such sweet slumber to be surrounded thus, bliss indeed.
jc
12/13/11

This was last year.

The girls decided to go with the rag dolls again this year. Yay the dress still fits and yay we found the socks and y… crud. The yarn wig was thrashed from a year of Pippi Longstocking summertime adventures. Okay. Problem solved. Rag scrunchies.

Before I found the red and white striped t-shirt (oops, sorry mother in law), I was going to use a bunch of old kid t-shirts I had in the recycle mats bin. I was thinking a multicolored bunch of swing-y tufts at first, but then I found the stripes. Just sitting there in the garage, with a mustard stain. I’m sure she was going to throw it out anyways.

The first few strips I cut were parallel to the stripes. Bad idea. Unless you want BACON HEAD!!!

“Why does that child have bacon attached to her head?”

Recut the rest of the strips the correct and lucked out that the strips rolled into tubes and looked like candy canes. NOTE: If you don’t want tubes, cut the fabric perpendicular to the way you were cutting to get it to curl Easy peasy lemon squeeze-y.

Grabbed a covered elastic band and started tying strips on, simple knots. I had 20 strips per band.

Tah Dah!!!

I pulled her hair up into two high pigtails and then braided, then wound the braids into buns. Wrapped the rag covered rubber bands around the braid buns.

I think she likes them.

Thank you unknown russian family for not adopting me – I don’t know who you are or why you gave me back to the city of Los Angeles, but I’m thankful you did as I hate borscht.

Thank you Aunt Shirley – BEST FOSTER MOTHER IN THE WORLD!! Thank you for always staying in touch and treating me like a daughter even after I was adopted. Girl – you’re like 90 and still rockin around the Valley.

Mom – I miss you. Please watch over me and help me not to mess things up too much.

Beth – Thank you for opening up your home and life. You taught me how to cook, how to shop and oodles of other inappropriate topics anyone is free to ask me about offline.

Christina – my voice of conservative reason. You may be a peer, but I give weight to your opinions. You have no idea how many times I call you to run things through that amazingly succienct mind and heart of yours.

Flavia – I think of all my surrogate moms, you may be my most favorite. Gorgeous, sassy and fabulously witty… Yeah. I want to be Flavia.

And finally Laurie – when mom passed away, I took the chance to contact my birth mom. And Laurie is everything I wanted to find. Everyday we work and build and learn about each other. The most amazing gift of all – her friendship. Thank you Laurie for setting me on this fantastic journey!

I’m a mom now. I LOVE my babygirl. I count my blessings in her and my life every morning and night.

Love your Mom. You mean the world to her.
Wade in the Water
Laurie, my mom, piano
Kira, cousin, guitar

Miss you Mom
Diane Napolitano
1944-1998

edit: I forgot that the drinking age was 21… not 13.

Thanks Beth… thanks for that friendly, but tragic reminder.

“My daddy pulled it out of my face!”

Don’t get me wrong, I am so lucky to be able to hang with my babygirl. She is so freaky cool – she has a llama named Schnitzel and speaks her own language. We we play games, she always gets to be the princess and I get to be the evil queen with nasty intent (woohoo!!). I get to do all kinds of fun things I never got to do as a kid – Shrinky Dinks, Sea Monkeys, and MouseTrap. Wow. We colored, played video games, watched all kinds of movies and cartoons, jumped rope, and on and on and on.

I think she was starting to get fed up with me. She shouted “HOORAY” Friday night when I reminded her she was back to school in a few days. Hooray indeed.

Enough with the bitching, here’s a cookie recipe.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups finely chopped pecans or walnuts
1/4 cup sugar
1 butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla

Powdered sugar

Heat oven to 325°F. Throw it all into your mixer EXCEPT the powdered sugar. Beat at low speed, scrape that bowl, mixity-mix.

Here’s the key to these – they have to be bite-sized. NO BIGGER THAN 2 SMALL BITES! Why? Because these are so f’n light and crispy, they crumble under the slightest pressure. So – get an appropriate sized amount of dough and roll into a ball. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 18 to 25 minutes or until very lightly browned.

Cool 5 minutes; roll in powdered sugar while still warm. THEN LET THEM COOL COMPLETELY!!! and roll them again in more powdered sugar.

Each batch makes 60ish cookies. I had to make 5 batches of these for Christmas this year. They go that fast. Quick make them now!

This week is the last I have before Cat gets out for Christmas vacation.

The plan? Cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.

Or should I put down another $20?