Bringing fa-la-la-la-la home for the holidays

My general goal when decorating for the holidays is “Christmas in every room.” And even though I moved into a significantly smaller home late last year, I never scrimp on my trees, greens, lights, linens, china and three china Christmas villages meandering through it all. 
 

One of my much-loved collections features dishware with the traditional English Spode Christmas tree design. I add some pieces each year and the display stays in my china cabinet year round. This year, I even added a Spode shower curtain to cover the nook where my washer and dryer sit.

Trees are another favorite and moving to my cottage required a smaller Christmas tree, so now I have a decidedly slim pencil tree shining in my living room window, complete with paper gift tag decorations featuring, you guessed it, the Spode Christmas tree. Two tabletop trees oversee the sunroom, each laden with beautiful paper mache ornaments I found at thrift stores. More greens, live ones this time, flow out of a stocking basket hanging on my fireplace and outdoors I put greens and red ribbons in two hanging pots once containing summer flowers. Free and festive!

I have so much fun decorating every year that I decided to share a little of my fa-la-la-la-la with my friends and family, so I hosted a tea/open house earlier in the month. Little scones, brownies, cookies, crackers and cheese and fruit were the main attractions, along with assorted teas and coffee.  My barking dog went to doggie daycare, so it was truly an afternoon of comfort and joy. And I didn't bake a thing.

Now, with my Christmas letters written and cards in the mail, I can focus on cookie making with my family and trolling the toy aisles for the puzzles and books my granddaughter loves. I’m even attempting a craft project – mason jars circled with ribbon that looks like Santa’s belt and stuffed with bite-sized licorice.
The only thing missing is snow. After the snowiest November on record, we don’t yet have any white stuff to cushion a reindeer landing.

But Santa always perseveres.



This is one of my favorite photos of my dad,
taken on Christmas day when he had just
received some new earmuffs. My new pearl
necklace is a nice embellishment.
 

A pearl of wisdom for my father 

I’m approaching a bittersweet birthday this month. It has not escaped my attention that my father was the same age as I will be when he died of lung cancer in 1994.

So when I mark my birthday this year, I will make sure I will continue to try to live as he would have wanted – with meaning, substance and joy and appreciating every day as a gift.

Speaking of gifts, my dad was all about Christmas. He was the first one awake every Christmas morning, making sure Santa had placed our stockings in front of a cozy fire in the fireplace and arranging presents around the tree. There is a photo of my brother and I coming down the stairs on Christmas morning our eyes wide with the realization that Santa had, once again, been very generous.

Dad always gave me a book for my birthday and on Christmas, complete with a few of his wise words on the front page. He knew how important reading was, for education, career and all-out enjoyment and he was so right. I continue to check armloads of books out of the library every year. And my greatest reading achievement to date has been making it through the complete Sherlock Holmes series which dad gave me, a very thick book indeed.

Dad also liked to shop for other Christmas presents on Christmas eve day, and he frequented the Salvation Army store for all sorts of unique finds. I remember one very vibrant gift – a dress tiered in ruffles of many layers – that probably would have worked well for Halloween, but was a bit of a fashion conundrum for a self-conscious teenager.

I always give myself a birthday gift and this year I decided to somehow honor my father in the process. Back in my teen years, one of the most popular gifts among my friends was a single pearl on a necklace. I knew this would be too much to ask for in my single-wage-earner family. Even this year I didn’t know if I could find anything within my very limited non-necessities budget.

But I wandered into a lovely neighborhood gift and floral shop recently and there on a shelf of clearance merchandise I found it – a tiny gold shell with a pearl inside and hanging from a gold chain. It’s from a company that talks about living “simply, to purely focus on the things that matter most. That means listening to your heart following your dreams and finding yourself.”

Those words could have spoken by my dad. And I will remember them whenever I wear “his” necklace.

Currently Reading:
The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A couple decides to open a used-book store in an Appalachian coal town.
Kisses from Katie: A young woman gives up her comfortable life to move to Uganda and help children there.
Hush: Another mystery from the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine.

An Open Book?

Random ramblings from my (not so) glamorous career in public relations 

I recently read a book by a former presidential speechwriter. It was full of enough foibles, egos and bamboozlers to make you wonder how our government ever managed to function. But it was also pretty funny. And it got me to wondering if I might have enough material from my communications (AKA public relations and public affairs) career for a book. Some of the highlights might include:

At a major automotive company:
- I served as a technology executive’s speechwriter and created the first-ever international vehicle press kit when I knew nothing about cars (and still don’t).
- I had the “honor” of being one of few women to attempt control of a microphone for angry stockholders at two annual meetings. I got chosen because I was a “nice girl,” according to the meeting organizer.
- I received one of those pink telephone message slips asking me to return a call from the CEO. Now, that was terrifying.
- I was told by a university representative that planning for that CEO’s speaking engagement there had been worse than organizing a visit for the president of the United States.
- I once had a performance review by a boss so eager to catch a flight that he just checked off a bunch of boxes on the review form and didn’t even read it. Needless to say, it had no relevance to my actual performance.
- I was asked to sit in on meetings with the executive management team so that I could rearrange their nameplates when they took a break, thereby changing the seating arrangement. I think we used to do this in second grade.
- I received a final payroll check for .01.

At a major food company:

- I spent the early part of my career defending the company against a concerted and thorough anti-biotechnology campaign by a national activist organization. I even followed several activists around town when I learned they were up to something near the corporate offices that ultimately involved rappelling.
- The late 60 Minutes curmudgeon Andy Rooney hung up on me when I didn’t agree with him that toaster pastry fires were funny.
- I was assigned to get more national media attention for the CEO, who wasn’t exactly thrilled with the prospect. He eventually got a presidential appointment, so something worked.
- I had to come up with media statements defending the company’s use of sugar in children’s cereals, a perennial “favorite.”
- In my spare time I would use a keyword search to find trademark violations for the trademark attorney, whose office was next to mine.

I planned this big luncheon and was sitting on the right in royal blue minding my own business when the president of the division decided to recognize my work with a very public kiss.

At a major pharmaceutical company:

- I was able to book the governor to speak to our workforce and she had to wing her remarks because her wing man forgot to bring her speech. I have a cherished photo of the governor and I cracking up afterward.
- I was asked to book Notre Dame football legend Lou Holtz for an employee event in Indiana and had to ask who Lou Holtz was.  Oops.
- I was kissed by the division president in front of an entire workforce at a major luncheon. Eeew.
- My greatest media moment came when I learned press coverage of a drug’s 100^th anniversary had attracted 350 million media impressions. This despite the fact that the press kit generated by the PR agency included the misspelling of the drug creator’s name and had to be completely redone at the last minute.
- My draft press release concerning a major workforce downsizing was mistakenly speed dialed by a secretary to the local newspaper instead of the company executive who was supposed to approve it.

And other random vignettes:

- I originally wanted to be a flight attendant and got hired by a major international carrier until a fuel crisis cancelled my training permanently. But never fear, I finally realized my dream and became a flight attendant at around the age of 60. The training was nightmarish, with the showing of a crash film on what should have been an upbeat graduation day. I lasted about five minutes in the air, deciding that a potential emergency landing shortly after earning my wings was a sign that I needed to be grounded.
- I spent a crazy month in New York City after college graduation trying to establish a career as a model. I was accepted by one of the top three agencies at the time, but ultimately decided that if the painting of a turkey to enhance its color was the highlight of my stay, then I better not stay. Still, my agency didn’t give up and was able to convince a fashion magazine to come to my hometown and shoot me for the college issue. Somebody said I looked like Ted Kennedy in the photos.
- I was hired for one job primarily because I was a Sagittarius. One of my friends nearly didn’t get hired because she was a Scorpio.
- During college, I worked as a housemaid in a Scottish hotel and spent the first few weeks just trying to understand the Scottish-brogue English. Later, I worked temporarily with the British subsidiary of the major automotive company and had a lot of problems with spelling (centre instead of center, for instance) and verbiage (such as “boot” for a car’s “trunk.”) The company ultimately sent me on an assignment to visit their PR offices in several European countries. I had no maps and was driving a tiny car, which might have even been a stick shift. I will never drive on the German Autobahn again. Ever.

Hmm, I’ll have to mull this over a little more and I need a catchy title. Right now, the best I can come up with is Retire Before You Figure Out What You Want To Do When You Grow Up.

Pumpkin spice it up when snow falls
Although we're in the middle of snowfalls here in Michigan that seem more Januaryish than mid-November, I'm still loving the taste of pumpkin. It seems like this classic fall flavor has really come into its own during the past several years, perhaps spurred on by Starbucks' pumpkin spice latte (whose sugar content we won't discuss).

Following is my list of all things pumpkin I've consumed so far this year:

The aforementioned Starbucks drink.
Regular coffee
Chai tea
Soup
Scones
Muffins 
Donut holes
Eggo waffles
Hershey's kisses

There is also a pumpkin spice home scent to keep fall alive, even when snow has covered those golden and red leaves. But gingerbread awaits.

Enjoy!

 

Too much stuff no more: my moving experience to feather a smaller nest

We homeowners love our stuff. From that first nest we feather, the stuff grows to fit our spaces. I ought to know. I’ve lived in 11 homes and countless apartments (I probably could count them, with much effort) since finishing college in the 1970s. So when I found my present home, a 1,300 square foot cottage with no basement, I had to decide if I could surmount the biggest challenge in buying it – TMS (Too Much Stuff). 

I definitely had expanded to fill the 2,600 square foot home with lots of basement storage I most recently lived in. In addition to plenty of furniture, I had stacks of treasures ranging from Christmas decorations and several trees to totes full of toys and Barbie dolls belonging to my two daughters who had flown the coop. I also have three cats and a dog and all their stuff.

So, tape measure in hand, I first had to figure out if the furniture I couldn’t part with would fit in the new space and then decide how to part with the rest of the extra furniture. Luckily, my eldest daughter was in the process of moving into a new home and was more than happy to take most of the pieces that wouldn’t fit in my downsized space.

 

Goodwill was the next destination, sometimes on a daily basis and often with the car fully loaded. Everything I donated received close scrutiny beforehand, when I asked myself three questions:

Would this be useful in my new home?

Would I miss it if it were gone?

Does it have sentimental value?

In many cases and many carloads, the answer was no.

 

One of the biggest dilemmas and nearly a deal breaker at the cottage was where I would locate three cat litter boxes. Lacking a basement, I didn’t want the boxes scattered around the house, but one day, looking at the long sunroom, I came up with a genius solution. I would hide them behind three plastic cabinets with lots of drawers for storage, cover the cabinets with a long tablecloth and then top them with a combination of baskets and greenery. Victory!

 

 

The sunroom (pictured) also became the showcase for two prized possessions from Goodwill – original oil paintings of giraffes, beautifully framed, which I had bought on sale for an unbelievable $15. Other must-have pieces there included two all-weather-wicker chairs previously used on a front porch and a former kitchen cabinet repurposed for package wrapping materials. Then, post-move, I found a wonderful all-weather wicker sofa with an end table reduced by about 60 percent – sold!

 

This is just one example of how I furnished my new home, through careful editing of possessions, maximizing their use and letting go of TMS.

 

Which means my daughter has the Barbie dolls and I’ve still got my teddy bear.

 

 

Riverside Reads:
Fun books from the library for any season

Bringing Home The Birkin: A guy moves to Barcelona and begins a successful international business as a purveyor of Hermes goods, especially Birkin bags for some very well-scarfed customers.

Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler: The title says it all; author is a Michigan resident

Kate, The Making of a Princess: A review of all things Kate Middleton, from family history to royal wedding.

Love, Nina: A collection of letters to her sister from a London nanny.

So Pretty it Hurts: Further exploits of girl-about-town Bailey Weggins, who attracts murderous intrigue. By the editor-in-chief of Cosmo.