Adventures in a new dimension

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Not long after being laid off from the newspaper in 2008, I started a freelance gig I called Five Buck Bits. It was a source of news briefs (briefs being my theme for some time now) for regional parenting publications, bits they could purchase from my website for $5 per bit to add to their publications, online or in print.

One of the bits I wrote regarded the appropriateness of taking youngsters to 3-D movies. In part, here is the advice from that brief:

Parents planning on taking their children to see one of the season’s popular 3-D films need to know how to determine if the kids can see 3-D, then prepare them for what will happen during a 3-D movie if they have never seen one before.

Dr. Brad Habermehl, President of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, says many children may miss out on all the excitement if they can’t see 3-D. “Unfortunately, most parents have no idea how their children see their world, and children don’t complain if they can’t see 3-D.”

Consider the signs. Your child may not be able to see 3-D if he or she:
• is clumsy—spills milk when going down stairs, climbing play structures or avoids them all together;
• has difficulty hitting or catching pouring, trips while walking, bumps into things;
• is scared of escalators, a ball.

<snipped to shorten for this post>

If your child can see 3-D, it’s still best when a child has never seen a 3-D movie before to prepare him beforehand for what he will see. Explain to your child how with most movies the picture stays on the movie screen. But in 3-D movies, the picture will look as if it is filling the whole theater and viewers may feel like they can reach out and touch the characters. Also be sure to tell your child ahead of time that if he doesn’t like what he sees or he feels uncomfortable, he can close his eyes until he feels comfortable opening them again.

During the 3-D movie, keep an eye on your child, watching for any signs of a headache, nausea or dizziness during or shortly afterwards. ...

Because of that little brief written more than a year ago, I've been hesitant about taking Bubby to see a 3-D movie.

During his Thanksgiving visit to his paternal grandparents, though, Bubby was treated to the newest Happy Feet movie. In 3-D. And he did just fine! No headache, no nausea, no dizziness. (Although Megan did tell me that, for some reason, he decided to wear his 3-D glasses upside down the entire time.)

With the success of Bubby's first venture into 3-D, I now feel safe in taking my grandson—along with the rest of the family—to a 3-D movie while everyone is together for the Christmas holiday. This is what I'm planning for us to see:

 

Maybe we'll all wear our 3-D glasses upside down for the duration of the film, just to add yet another dimension to the adventure. (Except for Baby Mac, of course, whose eyes I'll likely be shielding for safety's sake.)

Today's question:

What is the first 3-D film you recall seeing?

Thanksgiving recipe swap

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With Thanksgiving just one week away, I, like many, have food on the brain: What to make, what to buy, what to serve up to dazzle the guests.

Okay, the "dazzle" part is a bunch of hooey. At least for me. I'm not really looking to dazzle any of the family joining us on Turkey Day; I'm simply hoping to satisfy everyone's cravings for dishes tried and true. Which means I'll be serving up the basics, the goodies I've served up every Thanksgiving for countless years.

Which got me to thinking: Every family has certain foods that are tradition to their clan, often served up only on Thanksgiving. Today I want to discuss those here...including the swapping of the recipes for those so inclined.

So tell me: What dishes have a standing spot on your Thanksgiving table? Which are the family favorites? Which are your favorites? And which are on the table simply because they've always been there, always will be, regardless of the number of friends and family who actually eat them (I'm thinking specifically of cranberries...which I really do like and prefer whole over jellied).

I'll get the ball rolling by offering up a dish that has become tradition in my immediate family, a dish I first made 25 or so years ago and have served every Thanksgiving since, at least when I've been the one hosting the holiday meal. Megan now makes it for her Thankgsiving meals, which warms my heart to see one of my off-the-wall offerings on its way to becoming a recipe of Gramma's passed down through the generations.

The recipe likely once had an official name, but in my family it's known as Mom's Cheesy Corn Casserole. It's been posted in my Grandma's Recipe Box for quite some time, but I'd like to share it again here, for our just initiated (possibly to become annual) Grandma's Briefs Thanksgiving Recipe Swap:

Cheesy Corn Casserole

1 10-ounce package frozen corn, thawed and drained

8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

6 slices white bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

4 eggs

2 cups milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1-2 tablespoons butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (yes, 300). Butter a shallow 2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle half the corn in the bottom, then sprinkle with half the cheddar cheese, then half the Monterey jack cheese. Cover with half the bread cubes. Repeat all layers. Beat together eggs, milk, salt and pepper and pour over all layers, pressing down the bread to be sure it's all moistened. Dot with butter. Bake uncovered for 90 minutes, or until puffed and dark golden on top.

Makes 8 servings.

(For big gatherings, you can double this recipe, using a 9X13 dish. Photo above is a doubled recipe.)

There you have it: My one and only out-of-the-ordinary, traditional-in-our-house Thanksgiving dish. The rest of the Thanksgiving spread is pretty much what you'd expect...including cranberries, that may or may not get eaten but without which it just wouldn't be Thanksgiving.

Now it's your turn! Let the recipe swapping begin!

Today's question:

What dish is a family tradition on your Thanksgiving table? (Sharing of recipes encouraged and appreciated! If you have the recipe posted on your blog, feel free to include the link. And yes, pie and dessert recipes are welcome!)

Moving to the limbo beat

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I hope everyone's Christmas was wonderful in ways above and beyond what was expected. Mine was beautiful ... and easier than usual, for some reason. I'm not sure if I'm fretting less the older I get or maybe I've just made peace with our leaner lifestyle -- in terms of money, not weight, unfortunately -- but it was a lovely holiday all around. Despite family drama. Despite fewer pennies to rub together. Despite Megan, Preston and Bubby celebrating on their own 819 miles away.

Yes, all was merry and bright for Christmas 2010. Now it's on to limbo time, aka the week between Christmas and New Years Day. The seven days between "holiday mode" and "regular programming."

After the hustle and bustle of Christmas, it always feels a tad unnerving to just STOP the madness and float along in the dead space of the last week of the year with nothing on the agenda. At least my agenda. I have no real work for now. No decorations to take down yet. No returns or exchanges to make. No plans to shop for deals on gifts or decor for next Christmas.

I also have no plans to finish any of my multitude of half-finished things, whether that's half-finished in my mind, on my desk, or around the house. One week isn't enough to wrap up all I meant to accomplish in the year yet didn't.

I'm not talking just half-finished things, either, for there's plenty I never even began. But there's certainly no sense beginning something new this week when the first of the year serves as the ideal starting point for plans, project, resolutions ... even if they're plans, projects, and resolutions that were originally meant to be done this past year. Or last year. Or the year before.

So this is my free week. My limbo week. My week to do absolutely nothing.

Well, as nothing as an uptight-unable-to-relax-without-feeling-guilty-as-cuss grandma can do.

Or not do.

Photo credit: mcgilljp

Question of the day:

How about you? Do you consider this final week of the year a limbo week or your last chance to meet all your goals for the year?

Thanksgiving puzzle

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Preparing for Thanksgiving often feels like piecing together a puzzle: making the location fit with the friends and family, the menu fit with tastes and traditions, the green bean casserole fit in the oven with the turkey.

For me, Thanksgiving not only feels like the piecing together of a puzzle, it includes a puzzle.

Let me give you a little background.

When my girls were teens, it was hell -- as the mother of any teen girl will tell you -- to get them to verbalize why they were so frustrated, angry, stressed and hateful so much of the time. Being a girl myself, I know that the teen years just plain suck and the hormones and boys and friends and enemies do a number on an otherwise normal kid's psyche. But I wanted them to talk to me about it.

So I did things to try to encourage conversation. I continued the practice I'd started with them when they were elementary-school age of sharing a private blank book with each one, for filling with thoughts and concerns -- good and bad -- and placing under each other's pillow for reading and responding. Sometimes it's easier to write about things than to say them out loud. For both sides. (I still have -- and cherish -- those books.)

I also came up with the idea of having a puzzle set up on a card table and in the works, in hopes the girls would piece it together with me and spill tiny portions of their guts while we were engrossed in the task, heads down and not looking one another in the eye. I'd read that side-by-side activities (such as riding in the car) provide opportunities for honest conversation more so than flat out "We need to talk" interrogations. Plus, I remembered puzzle-work being the setting for many honest conversations -- and a saving grace regarding the working out of some intense teen feelings of my own -- while living with a friend's family during the second semester of my junior year of high school.

No earth-shattering revelations ever came from the girls during the times one or another would take a seat by me to find a piece or two in the puzzle. But I enjoyed the camaraderie of working on a common goal together at a time when they really didn't like their mom too much (which, as I now understand, is pretty typical of teen girls but was heartbreaking then).

The last puzzle I'd set up in hopes of clearing the air with one of my daughters was one called Catmania. Andrea loved cats and I thought it would be the perfect way to draw out my baby girl. As was the tradition, we each signed and dated the inside of the lid upon starting the puzzle. But it quickly proved to be too hard. We lost interest and I, in my perfect-mother tone, said "Screw it!" I rolled up the crazy cat puzzle (on one of those nifty green felt puzzle keeper thingees) and I bought a Christmas puzzle to do instead.

From that point on, it became a low-level tradition (truly not one of our "must-haves") to begin a holiday puzzle around Thanksgiving with the goal of completing it by Christmas. It was the only time we had a puzzle table set up, and everyone in the family took turns now and then, as schedules allowed, to fit in a piece here and there.

We did that for several years. Except in 2007, the year we moved into our new house, because we closed on the house the week before Thanksgiving and puzzle work was not even considered. And I didn't set up a puzzle in 2008. I was in the throes of being outsourced from my job and I didn't feel like working on a puzzle when I was having a heck of a time keeping the pieces of my life in place.

But this year, I decided we need to have a puzzle to work on. But I told myself I absolutely could not start a holiday puzzle until completing the Catmania one Andrea and I had left unfinished. So I unrolled the green puzzle keeper thingee and opened the box of remaining pieces. Sheesh! The lid was marked with my signature and Andie's and dated November 2002! How could I have left a puzzle sitting for SEVEN YEARS!?

So I've been working on it for a couple weeks now. Brianna's helped a bit here and there, and we're down to just DAYS before Thanksgiving. I gotta get it done so I can begin my Christmas puzzle! Here's what it looks like this morning:

Luckily Andie will be home for the holiday beginning tomorrow night ... and she'll be helping me put the last few pieces in place -- which is fitting, considering she and I started the darn thing together.

So despite the two million and sixteen things I need to be doing right now, I'm determined to get the Catmania creation done and out of here. I've had the holiday puzzle bought for a couple weeks now, and I'm pretty excited to get it started. Here's a glimpse of this year's puzzle venture:

(Those of you who have been to my house might agree that it bears a weird resemblance to my living room -- minus all the cozy, cloying charm in the picture-perfect puzzle setting, of course).

I can't wait to crack open the box. Wish me luck in getting rid of those #@%! cats!