Merry Christmas Mom

I love my mom. She's pretty great- as evident from this blog, a little quirky, but great. One thing that is great about her is that she will support my little hobbies. My mom will tell me I am a great photographer- people they call it a hobby for a reason, I do it for fun and not because I am all that good at it. Regardless of my photo taking skill (or lack there of) she loves them. Don't you love how all moms think their kid's work is great?It's like those horrible finger paintings you brought home in pre-K that your mom ooohed and ahhhed over-the phrase "only a mother could love" comes to mind (btw my pre-K finger painting is STILL on the fridge). So let's call these my 29 year old version of finger paintings shall we? Anyway, when it's come to thinking up creative Christmas presents, the last two years I have turned to my cameras. Betty, my 35mm film SLR, pulled out some lovely animals on Kenyan safari that now grace my mothers stairwell. Kate, my spiffy digital SLR, helped me pull these out for this years photo gift. Now my mother may be a lot of things, but tech savvy she is not- blog? what's that? Right, so I can freely share these with you with no chance that she will stumble upon them. My mother went to the National Cathedral for high school, and loves it, so the subject was an easy choice. Seriously how could you not love the Cathedral? The architecture is GORGEOUS. I had planned to take these Saturday and then whoops, 2 feet of snow. So, Becca humored me and tagged along while I shot these. 1. It was freezing. FREEZING outside. I have never taken pictures so fast in my life- I barely had enough feeling in my fingers to adjust my camera settings! 2. I don't care how busy you are, photos at the brightest time of day outside are never as great as photos later in the afternoon. oops. 3. Becca deserves Starbucks for a week.

So here is a sample of the 120 pics I took (see why Becca deserves Starbucks?). I hope you enjoy them, better yet, I hope my mom does.

Tis the Season

So here it is, the week in photos...

SNOW!!!!! Not just a little snow, but like 2 feet of snow. It's awesome. It's beautiful. It is keeping me from finishing my Christmas shopping. I keep thinking it is going to slow but it just keeps snowing harder. LOVE it.

I finally got my tree this week! There are pine needles all over my car, my house, my apartment building-it's worth it though. Thank goodness for Becca helping me get and decorate the tree, clearly it makes sense to make your Jewish best friend help you with this task. We named the tree Spike. Girl tree, boy name. yes, I do know that it s strange that I have named the tree. yes, I know it is also strange that I have assigned it a gender. If your looking for normalcy, read a different blog :)

Some more sights of happy Christmasness in my house...

and just because I can... yeah, she may kill me. True evidence that Becca is a tree hugger.

Yep, you see it right, she's wearing a tree branch in her hair.

Hello Winter

Isn't it pretty? I LOVE the snow! I was pretty excited yesterday when the weather report called for flurries. I was not however expecting this. I will also admit that I was not super excited this morning when the snow was pouring down and I was outside running a 5k. Oh yes, I was up at 5:45 a.m. to run in the snow. See my school participates in this great program called Girls On The Run. 3rd-5th grade girls practice after school once a week with the goal of running the 5k reindeer romp race. It promotes healthy living and self-confidence and it's a great sense of accomplishment for the girls. Right, why was I there? Clearly I am not in 5th grade. Well, each girl has a buddy runner along for some encouragement, meaning teachers and parents volunteer to get their run on. I totally feel for my little buddy runner because I know I can be all types of annoying when I snap into encouraging cheerleader mode. Sometime I have to much energy and excitement for my own good. If I was 8 years old, cold and tired of running I would have wanted to kill me. Running in the snow may be freezing cold (my toes are still recovering) but it is quite beautiful.

After I made it home and had a very hot shower and some much needed coffee I headed to the kitchen. I have been dying to make these chocolate peppermint bark cookies that I found in my Bon Appetit this month. I vowed not to start in on the Christmas cookies until December (I mean the magazine came last month, that is self control!) and today was a PERFECT kick off to the holiday baking season. So forget the fact that I really need a nap. Forget the fact that I have a research paper due on Wednesday. The need for cookies did (as it should) take priority.

Man Christmas cookies I am so glad it is time for you because you taste AMAZING. So long pumpkin, you've been replaced. Hey there winter, it's so nice to see you again.

Ms. Independent

It's a very rare occasion that I ask for help. Just ask Becca, she can back me up on this. She'll probably even tell you the story about the time I got food poisoning. I don't like to do it. Why ask others to do what you can do yourself? I attribute this to my strong sense of independence. Others liken it to the behavior of a stubborn two year old who has to do everything by themselves. Regardless of what you think it is, it is just part of who I am. Take it or leave it, because clearly at this age I'm not changing. I will admit there is one circumstance in which I am tempted to ask for some help and that is when I am sick. I said tempted, doesn't mean I do it. No one likes being sick, but when you are in constant motion like I am the idea of having to spend two days in bed is HORRIBLE. This however was my fate this week. Two days of no work, no leaving my apartment, and hardly leaving the comfort of my bed. I am going stir crazy. Thank goodness I am going back to work tomorrow. When I am sick I want 4 things (and sadly none of them is my mommy, she is not so good around sick). 1. Mac and Cheese 2. Soup 3. Movies 4. Vicks Vaporub (that stuff is magic I tell you). Mac and Cheese - check. Movies-double check. Vaporub-triple check. Soup- fail. No soup in the whole joint. No problem, I can make my own. Which I did. This may in fact be my new sick day soup. The only problem was that I had to make it. When you don't have one of those boyfriend or husband things or even a nursing mother around you have to learn to fend for yourself. So I mustered up what was left of my strength and put this together. I also immediately passed out when I was done eating. Who knew that cooking could take so much out of a sick person? I don't know, but between you and me this soup may be what helped me on my way to healing. I didn't even need any help.

Curry Pumpkin Soup
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons curry powder
3 cups chicken broth
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
1 1/2 cups condensed milk
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon white sugar

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp ground ginger

2 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup of onion
salt and pepper to taste
Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until browned. Stir in flour and curry powder until smooth. Cook, stirring, until mixture begins to bubble. Gradually whisk in broth, and cook until thickened. Add the onion and cook for about a minute. Stir in pumpkin and milk. Season with soy sauce, sugar,cumin, ginger, salt, and pepper. Bring just to a boil, then remove from heat.

* I found a version of this recipe online and adapted it to my liking. I never got the flour/curry to be smooth and so I added the broth right away to prevent burning. The original recipe is sans the ginger, cumin, onions and garlic and uses less curry. It also uses half and half and 4 cups of veg. broth and 29 ounces of pumpkin.*