Farro Family Aprons

During the Christmas holidays -- there was A LOT OF COOKING...Lillian, in one of her dozen little velvet dresses -- making cookies. She is really concentrating -- but the dress is mostly safe because, of course, she has her own little apron!!

Grandma has her own apron, too...(and my favorite necklace -- a gift from Lilly & Emily)...

The cookies are of the refrigerator-tube-variety. But that's not really the point of this activity...

It's more about having a conversation while you are doing something together...making cookies, putting stickers on the windows, watching a snow storm...making sure you are wearing just the right accessories...

When Lilly comes here, she knows exactly where her apron is hanging...
And her first choice of activity is always -- CUPCAKES!!

This isn't such a great picture -- but Lilly is sooo excited -- her little fists are moving at hyper-speed...as she presents the finished cupcakes to Grandpa...

At her own house in Wisconsin, she has a different little apron -- which also hangs on it's own hook...

Because I'm a big believer in hanging aprons on hooks in kitchens...I have several full-size aprons on this hook at all times...One of them was a gift from Mary Mulari for my 50th birthday...one is a wrap apron from the 1930's that I bought at an antique store (while shopping with Mary)...

Mary Mulari is a big part of the Farro Family apron story. Here, with John -- who is wearing his favorite "butchering apron" -- also a gift from Mary.

It's reversible -- one side is a golf fabric...

So -- my best winter-activity-advice is to GO THROUGH YOUR STASH...and make a bunch of aprons while you're snowed in. (remember -- if you can't get to the fabric store -- you could use old t-shirts for one side). Giving anybody an apron is such a practical, appreciated gift -- and what I love about it is that every time they wear the apron, they'll think about you.

If you don't have a pattern you like -- be sure to check out Mary Mulari's website --

Parker's Aunt Rita Adventure

One of the great joys of my life is that I have S0 MANY WONDERFUL GREAT-NIECES and NEPHEWS. And I am a very lucky Great-Aunt because lots of them live close enough for me to occasionally take them on Aunt Rita Adventures.

My adventures can be anything under the sun...and some are better than others. In many ways, they are like the Forrest Gump movie and that box of chocolates...

The very best thing about these events is that they are a GREAT EXCUSE for me to attend a completely fun, entertaining activity...with no redeeming knowledge or benefit whatsoever.

Case in point -- recently I saw an ad for an event at the Waterfront Convention Center. A "magician" was going to perform. Ron Royals -- he was billed as "an illusionist".

WHAT FUN!! All I have to do is figure out who's next in the Aunt-Rita-Adventure-lineup.

PARKER!!

Yippee kayee. Parker is 14 years old -- PERFECT....here's my favorite picture of him at Christmas, with his Mom, Nicole...


When I went to pick him up -- I gave him the keys to my car. He very recently got his learner's permit -- so I thought this would be a memorable part of our adventure. And it was. In a very good way. Parker was a careful and considerate driver -- with a good sense of the "middle of the road" and an excellent awareness of the speed limits, etc.

He chose Red Robin for our pre-show dinner. I didn't tell him what the actual "event" was until he pulled into the convention center parking lot.

The dinner was delicious, the magic show was entertaining -- and the kid is terrific.
Parker is a bright young man, who loves sports, is active on all kinds of team activities, AND he got a 4.0 GPA last semester...(which he just about always does).

It was such a pleasure for me to spend a little one-on-one time with Parker and talk about stuff. Nothing major. Our family....how it seems like just yesterday I was teaching my own boys how to drive...Now Elliott is in the Army and Ross travels all the time...

Gee...it all goes so fast... In a blink of an eye, little kids grow up and want to borrow the car....

I have a small picture of Parker in a magnet frame on my refrigerator. He's a year old baby, with an odd blonde curl of hair over his left ear. Could that picture really be hanging there for 14 years already??

The first full understandable sentence Parker spoke aloud...

"My name is Parker Martin Kearney and I come in peace."

Grace & My Best Uncle

The best Christmas gift I received this year came from my Uncle Melvin.

My mother's younger brother -- he has always been everybody's favorite Uncle. When we were growing up -- he was a fun loving young man who came into the room with a big smile -- and actually had CONVERSATIONS with us kids. Looking back at it -- it is stunning to me that he took so much time and was always interested in what we were doing.

I mean -- WHO DOES THAT?

He'd show up at our house (six kids, remember?) -- with a brown paper bag full of Hersey bars. Then he'd play baseball with us in the front yard...

When my brother Calvin was nine years old, he spent a long time in the hospital having surgery on his ear. When he came home -- Uncle Melvin had BUILT HIM A CAR. We called it the "jeep" -- it was burgundy and had a gas engine -- and we drove it all over the farm...for years...

Really...who does that??

This year -- on Christmas Day, Uncle Melvin gave me a CD he had made -- which was a snippit our family from the 1950's -- when he was the only guy in the county with a home movie camera.

He's spent the last year -- watching hours and hours of those old home movies -- and then moving the images to today's digital technology. He made and delivered 32 CD's to various people and families...

For example, he sent a CD to a woman (now 65 years old and living in Florida) -- who is the daughter of a man Uncle Melvin knew from his Navy days. In the 50's -- they vacationed together and the movies show a young family camping and horsing around for the camera. Uncle Melvin's friend died when he was only 49 years old. When that Florida woman got the CD, showing her as a young girl, with her Dad...Well -- you can imagine.

I mean -- WHO DOES THAT??

When Uncle Melvin walked into my house for our New Year's Dinner -- he was wearing a blue and green plaid shirt. Just like the man in the picture. "Grace" -- remember?

Because John was ALSO WEARING a blue and green plaid shirt -- I decided to set up a photo moment...with John on one side and Uncle Melvin on the other....Kathy is holding the picture...

In their blue/green plaid shirts -- my husband John and my Uncle Melvin....

If saying "Grace" is about being thankful for your blessings...I am....because they are...

STELLA awards

For some reason -- blogger will not let me load pictures. And, as you can imagine, I ALWAYS START WITH A FEW PICTURES...

So, just as I was puzzling what worthwhile thing I could put up for today's blog -- I received this forwarded email from my clubber Linda -- WHO IS IN SUNNY ARIZONA...

Thanks, Lin!! I LOVE IT...

************

It's time again for the annual 'Stella Awards'!

For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico, where she purchased coffee.

You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right?

That's right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S.

You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head.

So keep your head scratcher handy.


Here are the Stellas for this past year --


*SEVENTH PLACE*

Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son ...

Start scratching!


* SIXTH PLACE *

Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles , California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbour ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbour's hubcaps.

Scratch some more ...


* FIFTH PLACE *

Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish. Keep scratching.

There are more...

Double hand scratching after this one ...


*FOURTH PLACE*

Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbour's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot
the dog with a pellet gun.

Pick a new spot to scratch; you're getting a bald spot ...


* THIRD PLACE *

Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?

Only two more so ease up on the scratching...


*SECOND PLACE*

Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000 ... oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.


OK. Here we go!!


* FIRST PLACE *

This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from a football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

Sigh.

Blue Jean Repair

The men in my life HATE buying new jeans. When Elliot was a teenager -- he had a favorite pair of jeans that I mended more than 30 times...I wonder if he still has them.

John is the same way...and his jeans always get worn and stringy at the bottom...

So here's how I repair them. First -- I cut off the ragged hem...

Then, right sides together, I stitch on a 2" piece of t-shirt fabric...

I turn the knit fabric into the inside of the jeans and top-stitch in the ditch...

On the inside, I cut away the excess knit fabric.

THERE IT IS...I didn't really change the LENGTH much -- but there are no more raggedy bottom pant legs.


These jeans could last John for another 10 or 12 years...yes...I'm kidding...

Christmas Coverlet Style show

One of the highlights of Christmas 2011 was the Christmas Coverlet party for Ronda's grandchildren. It started with my compulsive thrift shopping...when Christmas Coverlets became my passion.

Here's the thing I really loved -- EVERY ONE IS DIFFERENT. I mean -- what are the chances. I probably bought 50 of them...and NO TWO were alike...

There are gingerbread men...

Many featured Santa Claus...

Or snowmen...

There were animal theme coverlets -- one had a Christmas grizzly bear in a tree -- or adorable dogs or cats...in this case -- birds...

My personal favorite -- NEW YORK CITY street scene...

Flower designs, or holly, or wreaths...
Many variations of a Christmas tree design...

A "Nutcracker" theme for Lillian's room...

WOW!! These are just a few pictures I took before packing away Christmas. I already have a good start on NEXT year -- but I will STOP buying them now...because even I cannot use a dozen Christmas coverlets.

The thing that fascinated me was that no two were alike. EVER. Really. I know that isn't possible...every single Christmas coverlet in the world cannot be a one-of-a-kind...but that's what it felt like.

Just like people....or snowflakes...

New Year's Day

Every year, on January 1, we eat the same meal. Fresh pork, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. This is a Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania tradition -- and it does not matter if you are Irish, Polish or Italian, English, African-American, Dutch or French -- you eat this meal. It brings you good luck -- something about pigs "rooting ahead"....and so far, it's working.

I love setting the table with Aunt Rozella's silver...Spring Glory...


And of course, I love using the good china...Coaching Scenes...


This year -- I invited Uncle Melvin and his wife Kathy. The menu is: Pork roast, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, homemade chunky applesauce, a big relish tray and POPOVERS. Yumm-o. Kathy is bringing a Rum Cake...

The meal was FABULOUS. The star is a very large fresh pork shoulder roast. After two hours, the temp was up to 140, so I poured off the fat and surrounded the roast with two large jars of Frank's sauerkraut. My mother-in-law always cut an apple in quarters and nestled it into the kraut -- so I do that, too. (I pick it out and throw it away before serving the kraut).


Uncle Melvin and Kathy have never had popovers...and THAT IS ALWAYS SO MUCH FUN.


When they walked in the door -- I had just put the popovers in the oven. Kathy and I watched them raise up like it was a TELEVISION SHOW. They were perfect. Really wonderful with this meal...


Kathy's run cake was TO DIE FOR. It was sooo rich and moist. With a pecan crunch on the top...the perfect ending to my holiday over-eating!!

The very next day -- I got on the treadmill and walked for 2 miles. I enjoyed the holidays but IT'S OVER NOW.

I am quite sure eating fresh pork with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut is why I have such good luck...so I'm very optimistic about 2012...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!