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By kilax, November 24, 2009 5:00 am

If you don’t already read the Well blog on the New York Times, I highly recommend you do. The blog is focused on health and wellness topics and updates a few times a day. I always find the articles interesting.

Yesterday, the author linked to an interesting article called “Food, Kin and Tension at Thanksgiving.” I recommend reading it. You’ll either find it amusing, or that it hits too close to home and makes you dread the upcoming holiday meals.

The article is about all of the family drama that happens during holiday meal times – people commenting on you eating too little, people commenting on you eating too much, people sneaking stuff into your food*, people telling you to quit eating so fast, etc. The article gives specific examples, some of which I find ridiculous, like this story:

A Long Island woman, who like others interviewed for this column didn’t want to be named, said she and her family traveled 12 hours by train for a summer vacation gathering with her husband’s family. When her husband asked for seconds, the sister-in-law said there wasn’t any more food.

“There was all this food around, but she had cut us off,” the woman said. “We were just really shocked we were being told you can’t eat any more after coming all this way. We found out later she really controlled food in the household.”

Whoa! Kind of unbelievable, but then again, kind of NOT! People get weird about food, especially around the holidays! I know I felt territorial in my kitchen this past weekend (even though I love love LOVED that my grandma made breakfast).

Food is just so personal, but then again, it isn’t. Everyone pays attention to what other people are eating (makes me crazy) and a lot of people love to comment on it. That’s just the society we live in!

So, do you have any crazy family food drama like in the article?

I bet most of my family finds my vegan ways ridiculous! But, that is why we are hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas, suckas!** I have had people watch what I eat and tell me to eat more. Or eat meat. Or slow down. Or not to use margarine. Or hey, that is the wrong kind of baking powder! Don’t use that salt! What?! You eat SOY?!

Ha ha. The article has a pretty humorous solution at the very end. My solution? Grin and bear it then bitch to my husband later!

*Well, I added that one, but it’s happened to me!
**Just joking here.

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By kilax, November 17, 2009 5:03 am

Q: How do you prepare for a visit from Grandma?

A: By cleaning like a mad woman, of course!

Come on, it’s not every day you get to:

• iron your place settings
• discover shiny surfaces right there in your own home!
• feel the tactile pleasure of cleaning each and every window blind
• relive memories as you clean tiny little mementos on your knickknack shelf
• vacuum every side of every cushion and pillow on the couch – I’ve confirmed – we do indeed, have a gray cat
• scrub out Data’s litter box by hand – ha, not! gotcha

Truth be told, Steven and I are very neat and tidy (he is more than me, for all of those women who think men can’t be organized*), and we would be doing this type of deep cleaning for any holiday visitor, not just my grandma. It’s just so time consuming!

Do you do a deep clean before each guest arrives? Or do you leave your place “as is”?

We always clean quite a bit for guests, but extra for the holidays.

At least we got to do some fun things, like put up the holiday decorations and listen to music while we were cleaning.

Data loves the fake tree, but we’ve asked him to admire it from a distance. It has valuable Star Wars ornaments on it after all!

Data! I see you there!

You better be a good boy Data, or Santa won’t come!

Side Note: Don’t forget to enter my Homemade Holiday Sweets Giveaway!

I just found out yesterday that I won my first giveaway, EVER! Marcia, from Running Off at the Mouth is sending me a copy of The Runner’s Cookbook, a book I have had my eye on for a year! Thanks Marcia! Check out her blog if you’re looking for a new runner blogging friend!

*Or cook. He’s a wonderful chef. I’m blessed.

Comments (19)

By kilax, October 21, 2009 7:20 am

Ugh, I have been excited about the holiday season since September. That is just sick! Let’s just blame it on the cooler temperatures we had this year, and move along…

We have a lot to look forward to this year:

• My mom, dad, and grandma are coming to Chicago the week before Thanksgiving for the 2009 Cookie Extravaganza.
• We may host Thanksgiving at our house this year with friends (if any Chicago friends are around)
• My sister will be in town late Thanksgiving Day, and possibly stay until the following Saturday, so we can have another fun meal with her and maybe do some “window shopping”
• Steven’s family is coming to our house this year for the holidays, so we get to decorate (And get a real tree! Data will be so excited when I tell him.), and plan fun meals and activities
• We may go visit some college friends in December
• We will get to see my family for the holidays sometime in December or January
• There is a slight possibility that we will travel to Disney World in January to run a half marathon (if not, we will be looking to get rid of our entries)

Our first real tree, in 2005!

We have fun, busy times ahead to look forward to. And I didn’t even mention that we have sometime planned practically every weekend until the holidays hit. Luckily, those events are close to home, and we don’t have to travel (much).

I think I get so excited about the holidays each year because I love to plan. Even though every year, I realize more and more how things don’t ever turn out exactly as planned (hey, that’s life!).

Do you get excited about the holidays? Do you love to plan things out too?

Do you live in a little fantasy world in your head like I do? Ha ha.

Comments (20)

By kilax, September 30, 2009 7:32 am

Data has decided to honor me by sleeping with me the last 4 or 5 nights.

What this really means is that I wake up a few times in the middle of the night because I want to roll over, but I don’t, because he is sleeping so peacefully between my legs/next to me/on my feet. And I would never dream of interrupting his slumber (in the middle of the night)! I mean, he wouldn’t do that to me!

Oh, wait. He does. Every time I try to sleep in past 5:30 a.m.

Data sleeping between my legs. It’s kind of hard to tell, but I am under the covers! Like my cat blanket? HA!

The things we do for our pets. Does anyone else have this half-conscious, “I shouldn’t interrupt the sleeping pet” mentality in the middle of the night?

Ha. On a somewhat related note, Steven and I watched The Cat from Outer Space Monday night on DVD. If you like cats and cheesy old movies (released in 1978*), you have to watch this. I was laughing out loud for much of it, just because it was so ridiculous. It’s definitely going on my holiday wishlist.

*For some reason, I expect movies that were released after Star Wars (1977) to have similar quality graphics (The Cat from Outer Space, The Last Starfighter, Robocop)… they don’t. And why would they? I guess that just shows how ahead of his time (crazy) Lucas was.

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By kilax, December 10, 2008 9:01 pm

A little public announcement before the post: I feel guilty writing posts, when I have emails that need to be responded to, as well as over 400 unread items in my google reader. I feel guilty for responding to things slowly or late (like birthday announcements and other important news in posts). Please forgive me. Writing here is an outlet for me. It really alleviates stress, so it is the first thing I make time for. I really enjoy writing emails and reading blogs too. In fact, I am upset that my schedule has not allowed me to “catch up.” You all know how that is though. Anyway, my apologies. I hope to have time to catch up… some weekend? Okay, announcement over.

This year, both of our families have told us to “expect a smaller Christmas.” Or rather, they’ve apologetically told us they don’t have as much money to spend as in years past.

I’m guessing we’re not the only ones hearing this?

It makes me really sad that people feel like they have to apologize for giving less presents during the holidays. It makes me sad, because I know they are genuinely upset that they cannot give as much to us as they have before. And I know that no matter how much I tell them it doesn’t matter to me, it will still matter to them.

It’s hard not to let gift-giving become some sort of obsession during the holidays. You stress and stress over how much money to spend, what to buy, and then how they will react when they open it, whether or not they like it…

Our big thing is that we want to buy people things they actually WANT, rather than aimlessly searching for something, just to say “I got you a gift!” So, we started brainstorming ideas for people back in October. But, as my second cousin Denise wisely told me, “I stress about buying present every year because I never know what to buy for people. I guess we’ve all gotten to the point where we buy what we want and things that we don’t buy no one else can afford.” Ugh, exactly. For some people, it is impossible for Steven and I to come up with good gift ideas, unless they’re super expensive. People in our lives generally have what they want. Or sadly, we don’t know enough about our own family member’s interests to buy them something new they may enjoy.

So, we get caught up in this whole stress thing too.

I always have fun buying and giving gifts, but I do worry about finding that “perfect” gift.

Yeah, it doesn’t exist. And I have quit pretending it does. I am just going to enjoy the holidays.

I started thinking about all of this because my office is answering “Letters to Santa.” Children in impoverished neighborhoods write the letter to Santa at their schools and then the Sun-Times newspaper delivers the letters to organizations that buy and wrap the gifts these kids are asking for.

I didn’t participate (because I just started), but I think it really put things into perspective for a lot of people, answering a letter where a kid would ask for something so simple, like “a stuffed bear I can hug,” “anything Hot Wheels,” or “a Barbie.” One woman said it made her feel awful that a kid was asking for a $10 Barbie and she bought her own son a $200 PlayStation.

We all know we’ve become incredibly materialistic. We live our lives in pursuit of “stuff.” You want to earn more money at your job, so that you can get the “stuff” you want, and live in your preferred comfort zone.

And yes, we all think about this more around the holidays, maybe feeling a little guilty about it, maybe not.

I just want people to understand that “having less” at Christmas isn’t going to ruin the holiday for me. But there is really no way to alleviate someone else’s guilt.

Comments (18)

By kilax, October 23, 2008 7:53 am

Even though it is an entire month away, I am already getting really excited for a trip my parents and sister are planning to Chicago for the weekend before Thanksgiving.

When I was back home last weekend, my mom said, “You know what would be fun? If all of us girls got together at Grandma’s house and baked a bunch of cookies like we did that one year*!”

Of course, I had to be selfish and say, “Why don’t you all come out to Chicago? We can spend one day ‘window shopping’ downtown, and the next day baking the treats!”

My sister is going to be in Chicago for a one-day trip the Friday before Thanksgiving, so it works out perfectly for her to just stay here and ride home with my parents! Yay!

And Steven is really excited that they are visiting, because it means free slave labor he’ll have some help (my dad) working on his “project car” – a 1978 Datsun 280Z.

Now… we just need to figure out who we are going to give all these cookies to!

* In December 2001, when I was a senior in high school, my mother, grandmother, and a friend of mine decided to make tons of cookies for all of our friends, family, and teachers at school. We baked them all at my Grandmother’s (now she lives in a different town that my parents). I have always loved to bake! I am excited we are going to be doing this again!

All of the trays of cookies.

Small plates of cookies to hand out!

Me, looking like the goober I really am.

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By kilax, December 29, 2007 4:22 am

For Christmas, Steven had a star named after me near the Leo constellation! He named the star Ilax.

Hmm, do you think he secretly hoped this would prompt me to finally change my last name? We’ll see… someday I’ll have time to go to the DOT and Social Security office…

I’ve been trying to research the leo constellation, and I think you can see it in the northern hemisphere in March, near Ursa Major (aka “The Big Dipper”). The star’s actual coordinate numbers are RA10h44m37.02s D10°52’50.49″. Does anyone know what that means? Nope? Me either.

But you can guess what I will be doing come March!

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By kilax, December 25, 2007 9:34 am

Happy Holidays from me and the boys…

… who will probably remain in this position all day long.

We plan to spend the day eating fettucine alfredo, rolls, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and sugar cookies (jealous of our amazing menu?) while watching movies on our new 50″ plasma. It should be a nice, relaxing day.

Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope your day is filled with fun and laughter!

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By kilax, November 25, 2007 5:59 pm

This is a photo of the street I work on downtown. Even though the photo is poorly composed and blurry (hey, we can’t all be bobbi, can we?), I hope you can still make out the trees in the background – beautifully decorated in white holiday lights.

I am no grinch. I love the holidays. I love spending time with friends and family. I love holiday music and movies. I love baking too much food and eating too much food. I love exchanging gift, playing games, staying up too late and laughing too hard.

But this year I haven’t gotten into it. Thanksgiving didn’t feel like Thanksgiving (even though I had a blast). Christmas doesn’t feel like it is a month away. I have made holiday gift lists and purchased holiday cards to send… but I feel like I am going through all the actions without the emotion.

Luckily, I get to see the beautiful holiday lights in downtown Chicago five days a week. Even when I am leaving work at what feels like a too late hour, they still bring a smile to my face.