Project 365: This will require some caffeine...

I'm launching a resolution today, hopping on the Project 365 bandwagon. Will take a photo a day in 2011. Decided to kick off the project with a shot of my new best friend. Thanks again, Mom and Dad.

Notable moments, Christmas 2010

1) Jack knocking on my bathroom -- yes, BATHROOM -- door at 6:30 a.m. and then, once I emerged, staring up at me and saying, "It's Christmas!"

2) Hannah in the living room after aforementioned wake-up call, shaking her head and declaring, "I TRIED to hold him off until 7, but I'm sorry. I couldn't do it anymore. I . . . I just couldn't."

3) Randy walking into the living room, squinting and holding his head exactly like The Old Man in "A Christmas Story."

4) Jack looking into the sunroom, where the Christmas tree and all the presents were, and saying, "There's a FREAKING BIKE in there!" Classy.

5) Unwrapping my new Snuggie, a present from Jack. His hints were: "You'll laugh, but it's useful," and, "It starts with an S." :)

6) Getting the most incredible gift from my friend Sandy: a beautiful pair of hand-knit mittens. For years now, I have watched her create masterpieces with yarn -- socks, scarves, blankets, mittens, you name it -- during our girls' ballet classes, and I'd always joke, "Are you done with my mittens yet? I can't wait to wear my mittens!!" I'd even try things on and say, "Yes, yes, this will work very nicely..." It became a running joke. I never DREAMED she would actually bless me with a pair. This morning, Hannah handed me a box that was tagged from "A little elf." It was the fiddlehead mittens! Sandy's note said, "Who could possibly enjoy these more than you?!" True. I was speechless. What a treasure. (I had to chuckle, too, thinking about Sandy saying, "THERE!! Now stop hounding me!!" Hee.)

7) Making jambalaya (Bo Rader's recipe) to go with the ham, potatoes, pie, etc. Our family loves that recipe so much, we might just have it every Christmas as well as on Super Bowl Sunday, which is when I usually make it. Heck, we might just have jambalaya for every single holiday from here on out.

8) Using my NEW KNIVES to make the jambalaya. Yes, I said NEW KNIVES! NEW KNIVES!! My hubby's the best. :)

9) Randy feeling better after several days with a horrible cold and sinus infection. Antibiotics prescription called out by our doc turned out to be his favorite Christmas present. ;-)

10) Uncle Brad being released from the hospital and being able to join us for at least part of Christmas Day. And Uncle Davy being home from Dallas for Christmas for the first time in several years.

11) Hannah hooking up her iPod to the computer for the first time, watching it sync and saying, "It's doing things! Things are happening!!" I think she may have earbuds in her ears for the next, oh, 12 years or so.

12) Carl's traditional Christmas Eve get-together, complete with the traditional Chicken McNuggets, Coke salad and plates of brownies marked "Nuts" and "No Nuts."

13) Phone call from the Perez family on Christmas Eve, making sure I knew that Papa Perez was posting old cheerleading videos of me on Facebook. Because nothing says "Merry Christmas" like embarrassing videos of your mullet-headed high school self doing dance routines to Gloria Estefan.

14) Laughing hysterically as we set up and shot our 2010 Christmas card photo. That's right, we may be a little late with our cards and letter this year, but it'll be worth it. (Or maybe it won't be worth it, but at least you'll get something besides holiday bills in the mail. So stop griping.)

Merry Christmas, everyone. Hope yours was as crazy and happy and unforgettable as ours. I'd love it if you posted your favorite holiday moment here. :)

Early resolution...

Last night I got to hear and meet one of my all-time favorite writers, David Sedaris.

He said he has kept a diary for more than 35 years, writing something every day -- memorable moments, jokes, comments from fans, descriptions of hotel rooms, interesting conversations, just whatever. During that whole 35-plus-year time period, he has skipped "maybe 50 days," Sedaris said.

Fifty.

And I can't keep a blasted blog going for more than a few weeks at a time? Must rectify. Starting now.

Prayers for Kelli

In tears right now trying to wrap my head and heart around this news from a high school friend of Randy's. She's one of the most upbeat, positive women I know -- a middle school English teacher, which pretty much says it all, right?

Not really sure what to think or say or do, except to say that I'll be praying for Kelli. Y'all please do, too.

Frugal

Remind me never to complain about my kids not making the most of school supplies.

The taste of autumn...

September is here. The windows are open (we've got an unusual early fall in Kansas). So I couldn't wait to make the season's first batch of caramel corn.

I got this recipe years ago from Alice, who got it from one of the pressmen at The Salina Journal. It's sticky and gooey and awesome and perfect. Here you go:

CARAMEL CORN

2 sticks butter or margarine

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. baking soda

air-popped popcorn (8-10 cups?)

peanuts (I use unsalted or honey-roasted, Alice swears by Spanish peanuts)

Important note: After you pop all the corn, sift through it well to remove all the unpopped kernels. Otherwise, someone could break a tooth. Seriously. I pop it all into one side of our turkey roasting pan, then transfer it by handfuls to the other side (lid), and throw away the tooth-breaker seeds.

Combine first five ingredients in a large-ish pot or saucepan (this bubbles and boils quite a bit). Heat over medium to medium-high heat until boiling. Boil, stirring constantly, for five minutes. Remove from heat and add baking soda. Stir. Syrup will kind of whooosh and turn a nice caramel color. Pour over popcorn and peanuts in a large roasting pan. Stir until everything is coated well. Bake at 250 degrees for one hour, stirring well every 10 minutes. Cool on wax paper, then transfer to airtight container (if you don't eat it all off the counter).

'Glide-to-ride' makes biking easy

Jack took a bicycle safety course last week, and it reminded me of the day(s) he first learned to ride without training wheels.

Then I thought about how that process consumed us -- it was all he thought about and, consequently, all we thought about for days and days and days. Thankfully, we employed a pretty foolproof method that I share with other parents every chance I get.

Here's a column I wrote about the "glide-to-ride" method, published in The Eagle in June 2007:

I'm thrilled to announce that the Tobias family is 2-for-2 in successful bicycle instruction, after my 6-year-old son learned to ride without training wheels last week. (Insert joyous applause, high-fives and relieved sighs here.)

I'd love to take credit, but I can't. The secret was something I call "The Glide-to-Ride Method," a strategy advocated by Bob and Ruth Holliday, owners of the Bicycle Pedaler in Wichita.

"Twenty-seven years in this business, and it's never failed," Ruth Holliday told me recently. "I've even used it on adults."

Not long ago, she said, a woman came into the store to buy a bike -- and some lessons. Her son wanted to go riding, but she had never learned how.

Holliday took the woman into the store parking lot, "and within two hours, she was riding," she said. "It was such a thrill for her."

Indeed, riding rocks. And it's possible to learn without scraped knees or frayed nerves, using the Hollidays' step-by-step method:

* First, make sure the child is ready. A clear sign? He asks you to take off his training wheels. Older brothers and sisters often act as catalysts.

* Think safety. Whenever he rides -- with or without training wheels -- a child should wear a helmet and shoes that won't slip off. Also, a beginner's bike should have a foot brake.

* After removing the training wheels, adjust the bicycle seat. The seat should be low enough that the child, while seated, can put his feet flat on the ground. If it's still too tall, consider buying or borrowing a smaller bike.

* Find an open, paved area with a very slight incline. A parking lot with a slight grade works best, but even a driveway on a cul-de-sac is OK. You don't need lots of room, but you'll want to avoid traffic and other distract ions.

* Have your child sit on the bike and dangle his feet on either side. Have him walk the bike, taking little steps, on a flat area. Eventually, encourage him to "leap" -- picking up both feet at once -- to get a sense of balancing longer distances.

* Take the child to the top of the incline and have him coast to the bottom. At this point, he still should not pedal. If he feels like he's about to fall, he should simply put his feet down to stop the bike. Repeat this step until he can glide down several times with his feet an inch or two above the ground.

* Next, have the child coast down the incline with his feet on the pedals (but not pedaling). Repeat until he feels secure.

* Finally, have the child pedal the bike once or twice on the way down, to get the feel for balancing and pedaling simultaneously. By that point, most usually take off riding.

The method takes more patience than courage, a fact that my cautious daughter appreciated a bit more than my daredevil son. But riding off by himself, Jack's final review echoed my own:

"This feels so easy!"