What did Santa bring you?

I hope your holidays up till now have been a blast.

Mine have been filled with cough and cold medicine, lots of Kleenex, tons of water, soup and an occasional hacking from my congested chest.

Tom has been a great nurse. Specially when all I wanted was to eat that specific sushi roll that I absolutely love on Christmas eve. I have no idea how he did it, but when I open my eyes from my drug induce sleep, there it was… my ROLL!

I.LOVE.THAT.MAN.

He also did great on the gift department, I got lots of glittering and shiny things. The man pays attention to details.

So for now, while it has been one of the most sickest Christmas ever, it has also been the happiest.

I’m loved, and that is the biggest gift of all.

A time of giving…a Tip!

This year I have a total of 10 people who ended up in my dreaded desirable “Christmas gift list”. Out of all the things I do with plenty of time in my life, this is not THE.ONE.

I always leave this one to the last minute.

1. Because I hate to shop, and the anxiety-pack Christmas malls are not enough incentives.
2. The people on the list are really hard to shop for, because with the exception of one person (and you know who you are) none have got with the program and created a wish list.

So since most of my family and friends are lazy a**, it then falls on me to be a mind reader and sneaky detective (and not a good one mind you), trying to find out what they really want. Given that I hate to buy something for someone that will end up in the re-gift pile.  Its all about a gift that you love and want.

So, this year I decided to bite the bullet and start early and let it fall where it may. Which as to date, is as follow:

• Tom – BIG check mark on him. The best part of all? I bought it right under his nose, he has NO clue.
• Dominic (Tom’s son) – He is 7 years old. How easy can this be? Check and Check
• The future Mother in Law – this one was tricking and having the son tag along to help me DID.NOT.WORK. But, I got crafty and we took care of her.
• The BFF – Easiest one on the list – why? One word: WISHLIST!
• The NYBoys – what the hell can you buy 2 people that live in the NYC? If you live in Florida? NADA. I’m so perplexed on these two I think I may have a rash coming from the stress of thinking about it.
• The future sister & brother-in-law – Tom has the task of calling them up and asking nicely, what do they need. If that does not happen they are getting a gift card.
• My sister – This one is the hardest of the bunch, even harder than NYBoys. I simply do not have a clue.
• My mother – while she is harder than all of them put together, this year she broke some type of record and became one of the easiest. I’m thinking that my detective work may have something to do with it. When asked what she wanted, she sang like a canary and told me right off what she wished for – and it isn’t world peace people.

So I’m going to give everyone on my list a little bit of a tip this year:

WISH LIST PEOPLE, MAKE A WISH LIST!

The world would be a better place!

Crafty

See the new header?

I.made.that.

I got crafty today and decided that I need to go back to my design roots, because I need to play and I need to created and I need to not feel like this whole month the 40’s are going to be ruling.

So I gave it a spin… what does this mean?

Wait until I come up with something in January… I think I found a new calling.

Merry Christmas!

So.. its that time again, for presents, family, lots of food, drinks and be merry! I will leave you until mid week… in the mean time you guys go and enjoy all that the holidays may bring…

Presents!

Holiday Chear

This past weekend was packed with activities, I had the NYBoys in town and we took it to town! It was all about trying to fit in as much Christmas cheer, since we were not going to spend it together. So it was decided to celebrate as much of it as we could.

We started by picking one of these up:

And after much of straighting and testing, hanging, nostalgic childhood memories, lots of singing and drinking and more straighting we turned it into this:

Not bad eh? But it would not be complete without putting some holiday spirit on him:

The following day the festivities continue. Growing up in Venezuela, my favorite time was Christmas and not because my birthday is 5 days before the holidays (hint, hint, go to amazon and check my wish list! Hint, Hint) where was?

Oh yes, Christmas time… I loved it! the streets were full of  gaitas, and the smells of those foods that come only around during the holidays. The most anticipating event was the making of Hallacas, while a bit labor intensive, these morsels would bring the whole holiday concept together, the sharing of family, friends, good food, music and a bit of liquor (because its the HOLIDAYS!).

My job, since I can remember is to make the dough that will be the “base” for all the yummy stuff inside of the Hallacas… not a simple process, and truth be told, if there is anything that I stay away from making in my kitchen? Its dough related.. but we pressed on, and at the end we had 60 (very little, since most of the time 100+ are made at one time) of these little packages:

The verdict came in after cooking the first batch and trying them: DELICIOUS, all of us transported back in time with that first bite.

Afterwards I got surprised with this:

and since communications broke down between everyone, I also ended up with this: (sometimes lack of coordination is the best thing EVER)!

I don’t want to see anymore cake until…

well, uh.. *cough-cough*

this Thursday…the official, “Its your Birthday”!