There's nothing like a cocktail to kick back and relax at the end of the day. I love these movie star inspired cocktails...just in time for summer. 

Glamorous Greta Garbo's 1930 movie, Anna Christie, has one of her most famous lines. She sulks into a bar, plops down and says, "Gimme a whisky with ginger ale on the side and don't be stingy baby." You can see Greta in action here. 

Greta has a cocktail named after her (not with whisky). The crème de menthe in this Garbo cocktail gives it a cool refreshing taste that's just right for summer. 

The Garbo Cocktail:

• 1oz brandy
• 1 oz dry vermouth
• 1 oz orange juice
• 1/4 oz grenadine
• dash of white crème de menthe

Pour ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice cubes. Shake well. Strain into a chilled highball glass. 

Happy Mother's Day to my mom!

I've learned many things from her...these are just a few.

 My Mom has always been able to make me smile. Wishing you the Happiest Mother's Day! xx

May blew in and it feels like Christmas time again with gift season upon us. May brings many gift giving occasions like: teacher appreciation, Mother's Day, Father's Day, wedding season, graduation...May is the month to sing, Chic's "Ah, freak out! Le freak, c'est chic..." My head always spins in May, it's the "freak out" month. 

For end of the year gifts for your child's teacher, don't freak out, remember it's supposed to be a gift FROM your child. Why not make sure your child's name is part of the gift? When pregnant with my first baby, I was reading Franny and Zooey and that's how I came up with my daughter's name, Zooey. The same is true for my son Quincy...I was reading about John Quincy Adams. You can find something with your child's name in print and make your gift extra personal and memorable. 

I take a lot of pictures and the end results make a spectacular gift for my classroom volunteers...pictures of their children throughout the year. Pinhole Press is one of my favorite places to shop. I would love this accordion brag book as a mom because it's like a parent's version of the yearbook. Aren't you always supposed to give gifts that you would love?

It's almost summer and people always need new beach towels and sunglasses. ASOS has a fashionable and affordable selection.

I combined the ideas and put them in a cute "take-out" box from the container store. 

For the graduate, give the inspiration to travel with 36 Hours in Europe. The newly engaged couple should read The New-Fashioned Wedding. You can't go wrong with books. I'm pretty sure my mother is featured in My Mom Style Icon and she would also love Domino, the book of decorating. For my dad, the Grateful Dead Father's Day card is just too cool! The ultimate Mother's Day gift would be Pino's Close to my Heart Giclee canvas. 

My son recently had a classmate who had a going away party because his friend was leaving for Taiwan. We made him a personalized t-shirt at Cafe Press with a picture of his class. 

Has anyone ever written you an ode? I think of John Keats when I think of odes...romantic, heavy and emotional. Now imagine a child writing you an ode...sweet, innocent and the best gift ever! Those are the best gifts...the one that comes from your heart. One of my former students personally delivered this ode to me last week...what a treasure and again THE best gift ever!

Need more ideas for teacher appreciation see here. More gift ideas for May, see here.  

You may remember the original Steve and Eydie. Now there's a new modern version, Steve and Edie. Two dynamite entertainers that come together making simple and beautiful melodies. 

Steve Martin, 67, plays tinkling bluegrass sounds on his banjo mixed with Edie Brickell, 47, who has a delicate Texas folk sound. They compliment each other well. Their music is contemporary with an old-fashioned flavor. The new album (released last Tuesday) has Edie's whimsical, poetic lyrics and Martin's genius but understated style. 

Edie Brickell was my first musical love. I was so excited to see that she partnered with the legendary Steve Martin (Renaissance man) on their new album, Love Has Come for You. I'm not so excited that they're NOT scheduled to perform in Texas on their concert tour (especially knowing that they were both born in Texas). 

When you get to Asheville is one of my favorites but once I have the album playing, I don't stop it...I can play the whole album and love every song. Listen to Steve and Edie perform When you get to Asheville with The Steep Canyon Rangers on the Late Show with David Letterman and you'll be hooked too. 

To Steve and Edie I say, "When you get to Dallas, send me an email!" xx

My daughter Zooey is a huge Pinkalicious fan. We've read all the Victoria Kann books and have even seen the play so when the new Pinkalicious book came out, Emeraldaicious, her green eyes flashed with eagerness to read it. 

You can see the Emeraldaicious book trailer here. 

Pinkalicious and her brother Peter are walking to their favorite park and while walking through the woods and she breaks her wand and tiara. She decides to make an extra-special wand out of a stick and flowers and finds out that the wand is magical. To their horror, they find their favorite park is a junkyard. To their delight, the find the magical wand makes beautiful things out of junk when Pinkalicious makes a rhyming wish.

The stars at night are big and bright...so are the lights! Here's a gorgeous photo of the United States in April...perfect for Earth Day! See more photos from NASA.

Read more on the Dallas Arboretum here and here.

Wishing you an "Emeraldalicious" Earth Day! xx 

There’s a charming German phrase, “Aus dem nähkästchen redden.” It means “out of the little sewing box.” I imagine old ladies knitting and gossiping as they sip tea.

Looking at other people’s personal and intimate letters certainly gives us a reason to use that phrase. Ernest Hemingway, Georgia O’Keeffe and Eleanor Roosevelt were letter writers...the very best kind of letter writers. Their sewing box is open. Is it gossip if they’re dead? Are we snooping by reading the private letters of the three famous Americans? Well, they’re “out of the little sewing box” now so I suppose it’s alright...

Letters have always been something I’ve enjoyed writing and receiving. There is so much more of a person’s character and personality inside their letter versus an email, text…even a phone call. Through the letters of Ernest Hemingway, Georgia O’Keeffe and Eleanor Roosevelt, we get a glimpse of their relationships and inside their heads.

The Letters of Ernest Hemingway: Volume 1, 1907-1922 

My son Quincy shares the same birthday as Hemingway. I’ve read that Hemingway’s parents taught their children the importance of letter writing at an early age. I hope my children will write to me just as Hemingway did to his parents.

Hemingway holds my attention through his novels like no other writer but reading his letters, I feel I know HIM…the real Hemingway…and he was so caring (and funny). Reading letters to his family takes you into his heart.

Hemingway urged his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald to write to him in Pamplona: "Or dont you like to write letters. I do because it's such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you've done something." 

One letter to his mother made me laugh out loud written on September 8, 1914:

Dear Mother,

I got your card thanks very much. Our Train was 2.25 minutes late!! so no school.

The Program is all changed around lunch at a different time and alot of other changes. There was a report circulated around that I was drowned and some of my pals thot I was a ghost. May I PLEASE have SOME LONG PANTS. Every other Boy in our class has them, Lewie Clarahan Ignatz smith and every other little shrimp. My pants are so small every time I wiggle I think they are going to split. And I have about 8 or Ten inches of wrist below me cuffs thusly.

Please say I can have them long ones.

Your drowned son

Ernest Hemingway

P.S. My shirt buttons all fly off when I take a full Breath.

I feel a bit guilty reading Hemingway’s letters after knowing that it was his wish that the letters NOT be published. Hemingway wrote to his executors: “I hereby request and direct you not to publish, or consent to publication by others, of any such letters.”

I’m sorry Hemingway but I’m so happy that your sewing box is open!

My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz: Volume One, 1915-1933

Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz exchanged over 5,000 letters. Each letter makes the reader feel like they should not be reading such private details of their romance. That’s what letters do…exude romance. 

One letter Georgia wrote to Alfred on July 11, 1916 shares how she feels about letters.

I think letters with so much humanness in them have never come to me before- I have wondered with everyone of them- what it is in them- how you put it in- or is it my imagination- seeing and feeling-finding what I want-

They seem to give me a great big quietness- that relieves the tension that I always seem to be feeling.

Empty Without You: Intimate Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok

Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok (known as her “first friend” and referred to as Hick) became close in 1932 when Hickok, who was a reporter for The Associated Press, began covering Franklin D. Roosevelt's Presidential campaign. They wrote letters to each other for twenty-nine years and dearly, dearly loved each other…and their country. 

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to Lorena Hickok from The White House on March 30, 1934:

Darling, I love you & I have just marked five days off the calendar. May seems so far away & yet I know I’m going to be busy & so are you & it will pass but dear one when I sit here just before dinner I wish the door might open & let you in. I wonder if always I’m not going to feel that a day is incomplete which we don’t start & end it to-gether? Well, I don’t on paper anyway. So much, much love & bless you dearest one.

Devotedly,

E.R.

Letters are treasures. I’m so glad these letters are “Aus dem nähkästchen redden.”

Want more books with letters...look here. Inspiration for writing here. 

When I told my daughter Zooey that I was coaching her team for Battle of the Books she said, "Mommy, you HAVE to make it FUN!" I think that it was pretty easy to accomplish her wish because the books WERE so much fun. 

Battle of the Books is a school program that began in the 1930's to encourage excitement in reading while exposing children to quality literature. During the competition the children are asked eighty questions that all begin "In which book" and the team has twenty seconds to agree on one out of twelve books. 

The Battle of the Books is a silent competition. Do you know how hard it is to keep kids under seven silent? I had six wonderful children on my team (grades kindergarten through second grade) and we did not /could not practice silent the whole time. It was a challenge to practice silent even for a little while. This is how we practiced most of the time, but we also practiced silently like this.   

Out of the twelve books we read, these four were some of my daughter's favorites. 

A Bad Case of Stripes | David Shannon

A favorite book of many teachers to read at the beginning of the year to encourage their class to be happy with who they are and not follow the crowd. Poor Camilla must go through her "case of the stripes" as she worries about impressing her classmates. I think Camilla is a lot like my daughter...She loves lima beans but won't eat them because her friends don't like them. She tries on forty-two outfits before the first day of school. She doesn't want to be embarrassed. "Everyone at school laughed at Camilla. They called her "Camilla Crayon" and "Night of the Living Lollipop."

Gregory, the Terrible Eater | Mitchell Sharmat

Reading about Gregory had my team giggle like crazy. Gregory likes the kind of food you hope for your children to like...eggs, vegetables, fruit, and fish. Gregory's parents want him to eat like they do...tin cans, boxes, tires, and mostly garbage. His parents take Gregory to see Dr. Ram who advises them to compromise. Mother goat says, "We have your favorite today. Vegetable soup. But there is one condition. You also have to eat the can."

Make Way for Ducklings | Robert McCloskey

This beautiful book was given to me when I was a child. I used my 1979 copy for our team practices. This is one of those books that is a treasure to be passed down. The story continues to translate and be relevant to today's young readers even though it's more than seventy-two years old (written in 1941). I remember my mom reading it to me...it's one of my favorite children's books. I have fond memories of visiting Boston's Public Garden and seeing the statue of Mrs. Mallard and her eight ducklings created by Nancy Schön. Barbara Bush gave a copy of the sculpture to Raisa Gorbachev in 1991 that can be seen in Moscow's Novodevichy Park. 

Officer Buckle and Gloria | Peggy Rathmann

Poor Officer Buckle wouldn't have an audience without Gloria who could be on Saturday Night Live. Safety is not interesting, but with Gloria, the children learn while they laugh. This story is in second grade's basil reader and always brings lots of laughs. The children remember all the safety tips. Just the other week in my classroom, I stood on a swivel chair to reach for something in my cabinet and one of my students shouted out, "Mrs. Cooley, safety tip #77! NEVER stand on a swivel chair!" Oops!!

Here were the other eight books in the Battle of the Books K-2 competition:

Big Al | Andrew Clements

Click, Clack, Moo-Cows That Type | Doreen Cronin 

Ira Sleeps Over  | Bernard Waber

Miss Smith's Incredible Storybook  | Michael Garland

The Pain and the Great One  | Judy Blume

Zen Shorts  | Jon J. Muth

Zinnia and Dot  | Lisa Campbell Ernst

Leah's Pony  | Elizabeth Friedrich

Spring…Primavera! It’s here and it’s grand. Outside the colors are vibrant and fresh. I’m fantasizing about taking a nap on my back patio and relishing in spring like Botticelli's three dancing Graces. 

Spring cleaning on the other hand, is something I dread. I don't imagine Botticelli's three Graces having to do spring cleaning. Over spring break, that’s just what I did. Going through my son and daughter’s room for a few days straight was dreadful. Sifting through the past few years of memories and deciding what to keep was something I’ve been putting off for a long, long time.

I had help. My mom was like Botticelli's cupid, targeting me to focus on uncluttering. She was my second set of eyes and with several boxes we managed to make since of their rooms again…now much more age suitable (and I can close their drawers).

Spring cleaning requires much needed therapy. I found mine in yoga class and at the Dallas Arboretum. My yoga teacher began class by saying, “It’s spring and it’s time to clean out the clutter.” Cleaning out the clutter physically means you clean clutter out of your head too. It feels so good.

Clean the clutter out of your child’s backpack and out of your counter with this must have app artkive. I don't feel guilty about throwing away my child’s art/school work…take a picture of it and then artkive it.

Take some reading material with you before you take that nap in your back yard. There are several websites that help you to unclutter and be more productive Unclutter, Lifehack, Dumblittleman, 43folders and Martha’s spring organizing tips. 

Rewarding yourself for your uncluttering is absolutely necessary. I suggest an outing to enjoy the beautiful spring time weather. You could feel like this...

Celebrating La Primavera at the Dallas Arboretum.

1. breakfast: The proper Irish breakfast includes bacon, sausage, fried eggs, mushrooms, and tea.
2. eat: Have a picnic and soak in the sun for lunch then enjoy shepherd's pie for dinner. 
3. wear: AG jeans are soft, vibrant and hug you in all the right places. These jeans are in a color called Shamrock...how perfect is that?    
4. send a card: Be sure to find the perfect Irish greeting to send to your parents and friends. 
5. find a parade: Family friendly parades are not hard to find. I like that the Dallas St. Patrick's Day is making an effort to focus more on the family. 
6. Irish beer: You must drink Irish beer for  St. Patrick's Day. Find one or try several. I like the Rogue.
7. Irish-style cocktails: How does a green sangria sound? I think I could drink it all spring and summer long.
8. quotes: There are so many Irish blessings and sayings but my all time favorite is this one: May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your face, the rains fall soft upon your fields and, until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand. You can find many more in a former post I wrote here. 
9. movie: There are three fantastic Irish movies to enjoy in honor of the Emerald Isle. Watch the Commitments, Once and Waking Ned Divine
10. linens: These clover Piccadilly linens are perfect for a St. Patrick's Day picnic.

Family fun...what it's all about! Happy St. Patrick's Day!! xx

Two of my friends whose birthday's I love to celebrate

BIRTHDAYS are so much fun to celebrate, especially when you're celebrating for someone else. My friend Margot just celebrated her Geburtstag and I made her a Chocolate Coffee Whiskey Spice Birthday Cake with Mascarpone Icing. 

Margot makes a BIG deal out of saying "DON'T make a deal about my birthday." Well my Austrian friend, I simply cannot say mir Wurst (it's all sausage...it doesn't matter) about your birthday because birthdays should be celebrated BIG...they are not all sausage but rather chocolate spiked with a little alcohol!

If you're a Sex and the City fan you might do what I do and relate all things in life to an SATC episode (like most people do with Seinfeld). I was recently remembering the episode when Carrie had to pay for her own birthday cake because nobody showed up to her party and then walking home alone she drops the cake in an NYC construction site...awful! 

Friends should always make their friend's birthdays better than they expect it will be. How do you make it special? Easy, you remember it!

Make your friend's birthday a happy one and say, Alles Gute zum Geburtstag und prost!

TEA has a soothing, relaxing quality that has always set me right. I first started drinking tea when I was in the seventh grade. My parents took a trip to England and when they returned my mom served us tea just like they had experienced in Great Britain…on a tray with sugar, milk and toast. I was hooked. I still prefer my tea the British way, with milk and sugar.

When I wake up in the morning, I’m anticipating my first sip. Making tea is a happy ritual. Listening to the water hiss, selecting my tea, the delicate aroma when the hot water touches the tea, the heat of the cup in my hand…everything about tea is comforting. Taking the time to prepare tea in the morning allows me to slowly wrap my head around the day.

My favorite accompaniment with tea is sourdough bread toasted with strawberry jam and the Dallas Morning News. 

Tea always tastes better loose

Tea has a cultural individuality. No two teas are exactly alike and each has its own trademark flavor…like wine, tea has a terroir (where the roots of a plant nestle into the ground and the tea takes on the sense of the place).

I like to start the day with Tazo Awake tea. It’s bold, black and smells heavenly! Later, I switch to Twinings chai to spice up the mid-morning. Then in the afternoon I enjoy a peppermint tisane to calm down the day and smooth away the rough edges.

Wouldn't you love to drink tea from this Italian Hybrid Collection?

It is contentment times two to share a cuppa with a friend...just like the song Tea for Two. Some of the very best conversations take place with tea. Sharing a cup of tea with a friend is the perfect recipe for a lasting friendship. If tea cups could talk they’d spill all kinds of warm secrets. 

My daughter likes to drink tea with me. It’s a delight to share tea with her. I like to prepare for her a chamomile tea with honey.  Making tea for someone you love and sharing sips together is high up on my list of best moments. 

When I sip my tea, I feel warm and cozy inside. I’m content and everything is right. Tea makes the world a better place.

Put the kettle on, it’s always a good time for a cuppa.

If you are cold, tea will warm you;
If you are too heated, it will cool you;
If you are depressed, it will cheer you;
If you are exhausted, it will calm you.
~William Gladstone 

She was a Gold Life Master Bridge player (not many points away from Diamond Life Master Bridge player). She also played scrabble, backgammon and poker. She was quick and witty on top of that.

I remember her taking me to the fancy casino boats in Shreveport to gamble and being so impressed at how she made friends with the whole blackjack table...calling people by their first names, having the table in stitches, and teaching them how the game should be played…the fun way!

She was of the generation of cocktails at five and her favorite drink was W.L. Weller bourbon with Tab. My mom remembers my grandmother cooking when she was a child. Mom says, “She’d have a cocktail and cigarette in one hand, a novel in the other and be cooking at the same time.” Being full of energy and quick to move from one thing to the next, that was just the kind of thing she could do.

My grandmother would have celebrated her eighty-first birthday today. She passed away last week. She will be missed every day. I love you Mema!

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.  ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

It's time to say, "Love, Love Me Do" to the ones you love and seal your affection with a Valentine's Day gift.

Send your love with these Valentine's Day cards:

Je t'aime cards by Sugar Paper for Goop come in pretty pastels in a set of ten.

You're My Lobster also by Sugar Paper is the way they say I love you in Rhode Island.

Sending You My Love by Rifle Paper Co is perfect for everyone on your mailing list.

Classroom Valentine's for the kids will add a personal touch that will bring lots of smiles. You can find a card to match every personality then add their photos. I couldn't have found better cards for my little construction worker and ballerina.

Valentine's for Her: 

Jennifer Zeuner's love necklace is made with rose gold...all you need is love! 

One of the top dance companies in the world, The Joffrey Ballet graced Dallas this past weekend for the first time in twenty years. The program in Dallas’ Winspear Opera House included Edwaard Liang’s, Age of Innocence (2008), Christopher Wheeldon’s, After the Rain (2005) and Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (1913). The three performances gave the audience a mix of emotion, romance, and history all in one night.

Liang’s Age of Innocence left me spellbound and floating...my favorite piece of the evening. It was breathtakingly beautiful and I didn’t want it to end. Watching the dancers I felt like I could have floated down from the mezzanine and joined the Joffrey. The dancers took in the audience like the gravity of the moon takes in the tide. I could feel myself breathing with them, sliding with them…it’s how I imagine flying would be.

Age of Innocence was inspired by the novels of Jane Austen and Edith Wharton and captures the time of arranged marriages and the roles of women. Imagine the annual season of balls where daughters might be able to select a suitor. I loved the way Liang captured the romantic courtship and was reminded of the dance scene in Jane Austen’s Emma. It was dreamy and the dancers made everything looks so effortless as they lovingly melted into each other…truly beautiful! 

Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain began as a pas de six with dancers dressed in steel gray. There were many memorable images but the dancers extensions were what left me gasping for air. There was a coquettishness that the steel gray woman possessed over the men as they manipulated them en pointe. The second part of After the Rain was a gentle and graceful pas de deux danced to Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in Mirror). It felt like an underwater Romeo and Juliet…so lovingly tender. There was an endless lyrical quality of Wheeldon’s adagio that was left you wanting to linger in the dancer’s timelessness. It was poetry in motion. Here is a version from the Australian Ballet. 

One-hundred years ago at the premiere of Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) in Paris, a riot broke out in response to the violent fertility rite that Ballet Russes performed. There was no riot in Dallas as the Joffrey Ballet performed the re-creation of Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps to Igor Stravinsky’s powerful score.

Nijinsky choreographed Le Sacre du Printemps on Ballet Russes in 1913 and rocked the dance world. The Paris audience was expecting tutus, tiaras and pointe shoes and instead got the primitive and shocking first modern ballet created. Nijinsky's ballet started a riot in the Theatre des Champs-Elysees with audience members hitting each other, stripping and being carried off by the police.

One-hundred years later, Le Sacre du Printemps may not be considered as avant-garde as it was then, but it is still stirring.

Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps

In 1987, with no record of choreography, Millicent Hodson (dance historian) and the Joffrey Ballet reconstructed Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps using interviews, reviews, photographs and sketches to follow Nijinsky’s ideas.

Forty of the Joffrey Ballet dancers in vivid colors of native Russian tribes formed circular groups against a beautifully painted countryside. Ballet dancers that are usually turned out and en pointe were pigeon-toed and flat footed. Their feet were stomping, arms flinging, sharp angles were executed, long braids whipping…it was not at all what you imagine ballet to be.

Simple movements became more dramatic and primal as Stravinsky’s music would build. The main event was the sacrificing of the “Chosen One” who is to dance herself to death in order to make the sun return. Watching the “Chosen One” (Elizabeth Hansen) start to tremble with fear as the six men wearing bear skins continue to circle her, the audience is scared for her and you can imagine the scandal it caused in 1913. 

What do you do on a snow day? Play in the snow of course but then what do you do to prevent cabin fever? How about watching an old movie, using your extra Christmas candy canes to make a cocktail and ice cream (most people have a burgeoning supply of candy canes after Christmas), and playing the game scavenger hunt.

 Happy Birthday Paige!!

Little sister, musician and merrymaker!

My little sister Paige is my favorite person to laugh with. Earlier this year I called her laughing so hysterically that I couldn't even speak. She patiently waited (while laughing with me) until stopped giggling hard enough to share with her what was so funny. If I know something funny, she's the first person I want to share it with.

When my husband and I watch a funny movie together with Paige, she always makes the movie more hysterical with her goofy character voices. My Mom and Dad always beg us to do our pretend Saturday Night Live skit of "Chinese Cheerleading" that we've been practicing since elementary school...it gets funnier with wine!

When Paige comes in town, we stock the pantry with kettle corn and my husband is sure to make her favorite dinner, sticky chicken wings.  

Paige is one of those extroverts who knows everyone everywhere. When my sister lived in New York City my mom and I visited her. I remember the three of us walking down fifth avenue and someone across the street shouted, "PAAAIGE!" It happened again with a different person when we were shopping for her apartment in Gracious Home. That same day, Katharine Hepburn hugged her after she had waited on her in the restaurant she worked at, Brother Jimmy's BBQ. There's always someone somewhere who knows my sister and if they don't know her, they want too!

My sister Paige on an Easter egg hunt, dressed as Betty Boop for Halloween and silly sibling pics from the 80's.

After I had my first child, my sister helped out so much. I don't mean she did the dishes and laundry, but she just knew how to make life happy and easy going! I was so tired and was trying to finish the book "The Baby Whisper" when she told me to close my eyes and she read it out loud to me. 

Growing up, Paige and I used to share a room then later, the upstairs of my parents house. She's a very heavy sleeper and when her alarm would go off for school, she would KEEP SLEEPING! She was smart to move her alarm away from her bed so she'd have to get out and walk to it and try to wake herself up. 

Something I admire about my sister is that she doesn't seem to need anything material. I think of her a little like a nomad, moving from Texas to Montana to New York to California and she just goes...not holding on to material things. I also admire her confidence and spirit. She's a talented singer/songwriter. Her band is called The Peach Kings and she just keeps getting better. My favorite song she sings is Fisherman. It's like a Lay's potato chip...you can't listen to it just once! 

Aunt Paige making my children laugh!

My little sister is a beloved Aunt! She creates scavenger hunt games for the kids, plays endless games of hide and seek and is not afraid to be loud playing "marching band" while my little ones follow her around the house banging on drums. 

Three sisters saying serefe! (our sister-in-law Jeyhan, me and Paige) Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power, which no subsequent connections can supply...~Jane Austen Many happy returns ma petite soeur!  I love you! xx, Ashley

My friend Jen and I have spent many New Year's Eve nights together...starting in the early 90's. It's changed a bit since we've had children, but we have double the fun with NYE energy times four!

Jen lived several years after college in Boston where she met her husband. My husband grew up in Rhode Island so that makes lobster a perfect New Year's Eve dinner...our children love it too!

New Year's Eve celebrations are often thought of as being adult-only parties but the kids get just as excited about saying, "Happy New Year" as the adults. 

The kid's table is where it's happening! Like any party avec les enfants, the kid's table is the one with all the noise makers, party hats, English party crackers, and M&M's sprinkled like confetti! 

Families with young children might as well entertain at home with friends. I promise, it's loads of fun and you're making happy memories for your children. Who knows? Maybe our children will continue the "Jen and Ashley New Year's tradition" of ringing in the New Year together! For now, we're perfectly happy celebrating the New Year a little bit early with good food and the best of friends.   

Glamorous glasses are the only way to go for New Year's Eve. The coupe is my favorite glass to drink champagne from but I also love these dainty and ever so feminine champagne flutes from Olive and Cocoa. My daughter would call these "Fancy Nancy" glasses. The kids will be tickled pink to have their white grape juice in this glass.

As for the adults...we'll be drinking Kir Royal champagne cocktails. A little splash of blackcurrant liqueur makes for a delicious start to the New Year. It's called a "Kir" after a priest in Northern France, Canon Felix Kir. The priest was tired of drinking poor quality wine during WWII and found that a little creme de cassis, made the wine drinkable. When mixed with a proper bottle of champagne or white wine, it's amazing good and goes well with lobster!

The kid version of the corkcicle is a glitter wand. This makes the perfect party favor! Don't you remember being memorized by glitter wands when you were a child.  

Gifts for the Kids

Geomag Young builders will have fun with magnetic construction. This is one of my little boy's favorite things to play with. It doesn't break, teaches problem solving and creativity. starting at $19.95

Paris in a box Play with wooden landmarks of Paris. $17.95

HABA Wonderful World Wooden Animal Blocks Children can create scenes with wooden animals, figures and trees. $31.04