Category Archives: family

Alabama

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It’s almost like the whole state of Alabama has shut down today, due to 1) snow and 2) the University of Alabama playing for the national college-football championship tonight. So far, at least in my northwest corner of the state, the snow is not impressing and doesn’t seem to warrant all the school-closings and grocery-store frenzies that went on yesterday. Here’s hoping that Alabama’s football showing tonight is better. Now, normally I am not an Alabama fan — you know it’s a rule here that you have to choose between Alabama and Auburn and I’ve just sort of gravitated toward Auburn as the usual underdog (plus I like the campus better because it’s prettier and smaller) — but tonight I feel as if the honor of SEC football is at stake in front of the whole country and Alabama Must Win. Younger Daughter, on the other hand, is bitterly anti-Alabama and already has declared that we’re a house divided tonight if I’m going to jump ship like this. And it does pain me, it really does — but it’s vital we in the SEC show everyone that we deserve to be represented in the national championship, at least by one team if we can’t have both. So — and you won’t often hear me say this — “Roll, Tide!” Tonight we’ll all be like 21-month-old grandson Capt. Adorable — lounging in our easy chairs with eyes glued to the screens and snacks nearby.

Winter

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Hello, winter! Nice of you to stop by for a visit. Just remember not to overstay your welcome, please.

Now, we here in the mid-South do get freezing temperatures every year or so — for about a day or maybe two or three at the most. Not uncommon at all — we have to have a reason to wear all those scarves and gloves we got for Christmas, you know.  But this week-long run of sustained bitter cold we’re in right now is a bit unusual. We’re talking really and truly cold here — pipe-bursting, fountain-freezing, thermal underwear-wearing, do-not-go-outside-without-your coat-and-hat cold. Brrrrrrrr. I was driving through downtown Florence, Alabama, on Monday afternoon and had to look twice at this hotel fountain to realize it was frozen absolutely solid. Younger Daughter just got back from a trip to Portland, Maine, to visit her very cool uncle and aunt (my younger brother and his wife) and except for the snow she said she feels as if she’s still there. Also except for the warming effects of napping with their 125-pound Alaskan malamute, Thule. Although in Maine folks are probably experienced enough to turn their fountains off when freezing weather threatens. I’m just saying.

New Year’s

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Happy New Year! Hope it’s a fabulous one for you and your family. And if you’re taking a break from football today, go to http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100101/ARTICLES/1015000 to read my weekly newspaper column that includes resolutions folks sent me from all over. See if yours made it in, and thanks to everybody who helped me with this project. And here’s hoping your favorite teams win — as long as those teams are SEC, of course!

Happy New Year!

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May your journey through 2010 be filled with new adventures shared with your favorite people! Happy New Year!

Holidays

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Happy Holidays! I am still here but, as most of the blogosphere has been doing for the past few weeks, I’ve been lazy.  Very, very lazy — computerwise. When it comes down to choosing between enjoying a mug of hot cocoa with the umpteenth replay of “Christmas Vacation” (I love that movie!) and actually logging on and putting my brain into gear and thinking my way past the visions of sugar plums dancing in my head (and the baking and cleaning and organizing and wrapping and …) — I’ve been choosing the easy way out. But no more! Time to get back to normal. Time to put away Christmas things. Time to … oh, who am I kidding? It’s still the holidays, our little tree is still up and I’m still eating sugar cookies and cheese balls and the last of the Chex Mix. But I will do better about blogging. Promise.

So how was y’all’s Christmas? Hope everybody had a good one. Kudos to those who, like Older Daughter, had four celebrations on that one day. She and my son-in-law and grandson Capt. Adorable made it to all of them, although the day of travel left the 21-month-old Captain dazed and confused.

Christmas

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Hope you have a wonderfully merry Christmas -- and keep a sense of wonder and delight just like grandson Capt. Adorable.

Christmas

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What says “holidays” better than food, family and friends — especially if that food includes all the Christmas cookies you ever wanted to eat? This year my cooking club, the Gingers (Girls In Need of Gourmet Experience Really Soon), came to my house for lunch and a cookie exchange. I went with red and white and borrowed my mom’s Christmas tableware (thanks, Mom!) for an easy meal of soup, cheese, crackers and muffins. (And, by the way, I have a great soup recipe: Find a caterer or restaurant who makes excellent soup and become a regular and valued customer. Works every time.) Then it was time to distribute our cookie choices. Yum!!! Just imagine having six people each give you a dozen of the most delicious Christmas cookies you’ve ever tasted — unbelievable. We all agreed this definitely will be an annual event for us. And in honor of the Gingers coming to my house, I put up a cooking table-top tree for them. It wasn’t difficult to find miniature decorations for it — for some reason, many of the ornaments I have for our big tree revolve around food and drink. Go figure. I had some vintage cooking utensils from my mom’s antiques shop and other leftovers from when the Gingers decorated a 15-footer for the annual Christmas-tree display at our local arts center a couple years ago, so the little cooking tree came together easily. The only downside is it makes me hungry every time I look at — but that’s not a problem when you have a practically endless supply of cookies in the house.

Christmas Style

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My two daughters, 25- and 23-years-old, are the most stylish women I know. I am constantly in awe of them and have no idea where they picked up their fashion sense — not from their mom, that’s for sure.  Take Younger Daughter, for instance. Now, she didn’t knowingly pick out a dress that’s identical to her sister’s shower curtain — she just  recognized style and creativity when she saw it. Her look is the perfect expression of who she is: A smart and funny young woman who’s her own individual self. Older Daughter, mom to 21-month-old Capt. Adorable, excels at chic budget-friendly and I’ve-only-got-two-minutes-to-myself style, such as these skinny jeans, high-heeled ankle boots and black top accented with a chunky and easy-wearing necklace. (Also, please note the Captain in his Christmas pajamas — I couldn’t resist when I saw them at Target! — topped with a striped Gap hoodie. Seems as if he’s got his mom’s fashion intuition — at least until he can dress himself.) I love hanging out with my daughters — they make me up my game from my preferred winter uniform of jeans and boring black turtlenecks. I just wish I could fit into their clothes. I’ve never understood why they can borrow mine and look great but it does not work the other way!!!

P.S. Don’t forget to send me your funny and creative New Year’s resolutions for my Jan. 1 newspaper column. E-mail to cathylwood@gmail.com and include the way you’d like to be identified. You can be anonymous if you’d like, but I have to be able to tell the paper that you’re a real person. I’ve already gotten some great resolutions, but I want yours!

Children

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"Would you like sugar and cream with that?" Grandson Capt. Adorable, almost 21 months old, enjoys tea time at his great-grandparents' house with special guests Cookie Monster and Alf.

Graduation

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I am so proud of my awesomely wonderful Younger Daughter, who graduated summa cum laude today from the University of Alabama at Birmingham with honors in English. In addition, she was chosen to carry the School of Arts and Humanities banner — she was a banner-arian! And she did a fantastic job, too. We all got great reserved seats because she was a special honored graduate, which meant we were up close and personal and didn’t have to wait in line in the cold and the rain, for which we thanked her very much. And I only cried just a little, little  bit.  As of this moment right now, after more than 20 years, I have no children in any kind of school whatsoever. Sort of strange, you know? Wasn’t it just yesterday my daughters were doing Christmas pageants in preschool? But, bonus: No more checks to UAB. I asked Dear Husband if he felt rich now that we were no longer paying tuition, and he just sighed so I’m guessing that’s probably a “no.” Anyway, my parents and my brother and his family, all from Tennessee, came down, along with Younger Daughter’s dad and step-mother and we all went out to eat afterwards and had a marvelous time. Younger Daughter said afterwards that when she got back to her apartment, her roommate had a surprise “congratulations” party waiting for her. Sweet! I noticed something, though: There are very few “Happy Graduation” cards in December. I had to search all over for some, and then the selection was sparse. So if you’ve got a December graduate in your future, stock up on cards and decorations in May. I’m just saying. Also: Congratulations, Younger Daughter! I am so proud to be your mom.