Thursday, December 15, 2011

Chestnuts, anyone?

What would Christmas be without roasted chestnuts? Totally normal. We've never had them. Have you? What's weird is that we had a chestnut tree in our front yard growing up. We had fun collecting them after they would fall to the ground. I always thought they looked so pretty with their shiny brown swirly wood like patterns. We never thought to eat them but we found out that they made a spectacular popping sound when cars ran over them. So, we would make lines of them across the road. Then we'd hide in the bushes, waiting for the next unsuspecting car to drive by. I can still remember Mr. L pulling his shiny black Mercedes over to the side of the road to see if the damage was as bad as it sounded. Ha! funny.

Anyway, back to the present. We tried roasting chestnuts last night--tried, being the key word there. They were terrible. It was one of my brilliant Chrismassy ideas gone bad. I'm going to blame it on a bad batch. Not that I'm going to try my luck a second time. Those things are expensive! Forget it. We'll stick with our roasted pine nuts.

Oh well. We had some other Chrismassy successes. We went to the Light Parade. Everyone complained about being freezing to death. (So dramatic.) Really, parades in the dead of winter, at dark, are just a parents way of getting their kids to beg to go home, get in their pj's and get right to bed. It worked!

I played in the community production of the "Messiah." Love that music and it's message.
Brynn and Brandon played a violin duet in church of "Away in a Manger." They did a great job. And speaking of violin Brynn passed off Suzuki Book 2 --that takes like a year so don't be shocked when I tell you her reward: a remote control monster truck--really, that's what she chose tonight at the store with Dad. Too bad they forgot to pick up some batteries for it...

We sang carols at the Senior Center--which again brought out the complaining--and the parental reminders that Santa is watching....
We put up the Christmas stars in our front windows. Tonight we got out the gingerbread house kit from last year's clearance. That was $2 well spent. Cannon was very very proud of his creation. And that seems like enough for one week, eh.

In conclusion, I want to share a happy tidbit from the front page of the news today. I just loved this:

(Kmart, Michigan) An anonymous woman approached a Kmart customer service counter and asked to pay off someone's layaway balance...She picked three contract tickets and handed over $500 and signed the receipts, "Happy Holidays from a friend." ...It made the local news...Since then, copycat do-gooders have been popping up all over the United States. One lady who had her $180 ticked paid off said, "It's the best gift that I ever received, and it's the gift of believing in people."

5 comments:

cold cocoa said...

Wow- you're keeping it festive over there! Never thought to actually roast chestnuts. Thought it made a pretty line of the song though!
What a nice idea to pay someone's debt. I should pay the person behind me at Wendy's. I imagine the workers would be all up in a fit trying to figure out how to do that...

stephanie said...

roasting chestnuts! never tried it, probably never will. But good for you for trying.

It sounds like you all are keeping plenty busy.
I liked the Kmart story. It is nice to know that there are good people around.

Megz said...

I don't think I know what chestnuts really are. I thought they were the rough, lined nut that was falling off the tree at my elementary school. Going to have to google it...
I wish someone would pay off some of my bills. But that isn't the Christmas spirit, is it?

TisforTonya said...

I love that idea... the paying off one, the chestnut one too... but right now I'm just glad that you could try it out for us so I don't have to make an attempt any time soon :)

Sherie Christensen said...

I've never eaten a chestnut but I always thought they were pretty too. I didn't know they made loud popping noises when run over! Congrats to Brynn and thanks to you for a happy Christmas season post.