*link*

I love gingerbread…you should know that by now! Isn’t this mini-gingerbread house just the cutest thing…it’s made to perch on a the edge of a cup of hot chocolate.

Full instructions of how to make this along with more lovely pictures caan be found by clicking on the photo above. Yum!

Love Ele ~X~

I threw a Happy Birthday Jesus party for our homeschool co-op class last week.  This is a party that I usually plan every year.  It varies from year to year and sometimes I have it at my house.  This year we blew up lots of balloons….sang Happy Birthday Jesus…..we made “gospels granolas”  and studied the different symbol meanings of Christmas.  I made this cake and it turned out really, really well.  I have done several versions and this is my favorite!  We had hats, steamers, horns, hot chocolate with candy cane stirrers and the cake.  It was such a great birthday party!  Here is the recipe for the cake:

A Birthday Cake for Jesus

This Christmas is going to be like none I have had in the past. Despite our move down south just a month and a half ago, on Wednesday we will be packing our bags and heading back up to Harrisburg, PA to be with our families for the Christmas season. I am looking forward to this trip and can actually say I am looking forward to a white Christmas.

This past weekend Harrisburg, PA and other cities in the north-east were covered in a blanket of snow just in time for Christmas. And while I’m sure the residents that had to shovel driveways, clean off their cars, and attend to other snow duties, are tired of the white stuff, I’m looking forward to it and for one reason: I can leave it. I don’t have to deal with it for longer than a week. I get to enjoy the beauty that it brings to the frozen lands of the North and then I get to head back down to the warmer climate of the south. This is the only reason I am looking forward to the cold and the snow

Other than enjoying the good views of a white Christmas we’ll spend most of our time with family and friends, catching up and enjoying each others company over large meals and lots of cookies and hot chocolate. Whatever your plans are for this Holiday season I hope that you enjoy the company of friends and family and end the year on a warm note of love and joy. Merry Christmas!

Did you miss the events from this weekend?

Go Knights!

Saturday was one of those days I wish I could re-live because it was so fun!

Sunday was a recovery day full of lots of relaxation. I made a big pancake breakfast for me, my family, Ryan and Ross to enjoy.

Sunday Breakfast Spread

Along with big, fluffy pancakes we enjoyed a bowl of fresh strawberries and blueberries and mandarin oranges.

Fluffy 'Cakes

Fresh Fruit

Mandarin Oranges

We had a wide variety of syrups available so everyone got to use their preferred syrup. We also topped our pancakes with whipped cream for an extra treat!

Sugary Sweet

We enjoyed our breakfast and hung out at the table for a while after we were finished. Aren’t leisurely Sunday breakfasts the best?

For lunch we enjoyed more hot dogs and hamburgers that were leftover from the pre-tailgate party the day before. I ate a lot of homemade pasta salad which is possibly the easiest side to make in the world.

Italian Pasta Salad

I made this salad in an attempt to imitate the pasta salad my friend Kristen’s mom would make all the time when we were growing up. It’s so tasty!

Easy Italian Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 boxes tri-colored pasta
• 1 can black olives, sliced
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced
• 1 cucumber, sliced
• 1 bottle light Italian dressing

Directions:

Prepare the pasta as instructed on the box and refrigerate until cold. Top with Italian dressing, olives, tomatoes and cucumber. Toss until the pasta is coated and the vegetables are evenly dispersed.

Christmas Cards

During the afternoon my sister and I addressed lots and lots of our family’s  Christmas cards to send to loved ones to spread some holiday cheer.

Family Christmas Card

Does your family send out holiday cards?

I love looking at everyone’s holiday cards! I told Ryan he better be ready for us to send out our first one next year!

Since I was clearly in the Christmas spirit, I made a cup of hot chocolate to share with Ryan while I addressed more cards. Ryan  drank the vast majority and I ate most of the fluff on top. I wasn’t a huge fan of the cocoa mix I used so I’ll have to make another cup soon so I can really satisfy my desire for a good cup of hot cocoa!

Hot Cocoa

Today

Today I woke up and it was freezing! I could actually see my breath on the way into the gym this morning (I know all you northerners are hating me because you’ve probably been experiencing this for the past three months now).

Apparently the cold scares Floridians because the gym was practically empty. I had a good workout though! I took a BodyPump class before doing 25 minutes of light cardio on the elliptical. Sadie and I enjoyed a chilly walk together afterward. Her poor lil’ body was shaking!

After such a cold walk, I wanted a hot breakfast!

I made French toast strips using Joseph’s lavash bread and lots of cinnamon.

Lavash Cinnamon French Toast Strips

With a hot cup of tea and some syrup, this breakfast hit the spot!

What’s your favorite breakfast on a cold day?

Happy Short Week!
Aaaand Happy First Day of Winter….4 Days ’til Christmas!

Anyway… the website that I thought you might enjoy today is one that showcases art in the most unexpected medium… coffee!

The site is called Art In My Coffee.

Art In My Coffee is “A Collection of Foamy Awesomeness” (<self-proclaimed and very true). Basically, people who order coffee that end up having awesome designs/images (yes IMAGES!) take pictures of them and submit it to this website.

Other than to appreciate Barista Artistas (<yep. made that up.), I am not sure there is any other purpose to this website… BUT… Scroll through the 50+ pages of people’s coffee mugs and you will find that you are absolutely SHOCKED with what someone can do with a little foam, whipped cream, and hot coffee!

Have you ever gotten a pic in your coffee? Or even better, do YOU know how to do this?!

Have you ever tried the white chocolate @ McCafé? I love hot chocolate and drank a white version in Stockholm, december 2007. Now I had a wonderful white chocolate at McCafé and it was phantasic. It’s my recommendation to you. I’m lovin’ it… .

Oh Christmas time! I just love it! People getting together for parties, hot chocolate, toasty blankets, and handmade quilts.

I hope you all had a wonderful cake day! I didn’t eat any cake…I was too busy knitting scarves and the like. If you haven’t tried knitting you should. It’s a little tricky when you start but it gets easier. If it wasn’t easy I wouldn’t do it. Haha!

Hmmm…OH! My friend came over today and she brought her knitting stuff with her. I felt like a little old lady knitting away in my bedroom. Aaaaand I found this HUGE thing of yarn(I think it’s called a skein)that was hiding in a suitcase of all places! Well, it turned into the biggest ball of yarn I’ve ever seen. I’m pretty sure it would take someone out if it fell down the stairs. I’m going to try and make a clutch purse for my grandma, a pair of fingerless gloves for me, and a few more scarves before Christmas…which is in four days. Oh dear.

Random factoid: Odontophobia is the fear of teeth…huh. I wonder how they eat.

I probably won’t post anything else before Christmas so merry Christmas!

On Friday, I started my Birthday WEEKEND celebration

with a WHITE HOUSE Christmas tour with girlfriends

followed by a Birthday breakfast that included Belgian WAFFLES with fresh blueberries at the

W HOTEL.

Then I watched WASHINGTON, DC brace itself for a harsh WINTER storm.

I woke up the next morning and Snowpocalypse 2009 had hit!

WOW

The DMV was completely covered with 22 inches of snow!

Some very WISE folks made the best of it.

Cute Little Snow Angel Kendall

But I must admit I was WISTFUL because due to inclement WEATHER AKA a Blizzard, my partners and I had to cancel a fundraiser we were giving to support a WORTHY cause.

– the production of an excellent independent film “Being Billie” by Phyliss Croom –

http://www.beingbillie.com/

Stay tuned for the rescheduled date.

I also planned on WRAPPING gifts but could not go shopping to buy any gifts.

Instead, I stayed inside and kept WARM with some hot chocolate with WHIPPED cream and marshmallows and WATCHED the beautiful snow fall gently to the ground from my WINDOW.

On Sunday, I began my Birthday with WORSHIP but since my car was buried under the snow, I didn’t make it to church.

I had service at home.

ISAIAH 60

I planned to gather with my WONDERFUL family and friends to celebrate my Birthday and listen to my favorite Christmas CD by Stevie WONDER playing softly in the background but I had to postpone the party because of the WAIST-DEEP snow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ1-duv_zNk

I didn’t have a Birthday cake so I had to use my WILD imagination to make a WISH.

However, I did get a special BIRTHDAY surprise. Come closer and I will WHISPER it in you ear.

Getting some WRITING done this snowed-in Birthday WEEKEND has made me feel better but now I have a WEE bit of  WABIN WEEBER.

You might be WONDERING WHY all the  Ws.

They simply mean that I WILL have a WINNING new year full of WISDOM, WEALTH-BUILDING, and fulfilled WISHES and so WILL you!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS and I hope you have a prosperous and passionate NEW YEAR with a WHOLE lot of

WONDERFUL surprises!

Thanks for following Passionate Self By Tracy, supporting me, and experiencing some of my passions with me!

———————————-

Giving a special shout out to my dear friend

– WINOKA WENDY WILKES –

(for obvious reasons)

AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORS…

And that’s a WRAP!

Snowy Backyard

Ok, it was sunnier when I first woke up, but I didn’t feel like getting out of bed…This picture isn’t that sunny, but it’s pretty and snowy! It was great to sleep in today! I was in need of rest apparently! I got up had oatmeal and hot chocolate. I went out to shovel the driveway (wasn’t too excited about it), it was too  icy so I finished it later when the sun melted some of it away! It felt good to get that accomplished! I’m sure I will be sore tomorrow! Came in and had tea (I am using my Paula Dean Tea kettle, I love it!) and threw in some laundry! I feel very domesticated today!! Just thankful to be alive. It’s great to relax around this time of year amongst all the hustle and bustle! Holidays can be so stressful sometimes.

I’ve decided to get a head start on learning linear algebra.  Well, really, a head start on continuing my linear algebra education–I already know all about eigenvalues, and eigen vectors*, and nullspaces and whatnot, and I rather like them.  So I made the brilliant decision to sign up for the advanced Lin Alg class next semester, Lin Alg 2, if you will.  It’s supposed to be hard–which, actually, is what they say about every single math class at my University.

MIT’s Linear Algebra course is the second most used set of material in their spread of opencourseware (right under Classical Mechanics 1), which is perhaps no surprise because not all the courses have the video option, and Lin Alg does.  Or maybe it’s just that linear algebra is one of those things that everyone should learn! Yay math!  In either case, the course is taught by Gilbert Strang, and the textbook that goes with the class, Professor Strang’s very own Introduction to Linear Algebra, is available for about $90 bucks on amazon and is pretty good too.  I do love a good alternate textbook. Bonus: Strang mentions matlab a lot–little things that like the matlab command for reduced row echelon form, that are nice if you happen to be learning matlab, but aren’t distracting if you don’t want to ever think about matlab.**

Prepping for courses like this–whether its watching a few hours of video on itunes, or running through a problem set–can be rather helpful.  I would like to not repeat the the intro to computer science incident wherein it took me three hours to figure out how to get my computer to print out “Helllo World!!!!!1″ in Java. System.out.println(“Helllo World!!!!!1″); –in case you were wondering.

Winter break has only been in session for three days and I have already learned how to make pancakes (no small feat, I assure you), talked my sister into watching Fight Club with me, saw Avatar, and gone cross-country skiing.  Extreme boredom is imminent.  Nothing like fending off extreme boredom with a few proofs!

*And even igonvectors.  If you live in some corner of the blogosphere that hasn’t been flooded by Steven Pinker’s review of Gladwell’s What Dog Saw, go read it now, here.

**Tough luck if you fall into both categories.

This has been a busy and eventful week for us- hence the limited blog postings!

I had my first day back at work on Wednesday. Yes Everly is just 7 months old, and yes I am still on maternity leave technically, but I have decided to go back one day each week until I have to be back for good. I say have to be back like it is a bad thing but it is not. Today I realized how much I really love my job and how much I missed wearing this hat in my life. When I was driving to the office this morning I was giddy, yes actually giddy, isn’t that weird. I guess for some people that is probably the weirdest thing that they could imagine- being giddy about going to work. But when you are off for a bit of time and really haven’t been engaging your brain in the same way for 8 months it is really exciting. Oh and I guess you have to actually like your job too.

Having Everly I think has enabled me to be so much better at my job too. I am not saying that you have to have kids to be good at what I do, but it sure puts everything into perspective. When I visited a foster home today with 4 children under the age of 4 I had an increased understanding of what their days look like and how tired that foster mom must get sometimes. I pictured bedtime routines and the possibility of night wakings from all 4 children at all different times. I thought of what it must be like to be handed a newborn baby, care for it and then 7 months later have the child be adopted. I don’t know if I could do that. Obviously with Everly being my daughter I know she is mine to keep, but does knowing a baby is not yours to keep, stop you from loving them any less.

This week Everly also started waving bye-bye again, clapping her hands and she even signed for more a few times. She was waving bye- bye a little while ago and then she stopped it was the weirdest thing. She started back up again about 10 days ago and is still pretty inconsistent and she waves backwards (towards herself), but it is the cutest thing ever. When she signed for more I thought I would be hesitant to believe she really signed, but the way in which she did it left me no doubt- she looked up at the bowl of Cheerios with her mouth wide open and brought her fingers together. She has only done it a handful of times again, but it’s there in her brain, I saw it! She started clapping on Tuesday when we went swimming. I was clapping my hands together to make splashes and she started doing the same and there you have it- she would not stop, lol! The first time my dad saw it he was just beside himself as he has been trying to get her to patty-cake for a few weeks now. She looked at all of us smiling and clapping at her and cheering and she had the proudest expression on her little angel face (makes me get a bit misty eyed thinking about it, lol!)

Baby had her first Christmas party this weekend! Usually B and I throw an evening event for adults, but this year, with the new addition we had to tweak it a bit. We decided to go with a daytime kid/baby friendly event and it went really well. We had tons of kids (and their parents) here, we had great food and yummy hot chocolates with peppermint schnapps! I knew it was a hit with the kids because none of them wanted to leave- bless their little hearts but we are not yet ready to become the Duggar family, lol! I do not have one ounce of Michelle Duggar’s patience!!!

After our kids party we headed to an evening birthday/holiday party at a friend’s house with Everly in tow. I wasn’t sure how she would do as she was going to be out waaaay past her bedtime, but you know there is only one way to find out and we could have come home if things went South! I was so amazed by her. She had a little nap on the way over there and then was happy as a darned clam the entire time. What am I saying, I was amazed, who am I kidding- there were people there fawning over her, of course she was happy the entire time, lol! If I have learned anything about my kid it is that she is a giant ham! People say to her, oh you are so cute and she looks back at them with either her award winning toothless grin or the eye flutter where her eyelashes sweep the floor. I always said I wanted a kid who knew how to work a crowd, lol!

At the party Everly may have done something pretty eventful… she has been saying the sounds mama and dada for a while now but up until recently really did not have an understanding of what the sounds meant. In the past week we have been able to say to here, where’s dada or where’s mama and she will look for the appropriate person and then smile when she sees them, with this burst in receptive language I knew that the connection to her expressive language would be soon. At the party I happened upon her sitting with her daddy whilst charming one of the guests. I walked into the room out of her sight and when she looked up and saw me she said it, crystal clear, plain as day MAMA and smiled at me. B and I both had a blank expression on our faces as this was the first time she had uttered the sounds in the correct context. The guest said, wow, she says mama already? B and I said that may have been the very first time, that’s why we are both stunned like deer in headlights, lol. I was like the Grinch in that moment, my heart grew. It’s not like I even had an heart deficiency problem and that it needed to grow, but it did anyway and it broke the heart measuring thing too, I know it did because I heard that, bwong-ker-snap sound. End of paragraph point- I was proud. We will see if it continues and then I guess we will know for sure if she really meant it and I guess real or not, it sure meant the world to me.

Today is Sunday and we are off to see my mom. My mom has not seen Everly since July so this should be fun. Did I mention that she has no idea we are coming to see her either…

Quote of the day, “I feel like a prize asshole, no one even mentions my casserole,” heard on Flight of the Conchords (The Tough Brets), Hurt Feelings rap.

Last night, the plan for dinner was Whole Foods turkey(on sale). Well, the smallest turkey was 11 pounds… we’re 3 people. New plan: Dinner at Tomassos! I adore this restaurant, as it’s by far the best one near us, Italian or otherwise. I even dropped some not-so-secret hints last weekend I wanted to go, so I was glad those were picked up. I definitely did not want to go hungry, so I kept snacking on through the afternoon.

Apple

Organic Sprouted Cinnamon Raisin Bread With Macadamia Butter

This was my first time trying macadamia butter, and I have to say the bread really outshined it. It tasted almost precisely like cashew butter(which is the other ingredient in it). It wasn’t bad, and if I were a vegan I could see myself turning to this as a “butter replacement”, but it really didn’t wow me. It seemed like something that could highlight other flavors rather than stand on its own. A little white chocolate with this would have been amazing(Ok, that can be said about a lot of things). We got to the restaurant around 6:30.

Tomassos

I love the open atmosphere; you can see right into the kitchen and the dining room is perfectly arranged for relaxation. The funniest part of the night was when my mom asked our hostess “So is your sister home yet?” with no pretext; last time we were there, we decided that the hostess looked like a girl I went to elementary school with, though we never confirmed this and she clearly had no clue who we were. This time, my mom thought that we had confirmed this with her and she knew who we were, but in reality she gave us a very creeped out glance back. Once we explained things it turned out it was her and she was shocked to come across us. Isn’t it fun running in to old acquaintances?

Pizze Margarita

I had to steal a slice of my parents pizza as an appetizer. This is seriously the best margarita pizza I’ve had outside of Italy, and even then only 1 pizza has ever tops it. It’s perfectly thin and crispy, with an herby sauce and light but fresh cheese. For my dinner I had a really hard time deciding but settled for the maiale

Local Pork With Local Cranberry And Pear Monstrada

I can’t say I’d ever reorder this. The monstrada was delightfully spicy and sweet, but I’m just not someone who can sit down to a big plate of meat and feel good(and that’s all there was on this plate). It felt vulgarly big. I ate most of the leaner meat, but ended up giving 1/3 or so of it to my parents and not feeling particularly satisfied with what I’d eaten. In fact, I was just about downright hangry as we were leaving and other people were talking about how full they were. When I got home, I knew just what I needed.

Brussels Sprouts With Vanilla Sugar

Maybe I should change this blog to VeggieBoy in homage to this lovely blogger(who we should all wish good luck on finishing her finals!). I sprinkled a little vanilla sugar on top because I couldn’t decide if this was a “dessert”. At heart, I’m truly a vegetable lover, which led me to this new plan: Eat meat as a side or seasoning, never more than 1/3 of the meal. Don’t order it while out(I could, but I don’t expect many restaurants to meet the first sentiment, so why set myself up for disappointment?). Maybe those brussels sprouts were more than I expected, because they left me big and bloated. But there’s always room for chocolate!

NibMor Original Style Chocolate

This was a new chocolate I got in the mail yesterday to sample and review by NibMor.

So Delicious Agave Sweetened Plain With Dark Chocolate Newman's Cup And Original NibMor

With a little more chocolate and some soy yogurt to go along side. Yum! This chocolate really impressed me. The flavor was slightly more bitter than I prefer, which was odd because this was a 70% and that’s usually my perfect number. But overall the flavor was good. And I couldn’t get over the fact that this was entirely organic and raw! Seriously, that part astounded me as I couldn’t taste any difference. After posting my peanut butter cookie recipe, a snack plate was in order.

Peanut Butter Cookie, Deep Chocolate Vitatop, Advent Chocolate With Smart Balance Peanut Butter

I don’t think they’re quite as good after being frozen from a week, but oh well. Not quite as good still equaled damn fine for a “healthy” cookie. I ended up getting to bed before 11:30, only to wake up around 3:45 and having difficulty falling back to sleep; I think I was either in anticipation of the snow or workout(both to come). I ended up making some 4am oatmeal to settle myself.

Oatmeal With Honey

McLure's Clover Honey

I don’t usually sweeten my oatmeal with stevia or anything; in fact, I like salty oats. But I thought I’d try out my new honey as I definitely was having a bear’s tooth for it. I only did 1/2 a tablespoon(I was trying tog et back to sleep after all), so I didn’t get a lot of flavor, but what I could taste was so nice and pure. I can’t believe I got this for only $4. I did eventually get to bed, and the snow outside was soooo amazing when I woke up.

7:30am

Could you think of something better to wake up to? Well I spared no time in starting my quest to find some good at home workouts to do over the next 30 days if that’s going to be the case. This morning, I did an overall body core workout first which kicked my butt. I need to readjust it for my level before I go and post anything. That took 30 minutes, and afterwards I did stair iterations for 200 flights, which took another 60 minutes. I was literally dripping sweat by the end but it felt soo good. New plan: Get a workout in every day, even if it’s just some light walking around. You’ll feel so much better once you do! And being couped up at home doesn’t have to be an excuse to get out of exercise. I was so ready for breakfast after showering.

Pumpkin Oatmeal WIth Mighty Maple And Pumkin Cream Cheese

Boulevard's Organic Hot Chocolate With Vegan Fluff

This was perfect for a snowy day. I know she wasn’t the first person ever to do this, but Brandi deserves a huge shout out for reminding me of hot cocoa and fluff. The combination of Boulevard’s Organic and vegan marshmallow spread couldn’t have been simpler and tastier. And I just love my pumpkin oats with mighty maple and pumpkin cream cheese(as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now). But that brings me to a final new plan: Get 2 sources of probiotics a day. Actually, this is a rather old plan of mine, and something I generally do, but I think I need to remind myself of this one. Probiotics from fortified foods is so good for the digestive system and I shouldn’t be skimping. If that means I have to eat frozen yogurt at night, who’s to complain? Clearly there weren’t any at breakfast which just means I’m going to need to fit them in a bit later.

I can’t believe how much it’s still snowing; this is too perfect!

I got caught in a blizzard today. Unlike what you expect from the name of my weblog blizzards do not happen very often around here. I decided to take on the weather and go out for some snow photography. Here is what I learned from my expedition.

Cycling through a blizzard is not possible. Even though I have seen people in the 1950s do the exact same thing it must have been different snow back then because it just is not possible.

Snow photography is fun until you realise you are not feeling your fingers anymore.

Animals living in the wild should somehow receive training to not be scared of photographers and actually sit still when they have their pictures taken.

A blizzard is an excellent opportunity for testing Round The World Trip clothing, footwear and photography equipment (if they do not survive homeland winter circumstances they are not worthy of the Himalaya).

It is so much more fulfilling to be sipping hot chocolate watching snow fall through the window when you have actually been out there in the snow.

Kinda back~ Eric art as well as news about the blog and upcoming goodies.

Forgot that I didn’t upload this here! I was just fooling around with an Eric design and this was the result, I liked it enough to scan in. Not much to say, just a tiny thing.

Other news: new layout on the blog, I’m quite fond of it, the last one was very… Spring-y. Winter is my favorite season of the year, and I love being able to celebrate it on my blog. The falling snow is a nice touch, I think! And I added my Twitter back on the widgets side, since I’m updating that like a mofo lately.

This past little disappearance was more for personal issues than school work, though it was included in the whole mess. Everything is fine, and I’m back (well… technically not until the 23rd, but here I am TYPING AWAY 8D) I have so many cool things to share on the blog, don’t think I just abandon this baby and don’t think about it! I have many plans for Little My Blog~ Plushies, art books, art, random lists and fun features… HAR HAR this is gonna be fun! And I can’t wait to get back to commenting on people’ s blogs again, I’ve been literally internet dead!

Finals week is this coming week, I shouldn’t be here ^^; I’ll see you all soon~

The only thing skinny about this drink is that it was made with Soy Milk.  It’s a great indulgence when you’ve been really good and know you deserve a treat.  Sophia and I had just had some lunch at the Sushi Bar and went to have chocolates and a drink at San Churro.  She charmed all of the other customers and gave her mum grief.  Can’t expect anything less at Christmas trading times.

The Hot Chocolate was delicious and the service was great.  I found out later that you can order a hot choc with chilli, which would be a better skinny food option.

WARNING: This entry is more than 2550 words. My average longer entry is about 750-800 words. This is my longest entry ever before. I guess you could say that this is a special holiday edition entry and also enough text to make up for all this lack of writing over the past few months. Press more if you’ve got the time.

THANK YOU FOR PRESSING MORE!!!!! I LOVE YOU FOREVER!!!

My Poem:
Yeah, I know. Maybe it’s nothing ‘professional’, but I felt like posting it. Just because.

“I don’t know what to name this.”
BY ALEX VIOLET

These are the days I want to scream my heart into a microphone
To make people feel like they’re not the only one
The world might not fall at your feet
But you have the power to help up everyone you meet
As long as you’ve got a voice
You have some sort of choice
You can watch the world pass out of your sight
Or you can buckle down and hang on tight
No matter where you are, you’re going to find someone who’s willing to put up a bigger argument
But as long as you believe it, you can withstand anything, no matter how many a dent
You need to stay true to your beliefs
Put aside all of your griefs
As long as you have who you are
Know that you are a star

-FIN-

It’s been a really hectic last week of school for me, but overall I’d say it was worth it.

MONDAY: vocals practice through lots of the day (we got out of our other classes) and a little into lunch and so I missed the students’ council meeting at lunch and had to have the students’ council president fill me in, and let me know how I was supposed to help out with the Christmas auction which would be on Wednesday. I had to tell her I couldn’t help/clean up any after school on Wednesday because I had a youth council meeting @ 3:30 at the YMCA. (School ends @ 2:30 for me, but my bus drops me off at around 3:00, which is also when Corner Gas starts on one of those really big number channels.)

TUESDAY: vocals practice through the entire day and the entire lunch I think. We were signed out of the class at 12:00 though, (my school’s lunch period goes from 11:00-12:00; and everyone shares this lunch hour. Also, classes were smushed and cut off early that day because of the Olympic Torch run going through my town, so my class after lunch was mathematics) so me and my friend NAMELESS sat around in the cafeteria. She was playing my Animal Crossing game on her DS and I might’ve been playing solitaire (they call it ‘klondike’, I don’t know why) on her iPod. I was trying to convince her to watch the torch go by with me, saying things like “I don’t want to see it all alone,” and “You’ll regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t go, and if you do go, you get to tell your grandchildren about it someday, you get to tell everyone ‘I WAS THERE!’” and then I think I eventually got her by telling her that we either go accross the street to buy some onion rings from the fast food place (I hadn’t eaten and our cafeteria had closed by then) or we see the torch run. We killed time outside playing in the snow and making sound-wave-looking patterns in the snow with our footprints and taking silly pictures.
So we saw the torch run. It was LIFE-CHANGING. At least I believe so. They were giving out free coca-colas on a float infront of the torch runner and I didn’t get one. That was okay, because I had videoed the torch runner and I also got two free flags (one extra for my little brother) from one of the teachers who was passing by me and NAMELESS when we were sitting on a bench outside the school office waiting for a ride home.
Once I got home I lied down and had a nap until my mum came home from work and told me she bought me a shirt for the concert that night I was in with the rest of my vocals class and a couple of people in the school band.
So I arrived at the school auditorium around 5:00 (the concert was from around 7:00 ’til like 8:45, so I missed my pathfinders Christmas party) with some McDonald’s fries and a coca-cola in my hand and waited around while the instrumental people did their thing. I sat beside NAMELESS (who still had my Animal Crossing game) and played solitaire/klondike on her iPod. I think we conversed, but I don’t recall. Maybe we were out of conversation seeing as we were hanging out the whole day.
Then we did the concert and I rocked it. Bohemian Rhapsody was the last song. (Which I’m sure you’ll agree: is very fun to sing.) After the concert my mother told me that I was a better singer than most of the people that did solos. (I did backup only.) I already knew that, but I’m glad I heard it from my mother too.

WEDNESDAY: Forgot my lunch at school for the first time since third grade. So I ended up walking around the school with my friend Smiley all lunch hour. I was under the impression that I was supposed to help out with the Christmas auction at lunch, but that morning or so someone said to me it was going to be on Thursday instead, so I looked around checking all the places that I’ve ever been told to meet the student’s council in (the auditorium, the front foyer, the student council room, etc.) and eventually gave up.
After school I got home and turned the TV to a Corner Gas rerun while I prepared myself for the meeting and quickly stopped by the corner store to get some food since I was hungry since I missed lunch.
Then I walked to the YMCA for the Youth Council meeting which is a lot further than I thought. I thought I lived right around the corner from them so I gave myself ten minutes to walk there. But I think I took fifteen or twenty to get there. Oh yeah, and it was very windy and cold out and I forgot my hat and mits. I remembered my Secret Santa gift though, and it was a very soft burgundy blanket. I got a Rubik’s cube and a picture frame in return.
I walked home.

THURSDAY: Was not bad, I thought it would be the easiest day of the week since I didn’t have anything schedueled for the day.
Well, except for the Christmas Auction for either the whole morning or the whole afternoon (I forget) but that was during school hours and it was record-breaking with the $ we raised. Besides, my job was simple, I just passed cue cards to the auctioneer to tell him what item was next. Besides that, nothing really.
But then I was going to work on two assignments due during lunch. But then I forgot. So to stop myself from worrying I stayed after school to finish them in the library so I could just ask the office ladies to put my finished work in the teacher’s mailbox so I would not be late handing it in, technically.
I finished my work sometime between 3:30-3:45 just as the librarian told me she was going to close up the library. So I printed off my pages and looked them over real quick and left with my stuff. I went up to my locker and got the remainder of my stuff, then went down to the office and called my mother to pick me up. Now, my mom I know doesn’t usually walk in the door until 4, I’m pretty sure, and my brother (who is eleven) walks home, and that takes him until a little before 4, like around 3:50 or something like that. I wasn’t totally baffled when I got the answering machine, so I just left a message for someone to come pick me up ASAP and then I sat down on the bench with a book ready (Predator’s Gold by Philip Reeve: it’s the sequel to Mortal Engines which we’d just finished reading in Science class) and waited a very long time. It was around 4:15 or 4:20 or something when I called again since everyone should have been home by then. I got the machine, so I left about the same message and went and sat down and read again. I kept getting distracted from my book though since people actually were showing up for their late afterschool activities. I got a little worried around 4:40 and contemplated calling one more time and/or walking home. But since it’s the winter, it was getting darker out. I got up to go call again and ended up walking out the door at 4:45 or so. I kept walking down the street, and discovered that I do actually know the general route to getting home.
Walking out was a very bad idea, though, since apparently my mother and brother showed up five minutes after asking people like the janitor if they’d seen me.
I don’t know how long I’d taken but I was almost near the city hall and my legs were numb as were my hands, even though I was wearing gloves. I remembered my mum had once said that there was a ‘courtesy phone’ at the city hall: a phone I could use for free to call her to pick me up. So I went into the city hall and used the phone. I called my mum (got the darn machine again), told her I was okay, that I started to walk home, that my limbs were numb, and that I’d wait a while for her to pick me up then I’d call someone else to pick me up if she didn’t show after a while. I stood by the door, looking out the window as so many people walked by me, none of them asking me if I was alright, and few of them acknowledging me. There were actually two kids who must’ve been about 8 or 9 dressed in ski masks playing with walkie talkies, and one of them stood a few feet away from me, testing out all the channels on the walkie talkie, repeating “Over, over, over, over,” and over again hoping to get a response.
Eventually, I went over to the courtesy phone and pulled out an old permission form from pathfinders that had the pathfinder leader’s phone number on it and called her, remembering that a year or a few ago she’d told all of us pathfinders that just in case we were in a sticky situation, she’d be there. I explained my whole situation, trying not to cry the whole time (it showed in my voice) and asked if there was any way that she would come pick me up. She verified that I was at the city hall and told me she’d be right there. I thanked her and the phone call ended. I thanked God a few times that I had pathfinders, and better yet that I just so happened to have the outdated forms in my pocket. When she picked me up I kept on thanking her and I explained in more detail my situation and she asked questions about it and I answered. When we drove into my parking lot outside my apartment, she told me she would walk in with me to make sure I was all safe and she did and I was. My mum was home and she buzzed us up. She explained how when she drove into the parking lot, Buddy (little brother) ran out to the car and explained that I left a message that I was at the school, so they went out to get me and showed up at the school and when they couldn’t find me they got worried. They checked a couple other places like the Wal-Mart (I don’t know why I’d be there if I was desperate; no offence Wal-Mart) and then they went home to see if I called. I had just buzzed up as my mum was listening to the answering machine messages.
Knowing I was safe, the pathfinder leader went and got my Secret Santa gift and gave it to me. It consisted of a mug with hot choco. packages, marshmallows, a leather bookmark, chocolates, a hair thing, six of the Best Cookies You Will Ever Eat Besides My Mother’s., and a couple other things I don’t recall off the top of my head. I thanked her again several times and we wished each other Merry Christmas.
I had soup that night which I believe was suitable.

FRIDAY: Yesterday was a relief. There was smushed classes again since the Christmas Assembly was in the afternoon (my school always has really good and hilarious holiday assemblies; this year they had some students have a rap contest and a group of teachers were impersonating how students do things just to frustrate teachers, like forgetting to bring a pencil to class then forgetting their book after they just got back from their locker and sleeping in class and a bunch of ordinary things like that. But it was funny when the teachers did it.) I was supposed to get out of Math class to practice singing with my vocals class because we were in the assembly, but we were having a Christmas party and I already brought a bag of that Smartfood popcorn for it, and I just didn’t feel like missing it anymore. I also learned that my math grade has been brought up to a 61%. This is good by me, since I had a 58% last I checked. Last year I walked into the exam with a 64% and pulled of an 80% in the exam, then ended up with an overall 70%, which was good enough to go into academic grade 10 math (the smart kids class) this year. But now I’m not sure I’ll pull off another 80% on the exam (as much as I hope) so I’m trying to pull up my grade now as much as possible. We just started trigonometry which is all about triangles. Which is actually a huge relief.
Sorry, I went on rambling a little there.
The assembly was great and I got to go right home after school and the bus driver was giving out little chocolates to us for Christmas. I got two when everyone else got one (when I got on the bus, I remembered I was going to have a student council meeting, so I explained that and told her I wouldn’t be getting back on the bus. So she gave me a chocolate. So then I realized it was cancelled, and got back on the bus, telling her it was cancelled. When we got off the bus I told her I already got one and she said “Have another one!” so I said thank you and took another one.) so I gave one to my mother and one to my brother.

SATURDAY: Today we finally got the Christmas tree up (ours is of the pretend variety since my mother’s allergic to the real variety – plus it’s better for the environment since we don’t have to go and cut down a tree every year) and I’ve been in my pajamas all day. I’ve spent a few hours writing this entry and thank you SO much if you’re still reading it.

Have a wonderful, awesomazing, magnificent, miraculous, and memorable holiday!

Merry Holidays,

Alex Violet.

In my neighborhood each summer, there is a proliferation of lemonade stands manned by enthusiastic young entrepreneurs. Come winter, these kids join the ranks of the unemployed. I believe there is a missed opportunity here, one that could be a boon to these young businesspeople – the hot chocolate stand.

Face it; hot chocolate is far sexier than lemonade. Always has been, and always will be. You have those little puffs of marshmallows dancing on top of a steaming cup of chestnut-colored water. The marshmallow has to be one of the most indulgently gluttonous foods ever created. Composed of sugar, glucose, syrup, water, corn flour, flavors, and coloring, no one can resist that. Add to that, the opportunity to top it all off with a healthy shmeer of whipped cream, and you can charge almost anything for that combination of decadence.

Sure, there are some drawbacks to selling hot chocolate. For one thing, kids would have to drink up quite a bit of the profits to stay warm enough to outlast the cold. Making change with those mittens could prove to be a challenge in dexterity, and it might be difficult to get the attention of customers as they roll past in their cars, windows all sealed up. The young entrepreneurs may have to employ some combination of the dance and the shout out to reel them in. None of these challenges are insurmountable, though. The profit margin could still be huge, and after several months, a year of college tuition could be in the bank.

Hot chocolate - perfect for a snow day too!

I realized after writing up my ideas on what to bake on a snow day, that I forgot the most obvious snow day sweet – hot chocolate! From what I can gather from Twitter, many of you have already been out and about this morning, and I’m sure you’re freezing (I, on the other hand, stayed up until 3:00 am last night watching Hulu and woke up . . . well, let’s just say I haven’t been outside today yet). So here’s some delicious hot chocolate recipes to warm your soul, and fingers.

• Have you read David Lebovitz’s book “The Sweet Life In Paris?” Well, one of my favorite chapters was the one on the hot chocolate in Paris and Lebovitz’s search for the “perfect” cup. I haven’t tried his recipe for rich, intensely chocolatey chocolat chaud, but I want to.

• White hot chocolate – I actually like white chocolate (I know, I know, it’s not real chocolate. I don’t care), so this white hot chocolate recipe from Martha Stewart looks tempting. Although I might spice it up with some fresh ginger, to cut down on the sweetness. Or rum.

• It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of mint and chocolate desserts, and this peppermint hot chocolate from Michael Chiarello looks lovely. It uses peppermint schnapps, so it’s for grownups, but I don’t have a problem with that.

• This Mexican hot chocolate recipe from David Guas also looks good. I bet putting an actual vanilla bean in the hot chocolate is delicious.

• And, finally, a recipe for spiked hot chocolate from Emeril, that adds bourbon or brandy to the regular hot chocolate mix. Um, this may be the one I need to make tonight – especially if I can corral some friends into coming over. I wonder if the liquor store near me is open in the snowstorm.

Happy snow day! Any recipes for hot chocolate you want to share?

Mmmmm . . .