Way Better Than Whatever the Grocery Store is Playing

Let's talk holiday music today. First of all, who else loathes (yes, loathes) hearing Christmas carols in the grocery store in mid-November? Ugh. I love festive music but, as with most things, there is a time and a place. So, since we're well into December it's Christmas music time!

I grew up listening to classic Christmas music from Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole. While that kind of thing is great (you can't really ever go wrong with Sinatra) I've got a couple offbeat favorites.

Here are some of my favorites to get in the holiday mood:

First, my most "classic" choice:
A Charlie Brown Christmas- Vince Guaraldi Trio

I probably don't need to work very hard to defend this choice. This album just sounds like Christmas, doesn't it? It strikes the perfect balance of cheerful and sentimental. Picking a favorite track would be like picking a favorite child...if I had children...and liked them all equally.

Bakenaked for the Holidays- Barenaked Ladies

This is my very favorite holiday album ever. There are classic Christmas songs, Hanukkah songs, silly adaptations of greats and quirky originals.

Best Tracks:
Elf's Lament- Smart, fun lyrics poking fun at the woes of a dead-end job. Christmas!
Hanukkah Blessings- This is just a beautiful song.
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen- My favorite Christmas carol done perfectly.
Deck the Stills- 5 words over and over and over and over. In a good way.

The Jethro Tull Christmas Album- Jethro Tull

This one is exactly what you'd expect. Flute rock for Christmas. I bet it's better than Metallica's Christmas album.

Best Tracks-
Holly Herald- Folk-y and wonderful.
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen- Seriously, it's my favorite, I love this version, too. It's acoustic and cozy.
Fire at Midnight- Makes you wish you could invite every single person you like over for cocoa.

I recommend listening to any of these in front of a fireplace while wearing fuzzy socks. I'll be listening to these holiday tunes while finishing final assignments and packing my life into boxes once again. Third move since the summer of 2010. Bring. It.

Thanksgiving

Holiday travel season is quickly approaching! Actually, in our house it's more like Get-all-the-projects-and-papers-done-so-we-can-enjoy-the-holidays time. It's a mouthful. On our docket this year: Kansas City and Springfield, MO with a stop in Columbia for Thanksgiving, a nice long Christmas in KC and back to Indiana to move into our new house just after the new year!

Last year, Boyfriend braved Michigan with me and my extended family. It was fantastic. We ate too much, stayed up late making stupid jokes and it snowed! This year it's my turn to tag along for his family's festivities. We're headed to southern Missouri for Thanksgiving day. Boyfriend has a bunch of family there and we'll all be getting together for too much food and carrying on.

We might head back to Kansas City in time to see the Plaza lighting, which, for non-Kansas City residents is the city's official holiday season kick-off. The Plaza is a beautiful shopping district with Spanish architecture and high-end stores. On Thanksgiving night, hundreds, maybe thousands of Kansas Citians buddle up and mill about until a local celebrity flips the switch and row after row of lights outline the Plaza's buildings. It's one of those simple, pretty holiday moments.

The other side of Eric's family will get together on Saturday where the eating and carrying on will continue! Sadly, Sunday it'll be back to Indiana to kick into high gear and finish out the semester. Whew.

I've had a lot of picture-less posts lately. Allow me to remedy that. Here are some randoms I found on my computer. If you just can't get enough, I'm also on Instagram, Feel free to follow along, I'm pinsinthemap.

We made a feast a couple years ago...for two of us. It was awesome.

Boyfriend and I grinning excessively into my phone

Getting excited about the holidays? Trying not to think about it?

Halloween Costumes

Belated Halloween costume photos! Boyfriend was a very....accurate Macho Man Randy Savage. I am proud and a little embarrassed to tell you that I am responsible for adding all that ribbon, fringe, and sequins to that shirt. So. Much. Hot glue. He was the spittin' image. And had the catch phrase down.

My costume was a bit more subdued. Jessie from Toy Story's 2 and 3. I got completely bogged down in getting everything as accurate as possible. I'm obnoxious but if you ever need to borrow a cowgirl shirt, I'm your girl. I was tempted to make Arley a saddle and have her go as a miniature Bulls-eye. Maybe next year.

Speaking of next year, I think we'll have trick-or-treaters at our new house. We've never had trick-or-treaters! Realer posts coming soon!

Home is Where the Floors Creak

Having been home over the holidays made me think about how much my parents' tastes have shaped my own. I like to believe that I have made every single decision based only on my own brain power but anyone knows that isn't how it works. The people you grow up around sneak themselves into every nook and cranny of your thoughts no matter how much you fight it in surprising ways.

My dad used to quiz my brother and I on roof styles while running errands around town. Mansard, hip, gambrel, gable- just try to stump me. I'm even better with types of columns. Unsurprisingly, I developed an early interest in architecture. It also helps that I grew up in the coolest house ever. What's that? Your childhood home rocked? Cool. Mine was better.

Yeah, I'm in love with the house from the Wikipedia article on bungalows.

I grew up in a stone bungalow that was built in 1908 (allegedly by a chain gang!). It had a massive front porch held up by cement casts of tree trunks and when the mailbox needed to be replaced, my dad used an antique fire alarm box. As a kid I thought the place was huge. My parents will be quick to tell you that was not the case. Apparently with two small kids, a dog and at least one cat 1,700 square foot isn't exactly expansive. When you're nine years old though, the crawl-space-turned-closet in your already giant bedroom is the greatest secret hideout in the world (it had carpet and shelves!). The dining room had massive picture windows and a bench under those windows that ran the length of the room. At the center of the living room was an enormous stone fireplace, the backdrop of nearly all my childhood Christmas photos.

Now that I am learning to be a grown-up (so tough!) and have my own place, I find that I fall in love with houses for the same reason my parents fell in love with that bungalow. Hardwood floors are the single most charming thing ever, bonus points if they creak. A front porch of porch-sittin' size is a necessity. If the house has a particularly colorful history I want to hear about it. The little house we're renting now is pretty fantastic. It has the requisite wood floors, beautiful wood trim around all the doors and I got to choose the cozy color for the living room walls. It's called 'Bagel'. Wonderful, yes? The basement is accessed by a door in the floor rigged to a hand-made pulley system. I guess you could say it's part cute cottage, part pirate ship.

Behold! A crummy showcase of all the pretty wood!

While homeownership may still be a speck on the horizon, I know I'll rank quirky charm over granite countertops every time. New, luxury stuff is great, it's just not my style. Give me a weird, hundred-year-old house any day.

2013

Happy 2013! It's the month of resolutions. Do you make them? Do you hate them? Are you just annoyed at how busy your gym has become?

source

I'm neither for or against the making of resolutions. I find the whole "fresh start" thing appealing and generally use that feeling to reenergize goals I've pushed to the back burner. I should learn to knit something other than a scarf. We could probably be recycling more. This year I'm not going to let my car go too long between oil changes.

I also use the new year to instill some good, old-fashion self loathing. You are not going to spend another year 10 pounds overweight. I know, being hard on yourself in the longterm is not the answer. But, small doses, I find, get me on the treadmill.

Getting carried away is easy but being unrealistic won't end well. If your resolution is to cook more and currently you've got multiple restaurants on speed dial, a fondue shouldn't be step one. Step one should maybe be to stop using the oven as shoe storage. Try not to compare your goals to others either. I'm guilty of this one and it drives me crazy. Oh sure, she's cutting refined sugar completely out of her diet. Apparently she's super-human! Gah!

This year what I'm finding more motivating is that I turn 26 in April. That means I'll be closer to 30 than 20. While this may not seem significant to everyone, to me it signals a need to be more of an adult than a child. Time to kick some bad habits: waiting to do dishes until the kitchen is toxic, waking up fifteen minutes before I need to be out the door, forgetting to send thank you notes. So, January is serving as a reminder that I'm only a few months away from that significant birthday. Better get moving.  

Messy Kitchen: Baking Triumph

I try not to stress out too much when I trash the kitchen because that usually means I've cooked something of some significance instead of ensuring that every single Jimmy John's delivery guy has seen our house. For this particular adventure, I got to destroy two kitchens!

I know gift-giving season has come and gone but chilly weather hasn't (especially in Indiana) so this is still topical. We made some of our Christmas gifts this year. No, we're not super handy/crafty/Amish and no, we did not spend a million dollars on fancy foods/materials/indentured servants. We made cocoa mix and marshmallows. From scratch! Entirely!

I found the cocoa recipe on Pinterest. It is from Brown Eyed Baker. To be honest, I was sure it would not be as easy as it seemed. It totally was, though! Mix cocoa powder, powdered sugar, dry milk and white chocolate chips in a food processor. The toughest part is that you have to do the mixing in phases unless you have a food processor the size of a farm sink. After about 10 minutes of mild effort you'll have homemade cocoa mix! No creepy chemicals or paper pouches! It's awesome with almond milk. We put ours in small mason jars, added tags with preparation directions, pretty ribbon and name tags. 
Ta Da! (forgot to take pictures, d'oh!) Packed up and brought them to Kansas City where our holiday festivities took place. 

As for the marshmallows, Pinterest led me to a recipe from 
Not Without Salt. I had never attempted making marshmallows before. I like to bake but homemade marshmallows were intimidating. The toughest part was spreading the mix out on a cookie sheet. I had my mom spray my hands with non-stick spray which helped for a while (and is a fun question to ask of family members). So, if you're planning to attempt this yourself the more non-stick preparations you take, the better off you'll be. 

Overall, the marshmallow making process went smoothly even though I didn't have a candy thermometer as the recipe used. The best part? They taste amazing! Everyone was impressed and kept telling me how fresh they tasted! Success!

Please forgive my lack of pictures. I am still getting used to the concept of documenting my goings on for the blog's benefit. I promise to try harder!

What do they want for Christmas?

Happy winter holiday of your choosing! I see that catching on at all the mall stores.

Regardless of what you celebrate there is probably gift giving involved and therefore, probably frustration. If you're anything like me (selfish and dense) you find the trickiest people to shop for are those most unlike yourself. As a female, I find it particularly challenging to find gifts for the men on my list. Whether it's Dad, Brother, male co-worker I drew in Secret Santa- I never know if I'm choosing something I want them to want or something that's actually cool.  If this is not you and you happen to be some kind of perfect gift wizard, this post is not for you and are your services for hire?

Lucky for the rest of us there roughly nine million gift guides out there just waiting for your perusal. Unfortunately, not all of the advice is good. But, how do you ask, can we tell the genuinely good ideas from the stinkers? I have no idea, I asked someone else.

Boyfriend is here to tell us just how accurate one of those online gift guides can be.

For our little experiment, we chose Gifts.com's Top 10 Gifts for Guys. Gifts.com compiles gift ideas from a variety of sources and allows you to browse ideas by occasion, recipient, you get the idea.

So, here's Boyfriend's take as we went through, item by item: 

He'll be in blue.

Ok, first item?

Road Trip Napa Valley Red Wines...I’m more of a beer guys, 38 bucks for six bottles of wine isn’t a bad idea. It’s hard to go wrong with booze.

Fair enough, pretty safe start. Next?

Custom Protein Bars Gift Box" Sighs. “Because nothing says 'I love you' like your face staring off a health food package.

Who is that a good gift for?

Laughs. A grandmother or grandfather of some sort...Holy crap?!50 dollars for 6 energy bars?!

Well, they're custom...

Do you know what that is in Clif currency? That’s like 25 Clif bars!

Yes it is. Moving on then?

Personalized Large Popcorn Bucket. It's a handwash-only popcorn bucket

And…?

We own bowls, right? I don’t know why I would need a bucket that can hold a message in one line up to 12 characters. I can’t even get my full name in 12 characters. And the hand wash only adds to it, when you’re standing there washing fake butter out of a plastic bucket with your name on it. That’s a level of shame I don’t want to associate with Christmas.

Ok, nothing handwash-only for guys, got it.

Needlepoint Flask. I’m gonna be open and up front on this one. I’ve owned a flask. The flask is the container of the inconspicuous drinker. Rarely do people drinking out of flasks stop so they can turn to the person next to them and say 'hey look at the design that’s on my flask.' It’s an inconspicuous way to add hard liquor to things that don’t usually have hard liquor in them. I don’t see spending 35 dollars on one that has “cheerful needlepoint messages”.
Noted.

Timerland Rattler Boots. (Scoffs) I don’t really have anything to say about this. They’re packable boots.

What do you think that gift says about you and the gift giver?

It says I know you’re a person who sleeps outside a lot. I’ve just never really needed more foot warmth than warm socks can provide. 
Hot Sauce of the Month Club!* (no longer on list)

Have we found one you want?

The only problem with this gift is that it only lasts 4 months. They do have longer options but its probably way more expensive than is justifiable for the amount of hot sauce you’re going to get. You could just go into one of those kitchy mall stores and pick them out yourself…I don’t know what benefit I would get from the monthly newsletter…I’m not really interested in hearing what other people have to say about hot sauce.
I don't see why not. Ok, next?

Personalized grilling gloves. (Snorts) I still have a five dollar pair of work gloves from when I worked installing fences. Its never occurred to me to put them on when I was grilling. That’s probably pretty stupid considering the amount of grilling time I spend going “Ah! That’s hot!” but I don’t need a grilling glove with a logo on it. I may try to find those work gloves though. It also makes me happy to know there’s a grillinggifts.com

Your New York Times Front Page on Marble Clock. Oh, that’s good. For a second I was worried it was just one front page but apparently you can get any front page. (Reading from the description) “Geared to mark birthdays, anniversaries and other important life events”- that’s great if you happen to be a public figure mentioned on the front page or if something in your life was addressed. But generally you just have to hope that your birthday is not on 

9/ 11 or something. This could also lead to awkward conversations. 'What time is it? Oh, it’s America’s Drive Before Airfield.' (Shakes head)

Microbrew beer bucket gift basket (Snorts) …Again the…this is 70 dollars for a bucket and a mix-a-six! At first I was pleased they were getting to the beer. The beers in this thing are a $1.50 a piece at the store. I could get these beers down the street for 9 dollars. It’s great that they have an awesome galvanized bucket but... Alcohol is always a welcome gift but paying a random website to pick random beers and ship them to me…it’s just a little odd. Also, the stuff they have as the most popular microbrews are six of the most widely available microbrews you can find anywhere. I mean if you did this at the grocery store at least I’d know you’d put some effort into it.

What if you don’t live near a decent store that carries micro beers?

Then you should move.

Personalized beer holster? (Pulls computer closer) I don’t see what's personalizable here. I mainly just see this as an easier way to get arrested. Yeah, I mean I guess sometimes I’ve thought 'man, I wish there was somewhere I could put my beer'. It does seem very fashion forward though what with the extra leg strap. I’d also like to see this baby in action. I’m not convinced it wouldn’t dump your beer all over you.

How well you do think this list did at coming up with gift ideas?

They got a lot of the genres right, it was clear they were trying to hit dude stuff.

Such as?

Booze- wine, beer, liquor, beer holder, liquor holder. I mean, I got my brother hot sauce for his birthday this year, I have no problem with that concept. They went for outdoors, grilling, a weird combo of appreciation of media and history.

Where did they go wrong?

Execution, I suppose. I think this is a lot of stuff that when you look at it for just a second you think 'oh that’s cool' and then you realize it’s a bunch of stuff that’s more expensive than it needs to be. I’m a big function over form guy, I know not everyone’s like that but in general this stuff doesn’t appeal to me. The beer holster and the flask have kitch value- hey those are two things I don’t expect to go together. I’d probably say that, assuming those bottles of wine are decent that’s not a bad deal.

Is personalized a big sell for guys?

It hasn’t ever really been for me. I do remember a friend getting S-wizzle For Shizzle on the inside of his highschool ring so I guess I shouldn’t speak for everyone but I can’t see him sitting at home with the popcorn bucket, label out, so everyone can see that it’s Spencer’s popcorn bucket.

There you have it folks. A guy's opinion on what to buy them for Christmas. I'm off to find a hand-wash-only, needle-point bottle holster with Boyfriend's name on it! Happy shopping!

*All images are from gifts.com and it seems the "Hot Sauce of the Month Club has since been changed to "Beer of the Month Club."

Who has holiday plans?

Ok, before I tell you all about my great holiday plans I have to get something off my chest. I know this is not a new or creative rant but it is oh so timely. I hate (yes, hate) that, as far as nearly every retail store is concerned, the Christmas season starts on November 1st.

Ugh.

Let me say that I may be especially sensitive to this obnoxiousness because I loathe busy shopping. Walmart on a Saturday afternoon? I go into survival mode. Sales brought on by 3-day weekends? I stay home. So, I do even less shopping this time of year than I would otherwise. But, oh, when I have to venture out. I cannot handle two whole months of Christmas music, tinsel and candy-striped everything. So much green and red and shiny. Let me take this opportunity to give a big sanity-saving shout out to Nordstrom. I ran across this on Buzzfeed. Yes, Nordstrom, yes. Exactly this.

I think it's crummy that we associate Christmas so closely with buying crap. Do any of us really need more stuff? I understand that giving gifts is a great thing to do, though. It's fun to pick out the perfect gift for someone you care about and it's fun to find out that someone cared enough to spend time finding you something awesome. But, let's not lose our heads, ok? I am going to try really hard this holiday season to keep in mind that the important part is hanging out with my and Boyfriend's family, listening to the Peanut's Christmas CD until my parents beg for mercy and eating some yummy food.

Rant complete. Thanks for hanging in there.

Thanksgiving is this coming week! Hooray! Let's celebrate taking over our country by bullying the people who already lived here into submission! I'm just a little rain cloud of a thing today, no? Sorry about that. Regardless of the questionable origins, I dig Thanksgiving. Getting together with family and eating is one of my very favorite pastimes. This year, Boyfriend and I will be headed to Michigan with my family to visit aunts, uncles and cousins. This is fantastic for a couple of reasons.

1. I don't see my extended family all that often as we're scattered all over the country.
2. Boyfriend has never been to Michigan!
3. I live eight hours away from my parents and brother so, I'm actually looking forward to spending some time in the car with them.

Brother has to survive the trip from KC to Indiana with my parents. Hopefully that won't be too painful for him. They're headed this way on Tuesday! Yikes, my house needs to look a great deal different (read: something resembling clean) than it does now!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!

I've got some fun ideas for the coming (yes, that's right, it hasn't started yet) holiday season.