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Friday favorites: Christmas stuff

December 5, 2014 by Jana 21 Comments

For those who are new or who might not know, I am Jewish. Which means that growing up, I didn’t have Santa or the joy of Christmas morning or even got remotely infected with the Christmas spirit (where I grew up in New York was predominately Jewish, too). The closest I came to celebrating Christmas was my freshman year of high school when I flew to Atlanta to with 2 of my friends to visit another friend who had moved there. She wasn’t Jewish so we got to experience her tree and all that good stuff.

I liked that.

As for my family, we had some great Christmas traditions that typically involved eating Chinese food and going to the movies on Christmas Day and also celebrating Hanukkah for eight crazy nights (and by crazy, I mean lighting candles and giving each other presents. We know how to party) because that’s what good Jews do. And I figured those would always be my traditions.

Then I met my husband. And he’s definitely not Jewish. So we celebrate Christmas now and have different traditions and we’re probably a handful of houses that have a Star of David ornament on their Christmas tree.

Now that we’ve been together for 19 Christmases (including this one), it’s hard to imagine a time when Christmas wasn’t part of my December.

Christmas lights. Sure, there were houses where I grew up that decorated for Christmas, including two that went absolutely overboard (in a good, only moderately tacky way) with their outdoor light displays, but now that I celebrate Christmas, I appreciate them more. They’re just prettier for reasons I’m struggling to explain. Also included in this: home decor, Christmas scented candles,

The food. Holy hell, THIS is what I missed out on. Fudge. Christmas cookies. Fudge. Christmas dinner which is like Thanksgiving part 2. Gingerbread houses and men with frosting and candy and assorted other deliciousness. Fudge. Sure, potato latkes are fried perfection but they pale in comparison to all the other foods. Sugar and fatness galore. This is part of why my yoga pants are my favorite. One caveat: No, absolutely no, eggnog for me. That shit is revolting.

Bonus: Here’s an easy recipe I found on Pinterest for fudge: combine 3 cups chocolate chips and one can condensed sweetened milk in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on medium power for one minute, stir, repeat until chocolate is dissolved in milk. Spread on wax paper in 9×13 dish, and chill for 1-2 hours. Cut into squares. Jana inspired variations: replace one cup chocolate chips with mint chips, peanut butter chips, or replace regular chocolate with white chocolate. This is mint chocolate with crushed candy canes. It tastes as delicious as it looks.

Movies. I had watched Frosty and Rudolph and the Grinch as a kid but now, as an adult with a child and as someone who actually celebrates the holiday, the movies are infinitely more enjoyable. And then there’s the whole host of Christmas movies that never meant anything when I was a kid but now I can’t imagine the holiday without: A Christmas Story (true story: I saw for the first time in 7th grade English class), Christmas Vacation, A Muppet Christmas Carol, and Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas (which is really just The Gift of the Magi but with Muppets. I had this epiphany last year).

School vacations. Clearly, as a kid, I loved Christmas even as a Jew because thank you, two weeks off from school. Hard to beat that. Now the two weeks off from school means no early morning fights with the child to get her to school on time, no homework to help with, no lunches to pack, no wasting my time in the afternoon pick-up line, and no wondering what mystery object or paper will come home in her backpack. It really is a wonderful time of the year.

Presents. It sounds cliche, but I definitely love buying presents for others more than I like getting them for myself. I find it enjoyable to search for stuff my family wouldn’t buy for themselves, and the look on my daughter’s face when she opens her gifts is simply priceless. We also have a family tradition of buying for Toys for Tots, and knowing that some kid somewhere else is having a similar reaction to my daughter makes me happy, knowing that I did that (if you want to read about the time doing something like this really made a difference, read this post).

Two Christmas traditions I’m still working on: sending cards and enjoying holiday music. I’m too lazy to send cards and the music doesn’t do it for me. I typically avoid it as much as possible. However. There are some songs that I do enjoy and in two weeks, we’ll go into my favorite Christmas songs. They’re probably not what you expect.

But so you don’t think I’m totally grinchy, here’s one that I love. It’s easy to figure out why.

What are some of your favorite things about Christmas? What recipes should I try?

inking up with Amanda

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#inthedrawer: Holiday Instagram fun

December 1, 2014 by Jana 15 Comments

I know today was supposed to be the final post in my cheer mom series but I need to share this with you guys instead. The cheer mom series will wrap-up next Monday instead.

I’m not sure if I ever talked about this before but I loathe the Elf on the Shelf. It creeps me out, I’m too lazy and forgetful to move the thing every night, and I really don’t want my kid thinking there’s a crazy miniature stalker temporary living in our house, reporting back to Santa every night. Plus, if the elf “makes a mess”, who has to clean it up? That’s right. Me. I barely like cleaning up every day messes. Why would I purposefully make an extra mess?

I mean, I know she’d enjoy the whole Elf on the Shelf thing. But I just can’t do it. And I do other stuff. Just not the elf. I’m fairly certain she’ll survive (also, I feel like since there’s now the Mensch on the Bench, I’d be discriminating if I just did one of them).

However.

Remember this meme Nadine posted a few weeks ago?

We decided to turn it into a fun Instagram challenge (I don’t know that challenge is the right word but I don’t know what else to call it). For the next 24 days, instead of the Elf on the Shelf, bust out your old Barbies (or buy one. They’re like $5 for a basic doll. You can get them at Walgreens or most drug stores) and, using the themes below, be as creative as time allows.

Make sure you follow me and Nadine on Instagram so you can see all of Barbie’s drunken Christmas adventures. And use #inthedrawer (we decided not to use the word “whore” because, you know, Instagram creepers and porn) so we can see what you did.

I know you’re thinking “Jana, if you can do this, surely you can participate in the Elf on the Shelf”. You’re probably correct.

But Barbie is a drunken whore.

The Elf is a stalker.

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Thanksgiving thoughts

November 26, 2014 by Jana 9 Comments

Ordinarily I link up with Kristin and Joey for Stuff and Things on Thursday but since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I’m taking the day off from all things blogging and so I moved my weekly brain dump to today. But I’m focusing on Thanksgiving for this week’s topics.

I’ve done Thanksgiving posts before (you can read some Thanksgiving music stories here, my Black Friday rant here , and how we celebrate the holidays without shopping here) but I’ve never really delved into what I’m thankful for or why I love Thanksgiving as much as I do. So let’s do that now.

My favorite part of Thanksgiving is the food. I mean, how can you not love it? But more than eating it (which, let’s face it, is basically the best part), I love cooking it. In fact, cooking Thanksgiving dinner is the highlight of my year. No sarcasm. I am a pretty decent cook and this is the one time per year I really get to show it off.
Family time. My family is spread out all over the place and Thanksgiving is one of the few times per year the majority of us are concentrated in one location. My sisters are two of my favorite people in the world and I love getting to spend time with them, watching the Macy’s parade, cooking, laughing, and being all sisterly (including one year when we fought because they got angry with me for not liking Hairspray. Legit angry. I think there was even yelling. I like the movie now so the fight is even funnier). Plus, watching my daughter with my nephew is always fun.
Fall. Spring still reigns as the greatest season of all but fall comes next. There’s something about the changing leaves, the new TV season, the staying indoors to read more books, the smells, the colors, the home decor, the getting dark early, the wearing of sweaters, the eating of casseroles and stews, the naps during football games, and the warmth of cozy fleece blankets that make it special. The fact that the greatest holiday of the year occurs during fall makes it that much better.
Taking time to focus on thankfulness and gratitude. I know we’re supposed to do this all year, and I do, but the atmosphere of Thanksgiving lends itself to be extra reflective. A quick rundown of my thankful list:
- My family. This should be obvious but I know not everyone loves their families so I consider myself lucky that I love everyone in my family, including my in-laws. And most of the time, I’m confident they love me back.
- My pets. They pee on the floor and bark relentlessly and eat everything that’s not nailed down (and a few things that are) and the cat still refuses to sit next to me on the couch but I don’t know what I’d do without them.
- This blog. It frustrates me at times but being able to write on my own terms and have a place to work on my dream means so much to me. Plus, the relationships I’ve formed are some of the best I’ve had in my adult life and it’s amazing how close you can be to people you’ve never actually met.
- Books. Books are basically everything. As long as I have a book, I’m okay. Barring food, water, clothes (for the sake of the general public) and the company of my family and pets, I really don’t need anything except books.
- Music. Music is what feelings sound like and like books, I don’t know what I’d do without it. I love that there’s a song for every situation and emotion and often, when I don’t know how to deal with my feelings, I turn on music. It’s therapeutic and entertaining and it enhances my life every way.
- Things that make my life easier: my whole house vacuum, EZ Pass, the fence around my backyard, the internet, my iPhone, my crockpot, Amazon, the online library catalog and reservation system, and really big purses.

I hope you all (or those of you who celebrate) have a wonderful Thanksgiving, no matter how big or small your celebration is.

I’ll see you back here on Friday for another edition of Friday favorites.

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Friday Favorites, Halloween edition

October 31, 2014 by Jana 15 Comments

I feel like today’s post should be about Halloween even though I can’t stand Halloween and, unlike most people, I have zero memories of being a child on Halloween. I have no recollection of my costumes (although I remember the 80s children’s plastic costumes vividly), going trick or treating, handing out anything with my parents, or anything even remotely related to Halloween.

Okay. That’s a lie. I have one memory, and it’s family tradition related. I grew up on Long Island, and not too far from my parents’ house was a place called Hicks Nursery. It’s a family owned plant nursery/pumpkin patch/Christmas store that each year had a very elaborate walk-though storyboard display, sort of like a living diorama but with placards containing a narrative. I’m doing a terrible job describing this. Here are pictures:

We did this every year up until 2 or 3 years ago but my very limited decorations do include an Otto the Ghost stake (the ghost in the pictures is named Otto) in my front yard so I still try to keep the tradition alive.

But that’s basically all I do. Because I don’t watch scary movies, I have no interest in dressing up myself, my husband takes the child trick or treating and I’m more than happy to put out a bowl of candy with a sign that says “help yourself” because the doorbell bothers my dogs and I don’t enjoy small talk with other people’s kids and I’d rather hide in my room with a book. I half-heartedly throw together decorations and at the pumpkin patch, I purposefully pick the small pumpkins because I like them better. Large pumpkins bug me for reasons I cannot explain.

I’m basically the Halloween grinch. I’m fine with it.

For this week’s edition, though, I’ll put my grinchiness aside and bring you my very limited Halloween favorites (besides Otto and small pumpkins).

Favorite Halloween song

It’s not necessarily a Halloween song in the traditional sense but Rob Zombie is basically the year round, living, breathing embodiment of the day so I’m using his song, “Dragula”.

Favorite Halloween frugal find

My daughter was supposed to go as Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie but the costume was turning out to be a nightmare so we went on to Amazon and found a Southern Belle costume on sale for less than $20 plus free shipping thanks to Amazon Prime. Less than $20 and no crowded costume store? Score for me! (pics will be on Instagram so if you want to see my daughter in her costume, make sure you’re following me)

Favorite Halloween candy

Reese’s peanut butter cups. And I really like the mini Snickers. Too bad I’m working the low carb diet right now. I’m pretty sure my child is thrilled by this.

Favorite Halloween movie

The Worst Witch. My middle sister and I would watch it before school every single day in our respective rooms. I still love this movie and found it on YouTube and hopefully I can get my daughter to watch it.

Favorite Halloween Internet reads

I liked this read from PopSugar, 15 Halloween Movies for Wimps. Buzzfeed had a wonderfully helpful post about candy and cocktail pairings. And Book Riot linked to a story on FlavorWire with 10 scary stories you can listen to right now.

Favorite Halloween funnies

I will be drunk in about 15 minutes

I find this funnier than I should

This will be my candy bucket sign

True story

Hope you all have a great Halloween and rest of the weekend!

Coming up on Monday: I’m not quite sure yet. It’s either the beginning of my cheer mom series or something else. We’ll see what strikes me when I sit down to write.

Linking up with Amanda

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Give me back my Thanksgiving!

November 10, 2011 by Jana 24 Comments

Dear Retailers,

I am not pleased with you. You have taken the Christmas creep way too far. In fact, it is no longer a creep. It is a hijacking.

Let me tell you a little story:

I was going through my Tuesday night routine of watching Glee and folding laundry, happy as could be that my daughter was asleep (well, in bed and quiet), my dogs were not barking and I had the house to myself. I was particularly happy because this was the first episode that featured one of the winners ofThe Glee Project (don’t judge me) AND he had just sang “It Isn’t Easy Being Green” (have I mentioned that I am ~~a fan~~ obsessed with The Muppets? No? I need to address that at some point). Then. It happened.

A freaking Christmas commercial came on! I am not kidding. It was a Christmas commercial from WalMart, and gender stereotypes aside, it was horrific. Halloween just ended not 24 hours before and you’re paying for Christmas advertising?! It’s an atrocity on so many levels. You’ve committed so many offenses from this it’s hard to pick just one. And that is that you’ve now stolen my Thanksgiving.

Yup. I said it. You’ve stolen Thanksgiving from me. And I want it back. In case you’re forgetting what Thanksgiving is—since that’s what you’ve clearly demonstrated based on your advertising and in-store displays—let me remind you that it’s the time of year we’re supposed to sanitize the relationship between the Native Americans and the Pilgrims and celebrate them coming together over turkeys and cornucopias. But it’s more than that. November is supposed to be the time between Halloween and Christmas (and Hanukkah) where we take a moment to actually enjoy our lives and attempt to be thankful for what we have. Which you have now made impossible by assailing us with your nonstop advertising for Black Friday deals and Christmas sales.

You have now made Thanksgiving the gateway holiday to Black Friday. Thanksgiving used to be a holiday unto itself. We would learn the story of Thanksgiving, classrooms would be full of traditional, handmade Thanksgiving projects, and relish in the fact that we got two days off (I still do this, actually). Sadly, Thanksgiving is now lost in the shuffle of its very expensive cousin–Black Friday. No longer do we hear about the wonderfulness of Thanksgiving. Now we are bombarded with Black Friday deals instead. Retailers are rushing us past a day of turkey and stuffing in order to ensure that we’re all aware of their midnight shopping specials. Thanksgiving is now something we need to get through in order to shop.

And how dare you remove all Thanksgiving décor from your stores? It is impossible to walk into a store and find anything even remotely related to Thanksgiving. For years, I have been looking for Thanksgiving decorations–which used to appear in abundance when I was a kid–to put around my house. Now? I can’t find one unless it’s some hideous turkey that looks like it belongs in a horror movie instead of my living room. I want to decorate my house, not scare my pets.

I know, by now you’re thinking that you’re not entirely to blame for hijacking my Thanksgiving. You’re right. TV and radio do hold their share of accountability. Not only because they accept your advertising dollars but because they too have bought (literally) into the Christmas creep. Imagine my disappointment when The Grinch Who Stole Christmas was running on November 5^th? Really, November 5^th? What’s next—showing A Christmas Story on Veteran’s Day? And please don’t get me started on the radio stations that are playing Christmas music 24/7 starting the day after Thanksgiving (in fact, where I live, I think some might have started that already).

But mainly, retailers, I blame you. You have stolen Thanksgiving from me and everyone else. I do understand that you may be wondering where my anger towards you is coming from. After all, I should understand that you’re just business trying to make money in a depressed economy, right? Wrong. I think that’s bullshit. And I’ve been patient with you up until now. But I’m done.

I want my Thanksgiving back! And if you can’t help me, I’ll make it happen myself. I may not be artistic or creative but I can outline my hand on construction paper, glue feathers to it and make a turkey. I can still have my delicious Thanksgiving dinner with my family, even if the dinner doesn’t look like a photo shoot (Martha Stewart, I blame you for this phenomenon). I will refuse to go shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and even refuse to discuss or promote your sales. I will find a picture of a cornucopia to hang on my wall (thank you, Internet).

You can try to hide Thanksgiving from me. But like a bloodhound, I’ll sniff it out, find it, and bring it back.

Just try to stop me.

Friday favorites: Christmas stuff

#inthedrawer: Holiday Instagram fun

Thanksgiving thoughts

Friday Favorites, Halloween edition

Give me back my Thanksgiving!

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