Out With The Old & In With The New

For any folks who are wondering about the little cottage...

Everything Old is New Again: Leaving The County for The Country

I am sitting here, thinking I should be saying something holiday-ish.  Right now, December is feeling very slow and long.  I know that not everyone feels this way (especially not the people in the mall parking lot), but I am ready to have Christmas.  I'm tired of waiting.

We travel away from our home every Christmas.  We leave a nice housesitter to enjoy our decorations and our home, and we rush away towards Christmas Part 2.  This year, Christmas, The Sequel, is taking place at the cottage in Canada.

Sequel?  Yes.  We've decorated and celebrated and partied and Nut Crackered.  We've already eaten too much, drank too much and surpassed our set budget for holiday spending.  The bags are mostly packed, the presents mostly bought and there is only danger in shopping from here.


More importantly, when we go to the cottage, it is a lot like Country Mouse and City Mouse.

Let me explain.  We live in Marin County.  Sometimes it is referred to as "the bubble" in the Bay Area.  Everything is clean, green and manicured--both lawns and men and ladies.  Oh, and dogs and little toddler girls, too!  Vegetables are freshly picked and prepared at local restaurants.  Northern California wine flows like water.  Gournet grocery stores beckon you from every corner.  A fresh, open air farmer's market can be found daily.

Then we separate from our reality and get on an airplane to experience another reality.  We will arrive to a hopefully snowy, deep freeze of a landscape and then it is time to decorate and bake and re create Christmas for the second time in December.  I'm looking forward to it, but on the Wednesday before we travel, frankly, it sounds like a lot of work.  All of our Christmas is in about 6 suitcases and duffel bags.  Not all of it, we have plenty of decorations  awaiting us in the country.

I have travel anxiety.  Like I've said before, I'm not afraid my plane will crash or anything, I just am not very good at transitions.  Once we make it to the airport, check our bags, get through security, get on the plane, realize we are all in middle seats scattered throughout the plane, get delayed, frantically race to our next connection, arrive and our bags do not, get the rental car and begin our coutry road trip and drive two hours away from civilization, I will be fine and feeling on top of things.

City Mouse:
Oops, forgot the organic, locally sourced buttermilk.  Grab the keys and hit the corner market.  Back home in 5 minutes.

Country Mouse:
Uh oh, forgot the organic buttermilk, look in the Betty Crocker cooking bible for a substition that includes cider vinager that's been in the cupboard for 10 years.

City Mouse:
Oops, running out of underwear.  Look in clothes basket.

Country Mouse:
Uh oh, only got one bag at the airport, my underwear is not in that one bag.  Wash the underwear I'm wearing every night until my bag is dropped off at the local combination post office, fishing license, putt putt golf and grocery store a half an hour away.

City Mouse:
Oops, the cable is not working.  Call Comcast.

Country Mouse:
Uh oh, the electricity is out.  Better build a fire, get snow to melt for water and hit the sub zero outhouse.  It could be days until a work crew gets out our way.

City Mouse:
Oops, we are out of Merry Edwards Pinot Noir.  Once again, 5 minutes to the local grocery. Buy it and stick it in the sub zero fridge.

Country Mouse:
Uh oh, we are out of Merry Edwards (not hard to do what you are only allowed to bring in two bottles of wine per adult).  Now we must brave our local LCBO and be at the Canadian Government's mercy. Bottles of wine that we pay $5.00 for in California are $17.99 plus tax.  On a positive note, it does curb the wine consumption--$5 wine is still tasting like $5 wine no matter how much you charge for it.

Whether you be in the city or the country, happy holidays to you!

Girl's Day 2012--New Holiday Traditions & Old

We had an action packed day of San Francisco fun. We began with an elegant brunch at the Palace. We moved on to our annual Christmas visit with Santa at Macy's.

We saw an excellent production of A Christmas Carol. Then it was to Presidio Social club for a delicious dinner.

This is at least our 5th year of skipping school and taking a little holiday.

Skipping school and writing letters to Santa at Macy's way back when? Kindergarten year, 6 years ago!  2006???

Yet, another mystery year of letter writing.  I am going to have to use my sleuthing to figure this all out!

2010!

Again, another year at Macy's, this was our trip last year when Birk was 10.

2011

2012 and thinking about what to put on that list!

At 11, still not too old to write and mail a letter to Santa.  I saw the list, oh  boy!  That's a post in itself.

The girls all grown up!  Celebrating the Christmas spirit in style.

One of the fabulous gingerbread diorama's at the Palace.  This one is a ski hill.

Gingerbread creation of a roof top garden.

Go Giants!

The beautiful, giant tree in the center of the Palace Garden Court.

We had an extra special treat on our girl's day, Nana!

Christmas wishes from us to you!

Monday Morning Kitchen Counter Chaos

Monday is an interesting day at our house.  You can always tell what kind of weekend we had by what the house looks like on Monday morning.  Usually, my hiking group drags me up a mountain first thing, so I can ignore it for about 4 more hours, but today, I am home and can't ignore it any longer.  What a perfect time to sit down and write!

Although Roxy, our puppy, is trying to chew through my computer cord and Sara, our portly cat, is keeping a watchful eye on the situation, I am going to explain the Monday chaos scale.

Level 1
If it's been a great weekend, full of friends and activities our house is a level one disaster.

Level 2
If it's been a busy weekend full of commitments and activities, our house is a level two disaster.

Level 3
If we've had a lazy weekend and basically sat around and did nothing our house is a level three disaster.

So, levels one, two and three.  The truth is, they are all the same.  Monday morning is just a brutal wake up call as to how lazy and disorganized we are during all levels of activity.  The only way the house stays clean is if we go on vacation, the cleaning lady comes and cleans it, and then it will remain clean until the minute we get home.  We bring our bags in and tadaaaa, we are right back to Levels 1-3.

I'll bet that:

1.  No one has an outdoor patio umbrella outside their bedroom door in the hallway inside their house.

2.  You don't have a signing stuffed pumpkin Halloween candy holder and a tablecloth in your landing of your stairway.  Not at the bottom or the top, mind you, right in the middle of the up and down, there is a collection of empty storage boxes, just hanging out.

3.  You don't have fluffy stuffing from puppy toys all over your house.  Every room is accounted for at my house, no one is left out.

4.  On the kitchen counter you won't find (at your house):  a pitcher, a barbie, yarn, an empty bottle of ibuprofen, peppermint bark, Elmer's glue, skull head appetizer picks, sunglasses, hiking sleeve, a bottle of soda, picture adhesive dots, car key, sunglasses, hot pizza peppers, one barbie shoe, and all of the other food type of stuff you might expect to find on a kitchen counter.

This is just the kitchen counter, if I move onto the kitchen floor list, things might really get interesting...but, I won't do that to you or myself today.  I am going to drink my tea, read the paper, and think about how next weekend is going to be different, right?

Remodel Done, Halloween Decorating and Party Planning After the Remodel

Last year we threw a Halloween party where guests actually had to enter our house ducking past construction tape.

Now that we are all landscaped, painted and the furniture is back in the house, I am having a hard time getting the Halloween decorations in gear.

Obstacle #1:  My lovely contractor put all of my decorations up on a very high shelf.  He promised me that I would be able to get them down.  My husband took one look at the location of my decorations, and he promptly required a ladder to assist me...but the ladder is at the ark.  Hmmmmm, so, no decorations.   I may be calling the contractor and having him come over to help me decorate, and I'm not kidding about that.

Obstacle #2:  Fatigue.  I just returned from two very nice trips to Canada with my husband.  Every time I am stuck on a plane, I feel like Super Woman.  I make lists, read Martha Stewert and plan like crazy.  Every time I drive carpool, I realize how easy it is to pretend to be Super Woman when I am sitting with my butt strapped to an airplane seat.

When I am sitting with my butt strapped in a car seat while I drive around in circles, I am not feeling like Martha Stewert. Rachel Ray or Oprah for that matter.  I feel just plane/plain tired.  I feel like I look and act like one of my Zombie decorations--circles under the eyes and not able to put a sentence together.  Bleck.

Obstacle #3:  Halloween is on a Wednesday.  I don't want to compete with the uber parties that fall on that Saturday before, yet, October 19th or 20th seems a little too soon to put on the Zombie make up and have a full on rager.  Actually, I can't handle a full on rager, I just finished a remodel.  Now I need a creepy, subdued rager.

Obstacle #4: Food.  If someone would just show up with the food, then I would be good to go.  I can plan all flavors of margaritas until the Zombies come home.  Food, is another matter.  I am the girl that drinks her coffee out of the mug that says, "The only reason I have a kitchen is because it came with the house."  Yep, not trying to even pretend about that one.

So, you see my logic?  I'm on the fence.  I need something or someone to push me over.  I'm sure the spirit will move me, but it needs to get over here right quick!