Holidays at "Home"

Happy New Year! Now that my full-time job is back in the swing of things this week, I’m realizing that December was really a nice break and slow down from the normal fast-paced madness. During that recharging period, “home” for the holidays really meant all over the place for the holidays, but I’m glad I got to visit and spend time with so many friends and family members. I was home to Poughkeepsie a couple of times, in Harrisburg with my sister a couple more, and had time at my apartment in South-Central Jersey for plenty of cookie baking.

Thanksgiving was hosted by my sister in Harrisburg. I crocheted these festive turkey napkin rings:

My mom and stepdad came up from Georgia to take us to New York City to see the tree and all the holiday decorations. It was still weirdly (and perfectly warm). We celebrated my sister’s engagement at the River Cafe in Brooklyn.

I finally attended my first Long Beach Island Ship Bottom Christmas parade. There’s nothing like a small town holiday parade. This one had lots of boats:

I decorated my place inside and outside. Thanks to anyone who contributed holiday hand-me-down decor!

And here are those cookies. I made six different kinds this year:

For Christmas, I stayed at my dad’s house in Poughkeepsie, NY. Christmas Eve is really our only big family holiday tradition, but last year was canceled for COVID and the year before I was away in Australia. It was great to be back together to gather and celebrate. We also got a lucky ski day in at home:

And lots of cuddle time with their new puppy, Jameson, who is growing much too fast:

That’s all I’ve got for now! Happy New Year, and I hope your resolutions are still going strong in week one.

Easter in Long Beach Island

Even though I got a new job, I’m still working weekends at the restaurant. Mainly because I enjoy it and love the friends I’ve made there. The extra cash on the side doesn’t hurt either!

I spent the full Easter weekend working. I didn’t mind too much, since we got some good sunsets and busy crowds on the island.

I did miss going home or to my sister’s for brunch. Everyone was sending me photos of their yummy meals throughout the day, so I had to make due with deviled eggs off the work menu. Luckily, I like all the food there and these were quite tasty. That’s a fried shrimp on top.

It was a nice weekend to stay put after a couple weeks of traveling (and knowing I’d be traveling again the following week). I was glad to be home.

Happy Holidays from Down Under!

Merry (belated) Christmas everyone! I love this time between Christmas and New Year’s when everything seems to slow down and we have more time for what’s most important to us. I had to take a little break from blogging for most of December because I was working almost all day every day. Bauble painting life is serious, but loads of fun! I’m sad that it has come to an end.

For the past week, we worked some crazy hours and busy shifts. On the last night, Christmas Eve, we stayed after to pack up the whole store and have it ready for the stock team to pick up overnight. It felt like moving out of a college dormitory in about two hours, but knowing that it was the last shift made things a little easier.

I’m very happy with the progress I’ve made as an ornament personalizer, maybe it’ll be a good life skill for the future. Here’s week one versus my last week:

Looking back on week one is a little embarrassing and causes disbelief that they hired me, but I guess they trusted that we’d pick it up eventually. After the last shift, I came home and did a little decoration for Christmas. I’m on my own in the apartment, so it felt appropriate to make myself a little table of special things from “Santa”. My coworker even gave me a present and I thought that was so nice!

On Christmas Day, we headed to the beach. It was a very Australian Christmas, which didn’t actually feel like Christmas at all. But it was exciting to see all the Santa hats and outfits out on the beach.

My new friends prepared a bbq and we hung out until it got dark. It was definitely a celebration that I won’t soon forget!

Halloween Down Under

I guess everyone getting all dressed up for Halloween is mainly an American thing, because we did not see a ton of people being festive here at all. There were some, however—mostly kids outside of schools and some supportive parents. I saw one trick-or-treater with a very small pumpkin bucket, because I suppose stuffing two pillowcases full of candy and eating it til Christmas is an American thing as well.

My Aussie friend Amanda made sure I got my fill of celebrations, though. First, we went to a campfire dance party at a place (possibly in the side yard of a church?) called the House of Magic. The spooky decorations, campfire, and chai tea were quite enough to satisfy my autumn-starved soul.

We were the only ones dressed up, so we soon made moves toward a more costume-themed celebration. It was a house party as good as any Halloween gathering in the US! I got a lesson in cheap Australian booze options, and met some authentic Sydney friends.

An A+ Halloween overall.

Happy Halloween!

Hope your day is filled with mini Twix bars (the best) and silly scares!

Here’s a quick yoga video featuring one of my costumes:

Sweet & Spicy

This is not a recipe blog, and I haven't written much about food since the long lost days of this special personal project, BUT I made a new appetizer this weekend for my roommate's Memorial Day BBQ and many, many friends asked for the recipe.

It's Sweet and Spicy Roasted Cauliflower from How Sweet Eats, and it was pretty easy and extremely tasty. You should probably head over there to make it asap and, while you're at it, make all her other stuff, too!

from How Sweet Eats

Happy Mother's Day

Moms! They're mostly the best, simply for growing you inside of them for almost a whole year and then usually taking it even further to always be there to answer your frantic string of phone calls when you need something, in spite of the times when you might have ignored all their text messages, phone calls, and voicemails when you didn't need anything. They are putting up with a lot every day!

Mine is the type who will spontaneously come to Delaware, Texas, or California whenever you ask her to, with about two weeks notice or less. She's often the "Why not?" when everyone else around me has said "No" and the "Get both!" when two items at the store are asking me to choose just one. She's a woman who made it so that I never wondered what, as a female, I would be able to do. Jobs, sports, solo travels, equal paychecks, using my voice to speak my mind-- there has never been a doubt that the whole world of possibility is open to me. 

We may not always see eye to eye on things like having health insurance or not needing a cosigner for a housing lease at age 30, but I love her and can't imagine a life without such a fierce lady to guide the way.

Showing Up for Love

I'm just beginning to work my way out of the choco-coma leftover from last week's festivities. Being a solo participant in the holiday is actually not that bad because your friends and family tend to take pity on you and send extra sweets and other good things. Whether as a single person or part of a couple, I've never been someone who hates Valentine's Day. Unless you're in elementary school with a mandated one-card-or-candy-per-classmate policy, you're really never forced to buy anything (get creative! make a craft! go on a picnic!), and it's just a day to tell the special people in your life that you love them. I've been calling it Pal-entine's Day for a long long while now.

This one was not my best February 14th because, when I showed up to the yoga studio to teach my nighttime class, I found that there was a huge pug-themed and pug-filled Valentine's basket waiting on the front desk. If you know me, you probably know that the axis of my life is spinning around those furry, wrinkly balls of joy, but, sadly, the basket included a card addressed to "Mummy" and, thus, was not for me. I was disheartened, but glad it was there to make someone else happy, and I could go on to do some yoga (and eat a lot of chocolate) with my own class.

Romantic valentine or none, I was still showing up in pink clothes with my heart earrings on, and I was still showing up for love-- love for my friends and family who take good care of me, love for life, and just the general idea of love as an energy that exists and propels us toward connecting with each other and being our best selves.

Here's a video if you ever need a little extra:

New Traditions

Actually, this should really be called "no traditions" since we are still figuring out all these new things and haven't developed a routine about it at all. Like I told you already, this was the only year that I didn't go home to see my family for Christmas. One reason was because I scored a remarkable yoga teaching job in Nicaragua, and the other was because Christmas for us has changed a bit over the past couple years.

Growing up, my sister and I were lucky that our parents kept living near each other after they split up. We always spent the Eve with our dad's family and the Day at our mom's house, and everything was equal and easy-peasy as far as broken homes go. Then everybody got remarried and changed houses, our mom went to live in the Deep South (I guess I did too?), and my aunt and grandma stopped coming down for the holidays. Travel plans to see the whole family became a little more complicated for my sister and me. There was a little bit of a break that probably happens for us all as we age. Christmas wasn't as much "ours" anymore.

But we still wanted it! We're merry and young, and just trying to come up with a way to reconcile all these new schedules and locations. So, last weekend, Elayne and I came together in Boston to turn on Christmas lights, make Grandma's cinnamon rolls (pretty well, I might add!), and pop bottles to celebrate her passing the veterinary board exams. Space was held for yoga, brunch, pedicures, and all those things some sisters do when together. It was a relief to hang onto some traditions, even when the inevitable winds of change have been sweeping in around us.

To All of You

Merry belated Christmas! /// Happy belated Holidays!

Thanks for keeping me cheerful the whole year through.