I've been stuck in routine this past month or so. Work and school Monday-Wednesday...work Thursday and Friday...attempting to be productive Saturday (and then wondering where the day went)...Church and CLC Sunday...and the cycle starts again. I broke away a bit from that routine this weekend, and it was great...unproductive, but much needed, and great.
Jess came out Saturday afternoon, and we did what we do best--hung out, goofed off, watched movies, and girl-talked. Yesterday morning we went to church in the snow, and Jess made some poor guy that she thought she knew feel really uncomfortable. It was great. After church, we went to Applebee's (kind of a tradition) for lunch and chocolate shooters (another tradition). Then we went back to my house (dancing and singing obnoxiously in the car the whole way there), looked at pictures, listened to music, watched Persuasion (Captain Wentworth was cute, but it lacked the Austen wit), ate gummy bears, and watched Waitress (off-beat, but it had a cute ending).
It was a very nice escape from the mundane. But today the routine starts back up, and I have geology in three hours.
Holiday Tradition #1: Christmas Candy--Every year since I can remember my mom and my Aunt Shelly have been making hard Christmas candy a month or so before Christmas. Jess, Kristi, Robby, and I would all help break it up after they poured the liquid onto the powdered sugar and it cooled. (This is what we're doing in the blog header...minus Robby, plus Kelsey and Nathaniel.)Then we would put it into little holiday boxes and hand it out to all of our school teachers, Sunday school teachers, piano teachers, friends' parents, and so on. As we got older we participated in the tradition mostly for nostalgic purposes, adding the watching of White Christmas to the smells of cinnamon and root beer filling the house (smells that stay for the entire holiday season).
There are two Christmas candy incidents that stick out in my head. The first is probably my favorite (and I will probably be thrown out of the house for sharing it). The cinnamon candy is incredibly strong, and it's burnt my aunt's face in the past, so Shelly and my mom adopted a way of handling its potency--they stick wash rags over their noses and keep them there with clothes pins. It's a great spectacle and funny enough to make you wet your pants--well, at least for my mom. Apparently she had to use the bathroom before they started pouring the cinnamon, and Jess made my mom laugh so hard that she didn't quite make it there. The consequence--I have this great vivid memory of my mom standing in front of the bathroom door with a wash rag and clothes pin over her nose, and a wet spot in an awkward area on her jeans.
The second incident again involves Jess. Two years ago, she took a huge chuck of candy that hadn't quite hardened completely and stuck it in her mouth. The consequence--it molded to the roof of her mouth and she had to wait until it dissolved before she could talk again.
Great memories. I'd say making Christmas candy is probably my favorite holiday tradition.
1 comment:
Becca and I tried to watch Persuasion a few weekends ago, but it was like, 4 hours long and we didn't quite make it. We have to get it from the library again and give it another go. Is there another version of it that's not as horrible? The one we were watching was full of bad acting and pointless "artsy" camera shots. It spent like, 10 seconds zooming in on a stairway banister once. We think if they cut all that out it might not be four hours long...
:P
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