Christmas

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Five Good Things: Random Friday Edition

001. Tom made me sit down and watch TV with him on Wednesday night, even though the sink was completely full of dirty dishes and the counters needed some serious help. “You know how they do that thing with heroin addicts where they lock them in a room and don’t let them have any heroin?” he asked. “Well, we’re going to try that with you and cleaning.”  And you know what? It worked. I even fell asleep on the couch.

002. Turning off all the lights except for the tree and cozying up in my slippers, even if I’m more likely to be eating Honey Nut Cheerios out of the box and hollering at Iron Chef (“OYSTER ICE CREAM. Are you watching this? He’s making OYSTER ICE CREAM.”) than demurely sipping some peppermint hot cocoa and listening to Burl Ives.

003. True story: We tried this new place for beers last night and the bartender was rude and condescending and horrible, so before we left we tilted the whole bowl of complementary matches into my purse. Mature? Maybe not. Satisfying? I mean, YES. Plus we needed matches!

004. My Amazon order came yesterday, full of Christmasy excitement and happiness. Nothing says Holiday Time like a giant box full of nifty gifties on the stoop.

005. This weekend: gift-wrapping, cookie-baking, Netflix-watching, contacts-getting, coffee-drinking, apartment-tidying, plus Abbey’s Hannukah party and a trip to the Christmas Pops on Monday night.  I am so happy.

Bonus! This song is so nerdy, and I love it so much. I’ve been rocking out to it on Pandora Christmas all week.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5pCDKX1b4g]

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hey! that’s as tall as me!

Have you guys seen that commercial? With the lady and the extra tinfoil? Whatever. It just makes me laugh, is all. 

Anyway. One thing about December is all I want to do is cook and bake. My oven is cranked up constantly. My range is always lit. It’s kind of satisfying, that feeling of hunkering down and feeding my family (biological and surrogate both), of spending some time on dinners that are maybe a little bit more special than usual.

Lately: super-easy, super-festive butternut squash risotto (thank you Bethany!), a rather amazing pumpkin sauce (maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, and a giant white pumpkin that has been sitting on my mantle since Columbus Day) drizzled over ice cream and homemade gingersnaps, salty sweet potato fries, a parmesan spinach artichoke dip, and scallops wrapped in bacon. Holiday food, for sure. 

Question: I have a giant pot roast and I want to make it in my crockpot. Can somebody tell me how?

Tonight we’re parking ourselves in front of the Christmas tree with the 5th season of Lost, parmesan-garlic BLTs (featuring Ina’s roasted tomatoes, oh man I am excited) and the last quarter of a chocolate tart I made last night for tree-trimming. While  not a bona fide winner (it was just TOO MUCH, plus I used cheap chocolate and you could tell. I feel like Marissa probably would have seen that one coming), it is a mother effing chocolate tart and I’m not about to let it go to waste. 

Tomorrow: a giveaway of sorts! My very first. Amazing, yes? I kind of think so. Come by and have a look, in any case.

Right now: my boyfriend’s home. I gotta go.

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wishes, listed.

Did I talk about this last year? I feel like I must have, I love it so. Oh well. Worth talking about again.

I have these three amazing, far-flung lady friends from college. We used to be neighbors and now we are not. We used to see each other a LARGE AMOUNT and now we see each other a little amount. You know how it is. A lot of things are different, but one thing that has NOT changed is our holiday wish list game.

You guys, this is such a bitchin’ tradition that I would really like to be able to take credit for making it up, but I actually read it online someplace while I was killing time before class my junior (senior?) year. It’s one of my favorite parts of the holiday season, and the way it works is this:

01. Find friends to play. I think it works rather nicely with four people, but I also think it would work rather nicely with four hundred. Depends how popular you are, I reckon.

02. The week after Thanksgiving, everybody writes down ten things they would really, really like this holiday season. Now, to be clear, the point is not to ask for a Cartier a KitchenAid or a BMW. No, the things on this list should be little–and close to free(ish), for the most part.  I want dinner recipes.  Jennie wants the new Oprah. Sierra wants Jennie and Marissa to start watching Lost, and I want Sierra to start a blog of her own. Marissa wants a manicure and the chance to wear a party dress. We all want mix cds. The point here is small and doable and awesome.

03. Swap lists.

04. Grant wishes.

05. Be happy.

Best game ever, right? I thought so.

Here’s hoping you get everything on your list this year, including a happy, happy, happy weekend.