Merry Merry and Happy Happy

This holiday season has been very enjoyable for me this year...mainly because I have been counting my blessings all year long. So happy to have a wonderful, sessy husband and a beautiful, talented, smart, funny, compassionate daughter also. They are dear people who forgive me when I am cranky in the mornings (and the afternoons and in the evenings)...

This year we hung a stocking for the pets and the jolly guy actually gave the naughty beasts some treats! Santa filled the rest of our stockings with oranges, pears, chocolates, candy canes and small toys...and he even left me an iPod Touch. He really shouldn't have...but I will let it slide this one time...

Santa also brought me a wonderful Filipino cookbook that was on my Amazon Wishlist - Memories of Philippine Kitchens. I have only scanned through Chapter 1 and I am looking forward to testing out each and every recipe with my sous chef over the next year. Would be really cool to check out the authors' restaurant, Cendrillon, in SoHo someday...

As a nice surprise I found Sugar Plums at a very cool local candy store. So we finally KNOW what the children who were nestled all snug in their beds were dreaming about! I have to say that this "discovery" was a little anti-climactic in that they were just jellied plum candies rolled in sugar and not the dried plums rolled in sugar that I had envisioned... but they were still enjoyable. In fact, I discovered quite a few other surprises for family and friends at the Candy Basket and they even had spices for hot cider!

Perhaps the best thing I found [out] this year is that I actually enjoyed hanging out with the family (extended and then some) without feeling all caged and trapped and like I needed to Get Out Now! It may sound odd to some of you who know me (or maybe you already knew this about me) but sometimes it's hard for me to relax and enjoy being around family for extended periods of time. This year was different though, I was all "Bring it on!". I'm not saying this came without any challenges... there were casualties!

While it was not a perfect holiday season, I would say we made some great strides in Being Flexible and Not Being In Control...

The year is almost up and I wouldn't trade this one for anything! I look forward to chillaxin' with the family at home and ushering in the new year...

Holiday Spirit

Sitting here watching SpongeBob's First Christmas (for the eleventy-billionth time) and contemplating the day ahead. Errands, lunch with my baby girl and hopefully a movie! It's cold outside so we are snuggling under the covers.... Here are a few images of Christmas so far...

Junket

v. provide a feast or banquet for syn: feast

v. partake in a feast or banquet

Mr. Boffo - rediscovered something I used to read daily when I was in college....seems that no comic strips in "the paper" here float my boat...

Bang the Drum

Emi Claus bangs the Djembe drum before her piano lesson...

Make something out of it....

On the outside of the envelope that Emi used for her Christmas list to Santa Emi wrote "Make something out of it...." Guess maybe we should look for a stocking full of coal this year?

Serendipity

Last month we were in Austin for a conference and we discovered many great food and music finds. We were even treated to some wonderful music from within the "confines" of our hotel room. For those of you who have never experienced Michael Tolcher or Brett Dennen, you are in for a real treat! The Hilton spotlighted a few artists and these guys were 2 of the 3 that we kept going back to hear day after day. Tolcher's Voila does exactly what Michael promised and transports you to a happy place (pleasurable indeed). And Dennen's Blessed is a truly a blessing.

I could easily locate Brett's musical offerings anywhere on the internet and satellite radio and have been enriching my life with his gift for the past month. However, Michael's musical offerings, aside from the songs on his CD released in 2004, are harder to be found. Specifically Voila! I found another fan's offering of Voila as well as a notice that he is currently touring with Graham Colton, Bryan Greenberg, and Tim Brantley. I found out that they were coming to OKC and got tickets that same day to see them last Friday night for their thanksgiving show! {Note that now Michael Tolcher's website now has his current tour information posted.}

Had never heard of the other guys before but for $20 we knew we could sit through their performances to hear Tolcher. While we were very pleased with his performance - he was definitely a higher caliber musician than his 3 stagemates - we were disappointed that he brought no Tolch music and merchandise for us to purchase! And he didn't sing our song! I was so upset that I almost didn't snap up his last CD amazon.com!

He did play a couple of great songs and it was great to hear him acoustic....and I suppose we can wait for his new EP/LP/CD to come out...