Tulip Time 2010

I've been talking about our unseasonably warm weather for some time now—I cannot remember a year when things have been so green so early, or when I have already had to mow the lawn a handful of times even before the arrival of May. We have really delighted in the early spring, but there are pros and cons to any deviation from the norm and Tulip Time had not the visual delights it usually holds for us each May because most of the tulips had already absconded with their aesthetic charms by the time we arrived on the first of the month. Thankfully Holland has many other charms to offer, most notably the beautiful lake, but the dining and shopping in their quaint downtown are enjoyable as well. We took in some Klompen Dancing around Centennial Park, enjoyed two meals at New Holland Brewing Company (I'd say these were enhanced by the new smoking ban, but I don't remember the place being smoke-filled in previous visits), walked the beach, played frisbee, played tennis, cooked a great Cinco de Mayo meal with family, and had an all around relaxing and enjoyable time.

Shopping found us a literal rainbow of KitchenAid stand mixers. Ahhhhh.

Lake Michigan sunsets are a real Michigander's greatest joy. Well, that and the sandy beaches and dunes.

New Holland beer samplers—with three people ordering one each you can just about cover every beer, or at least every beer we deemed worth trying.

Who knew Cookie Monster was a fan of Tulip Time?

The pictures are up in the May 2010 photo folder.

New Years up north

And now, a final installment of our holiday times. Like we have in previous years, we packed up the car and headed north to celebrate the new year in snowy and frigid style. As it turns out, they definitely had more snow up there, something we'd been missing down here, but the three degree weather wasn't actually any colder, not that we'd have noticed anyhow; once it gets down that far we tend to stay inside.

Our trip was as delightful and relaxing as always. We did some snacking, some napping, some eating, some shopping, some napping, a lot of reading, some snacking, some movie watching, some eating, and some walking. Yes, outside. Hey, if the deer can do it, why can't we? (to be fair, we walked when it was 20 degrees, not 3).

New Year's Eve was quiet and fun. Well, sort of quiet; my mother and godmother thought fit to open a package of party horns before Calvin went to bed. Thankfully not too long before.

We did our usual goofy gift exchange while sipping champagne. If you think the pooping santa claus candy dispenser ever gets old, you must be wrong; I think it has circulated now for upwards of four years. The cork coasters, on the other hand, have only just started their lifetime of riducule.

I'm sure you've caught on that we do a lot of eating when we on this trip. Most of that is a combination of snacking (mmm smoked fish), and traditional meals (mmm bot bie), but whenever we've made it that far north we always have to trek those last 45 minutes north to Mackinaw City to eat at the Key Hole Bar where the fried perch is to die for (and I don't just mean because of the grease content).

While in Mackinaw we usuallly shop, too, between the few clothing stores that remain open, the Hush Puppy place, and the fudge shops, you really can't go wrong. We didn't find much to bring home this year, though it took some convincing to get Calvin to leave the monkey behind. The Indiana Jones getup (yes, that's a cow backpack), was slightly less of a problem.

We didn't find anything to buy in Mackinaw, although on New Year's Eve, while shopping in Petoskey, we came away from the used book store there with a 1904 numbered edition of Flaubert's Sentimental Education, so we weren't too heartbroken.

By the way, does this remind anyone else of Chevy Chase? I'm thinking Christmas Vacation...

This, on the other hand, reminds me of Norman Rockwell. Or at least it would, if it weren't for all the SUVs, minivans, and crossovers. Still, it's pretty and quaint. That's one of the reasons we love Harbor Springs.

And this concludes the holiday series. We will now return to regular life.

Christmas day times two

Here is a second installment. We enjoyed so much Chrismtas this year that I'll have to split it into two volumes.

Christmas mornig, Santa gifts, stocking with oranges and change that hints at your age (shhh! don't tell!), and always presents enough to go around.

Everyone had a lot of help opening presents, and it was often hard to tell who was more excited, the receiver or the giver (of help, that is).

Not all wrapping jobs required opening help, or even opening at all.

Nap time. Oh joy.

Squid for snack! An odd tradition, but Curits makes a mean dish of tentacles and it's hard to pass up. This year we didn't even wait to up the presentation, we ate it straight from the stove.

Christmas dinner at the Carman's, where the younger set had us playing with bristle blocks (remember those?), cash registers, and doll houses. Christmas is about the kids, after all, even the bigger ones.

AND...we are fortunate enough to have two whole Christmas Days; Jon's family, two years in a row now, have had a second Christmas on the 26th just so that we can spread our fun out, instead of burning out. Day two of Christmas, for both years now, has been relaxing, quiet, and completely enjoyable.

Upon arrival we were treated to a reprise of Calvin and Opa's juice squeezing. Fun and delicious.

Cameras, cameras everywhere.

Calvin made gifts for everyone this year. Wine charms for the men in his life, and Christmas carolers and hand painted book bags for the women. It was a really fun process, and a huge hit come gift opening time.

Joy on Christmas is being cozy and warm with family.

I think the horse on strings was one of the favorite gifts of the day. Jon's mom found him at the Renaissance Festival in Holly and new he just had to join our family. He doesn't have a name yet, but is certain to be well loved.

In Jon's family shuffleboard is a holiday tradition. I love old traditions, especially ones that are so darn entertaining.

Our New Years trip to Harbor Springs will be next up in the series, and I'll try to get to that later today or tomorrow.

Christmas Eve

It seems a very long time since I last entered this site, and in truth it is, though not nearly as long as it feels. The Christmas season is always such a busy one, and for all the right reasons; it feels as though we've lived a lifetime in the past two weeks, and not once did I import pictures from the camera. Thankfully our memory card is good for upwards of 600 shots, but as time passed and pictures amassed, the job just looked more and more daunting until, finally, today I ran out of space on that behemoth and was forced to import so I could erase it.

Going through them, on the other hand, is still a massive job waiting to be tackled and I am doing in stages and uploading in installments. Installment the first, then, is Christmas Eve. I'll be back in a bit with the continuation, after I've sorted through the over 200 pictures that are Christmas alone.

Christmas Eve at Kerrytown. It was chilly, but not down right cold, and unfortunately not even thinking about snowing. Santa hats don't have quite the same affect without snow and cold.

Christmas Eve means waiting in a jovial line at Monahan's to pick up our Christmas Eve oysters and squid. Some people think that's strange. I make no further comment.

Christmas Eve also means lunch at Kosmo Deli with a side of seafood chowder from Monahan's.

Christmas Eve means a romp through the delightful little shops that call Kerrytown home. I think Found is my favorite—a collection of everything yesteryear, and sometimes yesterday.

And I still remember Christmas Eve nights spent with cousins, all of us eager with anticipation of the following days splendor. Half of us now coddle those same expectations in our own youngsters.

Holiday Nights

We've heard a lot of people say that Christmas is for children, but we don't think it necessarily has to be all for them. In fact, there are some parts of Christmas that ought to be kept for adults only, watching Christmas Vacation, for instance, or drinking eggnog with rum in it. Spending an evening in the dark, freezing cold at Greenfield Village's Holiday Nights festival is another tradition that is probably best left to an all adult crowd, or at least a sans toddler crowd (a truth we found out the hard way two years ago).

Last year, after our first failed attempt the year previously, we found friends who, thankfully, love the cold just as much as we do. Or maybe it's more that they enjoy good company, if we can so call ourselves, and a healthy dose of Christmas past. Either way, we had such a blast on our frigid evening last year that we decided to try again this year.

This year was possibly even better. The weather was significantly warmer, and we weren't feeling the rush to get home because our respective toddlers were spending the night with their respective grandparents. So we casually strolled the decorated streets of the village, enjoying Christmas greetings from everyone we passed while munching on roasted chestnuts pulled from the warm paper bags we bought at a nearby street vendor. We stopped in to chat with the tin smith, then the woman running the printing press. We watched them blow glass, and endured a short lesson in the school house. And you can't have a Holiday Nights evening without a hot drink and a few slices of hobo bread.

I don't know if fireworks were a part of Christmases past or not, somehow I doubt it, but they capped off the evening with a group sing in the center of town and a short display over the little lake. It was, really, a perfect and relaxing evening. The fact that we were, shortly thereafter, summoned home to retrieve our little boy, who was suffering from the nighttime discomforts of his first serious cold in his lifetime, did little to dampen the evening's spirits. It turned out to be a good thing that we headed home when we did, since the existing drizzle turned to ice when we were still 15 minutes shy of exiting the expressway, a weather anomaly that was likely to have only gotten worse had we waited the extra hour intended. It's wonderful when things just work out well.