Tag: Christmas ornaments

Thank You, 39

For years I’ve considered getting the White House Historical Association Christmas ornament. There is a new one each year, but last Christmas was the first time I put up my tree since 2013, so it wasn’t on my radar. A former employer sends them to a few people on their board as an annual gift, and I remember seeing the 2017 ornament honoring Franklin Delano Roosevelt and thinking “if I ever put up a tree again.”

Well, this year’s ornament honors Jimmy Carter, a President whose administration was plagued by things like double-digit inflation and the hostage crisis in Iran. (I once met a Marine who was one of those hostages, but that’s an entry for another day.) In fact, Carter’s sole term as President was pretty rough, and he left office with a 34% approval rating after Ronald Reagan clobbered him in the 1980 election. Even my father, a New Deal Democrat, voted for Reagan because the country was in such a malaise from all the problems at the time.

So why start collecting these ornaments with Carter’s? Well, he’s probably the best former President this country has ever had. He has compassion and grace, and he was active in promoting good causes, doing volunteer work, and advocating for peace for as long as his health allowed. I have tremendous respect for him and admire all he did and tried to do on the right side of history, such as the Camp David Accords, and the way he championed human rights, civil rights, and the environment. I think Carter’s presidency was really just a kind of awful rehearsal for the bigger, bolder advocacy he was able to do more freely after leaving the White House. His life has been one of service, starting with attending the U.S. Naval Academy and subsequent seven years in the Navy, and I believe that if his health allowed, he’d still be out there trying to save the world.

Carter is now 100 years old and has been in hospice for two years, and I wish him nothing but peace and joy for however long he is with us. He is the first President to live to see his White House Christmas ornament unveiled, and I hope he likes it.

A Christmas ornament in the shape of an anchor, to honor former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Christmas Greenery

As part of my annual trip to see the state Christmas trees with my friend, we also go to the U.S. Botanic Garden, so tonight I thought I’d share some photos from that.

Here’s a tree in the outdoor conservatory.

An outdoor Christmas tree decorated with fruits and vegetables.

The theme this year is pollinators, so here are a couple of ornaments from the trees inside. First, a winged insect.

A Christmas ornament shapped like a winged insect.

You know I had to find a bird.

A hummingbird Christmas ornament.

The poinsettias in front of the sculpture of the Capitol were lovely.

A sculpture of the U.S. Capitol with poinsettias in front.

Unfortunately, while we were there, we ran into Donald, J.D., and Elon, but we didn’t let that ruin our day.

Three phallic-looking cactii.

Such pricks, those three.

Speecy Spicy

Today Holidailies has a request: Share a favorite recipe that you like to make (or persuade someone to make for you) at this time of year.

This isn’t holiday-related, but it is a favorite cold-weather meal and it’s the easiest thing to make: Grandma’s Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili, on AllRecipes. You basically gather the ingredients, dump them all into a slow-cooker, and let it cook for two hours. I don’t want to violate any copyrights, so I won’t post the ingredients here, but trust me, this is savory scrumptiousness and it will fill you up. I tinker with the amount of chili powder depending on my mood, and dice up a half or whole jalapeno and throw it in if I want a little more heat, but other than that, this recipe is perfect, and it will make your home smell warm and spicy on a cold winter’s night.

If you’d like to add a simple dessert, spicy chocolate fudge is a good pairing, although this recipe is not vegan as it has condensed milk and some milk chocolate chips. I make it without nuts. There are two camps of fudge aficionado, pro-nut and anti-nut, and I am firmly in the anti-nut camp.

This YouTuber stopped posting seven years ago, and I miss her. She had some hilarious videos. One of my buddies originally found a personal video of hers in which she wishes someone with my name a happy birthday and then at the end says “don’t be fresh.” From there it just took off and we still laugh about it to this day.

If you’re a foodie, you might appreciate these next few videos. They always make me laugh because they’re just so true.

And my favorite, which is so Gen-X in attitude, I can’t help but love it.

That’s right. You’re not special.

Diana, whatever you’re up to now, I hope life is treating you well. Thank you for keeping your wonderfully sassy channel with all of its amazing recipes.

And now for tonight’s ornament, another new one.

A Christmas ornament featuring a penguin wearing earmuffs and holding an ice cream cone.

Cute little penguin, eh? I think my mother would have appreciated it. She loved penguins—although she didn’t quite understand them until late in her life. On one of my visits we were watching a documentary on them, and in one segment some Emperor Penguins approached the camera crew.

“You’re KIDDING,” she said. “Oh, I don’t believe it.”

“What?”

“I thought they were taller than that.”

“I dunno. Those are pretty big for penguins,” I said. “What did the guy say, three and a half to four feet? How tall did you think they were?”

“Like your father.”

My father and I looked at each other and just lost it. He was 6’1″.

“What?” she said. “It’s not like you ever see them standing next to anything in a picture so you can tell.”

Gotta admit, she had a point. But we never let her live it down after that. At Christmas I gave her a calendar of penguins, and my father held it up in front of his face and waddled around. “Look at me, the six-foot penguin!”

They weren’t perfect and they didn’t always get along, but one of the best things I can say about my parents is that they were never boring. He was an artist and one of the original MadMen. No joke, he worked for McCann, the agency AMC based the series on, at that time in its history. She was a civil servant who loved to write and originally wanted to be a journalist before I came along as an iltatähti and wrecked it all for her. (I like the Finnish term for late-life baby, meaning “evening star,” much better than the American “oops baby,” “mistake,” or “accident.”) He was Greatest Generation, she was early Silent, and we grew up with Big Band, war stories, New York sarcasm, a cookie-cutter house bought on the GI Bill after WWII, dogs, cats, and of course, “rules are rules, you’re not special.”

But that’s what made it all special.