Family

Our “Sharing Sunday” tradition

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The beauty of a blog is having the ability to tell the story with words and pictures. I’m not used to that luxury with writing a column for a newspaper. So let’s see what happens with this week’s post!

Every year for about the past 30 years, St. Martha Catholic Church in Kingwood, Texas has had a special weekend in mid-December called “Sharing Sunday.” The gist is parishioners bring mostly gifts, and some groceries, to church. We wrap and tag them with age and gender and bring them up during the offertory. I mean … a boy wouldn’t want to get a baby doll if you know what I mean.

This year the gifts were to benefit 14 local parishes in the Houston area, as well as the needy in our own parish. It is quite a sight to see hundreds of wrapped presents, stuffed animals, bikes and sacks of food stacked in front of the altar and around the church. Our special needs daughter used to point and say “mine,” but not this year. Mimi has her mind focused on “Ho-Ho.”

Our family starts saving for the next “Sharing Sunday” on December 26, by collecting loose change in the empty glass milk jugs that rest next to the microwave. By the time we feed the CoinStar machine the coins almost always total 100 bucks. This year hubby went along for the first time to see how the entire process of purchasing gifts works. I gave him camera duty so he could pay his way.

Next we were off to On the Park, a local Kingwood toy/candy store. I like to use local businesses, and the friendly owner, Fred, is always up for some fun small talk. This year we talked politics for about 30 minutes right next to the stuffed Frosty the Snowman. The other benefit of On the Park is they will wrap everything and I’m a certified terrible package wrapper. Just ask my kids.

“Mom wrapped this one, right?” Katie and Ricky have been known to say on many occasions.

Rick followed me around the store pointing out toys he thought kids would like. I turned down everything with a large price tag. My goal is to purchase as many fun toys as I can for a reasonable price. Did you know “Melissa and Doug” gifts are hot gifts for kids? Who knew? Not me … I’m still waiting for grandkids. We walked out with a dozen nice gifts and can’t wait for next year. Sharing … it’s another reason for the season.

Blackened and most memorable

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I stopped by our local Hallmark Shop last week for a couple of sheets of fancy-looking Thanksgiving-themed paper. Actually, it’s the sort of pretty paper used to print party invites on. I use them to handwrite our holiday menus. Our daughter, Katie, has the artistic flair in the family, so she has handwriting duty.

Every year we audition a couple of new recipes for the holidays along with our favorite tried-and-true dishes. The menu this year kinda looked like this: hickory-smoked turkey with horseradish applesauce, mixed greens and goat cheese with bacon-wrapped figs, homemade orange liquored cranberry sauce, citrus-glazed carrots, sourdough dressing with sausage and dates, sweet potato rolls with honey butter, mashed potatoes and gravy … and for dessert pumpkin cheesecake tart and thick-as-mud chocolate pie. It all tasted as good as it reads … except for … well …

This year I’ve decided to make some notes on the back of the menu like who attended the Frantz family festivities and a couple of memories of the day. Yep, memories like the sourdough dressing with sage-inspired sausage and dates (the recipe called for figs) was the best stuffing ever. And where have bacon-wrapped figs been all my life? Oh, and the delicious pumpkin cheesecake tart from her new Smitten Kitchen cookbook our daughter crafted from scratch that almost wasn’t. Katie didn’t like the thinness of the pumpkin part of the recipe and almost threw the whole thing in the trash. Thanks to our new son-in-law the tart was saved.

Did I mention there was a very important football game on while the finishing touches were being put on the Turkey Day meal? It was the Texans vs. the Lions. We had survived one tense overtime just the week before. Would we survive another? The citrus-glazed carrots were on the grill when the game went into overtime. And you know how long “overtime” sometimes takes in a football game? Let’s just say it was way more than the four to six minutes needed for adding grill marks to carrots.

One of the reasons we make up holiday menu cards is somewhere between the blessing and going through the buffet line, I run a reality check to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything. One year a batch of rolls got left in the oven for a week because I just forgot them.

“Where are the carrots?” I remarked in alarm.

Two sets of eyeballs opened wide, my husband and son-in-law, as they realized they were still on the grill. Let’s just call the citrus-glazed carrots this year’s most blackened and memorable dish. Funniest thing you’ve ever seen! It further lightened the Thanksgiving mood as family stories would soon make it around the table.

In a few days I’ll make my way back to our local Hallmark shop. I need some of that pretty paper for makin’ Christmas menu memories.

For Pinot’s sake

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I learned there are several ways to approach visiting California wineries. One popular way is to reserve a seat on a limo/bus and travel to a bunch of wineries in one day without getting arrested for playing bumper cars on Highway 29. You can find plenty of limo services on the web that, for a fee, will drive you around all day. Our daughter-in-law did just that for our son’s birthday this year. They had a blast! Oh, and they were so snookered by lunch they fell asleep on the grass during one of the winery stops. Yep, and nearly got left behind by their limo driver. I asked if they took any pictures of the wineries. They figured the camera would get lost, so they left it home. Smart kids!

With only one day to get the teeniest sip of wine country, we considered the limo approach, but opted for just picking one winery that included a tour. We actually were in the area to visit our Air Force son, who is today deploying to scary parts of the world, and our lovely daughter-in-law. With a French oak barrel full of possibilities, how in the world does anyone pick a winery? That was the twenty dollar question. Our oldest daughter and new son-in-law came to the rescue. They had just gotten back from their honeymoon in Napa and Sonoma.

“I went to yelp.com and Hendry Winery had lots of great reviews,” Katie said.

She knew her engineer/dad would love George Hendry and his approach to winemaking. I mean how often does one get to be in the presence of a dude that is passionate about wine and also designs cyclotrons for Pinot’s sake? George is also a physicist. I liked that Hendry wine (www.hendrywines.com) is made of grapes harvested from the 140 acres of grapes planted on the estate. Oh, and the bottle of Hendry Pinot that Katie and Chad brought back to us certainly helped sealed the deal.

The tour/tasting lasted 2-1/2 hours. They do them twice a day. Be sure to reserve in advance. It was $40 per person (fee waived with equivalent purchase) and included an educational tour of the vineyard, where they made and stored the wines, and a seated, formal tasting. Katie indicated a “seated tasting” was a little unusual for Napa/Sonoma and she thought we’d enjoy it better than hangin’ onto a bar for dear life. Did we ever!

Somewhere between their unoaked Chardonnay and the Pinot Noir, I was feeling warm and a tad lightheaded. It’s probably why I couldn’t tell you whether we sampled six, seven or eight different wines. We were taught to swirl and sip and it was all good … especially the Pinot Noir. We noticed the difference in taste and color of the barrel fermented and unoaked Chardonnay. Of the 12 bottles we bought, and they conveniently shipped home to us, three were Pinot Noir. We are saving them for a special occasion. What the heck, we’ll uncork a bottle this weekend. Weekends are special, aren’t they?

Pink boas and tiaras

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Happy Halloween!!! Leaving a trail of feathers as I wheeled Mimi down the driveway this morning to her bus, I had to admit the girl was looking mighty fine. Mimi was all decked out in a long pink feather boa and sparkly tiara. Then there was Mimi’s bus driver, Miss Beverly. She was kinda scary-looking dressed all in black with a long black wig and colorful mask. Strange … she must have cast a spell on me. I can’t remember if the mask was orange or pink.

So anyway, today the day center Mimi attends is going to be partying hardy. This year Mimi is a princess for Halloween. Actually, she totally fits the part without the garb. Last year Mimi was an angel … same boa and tiara … but since she has gotten a new wheelchair, the pink angel wings keep falling off the back. I hate when that happens.

Halloween is Mimi’s most favorite holiday. It’s not so much about the candy, although she would totally eat chocolate anything for breakfast if we let her. I’ve never seen Mimi’s baby blues any wider then when she is chugging chocolate milk. We have surmised Mimi’s fascination with Halloween is because she can’t pronounce Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and Valentine’s Day. Actually, she calls every holiday “Halloween,” but we know what she means.

Except for a year in Michigan when Mimi was a tot, we’ve lived on the same block since she was born with cerebral palsy 28 years ago. And we’ve tricked and treated for all but the past couple of years. It takes two people to get her and the wheelchair up the curbs so now Mimi helps hand out the candy. Actually, if the truth were told, Mimi could care less about the candy. She was always more interested in the bear hugs from the neighbors. Oh, and then there are the neighbors who dress up their dogs. That always got ginormous squeals from Mimi.

Yep, I suspect by the time Mimi gets home from the day center, the tiara will be a bit bent and there will not be one feather left on the boa. Next year I’m buying a six pack of both.

Sittin’ with my feet in the breeze

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“Shinin’ on Me” is a new song by Jerrod Niemann. It’s from his album, “Free the Music,” which officially came out today. If you haven’t heard the song yet, it will make you tap your toes, run outside and flop on the grass with your face toward the sun! Yep, it’s that kind of day … a great day to launch a blog.

I am in love with the lyrics of Niemann’s song particularly “life is taking turns, falling flat on your chin, trying to fly with the birds.” I can really relate to that this week. For almost two years, I’ve been trying to get my mother’s green card replaced.

It’s kinda an interesting story. In a peanut shell, my mom was born in Holland in 1933. She survived the Nazi occupation of Holland and immigrated to America on her father’s passport in 1948. She was just 14 years old.

Fast forward a bunch of years. She married, had five kids and a bushel basket full of grandkids. But she never became an American citizen. It was almost two years ago when mom went down to the DPS to get the address on her driver’s license changed. They asked her a simple question that would turn into a quest-like search for the Holy Grail.

“Are you an American citizen?” the DPS clerk asked.

Of course mom wasn’t, and for that matter, she couldn’t prove where she belonged. No green card, no passport, and a driver’s license that would expire in a year.

“I lost my green card in 1948 shortly after I received it,” was mom’s answer.

It was the first time in 63 years that anyone asked for her green card. How does that happen? The clerk told her to come back when she could prove it. Easier said than done. Over the next two years, I went down to our local immigration office with mom more times than I care to count. Mom wasn’t in the government computer. Or course she wasn’t! They didn’t have computers in 1948. Her stuff was probably in the bottom of a moldy box in some basement somewhere. That would require research and waiting. I told mom during our first visit that getting her green card was going to be a quest. I was right.

It only took three months to get her alien number but immigration neglected to give us another piece of information we needed to fill out the application to replace her card. Six months later we learned from the powers-that-be her file was stamped “classified” because it was suspected that someone was trying to steal her identity. Really?

The Freedom of Information Act allowed my mom to get copies of her entry documents so I could fill out the application. It only took three months to get that. So, in the mean time, mom is freaking out driving around with an expired driver’s license. The day we overnighted everything off, I told my mother that one of two things was going to happen. The first is they would just replace the green card and dogs and cats would live in harmony again. The second … they would reject her application but would tell us why and then we’d deal with it.

Today … the day Jerrod Niemann’s song “Shinin’ on Me” came out … my mom got a letter. She is going to get her green card!!!! It’s why I’m “sitting with my feet in the breeze, ain’t sweating the little things, and who know what tomorrow is gonna bring, but today, the sun is shinin’ on me.” Thanks Jerrod!