Pagan Ritual or Great Family Tradition?

Every family has unique holiday traditions, some read the Christmas story at midnight, some perform a live nativity, or some may exchange White Elephant gifts. The Thatchers, on the other hand, have developed our own Christmas Eve tradition--WE BURN THE TREE. You may ask why, but I ask why not?

By the time Christmas Eve rolls around the tree is already dead, a major fire hazard in the home (particularly in the Thatcher household where actually watering the tree is kin to burning the US flag). In addition, ten kids and 23 grandchildren tearing through gift after gift leaves a load of wrapping paper--perfect kindling. In the beginning, keeping the home safe from a tree fire was the goal. But how do you teach 23 grandchildren fire safety? Demonstrate what can happen with just ONE match. Thus the birth of the tree-burn.

It goes like this, de-nude the tree of all ornaments and lights and then take it outdoors with all the family in tow into sub-zero temps to the middle of a snow-covered field. Tenderly tuck all the wrapping paper under the tree and then give a match to a carefully selected grandchild and let it "burn, baby burn" (an alternate title for this post).

Before you vote Pagan Ritual, or Great Family Tradition, or even You Know You Are a Redneck When (another alternate title for this post) there are a few things you should know. The tree burning happens at Grandpa and Grandma's so all families can still go home and have the traditional Christmas morning. It also shows the love we all have for our parents, by not leaving them an enormous mess. By the time the tree goes up in flames, the living room is vacuumed and cleaned.

So folks, rock the vote or if you have any unconventional family traditions, we would love to hear about them.

Thinking of You at Christmas Time

Five Favorite Things

I haven't posted in awhile for many reasons, the foremost being Christmas. I have been hustling to try and get things done before Christmas vacation, including scouring our apartment for subletting (no it isn't always as pristine as my previous pictures suggest), burning Holiday CD's until the wee hours of the morning for my co-workers "Seasonal" Gifts (not so easy when a smattering of my co-workers are Jewish and Muslim--you want the music to be festive but not offensive), completing all of those tasks for work that I should have completed before my Mexican vacay, and most importantly, playing with the wee one. In all of my prep to leave town, I have done absolutely no shopping for Christmas, but I have been thinking about it.

In case you find yourself in the same situation and need some shopping ideas, I give you my Five Favorite Things to gift for the season. Enjoy and let me know if you have any other holiday gifting suggestions for me.


FNL (Friday Night Lights) Season 1. The best TV out right now, bar none. Dave and I rented this over the summer and watched the entire series in about two weeks, and since there is a serious dearth in TV options right now (thanks Writer's Guild), this is a must for the season.


Every home must have two of these, electric salt and pepper mills. This will revolutionize your meals and make seasoning your food much simpler. $99.50 Cole & Mason Electric Mills from Williams & Sonoma.


The "History of Love" by Nicole Krauss (not to be confused with Allison Krauss, which I do all the time and makes me look, clearly, not too smart) is my book pick of the year, maybe the last three years. I love this story and pay attention to the ending or you will miss the best part. Literally, after reading the last page I turned back to the first page and started the entire book again which I hadn't done since reading P & P in 8th grade--that good).


This little number (Kiehl's "Clearly Kiehl's" Lip Gloss) has left Dave smooching me for extra long every night. Not because he is desiring my full, soft lips, but because he wants some of my lip gloss for his own chapped lips! $8.50 and sold at any Kiehl's store.


Girls, this is a good one. I normally don't share beauty tips, mainly because you would probably not take them from me since I am not always the best example of our shared beauty aspirations, but I go out on a limb here because you simply can't live without this one. Benetint, by Benefits. This is a rouge and lip gloss all rolled up into one and will give you a natural, fresh faced and flush cheeked look that makes you look youthful and healthy all at the same time. $28 and sold at Macy's.

Mrs. Butterworth Comes to Town

Much to my dismay tonight after leaving dinner at some friends, I detected the delicate aroma of maple syrup, or pure honey, or even the sugary sweet scent of caramel apple pie. My fellow NYers might recognize this all too familiar scent, it plagues NYC every year when the weather drops below a certain temperature. It is this strange, pervasive smell that wafts through the city streets mysteriously. It might sound homey, or even holiday-ish, but I warn you it will wear you down after only a few short hours.

At first, the unknown smell catches you off guard as it did me tonight. It is reminiscent of grandma's kitchen and I suddenly found myself wishing I was in grandma's kitchen, despite the fact that I had just mentally committed to no more sweets until Christmas. Anyway, I got home and raided my cupboards to make sure there were no spills. Sure enough there weren't and now I sit, sniffing the air. The honey-esque smell now has a little more of a kick to it and smells more like sickly sweet anti-freeze.

Last year, it lasted several days. Lest you think it is some weird psychosomatic scent that only I can smell, let me inform you that this a real NYC phenomenon. The NY Post and Daily News run stories about it every year (if you are a newspaper snob, I am sure the NY Times runs one too). No one can figure out what it is—chemical terrorism, heating fumes, practical jokes, restaurant fumes. Who knows? The mayor also assures us every year that it is harmless.

It just morphed again and now smells like burnt marshmallows. So my fellow sleuths, what is this mysterious scent? Any guesses?