on the first day of christmas...

remember how it is december already?

when the heck did that happen? (besides the obvious answer of eight days ago, of course.)

seriously, i don't know if it is the lack of snow (praise the heavens!) or what, but this holiday season totally snuck up on me. (despite having tuned out aunt joyce's flute students playing christmas music for the past two months. no exagerration.) so to make up for lost time, i have been squeezing in as much seasonal cheer as i can.

for starters, i read "a christmas carol" for what i think was the first time, and enjoyed a rousing discussion of said masterpiece at enrichment book club. i also bought an advent calendar, which always seems to mark the official beginning of christmastime.

leaving the store after the purchase of said advent calendar, i backed my car into a pole, which does not invite as much christmas cheer as one would hope. but, the damage was minor and i decided to just get over it.

especially because there was a christmas-themed murder mystery party to attend! wherein i, nat the nutcracker, had to dance all night without moving my arms or my legs, which invites more christmas cheer than you might expect.

between accusing rudy (the red-nosed reindeer) of making fun of my dancing behind my back and eating tons of vegan gingerbread cookies and marshmellows, i also managed to solve the murder. the culprit was, ironically, wearing a t-shirt that said, "i didn't do it." a likely story.














i also watched "a christmas story" with patti and michelle, and ordered presents online. so i would say i am back on track in the christmas celebration department, despite my continuing disbelief that the big day is right around the corner. since a good question bears repeating, i'll ask mine again.

when the heck did that happen?

mocktacular, mocktacular!

the only thing better than a cocktail party is a mocktail party, because you still get to wear a little black dress (and maybe a feather in your hair) and lean languidly against the wall, playing the part of a disenchanted 1950s housewife, but you can also take as many ginger whiskey shots as you want and not pass out, throw up or have to find a designated driver.

though, i will warn you, after knocking back several glasses of "abstinence on the beach," things can get a little wild.

celebrate good times (come on!)

baby kyle gets a lot of screentime on this weblog, but it should also be noted that, in addition to loving him, i love his parents, holly and evan. they are still relatively new cast members on "the frances show" (yes, i will be referring to my life by that title from now on), and i am always glad to have them around.


{they look pretty excited about it, too}

so glad, in fact, that i was willing to celebrate evan's birthday in style with sushi and... wait for it... karaoke!

ok, so actually neither of those things were much of a sacrifice, but they were super-duper fun. i would like, at this time, to give two enthusiastic thumbs up to samurai sushi, its dancing chef and its bizarro korean karaoke machine, complete with incongrous background music videos. (could "buttercup" have a hidden meaning, involving korean soldiers and hand grenades? you heard it here first!)

it's hard to pick a favorite part of the night.

was it delicious sushi?



was it hanging out with these people?







the table-wide belting of "bohemian rhaspody" and "billie jean"?



or was it jake's epic rendition of "total eclipse of the heart"?



luckily, i don't have to choose a favorite (unlike colors, or children), and you don't either. though, if you're looking for more information with which to make a choice, you can check out what holly has to say about our evening of revelry. (and i'll tell you a secret. she even posted a video.)

troll the ancient yule tide carol

{spreading cheer}

to celebrate the eve of christmas eve, we put together a little group and went caroling around my neighborhood. at first mention, caroling always seems like an embarassing, cold and generally bad idea, but in practice it is just the opposite. actually, still embarassing and cold, but it always turns out to be a good idea, and definitely a good way to celebrate the season. as elliott said, it's not really christmas-time until you've sung some carols.

our adorable neighbors were delightfully surprised to hear us singing on their doorsteps. we heard the exclamation, "i thought this only happened in the movies!" more than once. the darling hispanic grandmother across the street sent us off with the blessings of God, in spanish. only one man turned us away, claiming he couldn't listen to us sing because his mother had just had surgery. as elliott pointed out, unless it was surgery on her ears, that was a weak sauce excuse.

but, it couldn't dampen our holiday cheer as we went up and down the street, singing and smiling and giving and making new friends. then it was home for wasail and other christmas treats. baby kyle also barfed on me, but since it's christmas-time, i didn't even care.

and so, in the glow of the christmas tree, a warm cup in my hands, i thought about how much i love this season that brings us all together. this season that inspires us to do good things and be good people.. and i thought about how i wish it could just go on and on.

a merry, merry christmas to you. (and you, and you, and you.)

chance of (creative) flurries

on friday it snowed. and snowed. and snowed. it snowed literally all.day.long. i shoveled the driveway three times. the roads looked like this.



this was bad news primarily because i hate the snow. hate.the.snow. it was also bad news because getting in my car and driving south on the freeway seemed like a pretty bad idea, and that meant i missed laura's gingerbread house-making party.

a whole evening inside the house did mean plenty of time to work on my project for the art exchange, though, and that was super good news. i had been stressed out about the art exchange for the past week or so, worrying about what i would make and when i would find the time to make it. creativity has never really been my thing so i needed something simple, but still expressive and worth giving away.

that old friend, the interweb, solved my first problem when it blessed me with this adorable pattern for fabric birds. and that sneaky enemy, the blizzard, did me a favor for once by giving me the time to sew those little birds up.

the original idea is actually for a bird mobile, with a dozen birds and twigs and wire, but i didn't feel like i had the skill or the confidence to pull that off (and i had to use whatever leftover fabric there was in the house because, again, no driving in the snow) so i went with a scaled down version of just one string of birds.

and, wouldn't you know it, they actually came out pretty well. i can sew! who knew? janelle drew my name, and she promises that she really loves those birds and isn't just saying that to be nice. she even had the perfect little hook for them and they are hanging up happy as, well, little birds.

under where?

carolynn is getting married, which means, of course, that we all got together to bestow sexy underwear on the bride-to-be. my house became the bridal bungalow, and stephani did an awesome job with the food. and we all shunned lame shower games, so right there we knew it would be a successful event. (a sidenote: seriously, what is with shower games? is there anyone who really thinks it's fun to wrap someone else up in a roll of toilet paper and pretend it's a wedding dress? anyone? i didn't think so.)

for the second lingerie shower in a row i found something lovely at smith's marketplace, so i don't think i'll go anywhere else from now on. why should i, when i can get unmentionables and groceries at the same place?

one new twist on an old favorite was marc coming home with the festivities in full swing and almost stumbling into the middle of the whole thing. luckily he had retreated to his secret hiding place behind the kitchen counter (where he could hear but not be seen) by the time carolynn opened this.



happy wedding, indeed.

soupie

anna and i decided to have a party.



we thought a pie party sounded pretty good. but a soup party sounded good, too. and then we thought, why not have a soup and pie party? we make the soup, you bring the pie and everyone's wildest dreams come true. turns out we were right.

i made cheesy-vegetable soup (anything that calls for whole sticks of butter is delicious, is what i always say), anna made lemon-chicken-basil and french onion soups, and bri rounded it out with barley stew. ck made some wasail. our stove top was full.



and then there were the pies.

chuck brought this kind of pie.



and chad brought this kind of pie.



and there were these pies, too.



athelia helped cut the pies.



everyone ate a lot of pie.







elijah worked the crowd and played with the refrigerator magnets, and baby kyle slept through the whole thing.



some people talked very seriously.







caleb and i had a camera war. (his new camera might have a touch screen, but mine was still faster on the draw.)



there were so many good friends.






















my house looked like this.



and i felt so much love.



it was my wildest dreams. and more.

high rollers

one of the first times i hung out with my now-roommate briana was at a sushi rolling party she hosted a year or so ago. there were so many hip, cool people there that i was pretty intimidated, and my only real memory of the evening is standing in the corner eating eel.

luckily (mostly for me), times change and now hip, cool briana sleeps just upstairs, and our house is the hip, cool place for hip, cool people to roll sushi, like we did last week, ostensibly for john's birthday but he wouldn't let us sing or even talk about how it was his birthday really, so it was mostly just for fun. and fun it was, but that seems pretty normal for raw fish, i would say.


{birthday boy and fish-master}


{when jaren discovered his seaweed was too full to roll correctly, oertel said, "you probably like really fat burritos, too, huh?" not sure if it really translates onto the screen, but it was hi-larious.}


{delicious}


{amy}


{elliott}


{oertel, by the way, drove all the way from provo, which was a really nice thing for her to do since i never, ever, under any circumstances, return the favor. also, lauren is holding her first hand-rolled sushi ever! lovely, isn't it?}


{briana}


{elliott's face makes me happy}


{so does my favorite japanese treat, mochi ice cream. the asian market just around the corner sells it, and i am pretty much permanently exhausted from the exertion of willpower it takes not to eat it every single day.}



{holly and evan stopped by}


{along with baby kyle, who i love with a love that is true. said holly: "sometimes when we come over here and frances holds the baby, i feel like we should put that hospital bracelet back on that keeps people from stealing him."}


{full tummies for days. the end.}