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!

Christmas Decor

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I am a lazy Christmas person. Don’t get me wrong — I love silver bells and starry nights and sugar cookies — but I’m not very good at the decking-the-halls part. Luckily, I know people who are — people who excel at Christmas. Like my friend Evelyn. I love the dinner table she set and the way she’s festived-up her living room with rich red and gold accents and a touch of green. This is how you do Christmas. I just light a lot of candles and hope the twinkle lights cover up the cat hair.

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.

New Year’s Resolutions

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Okay, y’all, here’s your chance to become famous — or infamous, maybe. When I was a staff writer at the TimesDaily newspaper in Florence, Alabama, I’d turn my New Year’s column over to readers every year and publish the funniest and most creative resolutions folks sent me. I didn’t do it this past year since I’m not working in the office anymore, but this year my dear husband pointed out that really that’s no excuse. So here you go: E-mail me at cathylwood@gmail.com with your best resolution for 2010 and you may see it in my Jan. 1 newspaper column. I need funny, witty, bright and creative — we all want to save the world and spend more time with our families and friends and adopt more stray puppies, so those don’t count. You can do better! And even though I need to know who you are and that you’re a real live legal non-scary person, you can have your name/location/identity published any way you want: “Mary Smith, Huntsville, Alabama” or “A gardener in San Diego” or “John Doe, writer and part-time cook in Seattle” or “Cathy’s friend and shopping co-conspirator” or whatever you want. So e-mail me your family-friendly G-rated resolution by Sunday, Dec. 27, include your true identity so I can reassure the paper that everybody’s cool and also include your identity the way you want it published. I may edit your resolution to fit the space but I promise not to drastically alter it. I cannot wait to see what you come up with!

Christmas Decor

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Has this holiday ribbon made it to your town yet? Everywhere I go in my usual family-and-friends route through Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, I see it. This super-wide bendable mesh is the latest thing to hit Christmas decorating since the invention of inflatable yard snow-globes — at least around here. Folks are decking their halls,  mailboxes, wreaths, garlands, trees, lamp posts and even presents with it. I love it — it seems so bright and festive and cheerful — and I would join in except I spent major $$$ a few years ago on going all gold and white for our outdoor Christmas decor and I imagine that my dear and darling husband would not take kindly to a major redo. But it’s tempting. I tend to overhaul all our outdoor Christmas decor every several years or so. The current white and gold replaced a symphony of gorgeous metallic purples, reds, golds and greens that I was in love with but my children cringed every year and heaved ponderous sighs about living with circus decorations. And in its full glory, the white and gold isn’t much better — when I put everything out in its originally intended spot, the house takes on a sort of puffy Victorian fairy-tale look that really has nothing in common with anybody who lives inside it. Consequently, I pare it down to the bare essentials of a couple wreaths, some mailbox decor and a few bows here and there — leaving many $$$ worth of wreaths, garlands and ribbons packed up and unused. But do not tell the husband, please. Our secret???

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.

Christmas Parade

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Oh, dahling! Who are these marvelous creatures? Why, it’s the mysterious Girls Raised In The South (GRITS) Queens, a group of elegant and royal women who descend from their castles every year to meet their adoring fans during the Tuscumbia, Alabama, Christmas parade. This is the Queens’ only public appearance — their presence creates such a stir of love and devotion among their people that everyone agrees once a year is plenty. That’s also why they must conceal their identities — the price of fame, you know. Anyway, for years my No. 1 Christmas wish has been to be asked to don a boa and tiara and fur coat and comb out my Tammy Faye-hair and take my place in this distinguished and beloved group. I must have proven my queenliness lately because this is the year I got the call — and with humble gratitude, I accepted. And had a royal blast. Who could not love waving to screaming fans and throwing packages of grits from a horse-drawn carriage? But the reporter in me couldn’t pass up such a great story — I agreed to keep the GRITS Queens’ secrets and they graciously agreed to let me write about the experience in my weekly newspaper column, http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20091211/ARTICLES/912115005. All I can say is that everybody should find a parade, gather some girlfriends, put on your best gown and rent a horse and carriage — you’ll love every minute!

Pets

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I can understand the "how" -- I guess, but I cannot understand the "why." Although if I could jump up on the garage-door-opener and survey the entire garage from that height, why not?

Family and Christmas Trees

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If you’re the oldest in the family and a girl and you’ve got one or more younger brothers, you know what a responsibility it is to keep those boys in line. I’ve been at it for almost 50 years and apparently my job isn’t done yet. Take, for instance, decorating the family Christmas tree. When we were young, Christmas began when our dad brought the big packing-barrel of tree ornaments out of storage and begin untangling the lights. As soon as the tree was draped with twinkling red and green and yellow-gold, we kids took over. (And it’s only now that I recognize my mother’s genius in making us children feel it was an honor and privilege to decorate the tree, thereby marking at least one chore off her holiday to-do list — a lesson I, sadly, never learned to apply to my own family. Sigh.) Anyway, I am four years older than my brother — our other brother is 16 years younger than me and didn’t figure into my growing-up adventures — and I always feel felt anointed with special powers of superiority, no matter what the subject. During the holidays, that subject was the Christmas tree. As my now-middle brother and I unpacked the ornaments and placed them on the tree, we inevitably began arguing. Why? Because my brother couldn’t follow basic principles of Christmas-tree design! I mean, c’mon! Who doesn’t know you’re supposed to put big ornaments in the back and lighter ones in front? Who doesn’t understand you’re supposed to balance colors and texture?? Who doesn’t get it that you put shiny ornaments next to lights to enhance their shininess??? It’s not rocket science here, people!!!! Whoops … sorry … deep breath … deep breath … As you can see, I maybe still have an obsessive-compulsive problem with tree-decorating. And with my brother. Because when I went to my parents’ house this past weekend to help them put up their tree (It is a privilege and an honor, right?), I found a note from my brother staking out placement for his favorite ornament: “Do not rehang. Sister, this means you! It’s perfect.” My mom said that he said he would have done all the tree decorating when he was there the day before but he knew I’d stage a redo. Just because he’s now a photographer and a college professor who teaches photography and art, I guess maybe he thinks he knows something about design. And big sisters.