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...