Some Christmas Good Stuff

So I've been meaning to get these posted for a few weeks and now it's probably too late to do anybody else any good this year, but that's how it goes.

How Much Ribbon? I read an article on gift-wrapping in the newspaper a few weeks ago and finally learned the invaluable answer to this plaguing question. When you're wrapping a gift with the ribbon going around four sides and a big simple bow, you measure out 7 times the length of the box. I've used this trick all month and it works every time!!! For example, on a shirt box, I measure out about 4 times the long way and 3 times the short way. For a big square like this, I measure 7 times the length from halfway up one side, over the top, to halfway down the other side. Obviously it varies for different size/shapes, but 7 is the magic number!!!

Christmas Card Display Awesomeness - I saw something like this in a store in England last May and thought, That's the perfect way to display Christmas cards! I'll have to find it online and order some when I get home. An intense internet search ensued (just couldn't figure out the right search words!) and I was about to give up when I finally came across a review that led me to Photojojo and The Astounding Magnetic Photo Rope. Displays everything without tape; the wires just hang from a nail or tack; weighted bottom so they don't fly around. Super strong magnets hold even those multi-layered handmade cards. And the ropes couldn't be smaller or easier to store! Best Christmas investment I made this year (except the tree skirt below.) If you don't see your Christmas card in the picture, it's either because

1) It's cut off at the very bottom of the picture,
2) You are LAME and haven't sent me one, or
3) I don't like you enough to hang it up.

The Perfect Tree Skirt - After a few years of searching for THE ONE that I would love year after year, I found it at Land of Nod (where, by the way, you could get me ANY baby gift.) Finally, the absolutely perfect must-have tree skirt. It was expensive so I thought maybe I'd wait until after Christmas and try to get it on sale. Then I realized, this skirt is so darn cute it's not going on sale; it's going to sell out! So I scrounged up some funds and got it full price (but with free shipping!) And sure enough, I went to the website yesterday to get the picture for this post, and it's not there anymore. SOLD OUT. Yay for getting it when I could! Is this not ADORABLE?

(This picture is from the blog of the original designer -

the current skirt says Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays.)

David Archuleta's Christmas CD - It's called Christmas from the Heart and the cover is oh-so-cheesey. And I'm not an Idol fan at all. But I like to get at least one or two new Christmas albums each year and this looked promising from the reviews. Well we got it about a month and a half ago and it's all we've listened to that whole time. We all have our favorites - the girls like "Angels We Have Heard on High" for the Glooooooooooria part (and Hazel goes around the house singing it with the alternative melody he uses.) Me, I usually judge an album by the way they do "Oh Holy Night" and his is fabulous. He's also got a seriously peppy tune I'd never heard called "Pat-a-pan" and we all dance like fools to it in the car.

The Good Stuff - May 2009

I know the Good Stuff posts dropped off for awhile there - I was having a hard time keeping up with them monthly, so I'll just post them whenever I have a few things to tell about.

Kid Good Stuff

Hanna Andersson Floppy Sunhat - For my fair-skinned girls, sun protection that won't fly away. And the $10 price tag is a steal for H.A. quality. Ginger chose Blossoming Pink; Hazel chose Papaya.

Sometimes I'm Bombaloo by Rachel Vail - Just before our England trip I took the girls to Border's to each pick out a new book for the trip. Which also gave me the chance to do some browsing. I found this book about the experience of having a tantrum, and liked it but thought it could go either way with the girls - maybe they'd relate to it, maybe not. It's the story of a girl named Katie, told from her own point of view. She explains that she's a great kid most of the time, and many of the things she does well. Then she explains that sometimes she's "Bombaloo," a name for her alternate personality when her anger/frustration gets out of control. She explains what it's like, and how, when it's over, she's sorry and a little frightened and her Mom understands, and then she's Katie again. I lucked out - my girls love the book and want to read it a lot and talk about it. And today when Hazel had a tantrum, when it was over, I asked if she had been Bombaloo, and she smiled and said, "Yes! But now I'm sorry and I'm Hazel again." Not bad, not bad at all. I think it's great to have a story - a third party - to use to talk about feelings and especially feeling out of control, and to give those feelings some validation.

I Love Chocolate by Davide Cali - We went to the dance studio where Hazel will be taking a class this summer, to get her measured for shoes. Across the hall is the cutest ever children's bookstore called Aladdin's Lamp and I will probably go there every week during class with Ginger. I walked in this week and "I Love Chocolate" was the first book I saw. I read it, thought I would die over its perfection, and bought it. Just the perfect book for a chocoholic Mom to bond with her kids over.

Grown-up Good Stuff

Benjamin Moore Paint website - Playing with paint colors has been my after-hours obsession lately, dreaming of Disco-Mom-ing the new house. I will post on results later this summer. My friend gave me a good pointer on saving a little $ - she found her colors at Benjamin Moore but took them to Home Depot to be matched and bought Behr paint which is excellent quality but less money.

Chutney - I became hooked in England when they scoop this stuff out as a restaurant condiment next to ketchup. Goes with anything! Plus they slather it on sausages and Dave makes one yummy cheddar-n-chutney panini. Got myself a jar of Carmelized Onion Chutney from Bracken Hill Fine Foods to bring home. Keep your eyes peeled at your grocery stores and farmers' markets and give chutney a new chance.

The Jeeves books by P. G. Wodehouse - (I just finished The Inimitable Jeeves.) The trivial adventures of frivolous bachelor Bertie Wooster and his ever clever butler Jeeves. Insubstantial in the extreme; also enormously entertaining and humorous. And fantastically British. I wholeheartedly second my brother Dave's suggestion: "One wonders what it might do for the verbal talents of a generation if they were required to read Wodehouse in school instead of ghastly classics like The Scarlet Letter."

The Good Stuff - October / November

I missed October completely and November almost slipped through my fingers as well. But here's a quickie update on a few recent good stuffs.

Grown-up Good Stuff

Super Glove - Oven mitts do the trick most of the time, but in some cases, like cookie sheets that need to be grabbed on the very edge, or pulling the bread machine pan out by a little handle, you need the option of less bulk and better dexterity. These Super Gloves are the best addition to my kitchen this month.

dafont.com - I've been working on a little project and needed some new font options. Cousine Katy hooked me up with this, my new favorite free font site. Love the category choices, rather than all fonts just alphabetical. Also love the Mormon advertisement running at the top when I last checked.

Amazon Universal Wish List Button - We really use Amazon.com wish lists in our family, especially around this time of year. Amazon does sell a ton of stuff but it doesn't always have the exact thing you want. Enter the new Universal Wish List button. It's a button you can add to your browser so that you can add anything from any website to your Amazon wish list. Let the possibilities begin!

Amish Friendship Bread - My friend Julia gave me a starter a few weeks ago, then on Saturday I made it into chocolate cinnamon "bread" (really more like delicious delectable cake!) Then I had a couple starters left and decided to keep them through at least one more cycle after finding all these variations and other things you can make with the starter. I think next go-round I'll make cinnamon rolls and cherry pistachio bread. YUM!

List of Top 100 Mystery books of all time - According to Mystery Writers of America, who probably know their stuff. Mysteries are my favorite "fun reading" so I was excited to find this list for some new recommendations. Of course I am spending less time reading these days than ever before, but that's not for a lack of lots and lots of books that look good!

Kid Good Stuff

Kids Craft Weekly - WOW. Thanks to the ineffably omni-talented Kat for getting me hooked on this website and *FREE* monthly e-newsletter. Awesome, easy, fun and totally crafty ideas! Unfortunately most are a little too messy or difficult for 25 nursery kids each Sunday, but perfect for me and my own. Now that Hazel rarely naps, she and I sometimes do afternoon crafts, like plastic-lid print-making or contact paper stained glass, both inspired by KCW. The current issue features Christmas cards and Advent activities. Plus she has a 20-page mini book all on Christmas crafts you can download for a mere $5 - so worth it!

Little Pea by Amy Krause Rosenthal - This is my (our) new favorite book. It's about Little Pea and his parents Mama Pea and Papa Pea. They do regular Pea things but Little Pea hates candy, and candy is what you have to eat for dinner when you're a Pea. He strikes a 5-bite deal with his parents, forces his 5 bites down and earns his favorite dessert - spinach! Simple, clean, adorable illustrations and the girls always laugh when I imitate the sounds and faces Little Pea makes when he forces his candy down. I read it to the nursery kids, too, and they thought it was hilarious. I see the same author/illustrator team has another book, Little Hoot, in which a young owl just wants to go to bed at a reasonable time like his friends, but nooooo, his parents make him stay up all night having fun. I love it.

Pop Fly by Justin Roberts - I seriously love this guy. This is our second CD by him and we listen to it all the time in the car, and of course the girls have their favorites: Pop Fly (about a kid in the outfield not paying attention to the game and panicking when a pop fly comes his way), Henrietta's Hair (about a girl who hated getting her hair combed so her mom gave up and all kinds of creepy crawlies moved in and lived in harmony), and Stay-at-Home Dad. I like the slower, more sentimental tunes like From Scratch (about Grandma's kitchen of course) and Fruit Jar (which I can't remember what it's about but I reall y like it.) Justin has got fans for life in this family, and hopefully we can catch his show here in January.

Bedbug Bible Gang - It's a Thursday afternoon in November. The girls are asking to watch a show, and I can't think of a single one I can stand to listen to right now. So I turn to the rarely-used *On-Demand cable feature to see what kind of free kids' shows there are besides Dora and Miss Spider. Perhaps something we've never seen before? Bingo! In a section called Inspiration On Demand is a show called The Bedbug Bible Gang. No idea what it is but let's give it a try. It's a cute little show with voices same as Veggie Tales, with a couple of bed bugs named Buzzer and Sparky that like to tell each other about Bible stories in rhyme, then do little comprehension activities or funny songs at a preschool level. It is an unbelievable hit around here. We only have 2 episodes on demand, and we all have them memorized by now, but I'm not annoyed yet. I mean, they're learning Bible stories! Hazel loves the story of Elijah and the widow who gave him her last meal. And the story of Zechariah being told by an angel they would have a son. In fact, the song that goes with it is impossible to shake. Sing along, please. To the tune of John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt:

John will be Zechariah's son,

That angel said his name,

But Zech was full of doubt,

And so he could not shout,

Til the day that the newborn baby came:

JOHN! JOHN! JOHN! JOHN! JOHN! JOHN! JOHN!

(and repeat several times quieter, always shouting the last line.)

They have a bunch of DVD's out so I put one on the girls' wish list. We'll take any inspiration we can get around here.