Holidays at the Ranch

"Oh there's no place like home for the holidays..."

Since moving to Washington over a year ago, I've only seen my family twice since last Christmas.  

Being a wandering soul and adventurer comes at a bit of a cost.

But I have NEVER missed a Christmas.  

After I worked Christmas Eve I jumped in my truck and turned my wheels southward for 6 hours and East for about 45 minutes until I was rolling into the 160 year old driveway I grew up on.

My parents are so cute, even though I had told them to go to sleep and I'd just sneak in really late and see them in the morning, there they were...half asleep on the couch when I walked in.  Parents of adult children or not they still wait up! :) 

I won't drag on about how great it was to see everyone and do things...so here's the highlights...

• Spending Christmas day up in the snow as is tradition.  The sun was blazing and beautiful and we had an amazing time
• Frosting cookies with my 2 year old nephew.  He sat on my lap for 30 minutes patiently decorating.  The bells are his favorite! :)
• Watching my parents with my nephew.  Mom reading him stories on the couch (he adores her as he should) and Dad sneaking him cookies from the adult table (two mischievous boys)
• Cooking a birthday dinner for my Big Brother with the help of the talented and marvelously 39 weeks pregnant Sweet Sister-in-Law who is the most amazing impromptu winging it cook I have ever known!

I love my family dearly. We have differences and have distance but I am so proud to say I belong to them :) 

Gifting: Obligation or Joy?

If you saw my recent Facebook status...you'll know I finished Christmas shopping for my family...and will now be eating like a Victoria's Secret Angel to cut costs.

I'm not one to really get into the gift giving.  I find Christmas gifting stressful because it's expected of you.  My style is more like this...

---

Lalalala walking through a cute shop in Snoqualmie, WA  on March 3, and I spy a lumberjack teddy bear.

"My my isn't that the cutest lumber jack Moose ever?!" (I'm taking writer's license and making it a moose now)

*Thought bubble pops up over my head with a picture of my tiny nephew Sawyer*

*Light bulb*

*Wips out apple pay (we are soooo 2016) and buys the lumberjack moose*

*puts moose in priority mail box and sends to Glide, OR*

*Sawyer opens package and squeals in glee as he puts the moose's head in his mouth*

Mission successful

Does that make sense y'all?  I'd rather see something, think  of a person and give it to them without there needing to be a societal validation for the giving.  My validation is...I care for this person and would like to be a blessing to them.

I balk and recoil at the obligation that comes with the Holidays and Birthdays that now require a gift or else you don't care at all.  

As Dwight Shrute would say. "False"

It's not because I'm cheap or selfish.  No, I'd rather recieve a gift mid May because there is no other reason that I am receiving it besides the fact that the giver thought of me randomly and wanted to express it.  And I'd rather give a gift without any obligation so the person receiving knows my intention is duty free.  (not duty free like in the airport with the no tax on super expensive stuff...you know what I mean)

So as we go into this gift giving extravaganza of a holiday that's been super commercialized...remember to think about and show appreciation for those special ones year round.  Maybe don't make such a big deal about presents and who gave what this year.  Simply be thankful for what you are given and give gifts from a place of love, not duty.

How To Make a Simple Country Christmas Table

If you were like me this Christmas, you had a wonderful Pinterest vision of a stylish and elegant Christmas dinner table.  But if you are like me in that you didn't actually see if the idea was going to fit on the existing table and if the materials were in fact all in the house...then you may have come upon a serious road bump...kind of like those pot holes you never see until your knees have wound up where your chin should be. {You're welcome for the Suess-like poetry}

Sometimes since I live on a ranch I just assume we have a giant farm table when reality is we don't.  We like to eat Christmas dinner in our "Big Room" with giant windows and the Christmas tree...not in the dining room which has a little round very ancient heirloom table. Nope, for the Big Room we have an old church table. You know the kind with the fold down legs and the pretend wood top and the round corners?  Yes that one.

It's really quite ugly all alone but is handy as a craft table or when we have guests over.  BUT my Pinterest idea was a barn board runner down the center with greenery and matching votive jars.

A) The barn board is too wide for the center...the plates will not fit on the edge without a 4" lip.  Bad deal when using the good china.

B) All my greenery that had been cut and I had saved for this moment was no where to be found. The men of the ranch assumed I did not need it anymore and burned it all.  

C) Those votive candle holders had RED candles burned halfway down into them and were stuck like a little boy boot in not set concrete. Not the white light dream I'd imagined.

Now what.

My Dad was quite sweet...he came out to the Big Room to see how I was doing and found me, hands on hips, looking mighty focused on a table with one board and a plate in haphazard places.  He kindly looked at me and promptly left the room.  He knows not to break my focus in desperate times.

New plan.  I went to my cedar chest and pulled out every white linen piece I'd inherited from my Great Grandmother's on the ranching side.  Table cloths, runners, napkins, doilies, dresser toppers, pillow shams, bits of tatted lace...Everything was pulled out and hauled to the Big Room.

Next I found every mid-sized jar, sugar and creamer set, measuring cup...anything antique, glass, and small.

Basically I did reverse of my original plan and with more candles.  

PS TIP

When in doubt, put LOTS of candles out.  Candles look cozy and can hide a multitude of flaws.  They create a wonderful aroma and soft light even makes a bad makeup job look good.  Candlelight is your friend.

The centerpiece is a mirror tray on a pedestal with...more candles.  Tapers in the center add height and bring more light to the dimly lit room.

Lot's of candles did I put out,

Because that's what country's all about!

{Another rhyme for thine pleasure}

For those of you who are 4-H table setting alumni, you would be horrified that I did not match the fork handles exactly one-and-a-half inches from the edge.  Nope...and the 4-Her inside me trembled as I ventured far from my roots and matched the tines instead.  Somehow I thought the design was more interesting that way.  Don't hate me forever!

There you have it.  Nothing Pottery Barn about this table setting, just all the little odds and ends we've had around for ages displayed in a new way.  

Hope you're having a Merry Day After Christmas!

Busy Times = Easy Food

Ah the Holidays.  It's not Silver Bells I hear that tell me it's Christmas.  No it's the list of Christmas cards I haven't sent,  the decorations still in boxes in the rooms where they should be gracing the walls, those random sweet Pinterest DIY gifts that eat at your soul each day they go unmade {they seemed like a good idea at the time}

Reality is the Holiday's can be hectic! It's not L.L. Bean plaid pajamas, sipping peppermint tea by the fire all season.  There is a lot to do and we women can get eaten alive by it.  

One of the hardest thing to do when things are busy is make a healthy, clever meal.  Papa Murphy's Pizza just sounds so good when you're up to your elbows in tinsel and Christmas socials.

Here's one scrumptious recipe I found on a particularly busy day that saved my bacon and filled my family with healthy things! 

View fullsize

Crock pots make my life much easier.  Chuck a bunch of ingredients at it and the trusty little guy makes dinner for you!  It's like Mrs. Patmore of Downton Abbey.  You don't know how she works and dare not ask questions...just enjoy the food!

Seeing as how I'm feeding my very manly Father.  A vegetarian meal was not going to suffice.  Been down that road...it didn't end well.  SOLUTION! I added a pound of our home grown natural ground beef.  That bit of beef flavor made a world of difference in the happiness of the ones around my table.  

I would suggest though...not being shortsighted like I was in one point in particular.  Don't use chicken broth when you are adding beef.  It didn't taste bad...but I feel like one meat flavor is enough.

Quinoa is tricky.  Sometimes it's hard to cook fully and sometimes it's altogether the blandest bland food that ever was bland.  I've only been cooking with it for a handful of months and some days are success and others...well...bland.  

PS TIP

One tip I've learned when cooking quinoa is LEAVE THE LID ON! Don't peek at it over and over and let all the moisture and even pressure out.  Let it be until the timer goes off and even then...let it rest off of the heat source for a few minutes.  

Another tip is to not stir it with a spoon.  Don't even bring a spoon to the quinoa party!  Fluff it with a fork.  Now this is tricky if you use non-stick cookware and don't want to scratch the coating...I understand completely...but there are wooden forks out there that can save the quinoa from a spoon inflicted demise.

Aaand here we are all crock pot ready and 6 hours before supper.  What a relief on the brain, knowing dinner is taken care of.  One less thing to stress about.

I would encourage you {and myself} to take time to enjoy the season.  That sounds so cliche but really...make some tea...put on something plaid and listen to a Christmas album and ENJOY the fruits of your hard work and endless lists!