I'll be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas day with our extended family celebrating Jesus' birthday. We'll be eating lots of food, singing Christmas carols, snuggling up with full bellies, and most likely watching cliche Christmas movies like It's a Wonderful Life.
What are you doing for Christmas this year?
(image source: 1950s Flickr group)
Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without the tried and true Christmas movies. Our family has a list of our own personal favorites, involving the Muppets, Steve Martin, and Zooey Deschanel. But here is my own personal list of must see holiday movies.
A charming romantic comedy about a 1940s woman who isn't the typical 1940s housewife... she's just pretending to be.
This dreamy coming of age movie is set in turn of the century St. Louis (there's a shocker!). It's a real nostalgic movie about family bonds and young love. Sigh. (Oh, and you know that beloved Christmas song Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas? It was written for this movie. Further proof that it's a classic.)
A bishop becomes preoccupied with building his church, while his family and everyone else is won over by Dudley (aka Cary Grant) who is actually an angel who has been sent to help each one of them. The funny part is that Cary Grant is an angel. At least to me, anyway!
You can all roll your eyes now. But I can't help myself! I love Jimmy Stewart, and this is the epitome of a feel good American Christmas movie. For those of you who haven't seen this movie (!!!!), it's about a man who has a wonderful life, and doesn't realize it until he is given the chance to see what everyone else's lives would be like without him.
Total Christmas candy. This movie is just a complete treat! The best songs (even if you're not into musicals- I swear!), the best entertainers, beautiful sets, and a great Mid Century "the war is over" sentiment. If I played favorites, this one would take the prize.
Jimmy Stewart makes the cut once again! (That's no surprise, as I'm the one curating the list.) I blogged a short while back about the unexpected fashion inspiration in this movie. But the plot is just as charming. It's about two coworkers who aren't particularly fond of each other, but aren't aware that they are secret romantic pen pals. It's the original You've Got Mail, in case you were wondering why it sounds so familiar! It counts as a Christmas movie in my list because most of the important scenes happen during Christmastime.
I hope that you will find time to watch at least one of these movies this Christmas! I find them to be a huge part of Christmas nostalgia, and will definitely talk my family into watching at least one of them with me!
Well, of course! I know I keep saying this, but "'Tis the Season!" I have been searching far and wide for recipes that taste just like the infamous Lofthouse cookies. I've even had baking marathons in which I mix up five different sugar cookie recipes and conduct double-blind studies with my friends and family. Well, this year my mother and I found the perfect combination in an old family recipe combined with a thick coat of Duncan Hynes frosting. Mix that that with Ghirardelli chocolate, and we're good to go! Now we're trying to see if we can make these cookies disappear....
Soft Sugar Cookies
2 c. sugar
1 c. margarine (I used ½ butter & ½ margarine.)
1 c. sour cream
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
6 c. flour
2 tsp. vanilla
Mix sugar and margarine; add sour cream and then the eggs--one at a time. Mix in vanilla, baking powder and soda. Add the flour one cup at a time. The dough will be thick. Roll out thick.
Bake @ 350˚ and remove from oven before the bottoms are brown (so that they will be soft). When you touch them, they should feel kind of firm.
Recipe makes about 4 dozen, depending on size. Frost with a thick coating of Duncan Hynes vanilla frosting. The trick to getting them super soft is to store them in a closed container for two days. Don't cut them in too intricate of a shape or they will literally fall apart. They're that soft and delicious!
Last weekend I finally decorated our humble abode for the Christmas season! Needless to say, I've been listening to my favorite Christmas tunes pretty much nonstop. But it got me thinking how swell it would be if I could listen to the very same Christmas records that my dad played when I was little. When it comes to nostalgia, nothing beats the sound of vinyl. So, true to form, I began scouring internetland for record players just like dear ol' Dad's.
Would you believe he actually still has the same stereo equipment that he purchased when he was in college? ('73!) Each year we still enjoy Christmas tunes coming through that vintage steel and wood clad receiver and out of those 35 year old speakers... but I'm sad to say Dad let go of the record player in '99, when he finally invested in a cd player. These players from Urban Outfitters seem really cool, and that one on the right almost looks like Dad's oldie. I'm looking for something I can hook up to our stereo receiver and blast through our modern-eye-sore speakers.
I would also be delighted hear some of my favorite bands on vinyl. It's not just vintage, kids.
(Fleet Foxes, Port O'Brien, Neutral Milk Hotel)
Ah, I just don't know what to do. Buy vintage? Buy new? I think it's too late for Christmas. But you know, my birthday is early January...
For me, part of the magic of the season is the wonderfully cozy songs that pop up this time of year. One of my fondest childhood memories is my father playing the same Christmas records on the stereo as we decorated the tree each year. So, if you're of the holiday persuasion, this mix should be sure to bring you tidings of great joy. Next time I'll make a playlist with my favorite Christmas carols. But these are my favorite holiday songs of all time.
(P.S. My all time favorite is The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole. What's yours?)
I give you ten songs that remind me of Fall and the bonfires that come with the crunchy golden leaves. What are your favorite Fall songs?
We laid in the streets which were covered in leaves and never shut our eyes until 6 am.
We have soup, pizelles, and rosettes. And those are really the only recipes that made the trip across the Atlantic to be passed down to me from my French great-grandparents. My dad is the rosette making king, and so we let him make them, and I sugar them. Someday I will learn how to make rosettes on my own, but for now, I will just enjoy the light and tasty crunch and the bonding experience with Pops. Oh, and the pleasant choking sensation that occurs when attempting laughing whilst eating the powdered sugar covered deliciousness.
My dad said something the other day.... that people had better be careful with their stuff, or I might find it and scrapbook about it.
"Or blog about it!" I was quick to add. And then I informed him that someday his scrapbook was going to make its way here....
And today is that day.
My dad and I have a history, I suppose. (That might be an obvious statement, but it goes deeper.) When I was growing up, my dad had a tumor growing in his brain that none of us knew about until I was in 8th Grade. It made him sick all of the time, and though he tried his best, but it was hard to be super involved as sick as he was. My mother thinks that I developed an attachment to him as an effort to make up for lost years. Whatever the reason, it's true that I idolize my father. And I look for ways that we are alike.
I was the nerdy Middle Schooler who listened to old Carpenter's records. And I'm pretty sure I can blame that on my dad's love for the Carpenter's.
He has slides and slides of Carpenter's photos that he took when he was in college. Once he told me that he was going to have one blown up into a poster for me. I really hope he does, because I would treasure it (even though I'm not that into them any more, it would be the connection between us that would make it special).
Some things I'm recently learning about my dad... before he got sick, he was really into photography.
He took pictures of lots of silly things that really have no purpose (like I do, I suppose!). But I love looking at them and seeing what his friends from college were like.
Another surprising Dad fact that I found... he had lots of dates. He even went on a date with Miss Universe! I saw this one lady in particular, and couldn't help but wonder about her.... But I think it would be more lovely to wonder about her than to know the actual history.
I guess some people think it's silly to scrapbook about "selfish" things, like my favorite food or favorite t.v. show, because who will really care about those things when I'm gone? Well, I think it's silly to think that such a thing is silly! My dad did it, and I think it is fascinating to see them!
I've loved looking through my dad's things that I found, and I think I'm going to ask my mom if she has some hidden memories somewhere for me to find... It's a blast. I highly recommend it.
I have discovered that my family has mastered the art of it. Scrapping in secret. Hiding the albums. It's so strange to me. I'm always so shy andtimid about showing my scrapbook to anyone... unless they're a scrapbooker too. Here, it turns out my family is full of them, and I never knew!
After my grandmother passed away, I spend hours looking through all the things she had kept. But one particular item captured my fancy to be sure. My grandmother, queen of generic photo albums and standard midwest granny decor, had made a scrapbook for her ideal future home.
She did lots of hand written fonts, which I find quite amusing considering how long I would laboriously sit over her letters trying to decipher her chicken scratch. But the most shocking part of all was how much I loved the interiors she had chosen.
It makes me wonder... did she give up her dreams for her ideal home? Or did her idea of an ideal home simply make the shift from furnishings to family? I'm a firm believer that the two can peacefully coexist. But this puzzles me, how different the grandma I knew was from this highschool girl who was shockingly similar to myself. You can be sure that I will begin investigating Grandma's home decor from the pre-grandchildren days. Maybe there was a super chic lady in her that I totally never noticed.
I also loved looking at her friends' photos and the notes they had written to her. (her picture is on the bottom right of this page) She was a swell friend. And, not to be overlooked, a highschooler who, just like me, practiced writing the name of her beaux and future hubby all over her books. :)
My dad also had a scrapbook around the same age. Shocker! I'll have to share it with you soon.
