Category Archives: blog blast

Pictionary or Charades?

December 7, 2008blog blast, christmas, familyKirsetin

Family gatherings at my parents’ house generally go something like this:

My husband: Hey, let’s get a movie tonight.

Me: Yeah, that would be great. I’ll help you pick one.

Mom: Sounds like a good idea. Let’s get something funny. With Meg Ryan.

Dad: Or we could get that new thriller that was just released. With Daniel Craig.

Brother: Yeah, I might go out with my friends.

Tension builds

Me: Or, we could play a game?

Reluctantly, Everyone: Sure, we could do that.

The games of choice at my parents’ house are homemade Pictionary and homemade Charades, which are basically the same game except in one of them you get to draw. These sound harmless, I know, but the competitive gene runs deep. I didn’t just happen to be a kid who loved to win. I mean, I got it from somewhere. Therefore, if my 12-year old doesn’t act out “Mission Impossible” with dexterity and finesse, my dad is likely to, um, well, let’s just say he can get a bit peeved.

And, as you can imagine, my mother does not appreciate the finer points of his competitive spirit. “He’s a child!” she’s likely to chide. To which, always, my dad will pretend that he was only trying to help, he wasn’t frustrated, angry, disgusted, or any such thing. How could we even think that?! (The nerve.)

My brother hangs out in the background, participating at a low enough level to also text his friends and keep up with the ball game on TV, which my mom didn’t want on in the first place. The added intrusion of texting adds a lovely patina of thinly veiled anger to the evening. Throw in an actual call to his cell and things get very interesting.

All this goes round and round, holiday after holiday, year after year, and in our own strange way we look forward to it, games and all. We consume calories we shouldn’t, laugh for most of it, endure the tension-filled moments, and try to reconnect with people we truly love. And it should be this way, right? Because there’s always the possibility it will be different this time. Like this year, maybe, just maybe, I’ll win at Charades. And for that I will be very thankful.

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network’s blog blast. This week it’s sponsored by Electronic Arts, & they’re giving away fun, family-focused video games just in time to ease the tension at the upcoming holiday gatherings.

A Thanksgiving to Remember

November 7, 2008blog blast, ThanksgivingKirsetin

The fall has long been my favorite season, and I love its celebratory holiday, with the Pilgrims and their hats and corn and all that old-fashioned simplicity. I’m quite certain that I’ve glossed over my own Thanksgiving memories with that pretty, fine glaze we like to apply to the past, but I when I think back they’re filled with visions of family gathered around the kitchen and living room, with endless amounts of stuffing and turkey and pie. Oh yes, especially cherry pie.

Thanksgiving, for me, is a less stressful holiday, even though I often end up cooking. I realize that for lots of women, the idea of cooking and baking and preparing food for so many can put them over the edge, and I get that. But for me, the cooking isn’t overwhelming in the least. Much more difficult for me are the other holidays and there is something that overwhelms me about each of them: the costumes at Halloweeen, the spiritual tension at Christmas, or the whole why-must-there-be-a-bunny discussion at Easter. These things I find overwhelming; cooking, not so much.

That said, I’m certain it hasn’t always been a sure bet that I’d end up the Thanksgiving hostess. My favorite story isn’t even mine: it’s my mom’s. When she and my dad were first married, and living far, far away from where they’d grown up, relatives came to visit the newlyweds for Thanksgiving. In anticipation of the big day, my mom prepped and cooked and stressed, I’m sure, to get it all just right. And things looked good: food ready, table set, conversation moving. But when the time came to cut the bird, something curious happened. The conversation quieted, and my sweet, young mother realized that she was supposed to take that plastic bag and its contents out before cooking… Ah, well. We all learn from our mistakes and she has become a fine turkey cook over the years. And pie, did I mention her pie?

Early in my own marriage, it looked as though the non-domestic qualities may have been passed down. When I asked my husband, on his first birthday after our wedding, what kind of cake he’d like me to make (I was trying!), I thought he’d answer with a flavor I’d select from Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines. But no. What he said, exactly, was, “I’d really like an Italian Cream Cake.”

A what?

I definitely had not seen that in the cake aisle. I furtively called his mom, and she faxed me the very complicated recipe. (Anything that involved more than adding oil and eggs was complicated for me, people. I was new at this.)

I measured and stirred and beat those eggs whites and poured the batter into the new tins we’d bought. As I slid it into the oven, it just didn’t look right. “Greg,” I called. “Something doesn’t look right about this cake.” He slid over to the oven, pulled open the door, and asked, “Did you add flour?”

Flour! Right!

But, lo, these many years later, I can bake a mean Italian Cream Cake and a delicious stuffed turkey.I’ve come a long way, baby.

And for that, we’re all thankful.

This post was written as part of Parent Bloggers Network’s blog blast. It’s sponsored this week by the one and only Butterball, which always graces my Thanksgiving table.

A Little Carrot, Indiana Jones, and Granny with Baby: Happy Halloween!

November 3, 2008blog blast, HalloweenKirsetin

So this weekend, I really wanted to participate in the Blog Blast at Parent Bloggers Network because we had some great costumes. Well, sure, I’m a little biased, but still, we had a lovely little carrot, Indiana Jones himself, and Granny with a baby on her back. The latter is seriously the best costume we have ever come up with (thanks familyfun.com), and more people took photos of my son on Friday than ever before. (And, yes, that did freak me out a bit.)

So, for the contest, we can enter our kids’ costumes in several different categories, and if I had a picture, darn it, I’m sure Granny would have a fighting chance at “Most Creative.” But since my camera broke on Thursday morning, I have only have one lonely picture of our carrot, taken with my cell phone during his class party.

Since it’s all I’ve got, and because it’s really cute, I’m entering this one as “Cutest Costume, ages 3 and up.” Surely it has a chance, especially if the little girl who’s mom brought her to storytime in her hand-sewn, to-die-for adorable little skunk costume, isn’t a blogger. And with all that sewing to do, how could she have time? (Here’s hoping!) And here’s my sweet little carrot (the idea was all his, I promise.) Isn’t he cute? Cutest? Right?

If Aimee, Casey, and Tracey–the three fine judges chosen by the Parent Bloggers Network–agree, I could win a gift certificate to Blurb.com, which, clearly, I will need for all the photos I’ll take with my soon-to-be new camera.