17 People

I come from a fairly large family. And we're not just large in numbers, we're also all fairly close. Close geographically and close emotionally. Both of my parents had lots of aunts and uncles and siblings and I have lots of cousins. My mom's side is the closer of the two. I credit my grandparents for this. My grandparents on my mom's side are my most favorite people in the whole world, and have been for as long as I can remember. They are both traditional and progressive thinkers, which makes them wise, insightful listeners and advice givers. I know they've been proud of me my whole life and I think about that with almost any decision I make, what would my grandparents think of this?

My grandmother made the wise decision many years ago to never compete with the growing tug of multiple families as her children married and had several places to visit on a holiday. She has maintained a Saturday Thanksgiving tradition when everyone was available knowing that it's the people that make the event, not the actual date. Wise, I told you. Last night was this Thanksgiving. I love this Thanksgiving. I love the family they have created. I think we are an interesting bunch, respectful and hard working. I think we have vastly different opinions for being raised with mostly the same values. I like watching how some of my cousins are as parents to their children. Mostly I like to watch Grandpa as he takes it all in and knows that he had something to do with this.

I didn't realize how badly I needed a dose of this family yesterday. I had a rough afternoon with big decisions and realizations on my horizon. Some things in my life are a real big mess. I was reminded yesterday though, that no matter what, this family will be there. They will still be mine. Lucky for me.

I also decided I knew exactly what I wanted for Christmas from my grandparents. I wanted a wedding picture of theirs. Not the original, but I wanted to scan one in and frame it. I left last night with a few options, and even more than I asked for, a picture of my great grandmother (grandpa's mom and dad) at her wedding.

This is my great grandparents. Check out the amazing veil/head piece my great grandmother (whom we called Muzz, though I don't know why) is wearing! I think it's incredible. They were married in 1923. Here are my grandparents on their wedding day:

These pictures make me happy.

The Fall's Gonna Kill You

First, a note about my blog titles. I know they don't always seem like they make sense. And rarely are they directly related to what I'm writing about. As I've mentioned, I'm a huge Sorkin fan, and sometimes Sorkin critic. I took it on as a personal challenge to use episode titles from Sports Night, West Wing and Studio 60 as blog post titles. I don't know that I can do it forever, but I'm fairly sure I can do it for a while longer. =) In an upcoming blog I'll talk about how the Sorkin craze began and give you some of the best written dialogue from television. Maybe when I run out of titles, I'll just start using one liners from the show... Anyway, I felt an explanation there was due.

Is everyone as happy as I am when the new, giant, seasonal Williams Sonoma catalog comes to their house? It's practically an event for me. The nice ladies at Cupcakes Take the Cake must agree with me.

This picture was posted there. Cake stands are my latest obsession and I just think I don't have nearly enough yet. All shapes and sizes are so useful and so versatile. My most favorite Williams Sonoma product right now is this though -

It's an Ebelskiver Filled-Pancake pan and it was one of my favorite Christmas gift last year. I had been hinting (not hinting in a subtle way, hinting like I had this page cut out of the catalog and hanging on the bulletin board I kept invitations and new baby announcements on) for it all year and my husband came through. One of the recipes is even for Lemon Curd filled pancakes, and well, see the About Me section to see that Lemon curd is all right by me.

The Cold

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I'm most grateful for Adrian Soyers, the nice woman who is buying my Louisiana house. Happy Thanksgiving to you Ms. Soyers. I'm grateful for my perfect cat and my many friends. I'm grateful for my giant kitchen island that provided lots of space for cookie making & merriment last night.

Here are some pictures of how all that turned out:

The pictures are, from top to bottom, our sugar cookies, in mid decoration. We had a variety of icings to use last night and they came out so great! The second is hard to tell, but it's my pan of marshmallows before I cut them. I'll have to take a better picture now that they're cut. The last is Laura and I. Another very successful year of Christmas cookies under our belt. My kitchen is a disaster mess, and I'm pretty sure the secret to hard candy involves corn syrup and water and sugar because that's what is stuck in the bottom of my pot. (My fault for waiting until the next morning for dishes.) Oh well. I should also say that Laura was a trooper. When she arrived at my house last night to make cookies, I informed her that our first floor heat has gone out and it was 56 degrees in the kitchen. It warmed up with the oven and all, but still. Chilly night for making cookies.

The Indians in the Lobby

My friend Alex has charged me, in a blog tag-you're-it-fashion, to list 7 facts about myself.

Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird.

Here goes:

1. One of the great tragedies of my life is that sometime during the last year in Louisiana I accidentally scooped up my Care Bear along with a pile of give away clothes that were on the guest bed and added him to the box. If you have a childhood stuffed animal that made it with you to adulthood, you know how tragic this can be. I think the Care Bear almost meant more to me later in life than earlier. I took it when I donated blood, when I saw Scream the movie in the theatre, on all of my out of town internships. It was a constant companion and I'm always sad when I think of how I could have possibly done that. It was Birthday Bear, it had a cupcake on it's tummy. I think this is how my obsession with cupcakes has grown...

2. I don't eat yellow candy.

3. My "theme song" is Suddenly I See by KT Tunstall.

4. I downloaded the entire Miley Cyrus album that recently came out and I love it.

5. Everytime I went to any Mexican restaurant for years I ordered chicken tacos. That was it. I think it's a real sign that I'm maturing that I've begun branching out to things like enchiladas.

6. I think the sexiest things in the world are: toned arms on men, subtle winking, Crane's stationery, the Fugees song Killing Me Softly

7. I've seen Cowboy Mouth live in concert more than 20 times. Their concerts bring out a very real & true Sarah, and I like that about them. I never would have guessed a little hoosier rock & roll band could have done that to me, but it does everytime. Although as I get older I find myself standing further and further from the stage. I still love them, but I'm getting old.

Talking Points

I have a thing for toothbrushes. I'm fascinated by what I refer to as toothbrush technology. And I'm not talking about electric toothbrushes that feature sonic or infrared abilities or have built in timers. I'm talking about plastic sticks with bristles. Everytime I see a new toothbrush hit the market I think to myself, "That's it - there's nothing else they could think to add to a toothbrush," I am proven wrong. I recently picked myself up a new toothbrush and was amazed by my options. This is something I feel should be standardized. Why do we need so many different varities? I went ahead and bought this one. I beg you to click on the link. The Colgate website has a whole video about this toothbrush's features. It has this scrubby pad on the back of it that I thought was intended to clean your tongue, a nice feature. It's also designed that way to help (for lack of a better word right here) exfoliate the inside of your cheeks! Genius! Why haven't we had a toothbrush that's thought of this before? And what will they come up with next. You know I'll be watching.






I did a little blog hopping this morning. My friend Cyndi has found some of the most stylish and most interesting blog friends and I enjoy link hopping among them to see what they are loving at the moment. I ran across this picture this morning on Coveiter. It's a random package of numbers, letters, labels and more and can be found to purchase at the Uppercase Gallery. I think these are so fun and I can see eclectic little displays of these mismatched items all over my house. I love to decorate with words and letters and I'm so happy I stumbled across this on my blog hop. For those of you struggling with the perfect holiday gift for me for under $15 - let me help you out...I want this!




Lastly for today, tonight is one of my most favorite holiday traditions and that is baking Christmas cookies with my best friend Laura. We've been doing this since high school and the last couple years we've had to take a hiatus since I lived in Louisiana and she was in Chicago and we were only in St. Louis together for about 3 days and they were jam packed with family festivities. For many years throughout college this event took place in my mom's kitchen. My mom had a large tupperware bowl she kept in the pantry full of sprinkles and Laura started to comment after a couple years that she wasn't exactly sure what the shelf life of sprinkles were, but she was pretty sure some of ours had reached that point. We used these same holly berry sprinkles far past their prime. Those nights are full of good memories and old jokes that have managed to live on. We once tried to make chocolate covered pretzels that were sprinkled with peppermint. They did not come out quite like the picture and we have given them the affectionate nickname of "nappy-kins". (Laura explains it as "nappy" - because they were kind of gross looking, and "kins" because that made them cuter. It oddly works.) We have made them again, our skill level increased, and I made a version of the nappy-kins for her bachelorette party (imagine a pretzel rod dipped halfway in white chocolate and covered in a clear sugar sprinkle. Trust me, they were pretty, and delicious after a night of drinking.) The first time I ever tried to make fondue was one of our cookie nights and I went a little heavy on the white wine. I look forward to our adventures tonight, that will include homemade marshmallows (a first!), some chocolate peanut butter surprise cookies, our standard sugar cookie and a chocolate dipped chocolate cookie. Wish us luck!

And It's Surely to Their Credit

Much updating to do for all of you on how all my weekend plans turned out. As promised - pictures are up!

First, I have some very exciting news to share. We received an offer on our Louisiana house! We put the house on the market in April and got word Sunday morning that an offer had been made. It was a completely acceptable offer and we said YES in about 30 seconds. The closing is supposed to happen fairly quickly, within the next couple of weeks if all the appraisals and inspections are in order. Hello to being a single mortgage household!! It was a great house, and I hope the new owner is as happy with it as we were.

Weekend updates:

I did get bangs. I think they are fun. I think I'm still adjusting to them and look forward to tomorrow when I'll actually have to style them myself. It's a different look and a small change I was needing.

The white tree is up and completely Disney-fied! I really like it. I know I have another small box of Disney ornaments somewhere...surely I'll find them next week when I get the rest of the Christmas decorations out.

(Pictures of the tree and a couple of my favorite ornaments)

I made some very fun Holiday Cards during my scrapbooking afternoon with my friend Joy. I had a blast playing and a great time catching up with Joy. The cards don't all look as professional as some examples in the store or online looked, but by golly, they were made with love and by hand!

Happy Monday to all of you.

A Good Day

I decided to make the things I'm grateful for a weekly post. I think it's valuable to find the small things that are going well and focus on them, even if it's for 10 minutes as I write this.


I'm grateful for friends who will explain what the movie Signs was really all about. I've been trying to catch all of M. Night's movies since Laura and Anna are such big fans. I watched it last night and knew it wasn't supposed to be about the literal alien plot, but wasn't quite sure what to make of all of it. I did know that I liked the odd coincidences that seemed helpful and the fate is bigger than us concept. So, cheers to people who will tell you what the movie is really all about.







I'm grateful for finding a 6.5 foot white Christmas tree for $35. I thought $75 was as low as it was going to get and then I got the call that my mom had found one for $35. I haven't had a Christmas tree in 3 years, so this year I'm getting two. A traditional one for the first floor living room, and a white Disney Tree upstairs in front of the big window in the reading nook. I also found this great tree skirt that has glitter swirls all over it and if you look really hard, squint your eyes and tilt to the left, it even looks a little like Mickey's head.


I'm grateful for Hodak's fried chicken and french fries. They are a reason I'll never be able to commit fully to a vegetarian lifestyle. Hot, crispy, inexpensive and delicious.

I'm happy I have some weekend plans that I'm really looking forward to. A haircut, dinner with a high school friend at a local thai place, scrapbooking with a friend I don't see very often and dinner with my sister are all on the list for the weekend, and I have a huge selection of alternates as well. A movie, some Christmas shopping, tree decorating and some baking are on the B list. I'm grateful to be busy.

Happy weekend everyone. I hope it brings you something you're happy for also.