexus in those cheesy Christmas commercials I always wish I was starring in.

Christmas at home in Minnesota was full of surprises…quiet, lovely, smiley surprises. Setting the pace for the week was a girls lunch years in the making where a couple of hours of laughter and stories and getting acquainted with the current versions of each other all served as a reminder of why I’ve loved these friends so much for the past decade, regardless of the fact that I’m not the best at keeping in touch.

And the snow, oh, the snow! While a white Minnesota Christmas is nothing new, it was the first time in a long time that I actually got out into the stuff… Teaching Paige that when the snow is too deep for her shorty toddler legs, I'll walk in front so she can walk behind in my footprints. Making snowmen for the first time in years. Standing outside chatting with Popi, buried under layers, feeling the tickle of the falling flakes and loving how silent a slow snowfall makes the world...allowing only for the crunching of boots and the distant scraping of shovels. White peace.

I spent the whole week thinking, “I love that this is my family.” (Now, that wasn’t a surprise, but is just too wonderful a sentiment to go without mention.) We did some coffees at The Bean, a couple of dinners with a couple of drinks, a movie, Chicken Salsa Chili at our favorite St. Paul haunt and Paige’s birthday party, but that was it for activities. For the most part, we were hanging out at home, playing in the snow, making each other laugh and doing nothing in particular. It was fantastic.

When we got to the airport both Teen and I had the blues. It had been too good and gone too fast. We weren't ready to go just yet, so we consoled ourselves with the knowledge of how remarkably refreshing it is to see the palm trees of L.A. after a week of cold; it would be good to be back, we were sure. However, standing at baggage claim in the wee morning hours of Dec. 29, we were both starting to feel rundown, both whining about a sore throat threatening to damper our post-Christmas glee.

And so it was that on New Year’s Eve we were not feeling up to any kind of grandiose plans. Seeing as I am not New Year’s biggest fan to begin with, a quiet night with Teen sounded perfect. And it turned out to be exactly that.

We began our fond farewell to 2007 on the Santa Monica Pier at sunset, each with a rock in hand. After watching the last bit of sun drip down into the ocean, we poured into our rocks everything from the past year we were ready to let go of – everything we wanted to change. I silently visualized it all going in until the rock felt just a little heavier…and then the toss…in that split second while my rock was airborne, I exhaled and my hopes for the new year were swept out into the wind, now swirling around the city with those supposed angels. The things from the past year that brought us down were now just tiny ripples in the Pacific. With them lost at sea, we were free.

So, with freshly lightened hearts we doubly indulged: we tried a new restaurant and it was The Lobster. The last peachy tints of daylight were spent with drinks and tuna carpaccio, sitting under twinkle lights and watching the ferris wheel spin and the waves roll. Then, as supper time rolled around, we headed off for our reservation at our favorite restaurant, where we again treated ourselves – this time to three scoops of gelato for dessert.

A couple of hours before midnight, feeling as though we’d already had a complete evening, we were back at Teen’s, happily popping open champagne, having a PJ dance party and gabbing the rest of the year away. As New York’s 3-hour-old confetti began to fall on the TV screen, we heard loud, distant booms outside. “Fireworks! Get your shoes on. I’ll grab our wine glasses, you grab the keys! Hurry! Get to the rooftop before they’re done!” So, the first few minutes of 2008 were spent on a rooftop in West L.A. wearing my pajamas with polka-dot ballet flats (i.e. looking ridiculous), clinking glasses of Sauvignon Blanc with Teen while fireworks went off all around us. And I thought to myself, if this is an indicator of things to come, it is going to be a spectacular year. But oh, how the mighty do fall.

The next day I woke to what turned out to be the beginning of strep throat hell. By Friday afternoon I was too loopy with fever to drive myself to the doctor (I was too weak to even walk or stand for more than a few minutes at a time). As the doctor said of my “severe strep throat” and 102º fever, “Wow. You’re really sick!” And while good old 102º had me clammy with sweat and my head resting on the wall behind my chair, my days-of-fever cooked brain was screaming, “Stop pointing out the obvious and give me drugs! NOW! Or so help me I’ll get my sister from the waiting room to come in here and slap you around a bit!”

That’s been the best thing about 2008 so far. Teen. My savior in a little red Honda picked me up and drove me to the doctor in the mess of rainy L.A. traffic, sat in the waiting room with no good magazines for company, took me home, made me soup and burrowed into a nest we made on the couch for hours of Sex and the City, handing me tissues at the beginning of episodes where she knows I always cry. If it wasn’t for her, I’d be back down on the pier right now with another rock, hastily jamming the past 4 days in, demanding that the universe allow me to start the year over and imagining myself as a major league pitcher while flinging that thing as far away from me as I could get it. But my worst bout of illness in years opened my eyes a little more to how lucky I am to have Teen…and that’s just too good to toss out to sea. That, I’ll keep with me for quite awhile.

So, this year may have gotten off to a rocky start, but I believe that it’s salvageable. I remain hopeful. And dear little newborn 2008, I’ll give you some advice patented by Popi, “Shape up, meatball!”

For last year's words belong to last year's language

And next year's words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning.

- T.S. Elliot, "Little Gidding"

Let the holidays begin with laughter...

Born and raised in Minnesota, I've spent a lot of time since I was 18 being out of the state, enduring comments on how I sounded like an extra from everybody's favorite Minnesota movie, Fargo. For awhile I tried to shake the accent, but lately I've given up the fight. I am what I am. I sound how I sound. And that's just fine.

When I got back to Minnesota last night for a week of family Christmas fun, one of the first things my mother did was show me the Christmas cards sent by relatives. Flipping through I was really only half reading them, half talking to mom about the flight from L.A. and then it caught my eye. I had to reread it...and then I couldn't stop laughing.

My cousin was explaining that she'd be leaving her husband and stepchildren behind in Michigan this year and returning south to her childhood home in South Carolina because, as she says, "I've really got a hankering for my momma."

A. HANKERING. For. Momma!

Whether she meant it to be funny or was dead serious about it, I care not. She used the word hankering and I adore her for it. This girl from Minnesooooota bows down to this relative from the South for being exactly who she is. I've got a hankering to spend time with my family - momma included.

May you all have safe travels back home to your mommas for the holidays.

Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub

Thanksgiving used to be the holiday that I spent in my pajamas watching the parade, putting up the Christmas tree with my dad and eventually eating turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. It was an ok holiday that was really just a stepping stone on the way to Christmas. Although there was one year where the snow was piling up outside and Teen and I spent the waning daylight hours rolling around in the white stuff making a little snowlady we inexplicably named Gertrude. That Thanksgiving was awesome, because a snowlady named Gertrude clearly rocks.

Now that I'm sort of an adult I appreciate Thanksgiving as a day to do nothing but cook, eat and relax with friends and family. This year it was just me and Teen, a lot of Christmas carols, some ridiculously awesome dance moves, Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving, mounds of food and bottles of wine.


It was a great Thanksgiving spent with one of the people I am most thankful for: my best Teen.

I'm also thankful that mom gave us for Christmas last year those special ingredients to prepare some of her holiday recipes that are seemingly unavailable in the LA area: soup mixture for Spinach Dip and butterscotch pudding for her caramel rolls. You gotta love Minnesota cooking.

I'm thankful that when these Gingered Cranberries came out tasting more like ginger than cranberry, there were other delicious side dishes to indulge in. (Because really, it tasted like I would imagine jamming a hunk of ginger root into your mouth would taste. Not the best.)

Am I thankful that Teen will jump around and dance with me to Mariah Carey belting out "All I Want for Christmas is You"? Hell yes, I am! And I'm oh so happy that when I snapped this photo of her during the middle of our performance, something wonky was going on with her right arm making it appear to be extra long and stick thin, with a giant ham-like hand dangling off the end.

It's been a pretty good year and I'm just so very thankful. So, it may be 5 days late, but Happy Thanksgiving! We had one for the books...hope you did too.