Tag: Family

Entertaining, holiday, Mr. KK, thanksgiving

Ridiculous things men do before hosting a party

littleshoeprincess


If you don’t have inside jokes with your partner, are you even married?

There’s a term I use often in our house: Blowing Leaves. This is term I coined for Mr. KK, on a Thanksgiving morning about a decade ago (when I first wrote about this). It perfectly describes the different mentalities between moi and the hubs when it comes to “getting ready” for a holiday.

I saw this on social media today, and it inspired me to re-share this post, as it’s one of my favorites.

(remember this was 10 years ago. RIP Vito the Wonder Dog)

It was Thanksgiving morning, I had been up early, halving a million pounds of Brussels sprouts, slicing and baking Ina Garten’s Parmesan crackers, and assembling a veggie tray. There were still quite a few things to be done – not to mention me showering and drying my hair, which could take forever in itself – and with only two hours left, even if we didn’t stop to pee or drink something, we’d be cutting it close.

I was piling raw broccoli onto the glass platter when my husband walked by me dressed in windy pants, wool socks, a flannel coat and a winter hat. He was carrying gloves and headed towards the door to the garage.

“Where are you going?” I asked him. He was clearly dressed for the outdoors. 

Was he running out to get something we forgot to buy? 

Are the stores even open today?

“I’m going outside to blow leaves. The yard and patio are covered,” he replied, sensing nothing wrong with this answer, while we were T minus 2 hours until our guests arrived. “I should only be a half hour or so.” And with that, he was gone. Minutes later, I heard the blower start up and saw leaves swirling in a million directions as he made his way across the patio. Vito was on his feet immediately, barking at what he thought was a crazy stranger on our property. Because who else would be outside doing yard work on a holiday mere hours before 12 people were coming over? 

Only a madman, obviously.

The definition of Blowing Leaves is this: starting a task that bears no relevance whatsoever on the situation at hand, and having said task take up WAY too much time and energy, both of which you do not have.

Maybe your husband’s ‘blowing leaves’ is just one more quick video game before you’re due at a friend’s wedding. Or maybe it’s trying to fix that leaky pipe under the sink that he needs just 10 minutes for as you’re walking out the door to meet your parents for dinner. Or maybe, he’s scrolling Instagram while you’re multi-tasking like a bad ass.

No matter what the activity, every husband blows leaves.

And that’s why we love them.

May your week be easy, and the leaves stay on the trees.

Family

My Dad Was An Army Secretary

littleshoeprincess

In honor of Veterans’ Day, I thought I’d share the story of my dad in the army.

Until the day she moved out of her apartment, my grandmother kept an 8″x10″ black and white photo of my dad in his army uniform on her armoire. In it, he look at 14 years old, crew cut, clean shaven, hat and deer-in-headlights look on his face. She was so proud of him for serving in the army, you would have thought he won the war.

The other day, Little Mister was surprised to find out that my dad – his grandfather – was a veteran.

“What did Grandpa do in the army?” he asked me.

And with a straight face I let him in on the long-running joke I have with my dad: “He was a secretary.”

True story.

And I have been joking with him about it for as long as I can remember. Mr. KK’s dad was stationed on a submarine, working as an electrician on a boat, while my dad sat behind a desk and answered phones.

Apparently, sometime between when he arrived at boot camp and was trying to avoid getting the shots necessary to actually be in the army, someone found out that my dad could type.

I imagine it went something like this:

My dad – in line for some ebola or rabies vaccine at the army base – joking with his buddies. A Captain or a General is walking up and down the lines of newbies, picking out the ones who weren’t going to make it and the ones who would rise in the ranks. Maybe one of them muttered, “Man, I wish we had someone who could take notes really neatly.”

Upon hearing this, my dad’s ears perk up and his arm shoots into the air. “Sir, I can type 80 words a minute, Sir!”

Upon hearing this, the Grand Puba plucks my dad out of line. “Boy, can you type without mistakes? Can I count on you to take notes and memos?”

And just like that, my dad avoided combat and got himself a desk job. Pretty smart if you ask me. It’s like getting the best job at the worst place to work; it’s not great to be there, but you could be getting shot at.

At family gatherings, I will tease my dad, mimicking him typing on typewriter, and tapping the point of a pen to his tongue to start writing a memo. I’ll yell out, “You! Take an emergency memo! The troops are moving in! STOP. We must prepare. STOP.” and then we all laugh and laugh.

But jokes aside, I’m proud that both my dad is a veteran. Even if his greatest weapon was Wite Out.

hospital, parents

My Dad Slept Next to a Fugative

littleshoeprincess

Staying true to the tagline on this blog of “You can’t make this sh*t up”, get a load of this story.

A few Fridays ago, my dad had routine kidney stone surgery. This is when they give you propofol (aka: the good stuff) and put you to sleep and then go in with a laser and blast the kidney stones to smithereens. (I can’t tell you how excited I am to have used the word ‘smithereens’ on my blog!)

My dad has had this surgery before, it’s in and out of the hospital on the same day, then go home and rest and don’t lift anything heavy for a week. And this is exactly what we did. However, the weekend following the surgery, my dad developed a fever and the chills and was lethargic, and on Monday the morning the nurse told him, “Go to the Emergency Room!” And so Uber KK went and picked up Mom and Dad, and drove back to the hospital, this time to the ER. Blessedly, there was no one there and he was taken back immediately.

My dad was in his street clothes on a gurney, parked in the hallway due to no open curtained rooms. It’s possible my dad was one of the only sober person being treated. The guy behind him was hacking up a lung and throwing up on his gurney. A woman was screaming for hematology and ripping all the gloves out of the boxes that hung on the wall and throwing them all over the floor. Someone else kept a steady tempo of yelling “Nurse!” for a solid hour. During all of this they poked and prodded my dad, taking urine and blood and his temperature until finally they admitted him with an infection. (No medical training over here, but hearing his symptoms when I picked him up that morning, I diagnosed him with the same thing).

When they wheeled my dad into the room, there was already someone else there in the bed by the window. He was about thirty or so, walking with a limp and cane. His music was blaring and he was singing loudly. If he walked by us once, he walked by us a thousand times – grabbing pudding out of the floor fridge, handing out at the nurses’ station, visiting other patients on the floor.

“This guy is like the mayor,” my dad commented as our roommate hobbled by.

The next morning Uber KK picked up mom and then we headed down for another full day of bedside sitting at the hospital. I was reliving my childhood sick day dreams: glued to the TV watching Let’s Make a Deal and The Price is Right (RIP Bob), plus more hours of news in one morning and afternoon than I have consumed in the last 20 years.

A nurse came to check on our roommate, and – with those flimsy curtains doing nothing to block sound – I heard her ask: “Did you break your parole?”

Say what?!?!

Not long after this exchange, three hulking men in street clothes with multiple guns strapped to their legs and waists came into our little hospital room.

“Excuse us, ma’am,” one of them said to me. “We’re just going to move that gentleman to another room.”

It was like we were in a COPS episode. At once both of my parents started talking.

“SHHHHHHHH!” I commanded, waving at them to be quiet, my eyes bulging at them. “I can’t hear!” I whispered.

The cops moved the curtain aside and smiled at the roommate. “I’m going to have to take your phone,” the first one said.

A second officer glided in, ordered the roommate to lay down, and handcuffed him to the bed.

This was really happening!

With little fanfare, besides multiple men with giant guns and the arrival of a uniformed police officer, they starting wheeling our roommate out of the room. I didn’t know where to look! Do I pretend to be into the muted episode of Judge Judy? Do I bury my face in my phone? Do I look him dead in the eye…no definitely not that one!

“I need to finish my antibiotics,” he said to one of the officers. “Oh you will,” the cop replied. “And when you’re done, you can go back to jail.”

When my dad’s nurse came in to check on him, she peeked on the other side of the curtain to see if he was gone.

“See all this entertainment I provided for you?” she joked, taking my dad’s temperature.

I asked the obvious question: “He has been walking around this floor for two days, why did they now handcuff him to the bed?”

The nurse said matter-of-factly: “Oh, that’s because they just found out where he was.”

Oh.

“They came in here to arrest him. That’s what they just did. Now he’s in a private room on the other side of the floor.” She finished up with my dad. “They’ll be in soon to clean, someone else is moving in here.”

I looked at my dad. “We have to get you out of here,” I said. And then the news came on. Again.

thanksgiving

It’s Been Great, Thanksgiving

littleshoeprincess

Yesterday we dined on turkeys next to trees, our house having been fully decorated for Christmas (sans trees) for a week. And guess what? Everyone survived! You actually CAN have Thanksgiving dinner while your halls are decked and the mantel is glistening.

Every year I do a Thanksgiving recap in photos, so here goes:

Our “night before Thanksgiving” partying craziness has turned into putting the leaves in the dining room table, ironing a tablecloth and being in bed by 9:30pm.

Our one drink the night before Thanksgiving because “we have a lot to do tomorrow”.
Me, at 5am, mentally preparing for the day.
Super proud of my Turkuterie!
Frying one of the turkeys in the rain!
So very thankful for a delicious meal with family, and so much more.
A house full of wiener dogs.

And I couldn’t resist this, since Mr. KK is NOTORIOUS for blowing leaves on Thanksgiving when we’re getting ready for guests to come:

Except this year it was raining, so he blew “pine needles” on Wednesday, and then spent Wednesday night washing and cleaning glasses and dishes that we were not going to use on Thanksgiving! Love you, sweetie!

And now, it’s Black Friday. Though according to retailers, it’s been Black Friday since November 12th. I’m sitting on the couch, covered in puppies and a blanket, enjoying tea and typing, while Little Mister sleeps like the almost-teenager he is.

It is officially the start of Christmas! We’re getting trees! We’re decorating those trees! We’re playing Christmas music! We’re shopping online! I can barely contain my excitement!

Monday I will be hit with reality as I board a plane for a work trip. Making the most of the start of the Christmas season as I can this weekend!

Disney World, Family, Vacation

How to Win at Disney

littleshoeprincess

This past April we took our second trip to Disney with Little Mister. Now that we had our first trip under our belts, we felt better prepared to take on Disney. We knew what we liked, didn’t need to do again, and what we had skipped the first time around. I planned park days, booked restaurants, researched, listened to podcasts, read blogs, drove Mr. KK crazy. And now I will share all that knowledge with you.

(everything here is my opinions only!)

Where to stay in Disney World

On our first trip, we stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, because Little Mister was – and still is – obsession with animals. We knew we were doing two park days at Animal Kingdom (1 park day too many) and that park is a 5 minute bus ride from the AK Lodge. Plus, the AK Lodge is a gorgeous hotel, with animals on the property. We saw giraffes out our balcony every single day. And the lobby has the most amazing scent. Walking in and taking a deep breath was luxurious after a day in the parks.

This trip, we opted to stay closer to the other parks. Our hotel requirements were this:

  • Great pool
  • Good location
  • Deluxe hotel

The deluxe hotel is well worth the money, if for no other reason than you’re staying on property and have early park entry, AND you are able to take advantage of extended nighttime park hours at the parks that have them available. More on that later.

We chose to stay at the Beach Club, which was a 5 minute walk to Epcot, the same 5 minutes to the Skyliner that could take you to Hollywood Studios, and other hotels, and a 20 minute walk to the Hollywood Studios (which is how we chose to get to that park). The location could not be more perfect. Highly recommend any of the hotels in that area (Beach Club, Yacht Club, Boardwalk).

Getting the Most out of your Disney World Trip

The most important thing you could do when planning a trip to Disney is to know your audience. Plan for your family, and your family only. There is so much to see and do, but not every attraction or park or restaurant or experience is for everyone.

Here’s what worked for us:

  • Plan your park days. Know which park you’re going to on which days so you can plan your restaurants
  • Plan your restaurants. If you don’t care where you eat, then you probably don’t have to do too much planning. But if there are restaurants you definitely want to hit, plan ahead and book them when you can (currently 60 days prior to your trip).
  • Take advantage of early entry. If you can get up early, DO IT. We did early entry every day at the park we were going it. Not everyone has this perk, and fewer people like to get up early. Getting to the park 45 minutes before early entry starts (that’s right, you can’t get there at the exact time early entry starts, but even earlier than that) means you can probably knock out 2-3 of the “big” rides before the park opens to the general public. Those extra 30 minutes in the morning can make a real difference.
  • Take advantage of extended park hours at night. Select parks will stay open late for Deluxe hotel guests on certain nights. During our trip, that was EPCOT and Magic Kingdom. This means that when the park closes at let’s say 10pm to the public, deluxe hotel guests can stay TWO EXTRA HOURS at the park. It was pretty magical walking through the deserted countries in EPCOT after the park closed on the way back to the hotel. And riding Big Thunder Mountain over and over and over again with no line in the dark was pretty cool, too.

The Birthday Button

Perhaps the best part of our trip was my Birthday Button.

When we checked into the hotel, guest services asked if we were celebrating anything. And since my big birthday was the week prior, I told them it was my birthday trip! And they gave me a green birthday button.

I pinned my button on my crossbody bag, and wore it every day. Disney cast members are trained well – when you see a green button you wish the person happy birthday. And that’s what happened…all week long. Mr. KK and Little Mister would get so worked up every time someone wished me a happy birthday. “It’s not even your birthday anymore!” Little Mister kept saying. But it didn’t matter. I had the birthday button and I was wearing the birthday button.

But the real pixie dust happened on our second to last day. It was our Magic Kingdom day, and we arrived really early for early entry morning. We were the first people at the gate in our line, and we chatted with the cast member until she could let us all in. We were the second family inside of the Magic Kingdom that day, and we speed walked over to the rope at Fantasy Land because we wanted to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train first. We were so early that we were right up against the rope. We had our mickey shirts on and I was wearing my Minnie ears and – of course – my birthday button.

About 10 minutes before the park was going to open for us, a cast member approached us and said, “Each day we choose a family to be our family of the day and today we choose you!” He then took us under the rope and announced to the crowd of hundreds and hundreds of people that it was my birthday (THE BIRTHDAY BUTTON!) and had them all sing happy birthday to me. Little Mister was ready to DIE of embarrassment until they told us that we could be the first family to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train all by ourselves!

What a dream come true! They took us into the ride, let us take pictures in front of the cottage, and then we got to choose our seats and ride all by ourselves! (True story: this was our first ride on our Magic Kingdom day and it was also our last on our way out of the park at midnight!)

Memorable Disney Moments

Every day I took a pic of my watch to see how far we had walked!

We saw so many characters!

Should I be jealous?

Just a girl and her giant turkey leg.

We are not big fireworks people, but this show was pretty cool.

I hate that that guy’s hat is in my photo! I lose too much photo if I try and crop it!

FACT: I will never grow tired of seeing giraffes.

This was a great second trip, and we got to do everything we wanted to do including riding TRON, Guardians, Everest, and Slinky Dog Dash (my personal favorite; and we got to ride it at night, and while we were on it we could see the fireworks from Hollywood Studios AND Magic Kingdom!). Until next time, Disney!

Family, thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Recap: Photos, Recipes and Ransom Videos

littleshoeprincess

We made it to Thanksgiving! Since this is our holiday to host, our house was buzzing with excitement and a tiny bit of stress, good smells and anxious dogs.

The day started when I woke up at 5:13am, mentally going through my checklist of what had to be done.

I also had to drag my ass to a 7:30 Power Barre class. But at least I got to see the Thanksgiving sunrise.

And when I got home, Mr. KK didn’t disappoint.

After a smoothie, it was time to prep for the day.

Priorities: juice the oranges for our signature cocktail!

Next up, appetizers: figs with gorgonzola wrapped in prosciutto.

At Mr. KK’s request: the pumpkin shaped pimento cheese ball.

Pre-game cocktail before guests arrive!

Sides are ready for the oven.

Double check my Type A agenda for the day.

Kept this beast on a leash until the guests arrive to minimize the madness and barking. (Didn’t work, but he looks so handsome in front of my oven)

Appetizer time!

Stuffed mushrooms (recipe).

Stuffed figs in all their glory.

Then it was time to get down to business.

Homemade pasta from the chef.

Then onto to main event. Two full turkeys this year, one in the oven and one in the outdoor fryer.

And all the glorious sides! The standouts were the corn casserole (recipe) and the brussels sprouts gratin (recipe). This year Little Mister ate 6 bites of turkey, jello and corn casserole…almost a legitimate meal.

We were way too stuffed for dessert, but we ate it anyway.

Rocco and Bruno hung out with Tony for the day.

Post-dessert activities included the millennials trying to help me get back into my Facebook account on my computer. Which ended in my holding up a pad with a code and recording a ransom video that I sent into Meta.

A little after 10pm the last guest left, and we were all pooped. Especially Bruno.

I hope everything had a lovely Thanksgiving with family and friends.

NOW THE CHRISTMAS SEASON CAN OFFICIALLY START.