Christmas bliss

1. Truth: The Christmas decorations are still up at my house, and I’ve been turning them on every single day. Tree lit, banister garland lit, nativity lit, mini ceramic tree in bathroom lit, outside lights lit… they’re all on! I like to milk the holidays for as long as possible. So far, so good, but I have a feeling they’ll be coming down this weekend. It was fun while it lasted!

2. Today I was slated to serve jury duty. I was totally prepared to rant about how receiving THREE jury summons in five years seems a tad bit excessive (seriously, it is). As instructed, I logged into the county website yesterday after 4pm, entered my juror number and date to appear, and… BAM! It said I was “hereby NOT REQUIRED to appear”. I got up and did a little dance. It totally felt like being in grade school, sitting with your pajamas on, watching the snow fall outside, and then seeing a school cancellation along the bottom of the television before you go to bed. Sheer delight!

3. I could totally live on Lindt truffles. Turns out, quite a few people in my life know this about me. Between Christmas, Valentine’s Day, my birthday and Easter, I haven’t run out truffles in like two years.

4. I get a lot of questions from readers about what I do with all of the food that I make. The answer is, it depends. Sometimes it gets eaten for dinner (leftovers for lunches!), dessert, frozen, shared with company, made for a get-together, sent with my mom to work, etc. I did want to let you in on one new way that I’ve found to share extra goodies that I have. My grandma volunteers once a month for the local food bank, so she gives me a call a few days before to remind me which day she’s going, and I package up any goodies that I’ve made and drop them off to her she she can give them out when she passes out food. I just thought I’d share, since so many people ask, and I know many of you bake a lot as well – it’s a great way to get some extra goodies out of the house and to make someone’s day in the process! :)

5. I mentioned on the BEB Facebook page that I’m overhauling my magazine subscriptions. I currently receive Real Simple, Cook’s Illustrated, Cook’s Country and Everyday Food, after paring down last year. I’m thinking of adding something along the lines of Women’s Health/Self/Shape and maybe a news magazine. What do you receive? Any good recommendations?

6. Hockey is back! I think it was the fact that my mom bought me the “All I Want for Christmas is Hockey” t-shirt after seeing me mention here (she’s such a cool mom)… good karma :)  I’m excited for the schedule to be announced and for tickets to go on sale… my bank account, not as excited. So much for, “well, at least I didn’t spend a ton of money on tickets this year”. Oh wait. Nevermind.

7. Confession: I feel like the whole food-centered Internet universe has gone crazy for quinoa. I’m totally the goofy-looking girl standing on the other side of the playground watching everyone else play games and not having a clue. I’ve had quinoa before, but… I just don’t get it. Is it because it’s healthy? What am I missing?

8. I finally got around to seeing the Jack Reacher movie, which I was totally pumped about since it was filmed in Pittsburgh. All of the views of the city were amazing, and the movie wasn’t bad. It didn’t quite live up to the other movies we’ve seen in the last few months (Lincoln, Argo and Skyfall), but it was decent… I gave it a B-.

9. Things I’m currently craving: Five Guys. New episodes of Homeland. A really good brownie. A fresh bagel with cream cheese. A new Sherlock Holmes movie.

10. TGIF! Have a roar of a weekend! (If I dressed Einstein up for Halloween, this would totally be his costume! On a related note, how funny was this story?)

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