Peter Pan is Consuming My Life

"Greetings Boys! I'm back!" (Peter Pan to the Lost Boys, when he comes home from the Darling house to Neverland.)

"I wish I weren't going out to dinner tonight." (Mrs. Darling, worrying about the safety of her children). Yeah, right! I'd love to stay home and cook some more! No, it really has been a wonderful ten days or so. Making aprons. Doing alterations. Cleaning the house. Painting my bathroom and helping JB install new faucets. Making my bedroom the ultimate retreat for my parents while they were here. Staying up late and cooking. Feeling as if I'm going to fall down because I'm so tired. Running to Super WalMart for more eggs.

"Conceited? Not me! I gotta crow! I'm just the cleverest fellow 'twas ever my fortune to
know . . . " (Peter Pan, upon having his shadow reattached). Once in awhile I have a brilliant decorating idea THAT WORKS! I have been trying to work with the late 70's-early 80's dark oak wood that was in my bedroom. I gave up in the bedroom and painted it all white. But in the bathroom, I used the "oil-rubbed bronze" look to try and harmonize it all.
Well, last week I gave up trying to harmonize the dated wood. I tried something new and it is just two words: GORE-GEOUS!
I already had new lights and mirrors; I got new faucets and JB installed those for me. I painted all the trim white, like the bedroom. But what to do with the dark oak vanity?
I painted the darkest color of espresso I could find. It is SO pretty! I am very pleased. I'd take a photo but I haven't gotten the cabinet doors back on yet.

"Back, you puling spawn!" (Captain Hook) Puling means whining. I looked it up.
Six aprons and four to go before December 1. NOT GOING TO MAKE IT. Dang. Yet another goal dashed. However, I have virtually all of the Christmas shopping done! We visited the Raleigh Flea Market on Friday after the holiday, and then shopped our way back home. We found just about everything, my mother and I and Barbie, and had a wonderful time. Barbie even said Mom and I were "Hello, ADD, table for two."

"Wendy Lady, will you be our Mother?" (The Lost Boys). I am more a lost boy than a Mrs. Darling. If only I were shorter. One Winter Dance dress to alter, which according to Ms. CDO (which is OCD but the letter are in the proper alphabetical order, as they should be), ROSE, it should have been done two weeks ago. Bug was MUCH easier. We found hers at the craft fair at the Raleigh Flea Market. It's a genuine Vietnamese gown and pants, in black and gold. Very different, and very Bug. And I have to say, that was the pushiest Vietnamese saleswoman with the most perfect teeth that I have ever encountered. No wonder she sells so much!

"What are you doing in my old hat?" (Mrs. Darling to Wendy, who is playing dress-up).
One Mrs. Darling costume over which to obsess. This is a relatively minor character in the play. And yet I'm looking up drawings of Edwardian women and worrying that I need a hat in the first scene. OK, I may not have a big part, but Mr. and Mrs. Darling are the only two people in the entire play who have costume changes. A little obsessing is not altogether undue. I'm thinking of ordering one of those body shaper thingys where they send you the top and the bottom and in black and white and so on. It certainly couldn't hurt.

"Ub-bble, wub-ble, when we get in trouble, ugh-a-woo, there's just one thing to do: I'll just send for Tiger Lily!" (Peter Pan singing the Ugh-A-Wug song)
Well, the conversation went something like this:
JB: "Grandma wants to know if you want them to stop at the grocery to get anything on their way here."
Me: "Nope, I think we've got it all."

And later, during the actual cooking:
My Mom: "Ok, do you have enough eggs?"
Me: "I dunno."
My Mom: "What about potatoes?"
Me: "I have potatoes."
My Mom: "We'll need onions and celery for the turkey."
Me: "Let me check here. Oops, no onions!"
My Mom: "What about eggs? I need at least four for the noodles. OK, Rose, make a list. See, now that's why I asked if you needed anything we could have gotten on our way down here."
Me: "Well, you asked if I had everything. I have turkey. What about this being my first time to host Thanksgiving have you forgotten?"

My family thinks I'm a great cook until my mother arrives. Then I am a sorry excuse for a cook, which suits me fine, because I have always contended that I am far better at cleaning it all up than I am at cooking it.

"Oh, mother, it was such a wonderful dinner. Strawberry shortcake, vanilla ice cream, chocolate pudding, lemon meringue pie, and fudge for dessert." (Tootles, a Lost Boy, to Wendy).

But I did make a second batch of noodles, and all the piecrust, and the entire pecan pie. And I did have the forethought to get two cans of whipped cream. Plus a couple of tubs of whipped topping. And cinnamon rolls.

"By-carbonate of soda, no!" (Captain Hook).
I forgot to add the yeast to the roll dough. So much for homemade rolls. They were rocks. Oh well!

Mom and Dad went back home on Sunday. Terrible weather, but they were driving the rocket ship with the invisible phone, and Mom's mission on the trip was to scour the owner's manual until she found the way to get the weather. Sirius Satellite radio and GPS and talking climate control and rear seat warmers and all that.

I prayed for them to be safe and they got home just fine. Church and laundry and many hours of Peter Pan rehearsal later . . . "just think of lovely things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever."

Happy Thanksgiving
xox