wwcitizen | Entries tagged with holidays

Happy May Day everyone!! What does "May Day" mean to you?

When I hear, "Mayday Mayday Mayday!" I first picture airplane pilots in black and white war movies having mechanical troubles. They're going down in a blaze of glory. Then there's the "zzzzt!" of the radio going out as the camera pans back to military command center. It actually has nothing to do with "May Day": It is an anglicized form of "m'aider" from French, which means, "Help me!" and is always said three times.

When I read, "The 1st of May...", I think of Maypoles (in Germany, they're called "Maibäume", which is a fun word to pronounce in German - "my-boimah"). I have visions of little girls in pastel dresses dancing around a tall pole with ribbons, wrapping it up as they skip and sing. The Maypole history - in Germany - is how a "secret admirer" symbol arrived at a love interest's doorstep.

When I google images of, "Happy May Day", there are pictures of flowers, fists, Maypoles, propaganda, little children in pastel, worker marches, vintage cards, equality marches, flowery garlands... What a strange mixture. I captured some here for personal posterity. As with most all "holidays", May Day has its origins in pagan celebration.

Interestingly, May 1, 1707, is the date when England and Scotland united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. Over the last century and a half, the first day of May became in some countries "Labor Day". Hence, there are also lots and lots of demonstrations regarding labor, workers, unions, and the like. Even though the US Labor Day bank holiday begins our autumn and is always the first Monday of September, worker and labor movements historically carry out many protests and demonstrations on May 1.

Lots of things converge, then, on May Day: flowers, pagan traditions, strife, fights for equal rights, riots, protests, Maypoles, love interests, political unions... The pagans knew something was special about the seasons changing, the spring sort of ending on April 30 and the summer sort of beginning on May 1. The welling up of the human experience in a way. From the statement, "April showers bring May flowers...", the expectation is set that so much will change when May comes around; there are brighter days ahead. People hope for change on May 1.

I place my hopes in positive change! HAPPY MAY DAY!!( Pictures... )

Current Mood: happy

Matthew did a fantastic job again this year with the Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes. It's an Italian, Catholic, Christmas Eve tradition. I'm not Catholic. I'm not Italian. But I LOVE this tradition!! Matthew is holding to most of his mother's recipes and has added a couple of things (or tried out a couple of new things) for a bit of a flare to keep the interest in the affair going. There's nothing difficult about picking out fish - truly. We all love seafood. But, to prepare them in such a way that there are different dishes with at least 7 different fishes, that's the ultimate challenge.

For example, we made an octopus salad with roasted potatoes and onions. Matthew slow-cooked the octopus overnight in red wine vinegar and white wine with spices, pulled off the suckers, and marinated the octopus meat for 2-3 days. Then I roasted the potatoes and pearl onions and mixed in the octopus, which warmed up the octopus and olive oil marinade. YUM!!

Then we made the standard (and VERY scrumptious) seafood salad with squid (calamari), shrimp, cuttlefish, scallops, and baby octopus. Matthew made a lemon/olive oil marinade for the mixture and they sat in the fridge for about 2 days. I chopped up red, yellow, and orange peppers, celery, two garlic cloves, and parsley and mixed it all together on Christmas Eve. DELICIOUS!! And so fresh.

Matthew worked extra hard on battering and sauteeing soft shell crabs. I never liked soft shell crabs that much until I met Matthew. Also, his prep is by far the tastiest I've ever had. I could not stop eating these this year - and we were able to glean about 10 for leftovers. He also made stuffed calamari, which might fall off the list next year. Also, he did the shrimp with lemon and basil and I learned how to chiffonade basil for the preparation!

That's 6 fishes so far (yes, arthropods (crustacea), mollusks, and cephalopods are included as fish since squid, octopus, mussels, and shrimp are all from the sea). Then, we got lobsters steamed and removed the meat from the shell for a "raw bar", which included mussels, lump crab meat, and snow crab claws. He also added a beurre blanc sauce and a minuet, of course, for dipping. On Christmas day, Matthew's brother-in-law steamed clams (littlenecks). YUM!!

As for actual fish, Matthew prepped smelts, which I always love. Smelts are similar to sardines. Matthew rolls them in a flour/salt & pepper covering mixture, I sprayed them with olive oil, and then we baked them. Once they're out, they get tossed in a lemon/olive oil sauce to bring out the flavor of the fish. On Christmas Eve, Matthew grilled Chilean sea bass steaks, which he had carefully tied into round filet "mignons" of fish. Typically, there's a Baccala salad (salt cod), which is a smelly, disgusting, but ultimately tasty (albeit kinda dry) dish, but this year, the Baccala didn't happen - no one likes it that much and the prep is such a PITA, that it's just not worth making.

Matthew really wanted to make quenelles escoffier (Jacques Pépin) - a French fish preparation of one or two fishes blended into a mouse, poached, and baked with a white cream sauce. We made a haddock-based "test run" for ourselves about 6 days early, which turned out wonderful. THAT dish would have been an amazing addition to the array of fishes dishes, but the blend we made with turbot and cod for the Christmas Eve feast bombed for some reason - maybe because the fishes weren't as fresh as the haddock we had used earlier. :-(

Of course, he made broccoli rabe and green beans for veg, and with leftover stuffing from the stuffed calamari, he stuffed some PEI green shell mussels. For dessert, everyone whipped out chocolates, store-bought cream puffs and sfogliatelles, but the biggest hit were Matthew's cookies, which he finished baking about 2 weeks before Christmas. He made two kinds of biscottis, rainbow cookies, and pignoli nut cookies. Those are the basic standards and about all he could muster with all the other stuff going on throughout the holiday season.

Everyone truly enjoyed all the preparations and were fully amazed - again - at Matthew's cooking and gourmet cheffing of the Feast. Enjoy the pictures!!

Current Mood: grateful

Almost two weeks ago, we had a quite literally "shitty" flight down to Florida. We had also been denied nut-containing products from their snack selections because someone in our rows 3-6 apparently very sensitive nut allergies.

This week, our flight was delayed by about 45 mins. Why? Because the plane had flown in from Bogata and needed to "clear customs"... aka "get fumigated and cleaned out of drugs", I'm sure.

When we did board the plane and got to our extra leg room seats in row 5 (I was on the window and Matthew in the middle), our aisle-seated neighbor was a full-grown young woman who happened to be about 2.5 feet tall. Yes, a midget. Yes, a midget, who paid extra for more leg room. Why would a midget need extra leg room? She treated the space like it was her apartment. She hopped down to organize her stuff in the pouch in front of her, reached into her grocery bag, pulled out some snacks, and hopped back into her seat. As we were deplaning and walking carefully over her, she was in the middle of folding a tiny pizza whilst laying on the seat with her ankles in the air.

Then Matt went to turn on his TV on his display. The first channel that displayed a show was presenting the Wizard of Oz!! And which scene exactly??! Yes. The Munchkin scene where Glenda is saying, "Come out, come out! Wherever you are!" Matthew nudged me to look at the screen, we both looked at each other startled and he changed the channel quickly.

Of course, Matthew and I during the flight couldn't discuss these things because that would have been rude and inappropriate. But we were confused. She seemed like a nice enough woman, but didn't have much to say. The only time she needed assistance was from the flight attendant with her tray table and from Matthew to hit the flight attendant button; standing on the seat, she still wouldn't have been able to press that button. :-(

Before we landed, one of the flight attendants ran up to the front and said, "Is there a doctor on board? We need a doctor in row 5 immediately!" THAT WAS OUR ROW! Of course, Matthew and I side-glanced toward our neighbor who was as happy as a clam laying on her ENORMOUS seat, as if it were a chaise lounge, playing with her iPad. Then about 10 people behind us said, "NINE! ROW NINE!"

As we were descending, something happened to one of the passengers and had to be evacuated once we landed in a sit-up stretcher. We overheard an EMT or police officer say, "Yeah, we have a possible code 16." We found out later that code number meant that there was something to do with alcohol abuse, medication overdose, and/or mixing of the two combined with the cabin pressurizing and depressurizing. So, even though the pilot did get us landed safely 15 minutes late instead of 45 minutes late, we all waited about 15 minutes while the sickly passenger and his wife got off the plane.

While we waited for everything to settle, I called our driver just to confirm that we'd just landed and they hadn't updated our new flight from when I'd called the week before. So, they thought we were supposed to arrive at 2AM on Monday! Needless to say, I said, "Well, we probably have about 20-30 minutes before we have our baggage and are ready to get in the car, which should be enough time to get to La Guardia from NJ."

The driver made it (somehow!) to the airport in 15 minutes from across the George Washington Bridge. We were amazed as was his dispatcher, and we made it home in one piece by 10PM, just in time to place the last order from our local Chinese place. It was a long, adventurous day to say the least.

Current Mood: giggly

Every time we come to Disney, we have a sticker contest with the kids. I'm all into it because I like stickers too! It's usually Michael (11) and me against everybody else! The last 2 times, we were essentially tied. This time was different.

See, we got a guy on the inside, see. And he really hooked us up! dude sauntered back to his drawer... and whipped out this roll for us.

Duh! Winning!

I'm ripping off some of the stickers for me and giving the rest of the roll to Michael. Yay for Uncle Steve!

EDIT: Corrected "role" to "roll". Remember: Auto-correct on a "smart" phone is NOT your friend. Especially if you have fat finger syndrome. :-D

Current Location: Kissimmee, Epcot Resorts Blvd, 2101

Welcomed to our first day by birds in the courtyard behind a white crepe myrtle tree. There's a pretty white bench along a path out there that's so inviting!

I called the front desk to find out our breakfast options in the hotel. Took four tries on the phone to speak to someone; the system got to a point in the automation and hung up on me. When I did finally get someone, they said, "There's nothing in the hotel for breakfast. Have a magical day!" rushing me off the phone.

I walked out of my room and around the corner to find a coffee/breakfast kiosk with fruit, bagels, cereal, and assorted pastries. How's that for "nothing in the hotel"??

Have a magical day!

Current Location: Bay Lake, Germany Service Rd, Germany Service Rd

<a href="http://www.hallmark.com/online/hoopsandyoyo/ruin-christmas/" target="_blank">This looks like it could be cute</a>.

I mostly cannot STAND the Hallmark Channel during the holidays. They have the absolute worst run-down of movies - and who's ever heard of all these 2-hour movies?? I guess up and coming actors have to start somewhere and Hallmark affords some of them that place. :-|

Here's the weather forecast for our destination: Provincetown, MA:

Looks like it's going to be a very nice week. There might be scattered thunderstorms on Tuesday, but 'tis fine. We're 5 blocks from changing clothes if we get drenched. And what kid doesn't love splashing in puddles?!

Current Mood: excited

So, yesterday, we went into the city to meet up with

martini_tim,

bigsabu,

octothorpe, and

mat_t for dinner. Tim & Robert are heading through NYC on their way to Boston and then Ptown for Bear Week, where we'll also be for the week. Dinner was at Tony's di Napoli. We got there a little early for drinks at the bar. After we sat down (in the less noisy basement), we ordered fried calimari and heirloom tomato salad for apps. Then we had veal saltimbucca & spinach and chicken Scarpiello with sausage, potatoes, peppers, and onions. It was all really good! For dessert, we got the chocolate decadence (for Tim, I made sure they exchanged the vanilla ice cream with chocolate - YUMMIER!), cannolis, and tiramisu. So tasty, but we were REALLY stuffed!

Today, we went to a BBQ at a friend's place and had a great time. We got up late, though. Matt had made these AWESOME brownie cookies with dark chocolate brownie, peanut butter mixed with cream cheese, topped with a firm chocolate ganache. Here are a couple of pictures (he got the recipe from Anne Thornton of "Dessert First" on the Food Network - she's fierce and fabulous):

He also made chicken lollipops from frozen raw chicken wings, a construct from Jacques Pépin de-boning his chicken. With the wings, he made his signature dipping sauce with apricot jam, salt/pepper, and the juices from the cooked chicken. They were AWESOME!

We raced back home from the BBQ after a couple of rounds of Bocce Ball. We had decided earlier this month that we wouldn't go into the city or down to Weehawken for the fireworks this year. Instead, we went up onto the roof of our building (something we're not really allowed to do) and watched them from there. Here are a couple of highlights.

Looking across into Jersey:

Looking down the river to the Macy's fireworks:

Enjoyed the day thoroughly!

This is our Easter 2011 album. There are pictures of the decor prep, the household set up, the feast, laughs, and festivities.

Matt cooked an AWESOME meal. And I was pretty proud of the way the place looked - totally spring and Easter. The kids came in and kept saying, "Oooohh, wow..." and "Awwww... cute!" So did Matt's aunt, sister, and cousin. Score! Check them out!

I wish Picasa would catch up with embedding their web albums into blogs and onto Facebook. It's almost as if Google doesn't really want to interface with Facebook at all. On the one hand, I understand, and on the other, isn't it a business opportunity? Or maybe it's the other way around... Either way, it would seem that having more interplay would be better for both in the long run. Another topic for another post.

ENJOY!!

Here comes Peter Cottontail, Hoppin' down the bunny trail,
Hippity hoppity, Easter's on its way
Bringin' ev'ry girl and boy, a basketful of Easter joy
Things to make your Easter, bright and gay...

Today, we've got Matt's family coming over at 1:00PM and BOY do we have a feast, decor, and celebration of Easter for everyone. Matt and I had so much fun putting this day together.

From the kids' Easter baskets and the Easter chandelier to the Cornish hens, braised fennel, and bunny cake as well as Glamor Pudding (resurrecting a Julia Child dessert), I think everyone's going to enjoy it.

Thing is, even though we planned everything out and got lots of things done in preparation - including trying recipes - for some reason, pulling it all together Friday and yesterday, we've only gotten about 4.5 hours of sleep! UGH!

We both threw out our backs. Praying that we get through the day, and by about 6:00 PM, we can take a really nice nap for about an hour.

Busy day! Enjoy everyone! Big-eared bunny hugs.

Last weekend, in a spurt of getting out of doing my taxes - again - Matt and I took off on Sunday to Michael's Arts & Crafts. I LOVE that store. It's better and less expensive than AC Moore, IMHO, and they're better at customer service. The one we went to was much bigger (so it seemed) than the one I typically go to. Plus, they had a more expansive scrapbooking section than my normal one.

I got it in me to redo our Easter chandelier a bit from a few weeks ago. Here's the now finished project and we're happy with it. It has to look fabulous; Matt's aunt, cousins, and sister are coming over with their families and significant others - and three kids! We're putting a lot into this and it'll be fun. Really fun.

Here are pictures of the chandelier:

It had to be different and springier than the ornate and heavy-looking Christmas one. Matt looked at the chandelier after we finished this round and said, "My goodness; I used to hate this chandelier. Who knew I'd start loving its versatility and charm?" Its simplicity makes for good decorations at holidays!

Boxing Day 2010. Day started at 3:30 AM checking on our flight to NC. Flight's still on time for departure at 6AM. Cab comes at 4:15AM to cart us to LaGuardia and we had carry-on luggage. In NY, they were asking for two people who were willing to give up their seats for a $300 voucher apiece. We almost opted for that, but realized we might not get into Raleigh if we did that. We gave up $600 of airfare in order to make it to the Lambeth Christmas gathering!

We flew to NC from LaGuardia Airport (NY) The entire flight to NC, we saw only white outside our window. Typically, as we're landing at RDU, you can see miles of trees and green and neighborhoods. That day, this is what we saw:

Once we landed in Raleigh on the "plowed" runway, we got to our gate about 5 minutes later, while another plane was getting deiced (above). This is the video I took of our smooth landing out my window:

Inside the airport before we got our coffee, we looked at the board (top left). Our later reshuffled flight with $600 of vouchers would totally have been canceled. We wouldn't have made it to NC at all!

Our Alamo car was waiting for us and we had "pick of the litter" from about 4 cars. For some stupid reason, I picked the Dodge Charger (rear-wheel drive) instead of any Toyota or Honda (front-wheel drive). None of the cars available had all-weather tires anyway, but it would have been smarter to get a front-wheel drive for the snow. We were tired and it was 8:30AM, after 4 hours of sleep.

This is the car - pretty and red, huh? It looks really good in the snow.

Unfortunately, for this trip, "looks good in the snow" meant "lodged in a ditch on the side of some arbitrary road in south Raleigh"!! That's where I landed us, thinking I was turning into a driveway that ended up being a massive, deep ditch. I couldn't see the front of the hood at first because of the snow drift.

Asshole rednecks in the neighborhood walked by us without stopping to help or asking if we needed help - even after I beeped! One angelic good ol' boy stopped to try to get us out to no avail, so we called AAA. 3 minutes later, Matt jostled us out of the hole and back onto the road. AAA was looking for us within about 5 minutes!!! We passed the tow truck on the way to the hotel while we were canceling the call and told them thanks for getting there so quickly. Hopefully, they got out to help the 30+ abandoned cars we passed on the highways from the airport.

Our hotel room was pretty and the beds were really comfortable! We took a nice 2.5-hour nap before heading to my youngest sister's house for lunch, games, dinner, and games.

We made it to my sister's house and it was a beautiful wintry wonderland!! We spent two and a half days going back and forth from our hotel to my sister's house for family festivities. In the end, we all had a great time (mixing in some dramatic moments where family members lost their holiday cool). Got some really fun gifts and had lots of good food and laughs.

Not to be taken lightly though, the weather and air traffic didn't cooperate with us. Our flight on Tuesday to return to LGA was canceled and we're getting a refund from our trip. Alamo, the car rental place who gave us the Dodge Charger (feh), wanted to charge us $450 on top of a day's rental ($120) to drive up to NJ; i.e. $570!! We switched to Budget instead and got a nice Malibu for the trip for a mere $248 total with an XM/Sirius radio to boot! The trip was quite uneventful, thankfully, and the main roads were completely clear. We ordered a cab to pick us up from the airport and drive us home from Budget at Newark airport - YAY - and got home at about 2AM. We are exhausted and really glad to be home!!

Here are some pictures of the snow and the holidays with my family:

Well, Christmas 2010 is done. We're starting to pack things away and make room for all the new stuff. Let me correct that statement: I am starting to pack things away. Matt's still asleep, as well he should be. We both had a very busy holiday season and he did a lot of work on food.

We spent Christmas eve and day at Matt's sister's house. Christmas Eve was the traditional feast of the seven fishes, which went off without a hitch. Matt blames it on my help, but I don't know that I did all that much. He said it would have been a race to the "finish line" without me and my support. Again, don't know how I helped that much, but I guess I kept him going at times. Christmas day was fun. Matt and I had our gift exchange at home.

Our Yule Log:

Then we went traipsing up to Mahwah again (about 30 minutes up north) to spend the day with his sister's family and his aunt and cousin. It was fun and the kids were soooo excited. The day ended with his aunt and nephew getting a stomach bug from something. Not sure what cuz we all ate the same things. Hmmm...

I got Matt a peacoat, two jackets, an audio book (David Sedaris), and a leather executive office chair that matches mine. He got me/us a whole bunch of geeky things for the Xbox and our diet plan for 2011. I'm really glad he got us those things cuz I really didn't need anything at all!

Matt's Leather Executive Chair (I'd already purchased it and he was already using it, but I had to wrap a gift with it, you know?)

The NJ Christmastime was fun and pretty easy. Here's our geekwares:

Current Mood: geeky

Here's hoping that this post backfires in a positive way! Given positive outcomes in other holiday goings-on, this issue might be resolved today! Here's hoping!

On Dec. 13, I sent out a package priority mail with the USPS (with a 2-3 day turnaround), who we always use for any of our packages - domestically or internationally. Usually, their delivery windows are the best for the price point. In contrast, FexEx, DHL, and UPS are terrible. The package was destined for Brooklyn. Another package I sent out on the same day got to NC within 3 business days. I fully expected the same with the package to Brooklyn because, after all, it's basically just over a couple of bridges.

Using Track & Confirm, the last update status after "Sorting Complete, December 17, 2010, 10:29 am, BROOKLYN, NY 11217" was, "Delivery status not updated as of December 18, 2010, 12:39 am".

I was shocked! I'd never seen any update like that on the USPS tracking site. I contacted customer service on Monday, Dec. 20, after 9AM. Even they said they'd never seen anything like this either! Let me reiterate: The USPS Customer Service said they'd never seen an update like that either!

A little later our local NJ PO contacted me about the package. I'd been trying to call the Brooklyn PO all day and got a constant busy signal. Our local PO had no further information and was also having trouble getting through to Brooklyn. Although I fully expected to hear on the news, "The Brooklyn Post Office at zip code 11217 was blown up today in a terrorist plot initiated by postal workers who were denied their pensions...", I kept trying to get through to the Brooklyn PO.

On Tuesday, Dec. 21, I got through to the Brooklyn PO after lunch! The guy I spoke with was fully 1) trying to get me off the phone, 2) did not want to help me, 3) couldn't have cared less about my problem, 4) came up with all sorts of excuses about why the package hadn't been delivered, and 5) took about a full 10 minutes to locate a pencil to take down my information. He still hasn't called me back and now my friend, for whom the package was intended has gone over - on Christmas Eve - to hopefully retrieve the package. He just called and the post office in Brooklyn couldn't locate the package.

This whole thing is soooo frustrating!! Most likely, the package was lost and no one wants to claim responsibility. Other stuff has made it to Queens and Brooklyn (other POs), but not this one little package.

Here's what's in the package along with a card:

We had missed their tree-trimming party, the first one we would have ever been to, because Matt was pretty sick with a cold. We were both so very sad to miss it. I had made these ornaments especially to give them for their tree. They are inscribed on the back of each ornament for 2010. UGH!

Well, here's hoping that at some point during the year, someone finds the package and actually delivers it to them. I've heard about packages that are lost around the holidays might not turn up for years. Years. So, here's hoping that someone finds it soon! This is really the only sad thing that's happened for us around the holidays this year, and I hope it stays that way!

Current Mood: sad

Got this note from the bookstore in Greenville in response to my email to them about the shipping costs vs. the shipping time. I hedged my bets in contacting the guy and expected nothing more from him. But, this came along!
_________________________________________________________________

Stephen,

I am sorry you were unsatisfied with your experience with us. I have issued a refund of $3.99 for the shipping price on one book.

I ship all my orders via USPS Media Mail. All my book listings show this in checkout: my standard shipping period is from 4 to 14 days. For standard shipping Amazon.com automatically charges a flat rate of $3.99 per book.

Again, my apologies and I hope you have a happy holiday.

DE Books
_________________________________________________________________

YIPPEE!! It does pay to speak out! If not for your own personal vindication, but in the hopes that others do the right thing. Now this guy gets positive feedback.

The guy didn't go to school with me, though. I removed his name "to protect the innocent."

Happy holidays, indeed!

We've programmed out Tivo to collect as many holiday programs throughout the season as possible. We always start this up just around Halloween after we've (sadly) discovered that we missed It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Along with the Thanksgiving specials, food shows, and odd HGTV holiday decorating episodes, we also happily find things we've forgotten about or don't see too often, like The Wizard of Oz, It Happened on 5th Ave, etc.

Then there are all the religious shows, the arias, operas, musical extravaganzas, plays, and other things they show during the entire holiday season. There's a show with Joanna Bogle, a Brit who's a die-hard Catholic. She writes a weekly column for the Catholic Times, has authored a few books, and has been providing humanitarian aid to people in Africa.

Her show, Feasts & Seasons, comes on around the holidays. I watched her show briefly last year and did the same today, but I can't watch the whole thing; it's kind of a train wreck and I find Joanna Bogle tremendously condescending. She actually leans on her counter for most of her show, supposedly making you feel comfortable to listen her spew her religious hypotheses.

The show is horribly produced and her creations are left wanting. Left wanting for more talent and creativity for sure! Even though her show lasts for 30 minutes, I have to turn it off after about 10 minutes or just fast-forward to see what other atrocities she makes or find other postulations she asserts, such as there being a sort of "Summer Christmas" based on the birthday of John The Baptist. I find it all a bit strange. Not foreign, but strange.

Here's a perfect example of a wreath she made a few years ago, which she finds "wonderful" and "exciting". She goes into explaining how the circle/wreath represents eternity as well as the cycle of a year.

Apparently, this is a straw wreath that's held together by red, shiny, plastic ribbon. The ornaments she "changes from year to year" are horribly placed around the circle. The ornaments aren't placed very aesthetically, either.

She mixes in the pagan timing of the Christmas celebration with "biblical time lines", so that John The Baptist's "Summer Christmas" is opposite Jesus' Christmas in the winter. John The Baptist (JTB) said, "As he increases, so must I diminish." Bogle's explanation of the passing of the summer solstice (in terms of JTB and Jesus - and their two "Christmases) the days get shorter (JTB diminishes). Then after the passing of the winter solstice, the days get longer (Christ increases). And this cycle repeats itself annually. She finds that analogy very instructive, while the audience might tend to find it all very convenient to her interpretation.

Just now, as I was researching a little more about her before I posted, I discovered that she's got a totally different biography than I would have expected AND there's a YouTube video of her speaking out against the use of condoms in Africa as a means to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Here's the video. Please watch in amazement - the women are "Bogle" and "Baggaley" are on the show and disagree very much - Bogle, in particular, becomes "fierce"...):

Most of my Christmas gifts get ordered online anymore. Ordering online, as you know, lessens holiday stress, saves gasoline & mileage, and just makes the whole experience fun in my book.

Speaking of books, one of the presents I got is a book (not revealing which book or for whom because sometimes my family reads my public posts - knowing one of my sisters, though, she'll go filing through their books to see which one it might be. Good luck, Deborah!!). Because the book is now out of print, I looked on eBay and Amazon through their extra sellers.

Well!! This particular extra seller ((DE Books on Amazon)) is located in my hometown of Greenville, NC. I thought, "Wouldn't it be funny to find out that the seller is a high school friend of mine?"

I placed an order with DE Books on Amazon on Dec. 9 for standard shipping, which would mean that the item would arrive at a cost of $7.98. The shipping rates are typically inflated to cover the cost of shipping materials and the time it takes to package up the items. I understand this process because Matt and I do it for eBay items regularly. This time around, though, in comparing $7.98 to online USPS postage pricing, I thought, "The book should arrive by Dec. 16 at the latest!" It arrived yesterday, Dec. 18, which is a day after I'd already packaged up items to send out to NC in time for Christmas; and I didn't spend a lot of money, but everything in the package is wrapped!

I was so livid that the book arrived late and wasn't included in the shipment to NC. Granted, I will be carrying it with me, but as an online seller myself, I take umbrage with the fact that these guys charged me more than twice the media rate and the item arrived late!! If they'd spent a little more (of my money), but still making $1-2, the book would have arrived by Dec. 15!!

Amazon allows you to contact the seller, (DE Books on Amazon), which I've done:

"Hi, On this order, I requested standard shipping, which is (oddly) $7.98, and the item arrived on 12/18. Standard shipping* (3-5 business days) should have helped the package arrive by 12/16 at the latest. On the package, you selected USPS Media Mail for books. While I realize this is a good way to ship books because it's less expensive, Media Mail takes longer to arrive. If you want to make money on the shipping fee during the holidays, resulting in later arrivals of shipments, that is really bad business (and can be reflected in feedback).

However, if you had chosen USPS Priority Mail as the option, the items would have been here in 2 business days (i.e. 12/14 at the latest) instead of 7 at a cost of $5.95. I am writing to request a refund of $4, which I think is fair (and you still make money on your shipping): As a result of your choosing the later shipping, I will not be able to send the package wrapped to its destination by Christmas, which is VERY disappointing.

* Please refer to the posted Amazon Shipping Rates & Policies at the bottom of every page."

I think this is a fair request. I don't really care about $4. It's the principle of the thing. Online sellers try to make extra money on shipping, I get it. Like I said, I've done it, but within reason. If the actual price of shipping items comes to less than half of what the person has already paid, without question, we will refund a split. It might turn out to be $2-3, but it's the giving thing to do. Around the holidays, I like to think (against my better judgment) that people will have a little bigger heart; when they don't, I call them on it.

I doubt this will come to anything and the guy will hang onto that $4 for all it's worth - in this economy. I completely expect that. While writing this whole thing out, I felt it was kind of petty. But, dammit, it's not. My feedback will not be positive, but at least in this little exchange, my voice will have been heard, and ultimately THAT is what's important and what makes me American.

Current Mood: angry

Our Thanksgiving was really fun. We invited over Matt's cousins, aunt, and friends to dinner and they brought the desserts. On Wednesday, Matt started cooking around 4:00 and finished around 2:00 with clean up. He also prepped things that needed to cook on Thursday. I set up the entire house, the coffee/utensil area, the dessert/hors d'oeuvres area, and the bar, as well as the dining room and seating area, making sure that the bathrooms were clean and well-stocked with toilet paper, tissues, hand napkins (for drying hands), and breath mints.
Dining Room

Dessert Table

Living Room for hors d'oeuvres

Centerpiece of dining room table

On Thursday, we got up a little late, but everything worked out well. Matt was slowly becoming a tempered "Holiday Mom" because of the time limitations, but we kept to our tasks, and everything went off without a hitch!

Our menu
Hors d'oeuvres: two fruited cheeses & crackers, chicken lollipops, stuffed mushrooms, antipasto, and nuts.
1st Course: Poached D'Anjou pears with cranberry/almond stuffing (pictured below)
2nd Course: Escarole & appricot meatball soup (pictured below)
3rd Course: De-boned turkey, buttered mashed potatoes, carrots, roasted corn, green bean casserole (my recipe - Matt executed), heirloom sweet potatoes (pictured below), gravy, homemade (I made them!) and canned (jellied) cranberry sauce (yes, with the ridges!), pumpkin biscuits, and yeast rolls.
Dessert Course: Pumpkin pie, apple/cranberry pie, toasted coconut cake, pumpkin cupcakes, carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing. (all pictured above on the dessert table)

For the first time I think in all the dinners we've hosted over the years, someone brought us a fruit basket! I don't believe anyone's ever brought a fruit basket till this year. Some people don't like them because they are the "last minute" thoughts, but, frankly, I think they can be pretty and I like fruit. We don't have a problem with them, but I've heard others finding them lack luster. This basket given to us yesterday was very pretty and I'm very happy for the basket - in the shape of a turkey! Thing is, there were no bananas, although the little tag said there were supposed to be. AND, just out of curiosity, since the bananas were missing, I weighed the grapes, which were supposed to be a pound. They were 1 ounce under a pound! So, I guess the moral of the fruit basket is, it's best to make your own as a gift rather than rely on the pre-packaged ones; you won't always get what you expect!

Our Thanksgiving was a success, it was fun, and we're full!! I don't think we'll want anymore food for a while. Except for tonight when we have a stuffed pepper at Bellmonte's in Asbury Park!! Looking forward to that! And a bowl of soup.

Have a great weekend, everyone! We're going to be at Santa Saturday, again - traditional party after Thanksgiving for 10+ years now!

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I think about this from time to time because as a kid with no cable growing up (1970s), we had about 3 channels and no way to record the shows. We had set times to be in front of the TV and we rarely left our seats during commercial breaks (we didn't have a remote till about the 1980s). Holiday TV shows always usher in a homey feeling that sets the holiday spirit in motion.

The TV shows that tolled the seasons - especially the fall and the holidays - were of course, Charlie Brown specials (It's The Great Pumpkin CB and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving), but also (and not necessarily in this order) for Thanksgiving in particular were:

Around Thanksgiving:
- Various Celebrity Specials
- The Wizard of Oz
- Gone with the Wind
- It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
- A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

For Christmas, I frequently watched:
- Merry Christmas Charlie Brown
- The Grinch that Stole Christmas
- Here Comes Santa Claus
- Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- The Year Without a Santa Claus
- Jack Frost
- Oliver Twist

Once in a while, I'd watch:
- Miracle on 34th Street
- It's a Wonderful Life
- 'Twas the Night Before Christmas
- Frosty the Snowman
- The Little Drummer Boy
- The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow
- Frosty's Winter Wonderland
- Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey

Also in the 70s, I remember seeing:
- The Bob Hope Christmas Special
- The Bing Crosby White Christmas Special
- Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas with David Bowie

A couple of years ago, we did a swivel search / wish list on our Tivo for holiday specials. We recorded a few shows we'd never seen that were albeit well-done, but VERY strange. They both kind of left us with a cold feeling, not the warm, toasty feeling of normal holiday shows.
- The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold
- The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus
- Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July

With that same swivel search, we happened to record "A Very Barry Christmas", which is really cute. It's a story about an Australian, Barry, down on his luck in the outback. And he has friends, Nigel, a cantankerous crocodile with a fear of rejection, Lilly, a former boxing kangaroo, Walter the platypus, and a narcoleptic koala named Simon, all who really do love Barry. Barry ends up trading places with Santa for the season until Santa gets back to health in the outback. It's really fun.

We've already started our Thanksgiving with the Fordham Thanksgiving - Matt's college friends - this weekend. This was the 21st year of their tradition and it's a lot of fun. I decorated the house and set up the festive atmosphere while Matt cooked everything. It was REALLY good and everyone got take-home containers FULL of food for lunch tomorrow. I also made little ornaments for each couple (6 couples total) to take home to their families and kids.

Matt's friends are so loving and caring about each other. They each share practically the same stories every year, and it's fun to see their joy in their collective history.

This year, Matt and I thought we had all the planning and preparations in place and we were ahead of the game. I even had the forethought of getting our cleaning lady over yesterday to really dust, vacuum, mop. We all worked today and did a great job! The place looked really good until I started to dress the table (which we set up in the living room, since our dining room table seats only 6 people comfortably). We always set up a buffet on the dining room table. The tablecloths REALLY needed to be ironed; if I hadn't had to take that extra 45 minutes or so (three tablecloths) to do that, everything would have been fine. If everyone had come that was invited, we would have had a total of 21, but coming and going we had 15, including us.

Here are some pictures:

The ornaments:

Matt - to remember next year how he seasoned the turkeys - first in the pan in his hand, then dumping them into the deeper pan for roasting:

Turkeys de-boned - without seasoning, with seasoning, the seasonings, and the bones for gravy stock in the pressure cooker:

Entrance to the condo:

The food (top left clockwise - carrots, roasted de-boned turkey, sausage/apricot/sage stuffing, roasted white & orange pumpkin with butternut squash, regular and truffle-buttered mashed potatoes, and buttered almond steamed green beans):

Matt's chicken lollipops (from the Jacques Pepin chicken de-boning video):

Table spread with ornaments, pumpkin candles (not lit), and decorations:

This is a video of our troop before eating with the traditional toast. Our friend, Greg, always says the toast - even when his wife was having their first when he called to say the prayer and toast:

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Stephen Lambeth

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Citizen of the World

... enjoying this great world

Entries tagged with holidays

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Feast of the 7 Fishes - 2012

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Disney Sticker Contest - winners!

Disney Day 1 - Friday morning

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Happy Vacation Week!

4th Of July 2011

Easter Pictures

HAPPY EASTER!

Our Easter Chandelier

Boxing Day & Post Christmas 2010 - NJ, NY, NC, VA, MD, DC, DE - OY VEY!!

Christmas Eve & Day 2010 - NJ

Post Office Woes

Holiday Success!!

What a Horrible Wreath!

DE Books on Amazon

Family & Friends Thanksgiving Dinner 2010

Writer's Block: Two words: Charlie Brown

And so the holidays begin!