A Merry Pookie Christmas!

Christmas in Chi-town

Yesterday I kicked Manicotti BUTT! A meal that is normally a huge multi-person, Christmas Eve only, entire morning production was accomplished solo in a mere hour and 15 minutes while Alexandria took her morning nap.

After the wonderfulness of our Thanksgiving dinner party, Eric and I decided to have a Chicago Family Christmas since we and our dear friends will all be gone for the holidays. We stole a Christmas tree from the apartment upstairs (think Grinch-style), piled penguin-wrapped presents underneath it, filled our apartment with tea candles, broke out the china (for the second time in 2 1/2 years), invited our friends, and served the traditional Crino Christmas Eve meal: Homemade Manicotti (complete with homemade noodles and sauce), Italian sausages, garlic bread sticks and a garden salad.

I should be on Iron Chef.

Ok, just kidding.

After an evening of good Italian food, fellowship with the best friends anyone could ever ask for, ripping open presents, gently falling snow, and outrageously delicious Christmas cookies, I've decided that Chicago is an OK place to be.

I also managed to completely surprise Eric with his Christmas present, which was a lot of fun, although I have to confess that I had to momentarily suppress my nostalgia for physical books and Lo and Behold, bought my husband a Kindle.

He loves it. And has been reading ever since!

Confession #2: I was gifted with 2 Glee soundtracks and the entire Season 1 on Blue Ray. I am very GLEEful!!!! :)

Conversations with Eric

Last night.

Me: Eric, do you want to watch Pride and Prejudice with me? [the 125 minute version]

Eric: Do you want to watch me stick needles in my eyeballs and then bleed to death?

Me: No.

This morning.

Me: Eric, are we going to church this morning?

Eric: [looks out the window and sees a blowing blur of white] How about we don't go outside until at least March.

Me: Hmm, I'm gonna take that as a No.

Here's to the Gluttony of Christ-mas

The UPS man banged on the door.

Moments later, Eric walked into the living room with two boxes, one of which looked very much like it might have delicious things inside.

He cut it open and began exploring the dark interior.

Behold! Goodies for Pookie and her parents from wonderful Grandma Cheri!

Buried underneath layers of yummy chocolates and homemade cookies, Eric pulled out stuffed fabric forms of the nativity which he sewed together when he was just a little tyke. I handed them to Lexi, whose eyes were as big as dinner plates with excitement.

She looked at Mary, squished her a bit, grabbed the sheep, licked them just to see, and then squealed with delight as she grabbed baby Jesus and promptly stuffed him in her mouth.

Eric and I laughed, and then greedily over-indulged in festive treats for the next half hour.

Finally finished with my gluttony, I began picking up the house and found poor stuffed baby Jesus underneath a chair in the living room, sopping wet and just a little slobbery.

The Scriptures do say, after all, "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:8). Lexi just happened to find him to be exceptionally delicious.

1/3/10

Two things:

1) Teething. Lexi now has two little pearly whites to brag about (amidst the slobber and fussing and night waking).

2) A pumpkin bread that came out of the oven looking like Mt. Vesuvius and weighs as much as Lexi.

My Life as an Artist OR How I use Turkey Soup as a Manipulation Device

There are some huge benefits to having my baby in bed for the night and sleeping peacefully at 7 pm. One of them is that I have the entire evening to do whatever I want without needing to structure it around naps and feedings and mama baby play time. And while I usually only last until 10 pm and then I-MUST-GO-TO-BED-OR-I-WILL-DIE kicks in, I generally enjoy myself greatly.

During the first several months of Alexandria's life, I put my art making aside and focused entirely on caring for my new daughter, as it should be for a brand new mom. By about 8 weeks or so after the birth, I found myself aimlessly wandering my mind and also the house (which is saying a lot, since our apartment only has 4 1/2 rooms minus the tiny bathroom - but you don't really wander around in tiny bathroom...) and in a word: bored and watching too much TV on Hulu (make that 8 words). That is precisely when one of my college art professors (who doubles as a good friend) came to visit and told me point blank that being all-consumed with the baby is good for a time, but after a while I need to still try and be myself and get back into doing the things that I love - or in other words, "KEEP MAKING ART!!!"

This summer I set some goals for myself. One of them is to have a collection of work that is worthy of a show in a local gallery (make that a local and humble gallery) or art venue by next fall. Another goal, among many, is to make work that is meaningful to me and that gets me excited (otherwise, what would the fun be in making it?). So far, I have done a horrible job at fulfilling my goals, as I never have been one to be motivated by my own self-inflicted pep talks. And then last week, in the middle of having a pity party while Eric graciously listened and inserted the appropriate comments here and there, I started surfing Etsy. (If you aren't familiar to Etsy, click HERE. Your life will be changed.) It doesn't take much to be inspired by the things you see on that site. Seriously, what pity-partying artist is not inspired by seeing the work of thousands of artists and craftsmen (who are all ordinary people, by the way) all together in one place?!? (It also makes me feel a tad lazy, but that's a post for another day)

That being said, I have found a new avenue in my art making endeavorers. I am newly inspired and have already created two new pieces which will be a part of a series of about 10 or so. The best part is that Eric has become very involved in what I am creating (and is just as excited about it!) and has been my right hand man in the creating/executing process. After all, who knows cameras and flashes better than he does?!? And while I can't reveal what I am working on just yet (I know you're dying to see) I can tell you that it involves Alexandria (the watercolor version, of course) and some rather curious animals...

Last night after Alexandria was in bed, I got so into what I was working on that I had to go ahead and just finish it. I made that decision at 9:30 pm. By 11:30 pm, I had employed two other people to help me finish (it's amazing what homemade turkey soup in a homemade bread bowl can do as a manipulation device...) and my dining room table had all but disappeared underneath the mountain of paper cutting and paints and flour dust and other stuffs that had accumulated on it.

By midnight, the piece was perfect.

Even though I only got about 6 hours of sleep last night (a baby who goes to bed at 7 pm generally doesn't sleep much past 8 am), it was a lot of fun. So here's to early mornings with a cute baby and snuggly cats after a wild night of too much creativity!

Cheers.

A Boring Update That is Not at All Interesting

This week has been full of wonderful things.

Lexi is cutting her first tooth (ok, not so wonderful, but it is epic, after all.) And she started crawling today, which is also epic, since she has been practicing her balance on all fours for the past several days. She still has a ways to go in the speed department, but she can definitely get where she needs to go! (The craziest thing is that it literally happened overnight! She definitely could not do this yesterday!)

We celebrated a Monday night Thanksgiving with our best friends here in our apartment. Eric got assaulted by two women with a charity Thanksgiving basket the other day, so we decided to make good use of it. We cooked the turkey, made lots of yummy sides, invited our friends, decorated the apartment, and had a beautiful candlelit Thanksgiving celebration!

In preparation for tomorrow's official Thanksgiving feast (the one where we are not the ones cooking the bird), I baked the Staswick's traditional Swedish Cardamom rolls. Suffice to say, the apartment smells like heaven and while the rolls did turn out a bit too bulbous (I didn't quite know how much they would rise!!!), they are light and fluffy and delish! One of the things I love about Eric so much is that he introduced me to the lusciousness of cardamom bread and now helps me make it every year.

After a strange 65 degree day, the weather has finally turned cold. Although this isn't usually something that I look forward to, Eric surprised me with a pricey pair of gorgeous snow boots (and believe me, these are beautiful boots) a couple of weeks ago that I am dying to wear! (He truly is awesome.)

I started on a new art series that I am really getting into which is fun. I will talk more about that later, though, when I can actually show you what I have been up to.

And because this post is really boring, I will conclude by telling you that our kitchen sink is leaking again. So that's fun.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!