Tag: Holidays

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Everyone Is Doing It

Melanie

Resolve, and thou art free.
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

New Year’s resolutions, that is. I thought I’d go ahead and share mine as well. As if you care. There are only a couple; I know myself, and any more than that would overwhelm me.

1. Become more informed. The primaries are upon us, and I don’t have any idea, beyond the bare bones, what any of the candidates stand for. I read Express (the condensed version of the Washington Post given out free to Metro commuters) from cover to cover every morning, I get the NY Times headlines emailed to me every day (and I read probably 50% of the stories), plus I read the Yahoo headlines and numerous blogs (what do you mean, none of them are news blogs?), and I still feel like I don’t understand what’s going on in the world. Maybe my brain is broken, but it’s like I’m reading the information and it’s not staying in my head. I live in the center of the political world, and I am hopelessly out of touch. But I can tell you what Britney’s latest legal trouble is, so there’s that.

2. Get back on track, weight-wise. I haven’t talked about it, maybe at all, here, but I’ve been on Weight Watchers for nearly 20 months now. I’ve lost 60 pounds, which is great, and I’m thrilled, but I have a long way to go (30-40 more pounds), and I’ve not lost anything since September (in that go up one week, down a couple weeks, back up a couple the next week, kind of way). I am so not one of those people who whines that I’m working the program perfectly and it just isn’t happening. No: I’ve kind of gone off the rails, and I take full responsibility for that. It’s time to get my head back in the game, because WW does work, but you can’t fool the program. Or the scale.

3. Get more involved. I do nothing. Nothing. I get up, go to work, come home, sometimes go to the gym (in my complex, so I don’t even have to drive), make and eat dinner, watch some TV, travel the information superhighway, read a little, and go to bed. Wash, rinse, repeat. The weekends are marginally better because I accomplish more (read: clean my apartment, go grocery shopping, and cook lunches for the week), but they are largely the same. If I don’t go down to Richmond or have someone from Richmond come here, I don’t do anything. It turns out that my “work friends” are just that: friends at work. Which sucks, but it is what it is. One person I thought would be more than that (not the same one from early November – a boy – but not a boyfriend, just a boy friend) is apparently tired of me.

So, now I have to make my own fun. This goes along with that “I swore my life would be different when I moved here” thing I talked about early on. I want to meet people. I don’t know how I forgot about church (I’m Unitarian), but I never even thought to look one up when I moved here. I’m going to do it. And I joined the local bar association when I passed the bar in October, and god knows they send me enough crap about getting involved, so I want to try to do that, especially volunteer work.

Thinking about the effort it will take makes me tired, and I’m tempted to say I don’t have enough time, but: wash, rinse, repeat. Thinking about having to talk to people I don’t know at all makes me kind of nauseous, and I’d rather stay home and watch TV, writers’ strike or not (you guys, they’re bringing back American Gladiators – how freaking awesome is that??), but you get the life you make for yourself, right?

4. Go on a date. I don’t know if that’s so much a resolution as it is a hope, but here’s where I’ll do my part: if I meet someone I’m attracted to, I will ask him out. If someone asks me out, I will say yes, even if I think there’s no way in hell we’ll hit it off, under the heading of “Hey, you never know.” Unless it’s, like, one of the homeless guys who hang out at the top of the escalator at my Metro stop in the city or something. Give me a break: he can’t buy me dinner (don’t worry, I’ve got my room in hell all picked out.).

So there you go. My new year in four easy steps. How about you – what’s your big resolution?

Now, I think I heard something about some political brouhaha in Iowa tonight? (I’m kidding, I promise. I know it’s Idaho.)

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Things to Be Happy About, Vol. 8

Melanie

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.
— Burton Hillis

Merry Christmas to those of you celebrating the holiday today (and Happy Tuesday to those of you who are not!)!  I am in Richmond, staying with my brother and his family.  We will open presents shortly, then get ready for my parents and grandparents to arrive from parts north.  After what will surely be too much food and not enough time, I’ll head back to NoVa tonight.  I was going to be off tomorrow, but I’m going to Western New York this weekend, so I switched tomorrow’s day off til Friday.  I’ll drive to my mom’s in PA Thursday night, then make the 4-hour trip from there to just outside Buffalo Friday morning in anticipation of a mini family reunion that night.

I’m planning to come back Sunday, even though plans for New Year’s Eve aren’t set yet.  I bet you anything I end up drinking champagne straight from the bottle (try it, if you never have – it’s kind of awesome), alone in my apartment, watching sappy movies.  Honestly, I can think of worse ways to ring in the new year.

Ok, since I missed last week’s list, here’s a double shot of things to be happy about over the holidays:

1. giving lots of little gifts instead of one big one
2.  Christmas lists – not what you want, but who to shop for
3. going to church on Christmas Eve [I don’t think I ever feel a greater sense of community than at that time]
4. the feeling of Christmas in the air
5. Christmas carols [and going caroling]
6. Santa Claus
7. Papa Noel – the “Spanish” Santa Claus
8. setting the official time for opening gifts on Christmas Day [when we were kids, this was inevitably super-early; as we got older and learned the value of sleep, it gradually got later]
9. the first snow
10. when the snow sticks
11. turning off all the lights and watching the Christmas tree glowing in the darkness [this is my absolute favorite thing to do on Christmas Eve]
12. driving through the Maryland countryside after dark, seeing the farm houses lit up with Christmas lights from a distance
13. homemade Christmas gifts
14. a cookie baking marathon extravaganza with a good friend
15. the downtown Richmond skyline at night during the holidays, with all the big buildings outlined in white Christmas lights
Edited to add (12/26/07):
16. the way my almost two-year-old nephew says “Ho ho ho” when you ask him what Santa Claus says
17. decorating cookies and making pine cone “favors” with my three-and-a-half-year-old niece

I hope you all have a wonderful day, however you’re spending it!

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So Much for That Idea

Melanie

Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.
— Jane Austen

Sorry I didn’t return to regular programming – I got busy dealing with the body shop, the insurance adjuster, a lying student loan company supervisor (Oh, you’ll call me back in 48 hours, max?  Really?  I think someone’s pants are on fire.), and crappy apartment maintenance people (Oh, you can’t come today like you said you would, but you’ll be here first thing in the morning?  Really?  Oh, you’re sorry you couldn’t make it this morning, but it’s after hours now and a dishwasher is not an emergency but you promise you’ll be here tomorrow?  Really?  Oh, you couldn’t make it again today, but this time you super-duper promise you’ll make it tomorrow?  Really?  Suck on it.  If I get West Nile virus from the nasty, standing water in the bottom of my dishwasher, I may go all Lawyer on you.) – and frankly, was not in the mood for Things to Be Happy About.  But don’t you worry, I have a bang-up Christmas edition all ready to go for you – it will be like an extra present for you to open Christmas morning!

So the car: remember how I said how thankful I was that the damage wasn’t extensive?  Either I know nothing about cars, the body shop and insurance adjuster are ripping me off, or I jinxed myself.  I think it’s the first one, but I’m not positive.  We’re up to $2200 and they haven’t even put the car on the lift yet.  Awesome.  Thank god I wasn’t one of those people who said “Oh, I never get in accidents, so I can handle a $1500 deductible.”  I know myself better than that, and went for $500.  That hurts, especially at the holidays, but it could be worse.

Remember also how I said how great my boss is?  He gave us Christmas presents yesterday, which I was not expecting at all (we already did our “annual round robin gift exchange,” you know).  Two words: Coach wristlet.  If you know anything about me, you know I do not care about labels and I would never buy myself Coach anything, but I was amazed at his generosity.  It’s beautiful and classic – plain black leather – but I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with it.  Does anyone use one of these?  I’m stumped in the face of such a thing.

Speaking of gifts, I am officially done, and everything is wrapped, as of last night.  Actually, that’s a lie.  I left one thing for my brother unwrapped because I may have to exchange it after I get to his house tonight and see if he already has it.  He won’t be there til Sunday night – he’s on an out-of-town job – so it will be safe.

And speaking of my brother, welcome him to the blogosphere, won’t you?  He’s not a great speller, but I love him anyway.

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Did Someone Say Cookie?

Melanie

“C” is for cookie, that’s good enough for me!
— Cookie Monster

So the marathon baking day came and went yesterday, and I’m left with approximately 12 dozen cookies to be shared with family, friends, and co-workers over the next week or so. I really wish that I believed in digital cameras, because the bounty truly was immense, and it just won’t be the same after waiting until the other 20 pictures on my roll of film are used up, and the film is developed, and Kodak kindly provides a CD, to post a picture. Karen took a couple with her (digital, thank god) camera, so maybe she’ll be kind enough to send me one and I can share that one with you.

[Edited, finally, to add a picture]

my-pictures0004.jpg

It only just now, after all the cookies are packed up and half sent home with Karen, occurred to me that I ought to have attempted some Smitten Kitchen-style photos of the process and the end results, rather than settling for the rather unceremonious heap-o-cookies-on-Melanie’s-dining-room-table-with-errant-lunchbags-and-not- yet-hung-artwork-in-the-background photos. Maybe next year.

The results are in, and of all the cookies we made, my favorites are the Kris Kringle cookies. Who knew white chocolate, dried cranberries, and chopped pecans could do so much for a standard cookie dough? I only got 5 dozen, not 6, out of the recipe, but that is still a boatload of cookies, so I’m happy.

I was the least impressed with the no-bake Peanut Butter Nanaimo bars. For all that I love the ingredients individually – peanut butter? Check. Chocolate? Double check. Coconut? Check. Graham crackers? Check check. – the combination of the them in the bottom layer was not spectacular. Plus, the top layer of chocolate didn’t stick to the peanut butter layer. Maybe that’s because I didn’t wait long enough for the chocolate to cool before I spread it over the peanut butter, I don’t know.

Karen’s cookie to be named later turned out to be peanut butter cut-out cookies, essentially a different version of the standard sugar cookies people make at the holidays. Her sugar cookie recipe uses cream cheese – yum. Unlike Jane, I love to roll out dough and use cookie cutters. I scored a whole container of holiday-themed cookie cutters at Goodwill about 2 years ago for, I think, 50 cents, and this was the first chance I’ve had to use them. We overtaxed ourselves though, with a mid-day shopping break at Target, so we ran out of energy to make icing and decorate the cookies last night. Oh well. People will eat them plain and like it, I say.

Now, off to the store. I’m out of milk!

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Things to Be Happy About, Vol. 7

Melanie

Happiness, it seems to me, consists of two things: First, in being where you belong, and second – and best – in comfortably going through everyday life; that is, having had a good night’s sleep and not being hurt by new shoes.
— Theodore Fontaine

Let’s get right to it, shall we?

1. Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey [I bought this for my niece when I was in Boston in March, and we read it two times a day for the four days I visited her afterwards]
2. Gerbera daisies
3. the smell of garlic sauteing in olive oil [growing up, we’d walk in the house and say, “Smells great, Mom, what’s for dinner?” and the only thing in the pan would be olive oil, garlic, and onion]
4. Socca, best eaten walking around the Sunday open-air market in Vieux Nice
5. the way wet leaves stain the sidewalk with their colors in the fall
6. when you and the bank agree on the amount of money in your account [my bank has said I have between $7 and $12 more than my checkbook says for more than a year; if I could ever get a consistent difference for 6 months, I’d just adjust it and move on, but it keeps changing]
7. decorating for Christmas, even if you’re the only one who will see it
8. the runt of the litter

After my “alternative work assignment” day today, most of my Christmas shopping is done, I just need one more thing for my dad, and two things for my brother. Karen is coming this weekend with baby Caroline, and we’re having a Christmas cookie baking marathon. I’ve chosen some pretty ambitious recipes, so we’ll see how they turn out. I chose Peanut Butter Nanaimo Bars, Double Chocolate Sable Cookies, Kris Kringle Cookies, and Coconut-Peanut Cookies. I may have bitten off more than I can chew, but the Nanaimo Bars are no-bake, and the Coconut-Peanut ones look pretty simple, so I’m hopeful. Karen has chosen traditional sugar cookies, which we’ll roll out and use my extensive cookie cutter collection on, as well as Snickerdoodles (which, to my surprise and dismay, do not actually contain Snickers), and a cookie to be named later.

Hopefully the results will be great, and I can take a bunch to work to share and save some for my family on Christmas as well. What are you making this holiday?

(Please, people, I like it when you comment, that’s why I keep asking questions at the end of my posts. Don’t be shy, I like to know you’re reading and what you’re thinking – you can be anonymous if you want to. Jane, Lydia, Coll, Becca – thanks for keeping me company!)