Baby, it's cold outside.

In the past few years I've noticed a significant decrease in my Christmas Spirit. The decorating has gone by the wayside, there have been more sighs than carols, and I find that I don't get excited for Christmas until the day before - and then it's over as quickly as it began.

This year I was determined to be better.

Hubs and I planned an Ugly Sweater Party for early December, complete with a tacky Yankee Swap. What a success! I took a couple of photos but haven't had time to upload them, and no one else has sent me any (ahem, people) but once I get a couple up, I'll try to post them. There were some seriously hideous looks going on. And I was also fantastically impressed with my friends' ability to choose truly tacky gifts. I gave a Sea Monsters science set (think sea monkeys, but weirder-looking)- this was luckily able to be re-gifted by the recipient!

I'm not going to say what I got. I'll just say that my friend the President sure does know how to be tacky AND helpful at the same time. Thanks, buddy!

No really, thanks.

The party actually had the desired effect, which was not only to have a good time, but to get me in the mood to celebrate the holidays. It got me to decorate the apartment, make a Christmas playlist for the Pod, and generally get excited about this stressful and joyful time of year. The Spirit has been waning in the last few weeks with all the nonsense going on at work, but I'm successfully fighting the urge to throw in the towel.

The presents are all bought and mostly wrapped. The plans have been made. I've watched a few Christmas movies, including the Grinch, Charlie Brown, and A Christmas Carol (the Patrick Stewart version won out this year.... mmm Jean Luc Picard.)

I will be getting out of work earlier than usual tomorrow. I'll go to Mass with Hubs and then up to my aunt's for an Italian seafood feast (LOBSTERS! YES!) and too much wine. We'll come home and probably exchange presents at midnight, which has been our tradition the last few years. We'll get up early the next morning, make a sweet potato casserole, and see the immediate families before heading up to his aunt's for more feasting and laughing.

I'm pretty excited.

Happy Holidays to everyone. Hopefully when you celebrate this year, you won't have to deal with this:


more animals

Tiny Orange Bits o' Heaven

I don't know why it took us so long to figure this out.

I mean, Hubs is pretty much a crackwhore for Cheez-Its. He loves them. It takes a great deal of restraint for him to not inhale entire boxes at a time. I can understand it. I love the fake-cheesy, sodium-addled deliciousness in every tiny square bite. I like every flavor (though we only tend to buy the reduced-fat original kind.)

But Hubs? Crazy for the Cheez-Its.

The other day, while munching on them by the handful, he commented that he thinks we should use them in meals. I replied that I had recently seen an episode of "Food Network Challenge" in which one contestant utilized them as a crusty topping on Mac and Cheese. That night, some friends came over and cooked us a broccoli and cheese casserole, complete with some sprinkled, crumbled Cheez-Its on top.

Since the casserole was so tasty, and since our friends had coincidentally cooked with Cheez-Its on the same day that we had been discussing the brilliance of such a thing, we decided it would be only right to make our own Cheez-It-style meal soon.

So tonight, I picked up some boneless, skinless chicken thighs at the store. I dipped each one in milk, and then shook the chicken in a bag of Cheez-It crumbs. I baked them for 20 minutes, and OHMIGOSH - delicious.

I know this isn't exactly news. I'm sure people do it all the time. But for some reason, we went years without it occurring to us to make Cheez-It Chicken, as it's now called. YEARS have been wasted! The horror! THE HORROR!!!!!

Ahem.

Any time I find a new 'standard' meal - especially one that is easy, fast, and tasty - I get a little too excited. This is one of those times.

So there you have it. Cheez-It Chicken has worked its way into our household. I am already looking forward to eating the leftovers tomorrow, as well as making this same dish with different flavors in the future - Hot and Spicy? Parmesan and Garlic? Yes, please.

It would be great if the Sunshine company could send me a check for every time I said "Cheez-It" in this post.

Next time: Ugly Sweaters, Yankee Swaps, and excellent music. What a weekend it's been.

the beautiful

I read a story in the Metro this morning about students from the Berklee College of Music rallying to get their professors invited to sing "America the Beautiful" at the inauguration.

I had to check out the YouTube video for myself, and I have to say, I'm behind these guys 100%.

Fun fact: The piano player is a native of Brazil and a new citizen who voted for the first time in this past election.

** My computer is being weird, I can't tell if the embed worked. Here's the link to the YouTube video if you can't see it here...

Big Nana II

I only have a quick moment but I wanted to say the service for Big Nana was really quite nice. Unfortunately, the last several services I've been to have been for people under the age of 70. Celebrating the life of a 101 year old really does feel more like celebrating.

My dad's cousin did the eulogy, which was touching and funny and everything a eulogy should be. She was an even more interesting and amazing woman than I knew. He started to cry a little when he spoke of her delicious chicken cacciatore.

As Hubs pointed out, "Leave it to the Italians to get choked up about food."

So true.

Hope your Thanksgivings were marvelous. Mine was.