Santa Claus

For Christmas this year, I got some great stuff. Santa brought me a whole army of items to keep me warm through the NY winter (and just in time too as the blizzard began striking this afternoon and isn't scheduled to end for nearly 24 hours!) I got my first pair of Uggs for toasty feet, wonder warmers and cashmere gloves/mittens for toasty hands, furry earmuffs, a giant scarf, sweaters, leggings, and lots of other goodies. Perhaps though, the best gift Santa brought me was a family holiday. We don't often manage to get very many of the clan together. It was a special treat this year to have my father and his brother, as well as all of their kids, celebrating Christmas. Sadly, I didn't think to snap a photo of everyone, or even just of the cousins, but I did manage to get a pic of Alanna and Daddy:

Christmas 2009

Weeks after Christmas decorations have been put away, I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures of my festive flat. My obsession with lights peaks around Christmas, the one time of year that it is acceptable to have as many strings as possible draped throughout your home without causing a fire hazard. My electric bill can attest to the fact that I took full advantage of this!

Though Santa didn't fill the giant sock, he was generous. The loot ranged from DVDs to household items, from educational tools to luxurious indulgences, and of course, the traditional socks, candy, and chapstick.

The fat, old man wasn't so jolly after being gypped out of his cookies and milk (he left an angry note on the tree,) but we made sure our bellies stayed full, braving the snowstorms of Albany and Ithaca to visit friends and favorite eateries.

This time, I almost remembered to take the photos (with my phone, please excuse the quality) before we ate it all!

sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and collard greens

gumbo

jumbalaya (hold the shrimp)

mac-n-cheese

and of course, Hattie's Throwdown winning fried chicken

It was great visiting with you guys! Can't wait to see you again at Chowderfest!

Technophile

tech·no·phile (těk'nə-fīl') n. One who has a love of or enthusiasm for technology, especially computers and high technology

-http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/technophile

I'm not sure if I've graduated to a full-fledged technophile, but I'm a lot closer than I was a year ago as evidenced by my brand new 1 terabyte external hard drive (yay!) and the insanely long list of blogs that I am now following on my feedreader. (See the list on the bottom right of this page.) This time last year, the word 'feedreader' wasn't even in my vocabulary and now mine is multiple pages and commands a fair amount of my daily reading time. (What hasn't changed is my love for food...hence the myriad food blogs I follow.)

Like the rest of the world, of course I'm on FriendFace, the time suck otherwise known as Facebook; and more excitingly, I've graduated to the addiction that is Twitter (follow me at @roxymigs). My iphone now has 6 pages of apps, and I add more weekly. I've filled over 250gb on my laptop hard drive (thank Danny for the computer surgery on the hd and the battery). Who ever would have thought I'd even speak this lingo, much less know how to organize multiple playlists, convert files, download, stream, and upload videos? What's more frightening, is how much I still don't know! There is so much to learn, but I'm working on it. Currently, I'm learning how to use shortcuts and hot keys with QuickSilver. For my next lesson, I'm open to suggestions from any of my readers who are far more expert in these things than I am.

On a totally different note, in spite of some early season Bah-humbugging, I did manage to get a tree up, and I will post pictures of the Festivus miracle that is my apartment soon. (Because seriously, it looks like Christmas threw-up in here.) In the meantime, I send to you this holiday the closest I can get to Christmas cards, by way of this blog. With Christmas only 9 days away, it's safe to say that I'm in big trouble mister.

Christmas To Do List:

bake annual biscotti - check

eat biscotti - check

share biscotti with friends, family, and coworkers - fail

bake second batch of biscotti for sharing - fail, (but hoping to change to check this weekend)

bake cheesecake and banana cream pie per order - on calendar for Tuesday 12/22

send cards - fail

decorate inside of house - check

hang wreath on door - fail (it sounds so simple, but trust me, it's not)

buy presents - fail (seriously, not a single gift purchased yet. um, in fact, currently, the list only has 2 things on it. yup, i'm in trouble.)

wrap presents and stuff stockings - see previous fail

I could give you lots of excuses for my inability to satisfy the social conventions of mailing Christmas cards including the time spent prepping in my new job, learning my way around a new town, socializing with new friends, and earning my honorary Cornell degree. Or I could tell you that this is part of my effort to be more environmentally friendly. The truth is, I didn't place my order in time.

I know Danny didn't send out cards either, although I suspect his earning of a legitimate degree probably holds more water than my excuse. So, in the interest of staying on Santa's 'nice' list and avoiding a lump of coal in our stockings, we've teamed up to create a Christmas card: