Tag: Holidays

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Things to Be Happy About, Vol. 6

Melanie

There is no duty we so underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy, we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.
— Robert Louis Stevenson

So let’s delve into my bag of tricks (or Happy Notebook, as it were) and see what we come up with this week, shall we?

1. tree branches covered with ice
2. finally getting the courage to start a conversation with that cute Spanish guy you followed halfway across Salamanca
3. a down-to-the-wire sporting event [not unlike Monday’s Patriots-Ravens game, even if it did turn out the wrong way]
4. winning a game of Scrabble against your grandma for the first time [my grandma is a serious Scrabble player, and she does not go in for any of that let-them-win-because-they’re-kids stuff, so the first time I won, it was a big deal]
5. singing a duet in a big concert with your best friend
6. Polaroid cameras
7. changing leaves against a bright blue sky
8. auctions [I don’t know about where you live, but in Central PA where my parents live, auctions are prime people-watching venues, and you’ve never seen people spend so much money on a basket in your life]
9. Grand Central Station

What else is new? Well, my boss just announced today that I and each of my co-workers get a day off every week for the rest of the year, including this week, so that’s pretty cool. We’re calling it “a day on which you report to work elsewhere, and your assignments are at your discretion” because he can’t really give us the day off, but he still wants to reward us for our kick-ass productivity. It’s code. Shhh. Of course, I’m the juniorest of all my co-workers, so I got last dibs on the days I wanted, and it’s kind of annoying to have off on a Tuesday or a Thursday because you can’t make a long weekend out of it, but I’ll take it.

Sunday, I’ve been invited to my boss’s house for brunch, and according to his latest email, “this would be the perfect time to have our annual round-robin gift exchange.” Good holy god, I hate those things. If this is one of those White Elephant things where you pick a gift and open it, then the next person can either pick an unwrapped gift or steal the gift you already opened, I might cry. No matter what I buy, I always feel I’ve contributed the inferior gift, and I hate the “stealing” part of the whole thing; it makes me uncomfortable. I’d so much rather pull a name from a hat and just buy for that person. So, the limit is $20, and there are 6 of us participating – 4 women (including myself), ranging in age from 26 to 50, and two men, one who’s 25 and the other (my boss) who’s in his late 50s. What the hell do I buy? I’m thinking wine glasses from Pier One. Any other ideas?

Speaking of Christmas, I still have not started shopping, so that’s kind of stressing me out. I have multiple items in my Amazon shopping cart, I just haven’t pulled the trigger and purchased them yet because some people (who probably don’t even read this) haven’t bothered to send me Christmas lists, so I can’t be sure if I’ve chosen wisely or not. In years past, I’ve been finished by now and on to wrapping them, but since I have to work for a living these days, the time seems to have evaporated much more quickly than I anticipated. Anyone else not finished or not started yet? Make me feel better by commenting, please.

I went down to Richmond this weekend to see my niece and nephew (and my brother and sister-in-law, but who am I kidding? Bring on the babies). I’ll tell you what, there’s nothing like spending time with people under 5 to make you forget your troubles, that’s for sure. I laughed more on Saturday with the two of them than I probably have in the past month at home. I adore them beyond all reason, and just as soon as I come up with fake names for them, you can be sure I’ll bore you to tears with tales of their abundant cuteness.

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Things to Be Happy About, Vol. 4

Melanie

If only we’d stop trying to be happy, we’d have a pretty good time.
— Edith Wharton

It’s Thanksgiving this week, which makes this feature especially apropos today, I think. I love Thanksgiving; it’s my favorite holiday, and it has surprisingly little to do with food.

In my family, we go to my grandfather’s house in Maryland. Usually – and this year is no exception – it’s my grandfather and his wife, my parents, me, my brother and sister-in-law and their two kids, an uncle, some cousins, and a great-aunt or two. We gather sometime after noon and congregate in the kitchen, eating appetizers (because if there’s one thing there’s not enough of on Thanksgiving, it’s food), or in the living room. Sometimes there’s football on, sometimes not, but even when there is, no one’s really paying attention.

My favorite part is that everyone has their own “thing” to do: my grandfather’s in charge of the turkey, his wife does the stuffing (and when my great-grandmother was alive, this always started the great stuffing v. dressing debate – for the record, it’s stuffing when it’s cooked in the turkey, dressing when it’s cooked on its own). I’m on mashed potato duty, my mom does vegetables or dessert, my dad’s cousin makes homemade bread. The men in my family make the gravy. My grandfather taught my dad who taught my brother. Thank god my brother had a boy; now I’m set for gravy for the rest of my life!

Ok, so it is about the food, I lied. But it’s more than that. It’s that we have these traditions that revolve around the food. I don’t know how any of them started – convenience, I suppose – but I do know that, like that Visa commercial where the hapless customer tries to pay with cash and effs the whole process up, Thanksgiving would be chaos without everyone playing their roles. I love being in the kitchen with all that activity going on around me, but knowing I only have to worry about the giant pot of potatoes in front of me and making sure I accurately report at what time they’ll be done so everyone can plan accordingly.

This year, though, I’m also attempting an appetizer and a dessert. I plan to make them at home before I head up to Maryland, so as to minimize the disturbance of the aura in the kitchen. We’ll see how it goes. Maybe I’ll even win the post-dessert marathon game of Hearts for once.

So, in honor of Thursday, here’s a short, Thanksgiving-themed Things to be Happy About:

1. cranberry sauce still in the shape of the can [yeah, we have no pretensions when it comes to cranberry sauce]
2. big Thanksgiving dinners
3. when everyone has their “specialty dish” to make at Thanksgiving
4. family traditions
5. homemade ice cream
6. the “elegant” salt and pepper shakers [this is from a story my great-grandmother used to tell about my grandfather when he was a boy; they went shopping for salt and pepper shakers and he asked if they could buy the “elegant” ones. They did, and we use them to this day]

I hope you’ll share some of your Thanksgiving traditions with me in the comments – I’d love to hear about them!

P.S. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that by this time tomorrow, we’ll know for sure whether I’m a chicken or not. Dentist. Tomorrow. 4 pm. I’ll post an update either way, I promise.