Holiday Weekend

With the coronavirus still firmly in our midst here in Franklin County, big plans for the July 4th holiday weekend were out of the question. We did manage to make the weekend special, however, with a few precautions.
We visited my family in Northwest Ohio for the first time since February. Since then, my sister and her family moved to a new house, so we got to see that for the first time while simultaneously celebrating her youngest son's fifth birthday and the holiday. The kids were thrilled to visit their cousins again. We were careful, of course -- we spent the entire time outside, aside from bathroom breaks.

The cousins and Grandpa.

Edith

Edith and Atticus were thrilled to go swimming in a pond for the first time, and they were so excited that Aunt Katie gave them some sparklers they could try out at home. Pandemic or not, it was a lovely weekend.

The Holiday Season Begins

The long holiday weekend was so full but relaxing that I nearly forgot that it was blog day!

It's been a busy week -- last Tuesday Edith had some eight girls over after school to celebrate her birthday. Wednesday we purchased a new dishwasher. Thursday was Thanksgiving, of course, although it ended up being very relaxing since it was just our family and Paul's mom (although that didn't stop us -- ok, mostly her -- from cooking up a full spread). Friday we decorated for Christmas, inside and out. Saturday was the Ohio State-Michigan football game, followed by another trip to visit with Paul's family to celebrate his mom's birthday. And Sunday I didn't leave the house -- although I did read nearly 200 pages of a book that's been sitting on my bookshelf for longer than I care to admit.

Most Christmas presents are purchased. Decorations are hung. The weather is cold but not bitingly so. Just less than three weeks of school before break. The holidays are in full swing, and I think I'm ready for them.

Best Mother's Day Ever

My needs are simple -- an afternoon to myself and my favorite cookie, and it's the best day ever.

The kids were super excited when they woke up on Mother's Day. Trying to keep their gifts a secret all week was hard work! I was showered with three cards, multiple pictures and a gift covered in Edith's prized sparkle tissue paper -- an open box of pencils and some of their Easter candy. :) They were very proud.

That afternoon Paul took them to COSI, giving me the house to myself for three whole hours. I read half of a book. When they got home they presented me with one of my top three desserts of all time -- a chocolate truffle cookie from Northstar Cafe.

Everyone was in a good mood from morning to night. If only every day were Mother's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day, and for the first time in a long time, someone in this house actually cares.

Spoiler alert: It's Edith. She has made a valentine for me and another for daddy, and a few random ones just for good measure. And she has received a couple from our neighbors, so I think that she'll spend this morning making a few more to drop off in  her friends' mailboxes. Craft + outing = Perfect activity. For Edith, at least.

I guess I wasn't exactly truthful in my first sentence. I care about Valentine's Day, but only because Paul usually celebrates by bringing me home a yummy treat. Ask me in 12 hours if the tradition continued.

From 2016 to 2017

The holiday season has been punctuated by illness. The worst of it was nearly a week ago, but I'm sneezing even now as I write this on Monday night.

Christmas was great. It was a day spent shuttling between family in Hilliard and Defiance, like usual. Unfortunately, my sister and her family were sick and out of commission that day, but I assumed we would likely see them later in the week. It didn't happen.

On Tuesday night Edith puked. It was a one and done, and she was better in no time. On the other hand, I was throwing up every 45 minutes from 1 to 5 a.m. Wednesday. I hadn't felt so bad since the early days of my pregnancies.

I was nauseous most of the rest of the day and slept it away while Paul and my parents watched the kids. Worst of all, we had to cancel plans to see some friends that evening.

The next day I was 100 percent better, just in time to go back to Columbus. We went to a party Friday night and hosted our own on New Year's Eve. Then on New Year's Day entered the congestion and sneezing. Nothing serious, but way annoying.

The end of the holiday season is always a bit depressing, and this year it feels even worse. I'm already ready for winter to be behind us.

Fourth of July in Clintonville

This past weekend was our first Independence Day in Columbus in about eight years, and our first in Clintonville ever. Although we lived in Clintonville last July, we spent the weekend in northwest Ohio visiting family. So this was an inauguration of sorts.

It almost wasn't much of a weekend. Paul found out Thursday that he unexpectedly would have to work on Friday. Then on Friday we got some bad news -- our oven needs to be replaced. And then Friday evening my slight headache turned into vomiting and tossing and turning on the couch all night.

I still wasn't feeling great in the morning, so Paul and Edith went to a holiday parade in nearby Worthington while I stayed home with Atticus. But luckily by the afternoon I was feeling much, much better.

We had been waffling back and forth about whether to attend the neighborhood's fireworks. On the one hand, they are within walking distance. On the other, they don't start until an hour after Edith's bedtime. At the last minute we decided to go.

Atticus slept through the 20 minute display. Edith seemed to enjoy them but was distracted. (Paul said the parade definitely was better at keeping her attention.) I'm glad we went, if only so I don't remember the holiday as the weekend I got sick and bought a new oven. Blah.

A New Kind of New Year's Eve

B.C. -- before child -- New Year's Eve was generally spent at a bar or a friend's place (sometimes both), with beer and much discussion beforehand about who would be the designated driver.

This year Paul and I hosted a small New Year's Eve get-together for his family and a couple of family friends. Edith was in bed long before the ball dropped, sleeping soundly as the rest of us chatted, played board games and ate copious amounts of food. Maybe the latter was just me. Who can resist fudge and peanut butter pie?

It wasn't a New Year's Eve of yore, but that's OK by me. It was a happy medium between the B.C. Eves and last year's -- which I can't totally recall but believe I was trying to coax my then-one-month-old back to sleep during the countdown.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2014.

Presidents (Day) by the Book

Happy Presidents Day weekend! That means it's time for an update on how Paul and I are doing on our goal to read one biography of each US president.

Unfortunately this year there isn't much to report. In 2012 I read a total of two presidential biographies: one on William Howard Taft (which I wrote about last Presidents Day) and another in October on Woodrow Wilson.

Paul is a book or two behind me, but he is doing his best to keep up his blog, Presidents by the Book. In fact, he just published a post earlier this month.

We haven't given up the project -- how could we, when we're nearly two-thirds of the way done?! But obviously we have slowed down. At this rate we'll be lucky to be to Obama by the time his successor is elected. If you haven't noticed, we've had another thing or two on our plates.

Next up: Warren G. Harding, a newspaper publisher and fellow Ohioan. And the 29th president on the list of 44.

No blog post on Monday. Have a great holiday, and come back on Wednesday!

So Much to Be Thankful For

Tomorrow's Thanksgiving; as usual, I have a lot to be thankful for. Even more so this year.

I've been trying to write and schedule these blog posts about a week before they are actually published -- it's actually the morning of Friday, Nov. 16, as I write this -- so maybe Edith has been born by now. Or maybe not: she's due on Thanksgiving Day itself. Either way, I'm thankful for a healthy, drama-free pregnancy (though perhaps not the morning sickness that came with it). I hope the birth is the same.

I'm thankful for a husband who is just as excited as I am and who has already read Edith a story every night for the last 10 weeks. And I'm thankful for all of the family members who plan to share our joy by coming to help and visit in December.

But I'm also thankful for the family and friends in Ohio and elsewhere who have checked up on Paul and me and simply kept us in their thoughts. We're lucky to know all of them.

Lastly, I'm thankful that the hormones that make me write weepy, sentimental blog posts like this will soon be out of my system. Maybe in six weeks I'll be back to normal.

Whether or not Edith is here, there will be no blog post on Friday since it's the day after Thanksgiving. And since, as I mentioned, I'm staying ahead on blog posts, a non-baby-related post on Monday and any day after doesn't mean she's not here! Paul and I will be posting the arrival on all the usual spots when we can -- and/or want to!

Who Needs Chocolates or Jewels?

A local pizza joint offers this each Valentine's Day, but I've never come home to find one on the table. Maybe Paul doesn't love me after all. :)

My NYC Hamantaschen Quest for Purim

I've learned a lot about Jewish holidays since moving to New York, but I first heard of Purim in Ohio.

That's also where, roughly four years ago, I first encountered hamantaschen. I've been craving the three-cornered jelly-filled treats ever since.

I had a weekend shift as a reporter at the Springfield News-Sun, and I was assigned to cover the Purim celebration at the local temple. I was immediately fascinated by the mix of costumes, games, food and religion -- it felt like my old elementary school's annual fall festival, with the Book of Esther thrown in.

I heard Esther's story in Springfield and later read it on my own. The biblical book itself is pretty short and reads much more like a fairy tale than many of the other books (I'm looking at you, Revelation). But, to make a short story even shorter, Esther and Mordechai thwart Haman's plans to kill the Jews.

At the Springfield celebration I had my first -- and up until this month, only -- hamantaschen. I'm normally not a fan of jelly on cookies, but for this I make an exception. The dough-to-jelly ratio was perfect, and the shape of the cookies added to the whimsy. Hamantaschen -- variously translated as Haman's hat, ears or pockets, I've heard -- are always triangular.

Purim this year began at sunset Saturday and continues through today. To mark the occasion, I was determined to sample some New York City hamantaschen.

Unfortunately, I determined this on Saturday -- the one day of the week many strict Jewish businesses are closed. But I would not be deterred. Introducing Russ & Daughters hamantaschen.

Russ & Daughters is much more famous for its fish and lox, but its desserts are nothing to sneeze at. In fact, Tablet Magazine named Russ & Daughters' hamantaschen tops in a taste test of bakeries in six cities in five states.

But when I got to Russ & Daughters on Saturday afternoon, the hamantaschen were all sold out. I combed a 10 block area on the Lower East Side without luck before making a last ditch effort at Whole Foods. None there either.

Finally I started calling bakeries in Bay Ridge. I found success on my second call. Bay Ridge Bakery, a mere two blocks from our apartment, had some left.

I rushed home from the Lower East Side and picked out a prune hamantaschen 15 minutes before the shop closed. (And a piece of chocolate-covered baklava because -- well, why not?)

The look was a bit off -- usually you can see much more of the jelly filling on top -- but I can't complain about the taste. The shortbread-like pastry had a slight lemony taste, and the prune jelly was so good I could have eaten it plain.

Final thoughts: we Catholics could learn a few things about desserts.

Happy Valentine's Day, Kind Of

I don't believe in Valentine's Day.

Correction: I believe the holiday exists. But I don't believe in any overt celebration of it.

Even that's not entirely true. I will indeed wish my husband a happy Valentine's Day today. I'm not, after all, a love-Grinch. I will not, however, be receiving a gift from Paul, nor will he be receiving one from me.

Paul and I mutually agreed to a ban on Valentine's Day gifts several years ago. I'm not even sure when. I asked him this weekend if he could remember one Valentine's Day gift he had either presented to or received from me. He could not. The only one I could remember was the first I had given him, way back in 2002: a DVD of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." I'm not sure if he's watched it even three times in nine years.

I do remember several of the Valentine's Day outings we've made -- dinner at Ann & Tony's in West Jefferson, or Cap City in Gahanna. They were restaurants we normally would have gone to anyway, except on those days we dressed up. I couple of years ago we even spent Valentine's Day weekend in Vermont, but that was only because it fell on President's Day weekend, hence the extra day off of work.

Maybe we'll go out to eat tonight, I don't know. I doubt it. There will be no flowers, no piece of jewelry. There will be chocolate, but probably only from my everyday stash in the cupboard.

This time of year I feel a little like I do in December, when I want to wish people happy holidays but I'm not sure of their religion. On that note: Happy Valentine's Day, if you celebrate.