Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, just for the record, here's what I have to say about the Thanksgiving meal:

1. All y'all that go on about finding fancy, healthy alternatives to green bean casserole can kiss my grits. That includes you, Mollie Katzen, and your seared green beans. Yes, they sound delicious. I will probably make them sometime. I will admit to going highbrow by making from-scratch cream-of-mushroom soup and using fresh green beans. And maybe even chanterelle mushrooms. But give me a pan of the Campbell's soup special and I'll all but stick my face right in it. This is not the time of year to get all uppity about side dishes.
   
2. Dressing. Sigh. And with apologies to my dad for what I am about to say: My Mamo makes the absolute best cornbread dressing. Every year I try to replicate it. A couple of years ago I actually cross-referenced about ten dressing recipes, from sources as varied as The Joy of Cooking to The Cotton Country Collection (a Junior League classic!) and drew out a grid of the ingredients. And you know what? Dressing is just not that complicated. Last night I called Mamo, and of course she does not really use a recipe. She walked me through it, and it totally made sense and sounded easy. Tonight I tried once again, mixing the ingredients and cooking up little balls of it in the skillet to taste it. The batch I finally settled on isn't bad, but it lacks the unctuous chickeny-ness that Mamo's always has. The closest I came was when I made up a batch and then cooked whole, bone-in chicken pieces on top--chicken fat makes everything better. But Mamo does not have to resort to these tactics. It's still a mystery...maybe the missing ingredient is a lifetime of cooking three meals a day with whatever is in the fridge and cupboard. I'm just glad I still have her to call, even if she usually says, "oh, well, you just put it on the stove and add a little of this and a little of that and cook it till it's done."
3. Dave is making pecan pie. We'll see if it's any match for my Aunt Brenda's. The pecans are from her yard in Texarkana.
   

P.S. Daddy, you make the very best chicken fried steak.

Baptism

"Sacraments...make something that is already true and available real for us so that we might fully benefit from it." This is from the booklet "Holy Baptism: A Guide for Parents and Godparents," which we received in our pre-baptism meeting. And so yesterday morning we affirmed that Anneke is God's own. Of course, it was lovely--my church really makes a big deal out of baptisms. The children come up from downstairs and sit around the font, VIP style. Anneke was stripped nekkid and plopped into the font. She settled right in like it was bathtime, splashing all over Rev. Joan's Bible and lapping that holy water right up! We were all laughing, and that was my favorite part--that such a sacred occasion was marked by laughter.

The anthem during the service was a choral arrangement of the gospel/bluegrass song "Calling my Children Home" by Doyle Lawson and Charles Waller. It's haunting and sad, about missing your children who are far away. I really missed my parents yesterday, and, as with most things in life these days, a song like that has new meaning for me now that I am a parent.

But Dave's parents were there in the second pew, as well as some of our good friends. Anneke has her Mormon Godmother, Auntie Emily, and her Jewish Godmother, Diane. Both of these women are going to be there for her and will honor and support Anneke in her faith. They will also be there when she is a sulky teenager or when I am being a worrywart mom. And Anneke has a parish sponsor, Peggy, who will be a special person for her at church. I got to know Peggy when I was on the Vestry, and then she did the flowers at our wedding as well as Diane and Matt's. She reached out to me when Dave was recovering from his accident and left lovely presents for Anneke and me on our porch one day last spring.

These folks and a few friends came over for brunch afterwards. We were all wiped out by the time everyone left! But it was a perfect celebration, and everyone who came is someone I hope will know Anneke throughout her life.

One thing missing were in-focus photos. It was just too much to fiddle with camera settings with everything else. But not to worry! We'll upload a video soon. And I think Ms. A got some good shots of Anneke in her christening gown.

Peek-a-boo

We have been made aware that Anneke's cousin, Juliette, new favorite pastime to watch videos of Anneke. With that in mind we documented the latest cute development in our child's life. Her little brain has developed enough to understand at least a few key words and she has to motor skills necessary to mimic us playing the classic "Peek-a-boo" game.

Needless to say, when she did this spontaneously for me while I was on baby duty in the basement on Wednesday the 19th, my heart melted.



Special thanks to Ken who lent me his fancy new HD camera for the weekend.

Singing and other mischef

The video stands on its own.

Fancy!

A friend of ours is visiting from New York City. The first thing I noticed was her new purse. She explained that she is a member of Bag, Borrow, or Steal. All of a sudden I feel like I'm in a Sex in the City Episode! Anneke, don't get any ideas--this purse is Just Visiting.

Fair warning

There's been a lot of talk lately about killer raccoons in these parts, but not nearly enough attention has gone to this issue. Emma and Anna-Lisa, this may be the most important thing you read today.

Eight months!

Two and a half more teeth than she had before! And didn't I say she'd be sitting up for her eight month photos?

With her good buddy, Barack Obama (long story. I can't actually remember why her glow worm has that name. but it's her absolute favorite toy. Thanks, Aunt Stephanie!)

My little bibliophile....

Our beautiful, happy baby.

Anneke Grace, you have transformed our lives in a most magnificent way. We love watching you grow.

Crawling

After 1.5 hours of fighting with Adobe Premiere Elements 7, we have this video proof of the arrival of the dreaded crawling stage of our beloved child's development.



My quick review of Premiere Elements 7:

• It's so slow that it is barely usable on my system that is only a couple of years old.
  
• I definitely know my way around a computer and I have edited a few videos in my time. After at least 4 hours of reading the online-only manual, I am using the program but still don't fully grock it.
  
• Did I mention it is slow? Man.
  
• It does work and can do more than I need.
  

Beating the PNW blues

The weather is soooo crappy right now. I was thinking I need to get one of those light boxes. But no. This is all I need to keep my spirits lifted.

God is not a Republican or a Democrat...

...just food for thought.

Today I found this blog entry by Sister Helen Prejean. I love her. She and Mister Rogers are my absolute heroes. I am fairly confident that we on the religious right and left, and those on the NON-religious right and left, might agree with this. I think. I don't mean to be presumptuous.

I'm treading carefully because I have lots of loved ones whose political leanings are different than mine, and I do love them.

That said, I just gotta say this: I'm disappointed that Measure One did not pass in Arkansas. I went to bed last night thinking I need to do more to support gay and lesbian rights in honor of all of my friends, colleagues, fellow parishioners, and family members who are just trying to live their lives and raise their kids and love their partners. I don't plan on using this blog as a platform for discussing this issue (okay, beyond this post?) because I know it's inflammatory, and I know some people who read this don't agree with me. But in my opinion it's also a civil rights issue.

Okay, all done. I really try to keep my mouth shut on this blog about this kind of thing, but y'all know me, and 'tis the season.

Happy Halloween!

As you can see, the pig costume turned out just fine!

Here we have the haunted family:

We went trick-or-treating with McMiller Pdx, and after little Miss Piggy was sound asleep, Dave and I settled into the man cave and gorged ourselves on popcorn and candy bars. It was easier to rebound from that kind of thing when I was ten.