December 2008

It has been a busy month for sure. Since December 1, I have been cooking non-stop. Aside from my daily dinners, I have made 8 trays of spinach pies, 2 plates of grapeleaves, fusilli with Bolognese, penne vodka, chicken francese, sausage with broccoli rabe, and a roast beef each for 20 people. That does not include Christmas dinner which was a stuffed turkey, lasagna, more spinach pies, more grapeleaves and a carrot cake for Thomas’ birthday which happens to fall on Christmas Eve. Today is Sunday after the door buster sales (which I never got to) and after a progressive dinner where I was the appetizer house (yes, more spinach pies and grapeleaves) I finished making dinner for my brother and his wife who were visiting from Minnesota. They are leaving tomorrow morning and as our last meal together, I made a roast lamb (his favorite) and lemon risotto. I’m tired and as I reflect back on all this, I have to say, I had a full month. The Friday before Christmas was my party for the football parents which was postponed when our winter storm hit. We had it Saturday with very little loss. The white elephant gift exchanges are the best and very funny. Here are some of the classy gifts: Then another 4 inches of snow came again on Sunday. I usually use a picture of some New York scene for my Christmas card because most of the time, I can never get the entire family together to get a Christmas family photo. But the snow kept everyone home. So I dragged them all out in front of the house and eureka, I got a good one: Although I didn’t get to send them out until Christmas Eve, Armenian’s celebrate Christmas on January 6 so I was well within time. My year can be summed up with the good feelings of this month and more. Thomas’ team finishing their football season as winners with him knowing he was a big part of that win. Anthony graduated Fordham and got a great job. Christine continues to work hard and started college at night. Tony and I will celebrate New Year’s Eve by going to dinner with close friends at a neighborhood restaurant. We have celebrated the eve there for the last 3 years. The restaurant has good food, music and most of all, I will not cook. I may not cook for a month (me, yeah right). Regardless, I am looking forward to being off work this coming week to sort pictures and organize my home and, despite economic turmoil, I think I had a very good year. So Happy New Year my friends and may the coming time be filled with magic for all. Love, Ginny

December

It has been a busy time. It always is in December. My weekends are packed with shopping, cooking and football. My son is done with his high school football season. He is leaving a winner. The school's record is 52 wins in a row, no losses. It is awesome but over. Now, I am now watching the pros. It isn't as much fun, but I need something. In two weeks, it will be Christmas. I should be writing Christmas cards and finishing my shopping list. But I am not. I've decided I want to have a Holiday Party for the senior parents and players of the football team next Friday. The parents alone will be about 26 people and of course, the kids will be another 13. I must be crazy. Nevertheless, I wanted to do this maybe as a last hurrah to our life with high school football. Maybe because I haven't had a party this big during the Holidays for about 8 years. In any event, I'm doing it. But last night, I had a dream. The parents and players came over and I ran out of food. I woke up and immediately started cooking and cooked for the next 8 hours. My menu consists of penna with vodka sauce, chicken francaise, sausage with broccoli rabe, rigatoni with bolognese, spinach pies and grapeleaves. At one point of my life, when people would ask if they could bring something, I would say no, just come. Not any more. I now take anything I can get so I am getting some donations of appetizers and dessert. I also decided to add a roast beef to the menu - just in case. To top off the evening we are doing the infamous white elephant grab bag. This is where people bring a wrapped gift of something they have around the house that they no longer want. It does works out to be a fun exchange of gawdy, useless stuff. So there it is, my December. I don't know why but if I am not busy, I find ways to make myself busy. It is who I am. Hopefully, I won't make my husband nuts during the week. Oh, and if anyone doesn't have any where to go on Christmas, you are welcome at my house, really.