holidays | kimberly ah

Jan 03 2013

Christmas, crafty adventures, holidays, Merry & Bright, snail mail

My Holiday Cards Were Ridden With Guilt

I do believe all of our holiday cards for 2012 have been mailed…finally. A few stragglers are making their way through the mail right now, hopefully to arrive as New Year greetings!

I’ve been making my own Christmas cards for years now…they always start as an elaborate project, then, by the time I sit down to do them, they morph into something simple. It’s harder now because December is my busiest time (with work and holiday hullabaloo) so if I don’t get them done early, they don’t happen in a fantastic way. But it’s hard to get into the mood and find inspiration for your Christmas cards during the dog days of summer… In 2010, I met up with my friend Holly in November and we worked on our Christmas cards together….crafting in that hotel room in the Dells was one of my favorite memories that year! And my cards were simple, yet nice and I lined each and every envelope…sigh…those were the days…

Our cards this year were simple enough. I used a CHEERS stamp (from here) and washi tapes on some 4-bar cards (from here). I like making things, but I detest making the same ol’ thing over and over and over and over again… To alleviate boredom, I used a few different colors of cards and envelopes and mixed in different styles of washi tape (and some Martha Stewart tapes leftover from last year).

I really do think this might be my last year making the holiday cards…it’s just not fun anymore and I think my results show it. At this point in my life, I would rather focus on writing a nice note in each card than making each card. When I sat down to do my cards a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to write more, but the urgency of getting-things-done took over and I just went through the motions. I hate going through the motions…especially when it comes to my letter-writing friends and favorite family members. But I will hopefully alleviate my letter-writing guilt by staying on top of my mail in 2013 (a hint to my favorite 2013 resolution).

So I’m curious…do you write letters with each of your holiday cards? Do you expect letters?

Tagged Christmas, crafts, holidays, mail art, rubber stamp, snail mail, washi tape

Jan 01 2013

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celebrations, Merry & Bright

Happy New Year!

We ended 2012 with a delicious meal at the Golden Steer under their “festive” red bar lights. We enjoyed yummy onion soup and salad and steak and baked potatoes and wine, along with plenty of sesame sticks and garlic toasts from the cracker basket. The Steer had a special New Year’s Eve menu (pictured above) that made me wish we had a couple of party hats to wear. We rang in 2013 all cozy on the couch watching/laughing at the ridiculous coverage from Times Square and then the local Chicago countdown stuff. Naoto barely made it to midnight…partly because he was tired, but also because he doesn’t have the same patience that I do for absurd television.

Today Naoto worked and I made some 2013 plans, worked on my 2013 planner, watched the fiscal cliff coverage (ugh.) and thought about taking down the tree…in fact, I’m still thinking about taking down the tree…it’s time.

Tagged celebrations, holidays, home

Dec 31 2012

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celebrations, holidays, Merry & Bright

Goodbye 2012

I’m a little sad to see 2012 go…not just because it was a super-fabulous year (as all years are, in my book) but because I have to say goodbye to my lovely Rifle calendar and Mister Donut/Snoopy planner.

I’m usually not a fan of art calendars. I prefer the little practical boxes for writing in birthdays and events. But last year I couldn’t pass up this pretty botanical number…and now I’m trying to dream up ways to help it live on into the new year (cutting it into envelopes perhaps?)

And my Mister Donut (Misdo) planner was a gift from my sister-in-law in Japan…she knows me too well (I ate donuts at Misdo every day during our trip to Japan in 2011. And I’m probably the first person to go to Japan and gain weight!) and I looooved that every time I consulted my planner, I was met with Snoopy and Woodstock munching on cute donuts. Sigh…I’m going to miss those guys. (But maybe I will be less hungry for donuts in 2013? Probably not.)

In addition to working on my 2013 calendars, I’m trying to get the ol’ apartment (somewhat) organized today so Naoto & I can enjoy a cozy New Year’s Eve at home. We are going to an early dinner at our favorite old-school steakhouse (Golden Steer, for you locals…for me it’s all about the cracker basket, the baked potato and the french onion soup!!) and then we are coming home to enjoy a bottle of Adami prosecco in our new glasses.

Simple, quiet, easy…just the way I like it.

Happy New Year, Friends! Thanks for coming along with me in 2012 & many wishes for peace and happiness in 2013!

Tagged celebrations, cocktails, forest park, holidays

Dec 27 2012

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celebrations, Christmas, holidays

Post Christmas Quiet

How was your Christmas? Ours was -sigh- calm and quiet. I was still recovering, so we slept in and opened gifts and played with Presley and drank coffee and talked on the phone to my parents… and then we drove to Mitsuwa and Naoto shopped for groceries ’til his heart was content while I restrained myself in the book store (I only bought three little things for my 2013 calendar!) and the snack food aisle. Then we had a quick somen supper (I need to share our somen recipe here…simple, quick and delicious!) and our neighbor friends came down for a bit to share some Christmas cheer.

Naoto & Presley are awesome Christmas shoppers…Naoto knows I have a “the internet makes me want-y” Pinterest Board and he uses it. But he also throws in a few surprises–especially in my stocking! This year’s stocking was packed with lots of treats: my favorite tea, a gift card, a phone cover & car charger (much needed!) and (as pictured above) a bottle of my favorite new ink in silver, a new zine from Marissa and a place card rubber stamp from Yellow Owl Workshop. (Friends, you’ve been warned–no matter how small the dinner party, there will be place cards!) Naoto completely surprised me with this stamp–not only was it not on my wishlist, but I’d never even seen it before!

And the “big gifts” (pictured at the top) – which were hilariously wrapped in wads of kraft paper (and labeled by Presley apparently) – were the best gifts ever! The mailbox has been on my wishlist ever since Kathy & Donovan started bringing their shiny red one to letter writing socials. I’m very excited to make room for it on my desk and using it to store stationery and stamps. And the pillow flew onto my wishlist as soon as I saw it in the Winter Cabin Collection. It was hand-lettered, hand-screenprinted, and hand-made…worth every penny. And, it perfectly describes me in the winter–hibernation is what I do best! It was packaged so sweetly and I can’t wait to put it on our bed!

I gave a stack of SPAM gifts (a calendar, socks and a new t-shirt) to Naoto and he’s picking out a fancy new rice cooker for Christmas, too. And Presley was spoiled this year–tasty new treats, some catnip goldfish and a potent new catnip stick (which she pulled out of the stocking herself!) The Adami-Hasegawa home is a grateful one.

I have a nice stretch of days off before the new year, so I’m hoping to take advantage of the time to get ready for a fresh start. I’m also kind of itching to take the tree down, but I think part of that is just an avoidance tactic so I can pretend I don’t have other (more pressing) things to do…typical me.

So…anyone out there get anything crazy-good for Christmas? Do you have any end-of-year rituals to share? I’m sure I won’t be the only one setting up my 2013 calendar, clearing out my files and cleaning out a closet or two, right?

Tagged celebrations, Christmas, holidays, snail mail

Dec 22 2012

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adventures, Christmas, Merry & Bright, Oh Tannenbaum

Oh Tannenbaum 6 – Road Trip Honeymoon

Since we had so much fun on our first road trip, I made my mind up that a road trip honeymoon was the right idea for our wedding the following year. We didn’t want to do anything too crazy expensive, since we knew we wanted to go to Japan at some point. And we didn’t want to do a beach honeymoon because we could visit Naoto’s host family in Hawaii any time.

So we decided to head east for the honeymoon. We started in Cleveland and the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. The ornament isn’t crazy-awesome, but the building really is amazing. It was designed by I.M. Pei (who also worked on the Louvre expansion) and the building itself is enough of a reason to visit Cleveland, not to mention the rock awesomeness on the inside. It was super-educational for Naoto, too…because he didn’t have the same rock education growing up as I did.

After Cleveland, we headed into Pennsylvania for the main event: a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water (ornament pictured at the top). We are both huge fans of Frank Lloyd Wright‘s work, especially since we were surrounded by so much of it while living in Oak Park. (Plus, we were married in Wright’s Unity Temple.) Falling Water was stunning…we geeked out over all of the architectural details during the tour and had the perfect summer day to walk around the grounds. We even took a quick side trip to see Kentuck Knob, another Wright house nearby.

Our next stop was Hershey, Pennsylvania– home of chocolatey goodness! We stayed in the Hershey Lodge (which was slightly cheaper than the fancy Hotel Hershey) and it was sweet (pun intended) and filled with cute details. The room numbers are adorned with Hershey kisses, the pillows had Hershey Kiss covered pillowcases, the restaurant served chocolate-themed food (not just desserts either!) and I drank the most delicious, not-too-rich chocolate martini I’ve ever had, and Naoto had his favorite chocolate beer ever! And, when we left our room in the morning, there was a York Peppermint Patty hanging out in the hall to greet us! He gave me a hug.

After Hershey, we drove along to Philadelphia to visit Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell (pictured above). The Liberty Bell was way more impressive in real life and Independence Hall was very simple…it seemed smaller than I imagined.

And finally, with no ornament to share, we ended our trip at the Crayola Factory. Because of Mister Rogers and this video, I’ve always wanted to see the Crayola factory. And while it isn’t the actual factory where the crayons are still poured, we still learned a lot. And, we were the only people in the whole place without children. Because it is one of those places that kids go on school trips or with their parents…there were crafting areas where kids could play with the clay, the markers and the crayons. We didn’t do that (because it would have been awkward), but we learned a lot. The best thing we learned was that Mister Rogers poured the 100 billionth Crayola. And a cardigan hangs in the museum next to that crayon. Neat, huh?

So that was our honeymoon…I have to admit that a road trip honeymoon wasn’t completely relaxing. It would have been much calmer for us to head to a beach and stay in one place. But the road trip was perfect for us, and we had so much fun together on our first adventure as husband and wife.

I wouldn’t change a thing.

Tagged adventures, Christmas, decorating, holidays, memories, wedding

Dec 21 2012

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adventures, Christmas, holidays, Merry & Bright, Oh Tannenbaum

Oh Tannenbaum 5 – Road Trip!

In 2005 I was tired of work travel and itching for a good vacation. Naoto & I had taken several flying vacations before, but I wanted a road trip. I kind of hate flying, so sometimes the anxiety about getting on a plane is enough to spoil the relaxation in a vacation. Plus, road trips are a great way to see plenty of states.

We started in Iowa in Madison County. I’ll let you take a moment to giggle…I’ve always loved covered bridges, not necessarily because of the book or the movie, but because I visited one as a kid and I thought they were neat. Well, I probably didn’t think it was neat at the time, but as an adult, I grew to love them. I think Winterset, Iowa is just about the cutest tiny town in Iowa and I loved that the bridges held years of history…many initials and names were carved in the old wooden walls and the floor boards of the bridges were gorgeously worn.

Our next stop was Mount Rushmore. On the way, we visited the “required” stops in South Dakota: the Corn Castle and Wall Drug, the Black Hills, Crazy Horse, the Badlands. Mount Rushmore was incredible…breathtaking…it’s absolutely amazing to think that it was designed and executed without technology… I am not someone who gets weepy about my country (okay, I sometimes am) but seeing those presidents sitting on a mountainside just made me feel proud of their hard work many years ago…

Our final stop was…the SPAM museum. Naoto grew up in Hawaii from age twelve and is a huge SPAM fan. He ate it all the time growing up and he still eats it today (when I’m not around). The museum was great fun…the exhibits were interesting, educational, historical and hilarious. I think we giggled through the whole place. And we spent a fortune in the gift shop on crazy SPAM paraphernalia and “limited edition” SPAMs (that sit unopened in our pantry, yet still have a few years to go on their expiration dates…)

Tagged adventures, Christmas, holidays, memories

Dec 19 2012

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celebrations, Christmas, holidays, Merry & Bright, Peggy's Parties, Tea

Christmas Tea

Christmas is catching up with me…I have cards to finish, all of the wrapping to do, some last minute gifts to get and I was reeeally hoping to hand-make a gift or two. But work, the bathroom and other obligations keep taking over…and there has been some fun mixed in there, too…and clementines…about 500 clementines.

One of the fun things was book club on Saturday. We read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Have you ever read it? I hadn’t. Of course, I was familiar with the story. I think I’ve seen every version made and I am slightly ashamed to admit I’ve seen quite a few made-for-TV re-makes (Susan Lucci as Scrooge, anyone?) But reading the book was a new experience because of Dickens’ writing…it brought a more colorful picture of Scrooge’s overnight transformation to my mind than anything I’ve ever seen on TV or in the theater. And I have to admit, in such a busy month it was a pleasure to read something so short…especially considering next month we are reading The Count of Monte Cristo (which is more than 1000 pages!)

After book group Peggy had a few of us over for a Christmas tea. I wish I had taken more pictures (this phrase will be written on my grave!) but the photo above shows the festive table.

For the tea, Peggy served chicken salad and homemade egg salad sandwiches, homemade scones with homemade clotted cream, homemade lemon curd, homemade ricotta, homemade tomato jam and for dessert, homemade almond shortbread. She went overboard, in the best of ways…every bite was amazing and I drank so much delicious tea that I thought I would float away. After we ate we sat in the sitting room and enjoyed the twilight as the day faded into darkness. Peggy’s home is covered in Christmas cheer. She has a gorgeous assortment of Christmas dishes, ornaments, wreaths and lights–hundreds of twinkle lights! Being in her home put me in the mood for Christmas. Not in a let’s-go-shopping kind of way, but in a let’s-curl-up-on-the-couch-with-a-cocktail-and-enjoy-the-lights-of-the-tree-and-think-about-how-good-life-is kind of way…which is exactly what Naoto & I did when he got home from work on Saturday night.

Tagged Christmas, food, holidays

Dec 17 2012

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Christmas, holidays, Merry & Bright, Oh Tannenbaum

Oh Tannenbaum 4 – Childhood

When I was little, I wore these knitted red and green bells on my coat every December. They were a gift from my great-grandmother and they were out of rotation for many years. In junior high, it’s not exactly “cool” to wear knitted Christmas pins! Once I moved out on my own, I decided they would make a good ornament for the tree. This year I might borrow them for a day to use them in my childhood Christmas pin rotation.

The green angel ornament is a gift from my grandmother. The angel is one of those painted wood ornaments that were everywhere in the 80s. I have a box of tiny ones that I pilfered from my mom’s collection. My grandmother and I picked it out together. Her wings are dated 12-21-1982, and though that was long ago, I remember this rare shopping day and how excited I was to have my own ornament to put on the tree.

Today, I am finishing my Christmas cards. Hopefully I can get them all in the mail tomorrow and my international friends get theirs in time (crossing fingers!) I still need to finish some last bits of shopping and all of the wrapping, and I need to poke through the closet to make sure I don’t forget anything I had tucked away during the year…so much to do before Christmas and so much to enjoy before Christmas.

Tagged celebrations, Christmas, decorating, holidays, memories, vintage

Dec 15 2012

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Christmas, Merry & Bright, Oh Tannenbaum

Oh Tannenbaum 3 – work travel

My first job out of college was working for an education company. In the beginning, I traveled quite a bit, and traveling was an adventure. Somehow, I lucked out and always traveled with entertaining people, we went to interesting places and there was enough free time for shenanigans (not to mention the free-flowing alcohol and generous expense accounts).

Since our headquarters was (is) located in New Jersey, I ended up in New York City quite a few times. My first time in NYC was in the winter of 2001 for a staff training. I stayed the weekend with my colleague friends, Rita and Jeanine. We saw Chicago on Broadway, visited the Today Show (and made it on TV!), walked along Fifth Avenue and checked out Tiffany’s…cliche, yes, but fun nonetheless. On our walk around the city, we saw a group of sailors touring the city in their dress whites. I had just watched the musical On the Town and I when I saw the men in their perfect white hats, I couldn’t help myself and I uttered “Sailors!” Jeanine thought this was hilarious and she poked fun at me about it for the rest of our working days together. I found the teeny sailor up above at the Hallmark store the next Christmas…he reminds me of those first days of work (when things were fun!) and those first work friends.

I went back to New Jersey that summer. I decided, even though no one else was staying the weekend, that I wanted to head back into NYC. To this day, I have never taken another solo trip like this, but at the time, I felt such a wave of independence wandering through Central Park and the New York Public Library, taking the subway to a Yankees Game, seeing Rent…all on my own. I bought two library ornaments that summer–one for me and one for my mom (a librarian)–and every time I hang mine on the tree, I remember that trip and that exhilarating feeling of freedom.

My last trip into New York City happened a few years later. It was Christmastime…Christmas in New York City is magical…someday, I want to go back in December again with Naoto. I ventured into the city with my colleague Maurice (who was Irish and was best Japanese/English interpreter in our company). Maurice and I walked through Central Park and saw all of the people ice skating and we explored Fifth Avenue. We ended up in Macy’s choosing Christmas ornaments–one for Naoto and one for his girlfriend, now wife. I picked out this yellow cab–which ended up being a little ironic because Maurice and I ended up spending a fortune in cab fares just to get back over the bridge into New Jersey…

For some reason, the only other work-related travel ornament I have is Elvis. I went to Graceland twice with my company (apparently Memphis is an inexpensive place to hold meetings). As a matter of fact, I wasn’t such an Elvis fan until I went to Graceland. My first visit was at Christmastime…Elvis loved Christmas (so I’ve heard Priscilla and LisaMarie say a dozen times). The house was decorated with Elvis’s now-retro decorations and there were plenty of lawn decorations and lights everywhere. Blue Christmas is a holiday standard around our house.

Thanks for a little walk down memory lane with me…a few more days of memories are coming up!

Tagged adventures, Christmas, decorating, holidays, homemaking, memories

Dec 07 2012

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Christmas, holidays, home is a 1970s apartment, homemaking, Merry & Bright

calm & bright

I pushed my Edgar Allan Poe candle to the side table to make room for my favorite candle of all time–the Paddywax Woodland candle. Hands down, the best winter-smelling candle of all time (especially if you love real pine-y scents, as opposed to Pine-Sol pine-ish scents). Placed next to my bowl of silver, gold and pearly Christmas balls, it brings a bit of Christmas to the coffee table. And, I am not lying when I tell you that the living room is the only place of calm and bright in this Christmas house…the rest of the place is a complete, dusty disaster thanks to the end of the bathroom project and the temporary relocation of ourselves and an entire closet of stuff.

This weekend we are painting the bathroom, and hopefully we (well, I) will be cleaning and making our home presentable again. I’m looking forward to the normal life the end of construction promises! Normal things like searching for the missing Christmas decorations and not sleeping in the guest room and playing fetch with Presley without feeling like a crazy cat lady in front of the contractors… And, we have a turkey hanging out in the freezer begging to be cooked up for a mini-Friendsgiving/Friendtsmas…or something like that…plenty of time to decorate and enjoy more Christmas cheer, right?

Tagged Christmas, decorating, holidays, home, homemaking