Author Archives: Jennie

18 Days of Christmas 2011: Radio City Christmas Spectacular

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Did you know that the Rockettes wear special tap shoes with microphones in the heels? Did you know that they store the shoes in a special case that charges up the batteries? I didn’t know this and found it pretty interesting. After all, inquiring minds should know trivia such as how a Rockette charges her tap shoes.

Image via Facebook.com

I was pretty disappointed to find out that the Radio City Christmas Spectacular was not touring to Chicago this year. It’s going to Durham, North Carolina, Nashville, Tennessee, and Boston, Massachusetts. I was seriously interested in buying tickets but I’m not leaving Chicago. I’m hoping for snow, and I don’t travel in snow.

Image via nytix.com

I can remember the year that my kids’ Grandpa and Grandma took us to Radio City on one of our Christmas pilgrimages to the holy grail of holiday homecomings, New York City. I couldn’t get enough of The Big Apple, and still feel blessed that we had a number of years of visiting NRB’s parents with our children at Christmas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Christmas Tree and the Christmas tree and ice skating at Rockefeller Center were annual treats.

Image via essential-new-york-city-guide.com

New York was a wonderful place to spend Christmas. The retirement home in Arizona — not so much.

Since the Rockettes weren’t coming to Chicago, I had to settle for the HGTV Radio City Holiday special where Thom Filicia decorates Radio City for the holidays. I do love my holiday decorating shows… You can see this show on HGTV; it’s running one more time on December 13. That’s next Monday, if you want to set your recording devices.

I’ve always been interested in the whole Rockettes mythology, and then someone I almost knew became a Rockette! Heather Lang was the captain of our local high school’s award-winning dance team and as Homecoming Queen in 1999, chose to be unescorted. I loved the thought of that then and I still love the idea of her courage. I don’t actually know her, but I know people who do.

So what does one do after having been the star of the show in high school? One goes to New York and becomes a commercial dancer. Here’s Heather Lang in an interview, talking about her life as a dancer in New York. It brings the whole Rockette mythology down to one person. I loved the intimacy of this interview.

Hopefully you’re still reading both this year’s and last year’s posts. Although I did an 18 Days post last year, it was pretty much the same as this year’s post about our band, and the link isn’t working anymore. Don’t bother, but keep reading this year’s countdown. And COMMENT! There’s no Christmas present like a comment on one’s writing. If you’re reading this via a Facebook link, please press that magic button. I “like” you, too.

19 Days of Christmas 2011: It’s Not Christmas Until Somebody Sings the Hallelujah Chorus

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It’s Wordless Wednesday, so I’ll let the music do the talking for me.

From last year, here’s a favorite post that honors one of our family’s Christmas traditions. I had forgotten that last year I found a youtube.com video for us to sing with since mom wasn’t able to play the score anymore. It’s also not Christmas until we sing The Night Before Christmas.

20 Days of Christmas 2011: Martha Stewart’s Holiday Planning List

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If you’ve ever read Martha Stewart Living, you will be familiar with the calendar she posts in each monthly magazine. I don’t know how any human being could actually do what she says she does, but at this point, we all know she has lots of help.

When one is perfect in every way, it’s hard to avoid being parodied. This list is copyrighted and has dire warnings on the site, so I’ll just give you the link. It’s pretty funny.

Martha, I still love you. Don’t they say that imitation (or parody) is the highest form of flattery?

If you’re still looking for Christmas decorations, you can buy branded Martha Stewart forest creatures at Grandin Road.

Image via http://www.grandinroad.com/martha-stewart-set-of-two-furry-hedgehogs/christmas-decor/martha-stewart-collection/394914

I already hooked you up with Martha Stewart’s Home for the Holidays album. The Martha Stewart machine has also published Classical Favorites for the Holidays and Jazz for the Holidays. Here’s the cover art for Traditional Songs for the Holidays which has NO customer reviews on Amazon.com. Probably not a good sign, but the one reviewer really liked the jazz album.

It’s kind of hard to imagine on this warm night that last year at this time we were talking about snow. Here’s my 20 Days of Christmas 2010 post. See you tomorrow!

21 Days of Christmas 2011: It’s not Christmas until the band plays Sleigh Ride

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I admit it; I’m a band nerd. I didn’t get a slushie in my face during high school because my principal would have shoved the miscreant up against a locker and scared the crap out of him, but I loved band then and I still do. In contrast to what one sees on television, being in band in high school and college at Miami University in Ohio was a wonderful thing and allowed me to create life-long friendships and meet fun-loving, fabulous people. And, according to the studies (and I want to believe), playing multiple instruments also made me smarter.

Image via trexandme.wordpress.com

Watching my college band play in the Macy’s parade on Thanksgiving just makes me cry with happiness and nostalgia.

We weren’t quite as cool as Miami’s current band when I went to Miami, although we did get to go to the other Miami to march in the Tangerine Bowl parade. This photo shows the second generation of the Miami Marching Machine that was built to fit over our band director’s Volkswagen bug. Yeah, I know. We chose to perpetuate our nerd stereotype and we were proud to wear the emblem. (I just realized that the Marching Machine has an image of a reel-to-reel tape. Can I date myself anymore than that? And is that Dr. Nick in the plaid pants?)

I still love band and one of the best things about Christmas is playing holiday music on my saxophone. At the ripe old age of — I’m not saying how old, but old enough –, I joined a concert band again after an absence of way too many years. I haven’t played in a full concert band with adults since college, and I’ve missed it. I encouraged my beloved husband to make a midlife instrument change and got him to play the trombone and euphonium, never imagining that his obsession with all things brass would shut me out of most of his musical groups. I’ve been a brass ensemble widow for years, and I didn’t like it very much. Because alto saxophone players are a dime-a-dozen in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and everyone is looking for lower brass players, it was difficult to find an ensemble in which we could play. Finally, we joined a band in the southwestern suburbs that needed both of us. As you can see from the photo, it’s a group that welcomes “experienced” bandsmen and women. It’s pretty easy to pick me out — I’m the only mature woman in the saxophone section, and as always, the saxophones are playing second fiddle to the trumpets.

We played a concert that included a series of medleys featuring pretty much all of the secular music that we hear in the malls and on the all-Christmas-all-the-time radio stations. I’ve gotta say — it was fun even if it was sappy.

The grand-daddy of all secular Christmas music transcriptions for band is Sleigh Ride, written by Leroy Anderson in 1948 and first played by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the baton of Arthur Fiedler. As far as Christmas music goes for me, Sleigh Ride is right up there with the songs from White Christmas, and I was pretty disappointed that we didn’t play it this year for our concert. Fortunately, thanks to the miracle of youtube.com, we can all hear the Boston Pops with John Williams conducting.

Of course, you can always go to your public library and pick up a copy of the CD for your listening pleasure at home and in your car!

Finally,  if you want to read what I had to say last year at this time, check out my 2010 21 Days post. See you tomorrow!

22 Days of Christmas 2011: Christmas in Austria

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Does your cable channel carry Anthony Bourdain? If not, you should picket your cable headquarters until you get it. Bourdain is the most irreverent-while-being-fascinating host on television today (I LOVE hyphenated adjectives!).

I blogged about Anthony Bourdain earlier this year when he visited El Bulli, but his Vienna show really hit home with me. It’s a long story– are you ready for it?

I had never been to Europe prior to our Spring Break trip in 2003. Our family friend Lara spent her junior semester abroad in Vienna and it seemed the perfect place to initiate the Europe virgin (that would be me) into European culture. I mean, really, how many books had I read about Marie Antoinette at that point? I was pretty sure I could handle Vienna. I don’t speak German, but my mom did. Isn’t that enough? I speak some passable Spanish and NRB speaks some passable French. Between our passable Romance book-languages and Lara, we figured we could probably get by.

Fast forward to nine years later. I’m looking for something fun to watch on the tube on the eve of my Veterans’ Day holiday off from school. Usually we don’t get Veterans’ Day; we trade it for an extra day before Thanksgiving or something. This year, we got both. It was a rare gift. I scrolled through my DVR’d programs, not finding Glee. What happened? I watched a bit of Hung on HBO. Really? I’m going to have to come back to that one. So I settle for Anthony Bourdain in Vienna which I know doesn’t require me to remember any backstory.

Yet I had my own personal backstory.

Tony visited Schloss Schoenbrunn, the childhood home of Marie Antoinette and so did I.

Tony toured Vienna, and so did I.

Tony didn’t go to Salzburg, but it wasn’t a trip to Austria for me without paying homage to Maria Von Trapp and Mozart. This is kind of a cheesy video, but does give some interesting information. If you keep clicking through the videos, you’ll get the whole Salzburg story.

We also took pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. We bought our first digital camera right before this trip and were still learning how to use it. As I looked through these photos, I realized that in my rose-colored view of our vacation, I had forgotten how cold and often rainy it was in Austria in March.

The Austrians love Christmas, and there were Christmas stores everywhere. Of course we bought an ornament at this store and I’m getting ready to hang it on my tree this year along with all of my other vacation memory ornaments.

For your Austrian music companions to today’s post, I chose The Best of Christmas in Vienna and Christmas in Vienna. Both feature Placido Domingo with friends.

As I look at this 22 Days of Christmas post from last year, it’s hard to believe that we were anticipating snow. Today was a balmy and sometimes rainy day in the upper 40s. If it’s not global warming (as some of my students and their families believe), Mother Nature sure is playing tricks on us. See you tomorrow, and be sure to comment!

23 Days of Christmas 2011: Christmas Shoes

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This post is totally based on what “I wish.” I saw these drop-dead-gorgeous shoes in my favorite catalog and since I can’t wear them, I could only imagine WHO would wear them. Cause it wouldn’t be me. Anymore.

I can remember the day that I was wearing the most fabulous shoes  that I have ever owned — purple suede and black patent leather spectator pumps with three-inch heels. It was the last time I ever wore fabulous shoes. I was at a conference in Oakbrook and at lunch I went to Naturalizer and bought sensible shoes because my feet hurt so badly I couldn’t stand it another minute. It was the beginning of the downhill slippery slope upon which I now stand — poised for nothing but boring shoes.

I hope you can buy and wear these adorable shoes. You deserve them because you too are fabulous. For my male readers, if the shoe fits… but I’m not judging.

So who should wear these shoes? The first person that came to mind was Christina Aguilera, and she’s got a fabulous Christmas album if you’d like to honor her by her music along with her fashion.

Mariah Carey came next in my fantasy singer draft for the red shoes. Although at the moment, Mariah seems busy popping out babies, her Christmas albums have been best sellers and I can totally see her wearing the red shoes when she’s not taking care of her twins. Carey’s 1994 Christmas album, Merry Christmas, was the best-selling holiday album of all time. She released two versions of “All I Want for Christmas” in music video; this one is supposed to mimic home movies.

Mariah’s now-classic addition to the secular Christmas music canon has held up well over the years. It was used in my favorite Christmas movie, Love Actually, and in the film is sung by 11-year-old Olivia Olson. While coming home from Thanksgiving celebrations in Ohio, I heard Justin Bieber’s duet with Carey which appears on his 2011 Under the Mistletoe Christmas album. We thought it was a little creepy when we heard it; it’s one thing to sing a duet with a real person in an album, but the listener can tell that they each recorded their parts separately and never worked together. I’m not criticizing The Bieb; we think he’s very talented and the Christmas album is a nice addition to your playlist. While researching this post, I also found out that the divine Amber Riley covered “All I Want” on the Glee Christmas II album. It’s pretty Mercedes-fabulous!

And finally, how could any fabulous shoes post be complete without the queen of spike heels, Miss Dolly Parton? Her 1990 album, Home for Christmas has just the right touch of down-home twang and country instrumentals while still showcasing Dolly’s amazing voice and styling.

This is part of the second annual 25 Days of Christmas series; here’s my 2010 post for December 3.

And yes, Lala, they will come in your size if you tell Santa that you want them.

24 Days of Christmas 2011: British Christmas

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Having enjoyed many Christmases with our English friends over the years, we have begun to include some British customs and food into our Christmas celebrations. Mince pies, Christmas pudding with brandy butters, the Queen’s Christmas Message, and Christmas crackers are all fun ways to shake up your family’s customs. Crackers can be found at most home goods stores, such as Crate and Barrel, and good groceries carry Christmas pudding, mince pies, and brandy butters during the Christmas season. We have a wonderful British store near us in Long Grove called British Accents which carries many British foodstuffs and gifts all year long.

I might even try to make the mince pies myself from this supposedly easy recipe, and this recipe for Christmas pudding is made without the traditional suet. If you’re going to try Christmas pudding, it’s time to make it so that it can age. Here’s a quick version if you don’t get around to making it until the last minute. Don’t forget to buy the brandy so that you can set it on fire when you serve it!

While you’re cooking or driving around in your car buying all of your British Christmas items, I suggest listening to some traditional British music. These were all available at my library.

Adeste Fidelis! Christmas Down the Ages was recorded in 1996 and features the English soprano Emma Kirkby, who specializes in early music. I was surprised to find that Amazon actually has a Westminster Abbey Choir “Store” where you can purchase both compact discs and MP3 recordings by the choir.

Although it is not strictly a British box set of Christmas music, The Baroque Christmas Album is a compilation of recordings from important early music performance groups. This album is also available in MP3 versions from Amazon.

Musicians from the Academy of St. Martins in the Fields under the baton of Neville Mariner – what’s not to like? Christmas with the Academy is a listener’s delight and is also available in CD and MP3 formats. If you’re in London by Trafalgar Square, stop in to see what’s going on at St. Martins in the Fields. There’s a nice cafe downstairs in the old crypt and you might catch a concert or a rehearsal as we did the day we visited.

All on a Christmas Day is a collection of Irish Christmas music performed by Jimmy Keane and Robbie O’Connell, so I suppose for the Irish purists out there, this album doesn’t belong with a post entitled British Christmas.

If you are a history buff, I encourage you to watch this video of Queen Elizabeth’s first Christmas Message in 1957. It’s fascinating. The Anglophiles among you may also be interested in the videos at The Royal Channel. Who knew?

Just in case you haven’t had enough, here’s last year’s 24 Days of Christmas post.

25 Days of Christmas 2011: My Favorite Things

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Last year, I got all ambitious and decided to do a post a day as we led up to Christmas. We all have our “things” that make us happy and sad at the same time, holidays and events that evoke sentimentality and craziness. Christmas time is that “thing” with me. That’s probably why I have a basement full of Christmas decorations, and you can see that we take our Christmas packaging very seriously.

Yes, Virginia, that’s a Halloween pumpkin that has lost its way into the Christmas corner, by the way.

Image via booksshouldbefree.com

As you probably noticed during the 31 Day Challenge in October, it’s pretty difficult for me to post every day, but I almost managed to make it. I promised myself after the October scramble that I wasn’t going to do the 25 Days this year, but then I ran across a catalog that got my creative juices flowing again. So, here we are, celebrating my favorite time of year with some of “My Favorite Things.” I hope you will comment and share your stories as we travel the holiday road together.

It’s not a coincidence that I pulled the photo of Julie Andrews and the Von Trapp children to start the series. Music is the first induction into the season, and both the inspiring sacred masterpieces and the silly secular songs have meaning for me. As I said last year, it’s not Christmas until Rosemary Clooney sings “Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me,” and it’s not Christmas without my iPod loaded up with Christmas albums. I’ll start you off with the first four I loaded into iTunes — all fabulous for listening to in your car and while you cook.

And because Glee makes us happy with their impeccably produced covers of just about anything, don’t forget to pick up a copy of the new Glee Christmas album that came out in November.

What’s YOUR favorite thing at Christmas? Shoot me an email (gotmyreservations@gmail.com) and we can talk about a guest post or leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you!

Just so your mind is at ease (and I KNOW you’ve been worrying about this ALL year), I found my Christmas mug collection. The mugs were right where I put them before the construction. 🙂

This post is linked up to Thursday Writer’s Workshop at Mama Kat’s. Stop by and visit some other great bloggers! 

Food Cult: Oyster Dressing

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As we enter our week of Thanksgiving and gluttony, I would to pause and give thanks for the many creatures that give up their lives for us at this time of year.

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/for-the-moment-finding-pearls-in-paris/

Insert. Silent. Pause. Here.

My little family band gets together with my brothers and their families on the day after Thanksgiving. We have been doing this since 1976; I have not prepared a Thanksgiving meal in my own home since then. Every year, we drive the 600 miles round trip to be with our family to celebrate both Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year we decided to forego our gift giving to each other and donate to Heifer International instead. We’ll still be giving gifts to the young ones, and it will be fun to see them open their presents. We also sing Christmas songs — we are THAT family that could make our own Trapp Family Singers — and I’m looking forward to hearing three-year-old Libbie sing her part in The Twelve Days of Christmas.

For me and some of my family, it just isn’t Thanksmas without oyster dressing. It’s unclear where our family recipe comes from, but my mother started making oyster dressing for our holiday gatherings a long time ago. In fact, I can’t remember when she didn’t make it. It was just always there.

My mom passed away in June, and as the eldest child, it has become my job to bring the oyster dressing. I’ve been making it for events here in our Chicagoland home for a while, but no one loves oyster dressing as well as my brothers and I do. My niece Jessica wrote about our family recipe on her Vanderbilt Wife blog, calling our treasured oyster dressing our “grossest family recipe.” I beg to differ, but as she is allergic to clams, I wouldn’t want her to get sick on oysters. I do, however, want to share the recipe for what I consider to be the crowning glory of our holiday buffet table.

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Another recipe can be found here: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Seafood/OysterDressing.htm

Grandma’s Oyster Dressing

Cooking spray

Four cans frozen or canned oysters (fresh would be fine, but not necessary)
Four ribs finely chopped celery
Four cans mushrooms
One box saltines crushed
one pound butter pats
About two cups of milk

First spray a 4.8 quart (15″ x 10″ x 2″) rectangular casserole dish with cooking spray, and then add a layer of crushed crackers. Begin layering the ingredients. After each cracker layer add some milk and the juice from the mushrooms and oyster cans. You should have about four layers of crackers and three of “goodies.”

Cover it with foil so that it doesn’t dry out and take the foil off for the last 15 minutes so the top gets a little crusty. Bake at 350 degrees for at least an hour until the texture is puffy like a souffle. It is okay to prepare it in advance and let the liquids sink in.

A large Pyrex casserole dish will serve eight people comfortably as a side dish.

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And just we’re clear about the popularity of oyster dressing, even the fabled Ree Drummond published a recipe for Oyster Dressing on her Pioneer Woman blog this week. I’m not alone in my love for this succulent awesomeness. Ree’s is a little different from ours; hers is more like traditional tossed bread-cube dressing. Grandma’s Oyster Dressing is more of a souffle-like scalloped oysters. It might be fun someday to make both recipes and see which one we like better!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I’m going to take a week off and enjoy my holiday with friends and family. Safe travels to you.

P.S. I’ve been collecting ideas for 25 Days of Christmas — I can’t resist doing it again this year!