holidays - Firefly Lanterns

October 27, 2018

Halloween Tree

Today I put up my Halloween tree, a nice change of pace from cleaning up hurricane debris. Yesterday at my favorite store, the Other Side Vintage in Tallahassee, I bought a set of tiny painted-clay ghouls to add to my collection of ornaments—so I was …

March 14, 2018

Easter Tree

I had so much fun putting up my Easter tree yesterday. It’s one of my favorite rites of spring! I love having a tree in my living room, even if it’s fake. The tree itself is kind of weird. It’s made of white-painted rusty metal …

October 6, 2013

Halloween Decorating

On Saturday morning I started decorating the house for Halloween. I got up really early, when it was still pitch-dark, and sat on the couch in the Little House in my pajamas, drinking Coke and stitching up some dumb little ornaments for my Halloween tree–funny felt cats and jack-o’-lanterns with beads for eyes. It was very cozy. An ice-cold Coke makes the nicest breakfast, and Carl was dozing next to me in a soft little nest of felt scraps and embroidery floss. The lamplight turned the room all golden.

I made several cute but poorly sewn ornaments, and then I started decorating the Halloween tree. As you might expect, it was kind of hard with 11 cats gathered around to “help.” As soon as I got a few ornaments hung, June started standing on her hind legs and batting them, knocking them down one by one. Meanwhile, Buntin had climbed into my Halloween storage box and was rooting around in the tissue paper. She kept triggering this dumb talking skeleton and scaring everybody. The cats would scatter in all directions whenever the skeleton laughed. Unfortunately for me, they always came right back . . . to steal glitter balls and traipse along the mantelpiece, tipping over my carefully posed pumpkin people and friendly ghosts.

Gourd garland

April 3, 2013

Easter Party

On Saturday, my family came over for an Easter party. I had such a great time. I was so excited for everybody to see my yard and eat the big lunch Rob and I had made with vegetables from our garden. …

December 18, 2011

Vegan Coconut Macaroons

Yesterday Kris had a Christmas cookie-baking party and I made vegan coconut macaroons using this recipe. They turned out pretty good! We had so much fun at the party. We baked cookies and drank hot cider and made Christmas ornaments with lots of glitter. We …

December 5, 2011

That’s Better

Here’s the front porch now, with the addition of poinsettias:

November 24, 2011

Coconut Cranberry Relish

Here’s my contribution to our family’s Thanksgiving dinner this year. (Yes, I know. My contribution is tiny.) It’s an easy cranberry relish made from a recipe Mom found years ago in Taste of Home magazine. I like to eat it hot, not cold. . . …

November 15, 2011

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

In fall, during cranberry season, I try to make cranberry sauce as often as I can. It’s beautiful and delicious—and it’s so good for you. Cranberries have more antioxidants than any other common fruit. When I was little, it was always my job to make …

April 28, 2011

Happy Easter: Part Two

Jake playing Igor

We hid eggs, of course, at Kris’s Easter party. This is not something we do just to entertain the kids. We grown-up Kimel sisters actually love hiding and finding eggs. We like hiding them in the most picturesque ways possible: in the cup of a lily, perhaps, or maybe in a toad house. . . . I had fun hiding eggs at Kris’s house because it gave me an excuse to explore her yard. I hid eggs in blackberry patches and wild honeysuckle tangles; I took a long time just so I could keep smelling the honeysuckle (that smell is so nostalgic; it means so much to me).

Kris always laughs at her husband, Phil, because he “likes to hide eggs in places that make us seem poor.” She means his egg-hiding tends to highlight the ugly spots in their yard. Phil likes hiding eggs in stray cinder blocks, for example, or under tarps.

Matt shares a similar egg-hiding philosophy; this year Bunny had to stop him from hiding eggs in the garbage can.

“What?!” Matt said. “Are you kidding? This is a great place! They’ll never find them in here!”

I liked that Matt wanted to make the egg hunt really challenging. I did too. “Let’s not give the kids any help this time,” I said. “This time, they’re going to really have to work.”

Sophie and Jake appeared for the egg hunt dressed in their bathing suits.

“We’re not giving you guys any clues for at least an hour!” we told them. “You have 60 eggs to find, so get going.”

Jake is the worst egg hunter. Seriously. He kept giving up. He kept begging for clues, even though there were eggs all around him in plain sight. “Mommy, am I getting warmer?” he’d whine. “Am I even getting warmer?”

But Bun and I wouldn’t give him any hints. Instead, we sat in Kris’s Adirondack chairs near the loquat trees and talked about our old elementary school. In the main building, the stairs and the hallway were open air (the hall was a sort of breezeway), and if it rained pretty hard, water would be flowing down the stairs like a waterfall. How magical we thought that was!

Our school was really a unique place. It was so small and homey, and we had woods to play in. At recess, in late spring, we’d pick mulberries. In fall we’d pick pecans.

Finally, all 60 eggs were located, and the grand prizes were also found. Sophie’s prize was a fancy trinket box that you could decorate yourself with stickers. Matt had hidden it under the coiled-up garden hose.

After the egg hunt, we played Igor, Jake’s new board game. (You build monsters.)

Kris said, “Jake, you and Leslie can be on one team. . . .”

“Oh, crap!” Jake smiled.

Jake knows that I suck at games, that I am, in general, not very savvy. After all, we’ve been acquainted now for seven years.

“That’s okay,” I said. “I’ll play by myself. . . .” Jake was smart to jump ship. I came in last place, predictably.

Next we played Apples to Apples, a really fun game. We were sitting out on the deck by the pool in the dappled light (the deck is partially shaded by a trellis full of Tausandschoen roses). And all the while we played we were eating Jelly Bellies and Sophie’s fun, fizzy Sprite-flavored candies.

Here’s how you play Apples to Apples. You pick a card and put it down and someone acts as judge. Then the rest of the group looks at their cards and tries to choose one that best matches the judge’s card. Everybody puts down a card (anonymously) and the judge chooses which match he likes best.

The game was so funny. We couldn’t stop laughing. After a while, Jake actually quit because we were laughing too much. (“I don’t want to play!” he pouted, putting down his cards. “There’s too much laughing!”)

But we couldn’t help it; the game was too funny. At one point, the judge’s card was “Tall.” Well, I matched that with “Spaghetti” and Mom matched it with “A Tree House.” Sophie put down “Skunks.”

Bun was the judge. She said, “Well, I guess I’m going with the tree house. . . .”

“What?” Matt said. “Not spaghetti, the tallest of pastas? . . . And few things are taller than skunks, right? Oh, if Rob needs an album title, I’ve got one: Taller than Skunks. That’s just arty enough, right?”

Sophie in her Easter finery

Tag: holidays