It is New Year's Eve and while many of you are getting ready to either have a party or attend a party I am busy cleaning.
Today I honor one of my mother's superstitions which is to "never let the New Year catch you dirty". I have two loads of laundry to do, I will be mopping the floors, I vacuumed the rugs yesterday while also straightening out all of the other rooms.
I will take clothes to the cleaners, stop by the post office and get the car cleaned despite the fact that we are due for a major snowstorm between Thursday and Saturday morning.
Does it have any bearing on whether the New Year will be a good one or not; probably not, but it is an overall peace that I have that on the New Year my house is clean and nothing requires my attention.
Tonight I will be able to relax with a drink, some pate, a bubble bath and a new nightgown.
The song the "Twelve Days of Christmas" is something we sing; but, do many of us know when that day begins and when it ends?
The twelve days of Christmas begins on December 26th and ends on January 6th. For many of us the Christmas season ends on January 1st after we have rung in the New Year. I have already seen many Christmas trees already discarded and many of us are beginning to take down our Christmas decorations.
But, why is it the Christmas season until January 6th? Well, January 6th is the Feast of the Epiphany - the day the three Wise Men or Magi saw the Christ child. In many Hispanic cultures this day is known as "Little Christmas" and the Magi leave a gift for them.
When I lived in Puerto Rico we would leave a shoe box to receive our gift (similar to a stocking) and place grass in it and a glass of water for the camel. We received only one gift and the day was more about spending time with family and friends.
Let's not rush the Christmas season; and, instead embrace the Twelve Days of Christmas.
It has been several weeks since I have been to aqua Zumba on a Saturday morning either because of the weather, watching Callum or going to a matinee theater show.
I went yesterday morning and it felt great to get back into the swing of the class, to fraternize with my fellow aqua Zumba exercisers and to be able to speak to Abby, the instructor.
The music, the movements and the energy provide an hour of not thinking of any issues or problems that are going on in my life and to simply focus on the exercise and how my muscles feel.
Since New Year's is not a big holiday for the family - I will be reintroducing my body to exercising again. I have been lucky that with all that has been going on I have not gained any weight.
But, cannot continue to rely on luck - time to focus on my body and the exercise.
As many of you know I am in the visual/video conferencing/collaboration industry - I have been a part of it since 1989.
But yesterday was a first for me - I had to record a video message to have published to the Visual Communications Industry Group (VCI-Group). This would be my January's President Message to the membership - I normally write a letter; but, I was convinced by the Board to do the video.
I have to thank my friend and fellow Board Member, Catherine who agreed to be on the other end so that I could talk to a "live" body and not just the camera. She helped me determine the lighting, the distance of the camera and listened to my message.
Next, the video went to fellow Board Member, Theo who will edit from my three takes and put together the final version that will be posted on our web page and sent out via social media.
I am grateful to the Board and especially to Catherine and Theo for their patience, time and encouragement. I am lucky and blessed.
After two full days of cooking - the kitchen needed to be cleaned.
Callum left with his father at 1PM after a second sleep over or as he calls it a sleepy over and it was time to clean up everything.
Within two hours the cabinets were in order, the dishes were washed and put away and the floor was vacuumed and mopped. Also put the dining table back to its norm, vacuumed and mopped the dining and living rooms.
It was time to just relax a little bit and realize that I am on vacation!!!
Yesterday I cooked my first ever Christmas dinner - I did it all including our traditional desserts.
I amazed myself as it all came out fantastic and although for the most part I was following the recipes - I did improvise a little here and there.
I have learned a couple of things like make the rice pudding before the bread pudding as it takes almost 4 hours to make.
Leave the pork in the oven for 4 hours and it will cook all the way through.
The rice was perfect - maybe use a little less tomato sauce or sazon so it is a little lighter in color.
But overall it was very good and it felt great to hear Ryan say it was the best pork he had tasted (he ate 4 pieces) and Gerard loved it all!!!
Merry Christmas to all of you - may you be enjoying the spirit of the season to be with family and to give thanks for our blessings throughout this past year.
As you open your gifts, enjoy your dinner - let us not forget what the season is all about; the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
To you and yours may you be filled with the spirit of the holiday.
I feel like the man who used to say, "Time to make the donuts" from the Dunkin' Donuts commercials many years ago.
Today I will be saying, "time to make the desserts". Traditional Christmas desserts for us are rice and bread pudding. On Friday I bought three loaves of bread and have been opening the bags every day hoping the bread would get stale. These desserts are best made the day before and let set - the rice pudding will go in the refrigerator as will the bread pudding because of the coconut milk in it.
This is a first for me - I have reviewed several recipes and I am trying to remember how my aunt used to make this - I am sure they will turn out fine. I do not have a backup plan.
I will let you know how it turns out.
We have a family event scheduled for today. We are going to the Holiday Train Show at the Bronx Botanical Gardens.
We have tickets for the 11:15 show and it will take about 90 minutes to walk around and see all the trains circling the various New York City landmarks. It has been three years since we did this and I don't think that Callum remembers it - I am excited to see his reaction to the show this year.
Afterwards, we will be going to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx to have a nice Italian lunch. I have not been to Arthur Avenue in close to 30 years - the last time it was Christmas morning and I was standing outside the bakery to pick up Italian pastries for dinner.
We decided to do this event this year instead of Breakfast with Santa at Rockefeller Center - Callum really did not enjoy it, nor did he eat the food. Given the expense of that outing this is less expensive and it is a donation to the gardens.
If you have never done this - it is a wonder to see. Take your children, explore the gardens and then have a nice lunch or dinner in the neighborhood.
As my great-nephew, Callum would say, "all done".
The presents are all wrapped, the stockings are hung and stuffed, the recipes have been printed, the food bought and now all I am doing is waiting for Christmas. I also managed to locate the roasting pan - I have not used in since the year I moved into my townhouse. Last night I located it in my storage area, I had put it back in the box. Yeah, means I do not have to buy one.
I was quite surprised that within 5 hours I had all the Christmas gifts wrapped - some of the heavier ones are in the utility closet and the others are on the bed in the spare bedroom, they will be brought down on Christmas Eve after Callum goes to sleep. He will be spending the night with me.
I am looking forward to just relaxing and watching football on Sunday - I will hit the gym for Zumba class and get a manicure and then I am done!!
I am now prepared to start my gift wrapping on Saturday and Sunday.
I have laid all the gifts in piles per individual on the bed in the spare bedroom. I will then wrap them by taking one individual at a time and getting that person done before I start on the next person's gifts.
I was prepared to stuff the stockings already; however, the stockings are falling down because they are too heavy. I will need to wait until Christmas Eve to finish that task and I will have to place the stockings on the floor and not hang them.
If I am good I will finish the wrapping on Saturday and have one less thing to do on Sunday. On Friday night I wrapped by boyfriend's gifts and now I only have to wrap for five more people - but, as you can see it is a lot. I will cheat a little and all clothes items will go into a gift bag making things easier.
I always leave this task until the weekend before Christmas; and, I will do it as I watch Christmas movies either on Lifetime or the Hallmark channel.
Last night I had the opportunity to do something I have wanted to do for a couple of years.
I went to dinner with a friend of mine to the Winery at St. George on Route 6 in Mohegan Lake, New York. If you look at the picture you will note that this used to be a church and then it became a winery, now they serve dinner, certain nights there is live music, dinner theatre and it can be rented for events.
There has been controversy between the town and the owner - I really have not gotten into it as I believe that if he is generating money then it is good for the community.
It was my friend's birthday in November and she also has wanted to try out the restaurant, so a perfect opportunity to try something new and to celebrate.
Very often we put off hard decisions or saying things to others because we dislike confrontation or would rather keep the status quo.
I know, I have been doing this for over 6 months and I have been holding my tongue all this time. I finally made the decision yesterday to speak my mind no matter what the results. It was hard to do; but, I am glad that I have done it.
I know where I stand and I have closed the chapter on that part of my life, I am done. Difficult but it is time.
I was all prepared to drive to work on Tuesday morning, after all I had my team's homemade Christmas gifts to give them.
I left the house a little after 6AM and managed to get on the Taconic Parkway although it had begun to snow - the problem was that it was sticking. As I crossed the AMVETS bridge I realized that driving to work was not such a good idea and I decided to turn around by taking 134 West in Ossining.
What a MISTAKE!!! The road was dark - covered in snow and the first right my GPS told me to take I decided to ignore as the road stated it doesn't get plowed and it looked as if it still had the snow from this past weekend. I kept going straight and finally got on Route 9A North. Now I know where I am.
I got behind a truck who had his hazard lights on and did 15MPH. I decided that I would take the exit that would let me get home via the town - couldn't take the first exit windy, up hill and totally snowed over. Took the second turn into town and went very slowly without having to put on my brakes at the stop sign.
I finally was home by 7:20 - at 5:30 I went out and cleaned my car so that I could drive to the train station on Wednesday morning. When I looked out my windows at 7PM - it had FINALLY stopped snowing.
Oh, and P.S., since I will not see my team until after the New Year I will have to bake for them and make coquito again. In the meantime, my nephew and my boyfriend will be enjoying this batch.
I have six people who report directly to me and last year when I had three people I gave them each pumpkin bread and a personal calendar for Christmas.
This year I decided that I would still give them the pumpkin bread; but, I am also giving them an 8 ounce Mason jar full of coquito or Puerto Rican eggnog. I made the eggnog on Sunday afternoon and later decorated the jars with ribbon and a bell with a name tag.
The pumpkin bread - a new recipe that has a crumb topping I made on Monday morning. These were wrapped in Saran wrap, put in a bread bag and then in a decorative loaf box. All of these items will then go into a big bag for me to take to work on Tuesday morning.
This will be the last of my big baking - I will make another round of pumpkin bread and coquito for my family and my boyfriend.
Sunday - a good day to take it slow and that is what I did to a certain extent.
I slept in until 7:30 which is unusual for me, showered and put on sweat clothes. I knew I would have to clean off the snow from the car and hope that the company who cleans our neighborhood does a good job of removing the snow.
By 11AM, I was out the door cleaning my car and running to the grocery store, I needed to buy buttermilk so that I could make pumpkin bread on Monday. When I got back from the grocery store I let my neighbor know that if they cleaned and moved their cars that they would plow us clean - they listened and moved their cars.
I made the coquito (Puerto Rican) eggnog for my team and wrapped ribbons with a bell and a tag on them. I have everything ready to make pumpkin bread tomorrow morning. I finished reading a book and watching the movies that I had DVR'd on Saturday night.
A day to take it slow for a change - I don't get to do that too often!!
Despite the weather yesterday I had plans to meet friends that I have known since 1981; two of us were going to see the Nutcracker Suite and then the third friend would join us for dinner.
Mother Nature had us change our plans; and, instead we met for Brunch/Lunch and then went to the ballet. I took an early train and drove to the train station despite the weather - I could not get a taxi to pick me up. In the city the weather was not bad at noon. We had a wonderful lunch and it was great to catch up on what we have been doing over the past years.
The ballet was wonderful - it had been many years since I had seen it. Coming home was not so easy - I could not find a taxi at Lincoln Center. There was a bus that would go to 5th Avenue and 42nd Street - perfect!!
I arrived at Grand Central at 5:08 and my train would leave at 5:17 - talk about timing. When I got to my car I immediately started removing the snow - I made sure it was nice and clean and then started the 6 mile drive home. I chose to only drive 15 miles per hour and barely put on the brakes.
I made it home in one piece and was glad that the weather didn't dampen the outing.
Getting your car serviced is usually not something that most people enjoy; but I do.
My dealer could not make it easier for me - I am able to make my appointment on line, they open at 7:30 in the morning for services so if I don't get the 7:30 slot I usually get the 7:45 booking and that is what I had yesterday.
My car had 4,552 miles on it and only needed to have its oil changed, next time they will rotate the tires. There is a diner that is only 100 feet away so I was able to tell them that I was going to get some breakfast and provided them with my cell phone. I had breakfast, read my newspapers and went back to the dealer/service station. I let them know I was back.
In just a little over 5 minutes I was told my car was ready and no charge as the first oil maintenance was free. Breakfast, the papers and my car's oil changes all in an hour!!!
I just cleaned my oven about a month and a half ago and it needed to be cleaned again. Isn't it great that we now have self-cleaning ovens??
I have been using my oven quite steadily between baking and cooking; and, although I try to be careful there are times when items spill onto the oven bottom. Yesterday morning I baked some cookies and decided what better time than now to clean the oven; besides it is a good way to warm up the house.
My oven takes 3 hours to clean and it does a great job although I still have to clean the glass front. That is nothing in comparison to what it used to be years ago when I had to use cans and cans of Easy Off oven cleaner and since I tend to not wear gloves when I do housework it wreaked havoc on my hands.
I am going to take a bit of caution and will purchase an oven liner today so that in the event anything spills when I bake on Monday morning the only thing I will have to do is throw out the liner!!!
As you know I am a sucker for new recipes especially if they are simple, quick and easy.
The recipe for these cream cheese chocolate chip recipes was posted on Facebook by a friend of mine. I re-posted and my niece-in-law mentioned how the boys would probably like them.
I had all the ingredients at home so last night I took the 15 minutes it takes to prepare the cookie - then I am refrigerating them for the night.
On Thursday Gerard is stopping by my house to pick up a few gifts that I have for his father, I will bake these and give them to him to try and to take home to the boys.
I am hoping he likes them as I will then bake again to take to the office on Tuesday for my team. I will keep you posted on the outcome.
Yesterday we had our first snowfall - surprisingly enough I only had enough to stick to the grass and my car.
Since the temperature was supposed supposed to go down to below freezing I thought it best that I clear the light covering of snow off of my windshields and windows. I didn't think I would really want to do that Wednesday morning as I am looking at my watch trying to make a train.
All I have to say is that I am glad that we were spared a lot of snow this time - now if the jet stream could stay this way the rest of the winter I would be very happy!!!
Well although the calendar has not declared winter yet - Mother Nature has and many of us have been victim to the weather.
The last two days we have been experiencing winter weather with snow, sleet and ice. Usually I get snow and it is difficult to get out of my community, this time we had ice and it was difficult to get out of my community.
I went to get gas in the car a little after 2PM and I still had to remove the ice from my windshield - it took a while. Thankfully, the roads and the sidewalks were no longer icy.
I am not sure what Tuesday morning will bring - we are supposed to have ice again and snow which is supposed to begin at 7AM and last until 1PM. I will watch the news and see what they say as I get ready in the morning.
I do hope that this is not a pattern for the rest of the winter, I will take all the cold Mother Nature wants to give us - just keep the snow and ice away.
I have a timeline in my head of everything that I need to do for the holidays and when I want them done - this weekend it was time to write out the Christmas cards.
I buy my cards at the end of the season - I can always find a card that has what I want to say about the season and I feel somewhat good about not spending "full" price for something that will be read, displayed for a few week and then thrown out. But, despite that I like sending and receiving Christmas cards.
Sunday afternoon that was my holiday chore - time to write out the cards; YES, I still do it by hand. Address the envelopes, lick and seal them and put on the Christmas stamp. Thankfully we no longer have to lick stamps. I will mail them on Tuesday from the office unless on Monday I am near a post office.
The only card I have received so far is from my paper delivery person; I know that amongst my friends I usually get them out the earliest.
I still believe in the written card and I hope that everyone I send one to enjoys it too.
I was not pleased with the coquito that I made on Friday night - it was too strong and there was no way to temper it. It also took a long time to make and I have several cuts on my hand from dealing with the coconut.
I looked up Puerto Rican coquito on Google and found several recipes - none of which required fresh grated coconut, each which could be put in a blender and that used white rum instead of the 151 proof dark rum. Time to try these other recipes. I chose one and gave it a try - what a DIFFERENCE!!! Que Bueno!
This was a lot easier and even warm tasted good - imagine when it had been properly chilled? In this batch I kept out the egg yolks; but, I might try it in the next batch - I will have to make it another two or three times during the holiday season.
I don't think I will be cooking from my Puerto Rican cookbook; but, instead will look up the recipes I need for Christmas dinner on Google!!
Somehow I was convinced by my nephew to make Puerto Rican eggnog this year, we call it coquito.
I had a recipe from my Puerto Rican cookbook and I tried it last night - it is a long process as you need to take two ripe coconuts, remove the liquid, take out the meat, grate it and then make a milk out of it. I eventually realized that if I didn't protect my hand I would eventually have several cuts - I put my oven mitten on and things went a little easier. The hardest part was removing the coconut meat - per the recipe I put the coconut in the oven at a low temperature. As I was grating the coconut it dawned on me that my aunt used to place the coconut on the stove burners to loosen the meat.
Well I made the coquito according to the instructions and it is STRONG!!! The recipe asked for 3 cups of 151 proof dark rum - to make it a little more tolerable I emptied all of the evaporated milk and another can of condensed milk, more cinnamon and some vanilla. At this point it was not bad - but I really won't know until it has chilled.
I will look for other recipes and continue trying to make it - it isn't difficult just time consuming and you have to find the right recipe.
I have never had to worry about the Christmas stockings; but, this year since Christmas will be celebrated differently I had to think about it.
First I bought everyone a stocking, had their name embroidered on it and then a stocking holder. When I put them up on Friday I didn't think anything more of it. Then last night it hit me - I didn't have anything to put in everyone's stocking.
I managed to go out and purchase stocking items for everyone - one problem, what I purchased for Callum's makes the stocking heavy and it falls. I removed a few items for now and will put them in on Christmas Eve and rest the stocking on the floor.
I am sure that Ryan may be a little disappointed as it will not be full of candy - it will only have his Godiva chocolate Christmas Santa - that should be enough.
I hope that everyone likes their items - I did purchase it with them in mind.
The Metro North railroad line I take to work is the Hudson, the line where there was a major accident with deaths and casualties on Sunday morning.
I go into the city for work each Wednesday and take the train in - on Tuesday I was pondering what I would do? Drive to Manhattan, drive to Valhalla, park at Kensico Dam and take the train from there or drive down to the Bronx, park the car and take the subway in.
On Tuesday evening one of the dispatchers from Metro North texted me that the Hudson line was operational again and that I could take the train in the morning just realizing there might be a 15 to 20 minute delay. That was great - I would just take the earlier train (6:44 vs. the 7:05).
I was very surprised the train arrived on time at Peekskill and pulled into Grand Central on time. Going home there were no issues and the train again left Grand Central on time and arrived in Peekskill on time.
My condolences go to the families who lost a loved one on Sunday, to the individuals who were hurt and to the engineer who "nodded off". My hat is off to Metro North in getting the track operational so that commuters were only inconvenienced for 2 days.
Yesterday as I went to drive home from work I put my radio on SiriusXM's Holly Channel and the first song I heard was, The Christmas Shoes.
I immediately began to cry as I was singing along to the song. This is not only a song, but a book; and, a movie which featured Rob Lowe. It is the story of a little boy who wants to buy his mother these pretty shoes but doesn't have enough money and the man who is at the store watching this and helps him.
Okay you say - so what? The kicker is that the little boy's Mother is dying and per his father she doesn't have much time left before Jesus comes to take her. Why does it get to me? Well my Mom died after the holidays and I can remember us trying to make them always happy, special and memorable because we knew we didn't have much time left with her.
There are certain songs that tug at our heartstrings and this is one of the ones that does that to me.
Today is one of the days I love most about my job. Today we will be at our Children's Hospital and through our technology they will speak to Santa.
Those children who can will go to their recreation room and via video conferencing will speak to Santa Claus and let him know what they would like for Christmas. For those children who are bedridden we will take in either the VSX cart or our iPad and let them speak to Santa that way.
Every child no matter what race or religion will receive a fleece blanket. While those of us who support the program will go home with joy and gratefulness in our hearts.
One of our charities at work during this time of year is "Adopt a Family" - each year our department adopts two families.
Yesterday I went to Kohl's and bought each child pajamas, clothes and a book. I also bought each of the mother's pajamas, slippers and some toiletries. I want them to open something on Christmas day and not just a gift card - I want them to know that someone thought about them and spent the time to pick out the clothes and think of what they might like.
It is unfortunate but Ryan who will be 12 in January no longer believes in Santa Claus although he realizes there was a St. Nicholas who brought gifts to children. I tried to explain to him that Santa comes in many shapes and sizes and that for these women and their children I am Santa Claus. Santa does not let you see him, doesn't ask for recognition and just gives from his heart.
For these families - I ask nothing of them - no acknowledgement, just enjoyment for them at this time of year - that is the spirit of the season.
On Friday I put up the lights - they go inside in three places, the French doors in the kitchen, the dining room window and the bay window in the living room.
The kitchen is the hardest to do - but, finally done and there is a timer on each of the lights. It means getting on the floor in some uncomfortable positions to make sure the correct time is on it and then to set the on/off for the timer.
Well, somehow I didn't time the ones in the living room correctly as when I came down in the morning the Christmas lights were still on. Ryan helped by looking to see what I had programmed into the timer. I then went down and re-set it and the lights wouldn't go off - didn't matter what I did they stayed on. I just gave up and we left for the bookstore - when we got back they were off.
I waited to see if they would go on at 4:40PM as programmed - no, because I had programmed 4:40AM; I quickly fixed it and I think that it is now set correctly.
There is nothing like sitting in the living room and seeing each of the windows turn on - so magical.
