Let me start this post by saying I love Christmas.  I love the traditions that are created around holidays - specifically Christmas.  When I was a kid we packed in a full day of family - having my father's parents over in the morning, opening gifts and having lunch together then in the afternoon we'd head to the farm to be with my mother's side of the family.  As I have gotten older, those traditions have changed - some family members don't make it back because they are with the "other side of the family," the next generation becomes host and that changes venues and menus, some grow ill and some even pass away.  Change is inevitable.  Maya Angelou said "life is a gift, and I try to respond with grace and courtesy."  It's quite fitting for where I am in life right now.  So many of my traditions have changed, making my 30's a little bit unstable.  I could not be more thankful for the 30+ years of family filled festivities, but I see change coming to my future.

30 days of gratitude :: Day 29 & 30 :: light & self portrait ... OK, so I'm cheating a tiny little bit on the challenge here.  I don't feel bad since most everyone bailed on me, but I have to say that some of the subjects on this one kind of sucked.  Why do I want to photograph "nightmare" for a gratitude challenge?   You know?  So, anyhoo... I decided to combine the last two items into today's photo and wrap this challenge up!  I got my hair done today (was way overdue for a cut & color) and came straight home to take selfies for my first every holiday photo card.  I figure why not, right?  So I'm single.  Why can't I send a photo of myself to my friends and family?  I have stayed away from this in years past, but people seem to enjoy my self portraits so what the heck ... I did it.  And I had to expedite shipping since I realized today that Christmas is only two weeks away!  OMG!

These are my kids ... Lucy simply loves laying in the lit garland, likely because it's warm.  And Phoebe, she loves sleeping under the down throw and emerges now and then to check out the scene.  What funny kitties I have.  I really don't know what I would do without a pet in my life... 

Since I moved to Chicago, some fifteen years ago now, I've heard all about this tradition of having a meal beside the big Christmas Tree at the Walnut Room. I thought it would be a super fun thing to do with Holly & Bella, so we were up early to get all dolled up and head for Macy's. We arrived about 9:15am and were told we could get the 10am seating. We were seated just slightly before 11 and sadly had just missed the breakfast buffet, which we had sold to Bella. Fortunately I was able to talk the manager into letting us slip in at the end - with a little help from Bella's tears. Wheew disaster averted! The food was good and they had a couple of women (fairies) walking around sprinkling fairy dust (glitter) and granting wishes. It was all very cute and Bella had a great day.

After lunch we spent a little wandering thru the store, picking up Christmas presents, Frango mints, fuzzy hats and ornaments to remember the day. Good times in the city girls!!

Oh was it a rough day for the 10 on 10 challenge... 2 hr conference call smack in the middle of the day that totally threw me off. Ah well, what can a girl do? Other than that it's been an action packed day filled with friends and holiday cheer! I thought for this month's 10 I'd go with a 10 things I like about the holidays theme ... not really able to execute how I'd have liked to, you'll get the idea. So here goes...

7am : Twinkle lights. I still like the non-energy efficient kind because the color is warm and not scary LED blue. I love waking up and turning on the tree, if even only for a short time. I love sitting on the couch watching movies with only the tree lights on at night. I love driving through neighborhoods and seeing trees in windows or down Michigan Avenue all lit up.

8am : Beautifully wrapped presents. OK, I know the bows are going to get smushed during shipping and that the recipients are just going to rip the paper off, but I like to take the time to wrap and tie real bows. It's the designer in me, but packaging is part of the experience!

9am : Getting to see good friends! This is my friend Scott who lives in Sweden. I was happy to provide a comfy couch for him to crash on during his layover in Chicago. So much better than a cot at O'Hare don't ya think? And he snuck in a little Christmas shopping too!

10am : Christmas cards. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I still like giving and receiving Christmas cards. We have become so dependent on technology and it's just such an impersonal way to communicate. Now don't get me wrong - I'm all over social media, but when it comes to the holidays, there's simply nothing like a handwritten greeting. Mine just arrived today, so that will be my task over the next few days. Sadly, I have only received TWO as of the 10th ... I'm guessing I will get less and less as they years go on.

11am : Aluminum Christmas trees. A few years back I was obsessed with aluminum trees and my Dad was able to find me this super cute little 4 footer that is a true antique. I love it and decided to stick with a silver theme in the office - I think vintage aluminum trees fit perfect in a design office! I have since collected some other silver trees to add to the collection, but this one is the real deal, all I need is the spinning light!

12pm : Missed this hour due to that looooooooong conference call. Even pushed our office lunch back. I suppose I could have taken a photo of the phone or something, but B O R I N G! 1pm : Comfort food. Oh how I am a sucker for it. Turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, buttered noodles, pie, cake ... oh I could go on and on! There's just something about the smell that just wraps itself around you and says welcome. I went for a little comfort food at Noodles and Co. today.

2pm : Chestnuts roasting on an open fire ... well I have to admit I'm not actually a fan of chestnuts, but I love the song about them roasting. Somehow I guess it doesn't count, but they were giving away free roasted chestnuts today. How nice was that? So yes, back to music ... I love holiday music! I was recently talking with my co-worker from Brazil who was telling me about some of their traditions and I was shocked to hear they don't really have holiday music. It's such an American Staple!! I thought for sure they would have remade a bunch of songs in Portuguese like they have in so many other languages ... can you imagine Christmas without Rudolph or a little O Come All Ye Faithful??

3pm : Holiday decor. I was in Vegas earlier this week and could not believe how little they have done to decorate the city. Coming from Kansas where they embraced the season - lighting ceremonies at the Plaza and Christmas programs at school - to Chicago who is completely over the top with holiday decor, I cannot imagine the holidays without lights, ornaments, music ... Nothing about being in Vegas felt like the holiday to me. I was actually happy to arrive at O'Hare and see all the decorations in the terminal and outside the airport, despite the 50 some degrees colder temps!

4pm : Watching the kiddos. This is the one time of year that I might actually like to have a kid - but only for a minute. *wink* So for tonight I am borrowing little Bella B. She and Holly are spending the night with me making chocolate truffles and watching Christmas movies. All snuggled on the couch with the kitties, ready for a big brunch tomorrow morning at the Walnut Room.

I remember LOVING Christmas when I was a kid. I loved decorating the house. I couldn't wait to see what Santa brought me on Christmas morning. I wanted to wake up at the crack of dawn to see what goodies were in store. I sang songs, made sugar cookies, spent the holiday with all of my family. It's hard to imagine the holidays without any one of the above things. I would consider myself fairly modern, but not at all when it comes to the holidays. Here's wising you a very Merry Christmas and a superb New Year!

Time just seems to escape these days ... not sure why, but I feel like I'm going a mile a minute. So ... since Thanksgiving I got the house all decorated for Christmas. I love twinkle lights and sitting with only those lights on. Somehow it just feels warm and comforting. I had to pay Target a visit to get some new stocking hangers since my old brass ones are just not shining up at all. I managed to find another reindeer themed version - super happy about that!

Spent last Wednesday walking the Mall of America. We have a big retail project coming up and are taking a few field trips to see how things were done in a couple of locations (Vegas this week). I was not at all impressed wit the mall. I am not sure what I was thinking it would be, but it is literally just a mall - granted one that has EVERY single mall store possible under one roof! I was surprised at how dated it looked, architecturally speaking. Once they complete the facelift, it will be fabulous - they had completed one wing as a test. So anyhoo ...

My damn cat, Phoebe, is having more issues. I came home from work and she was loving all up on my legs and then just proceeded to pee on the floor at my feet. WTF?? I yelled at her while trying desperately to soak it up.... She was locked in the bathroom for a good hour after that one. I have no idea why she did this and it appears to be the second spot that she's peed. Isn't the poop 'n run enough? Now this??? I WILL NOT have my house smell like cat pee. We will be paying the vet another visit to see if she has a kidney infection or anything or if this is just defiant behavior. Grrrrrrrr!

We had our first snow of the season Friday night into Saturday. Only about 4 inches or so. It actually looked really pretty and since it came mostly overnight and slow and steady was not really a problem traffic wise. Maybe we'll have a white Christmas! That would be superb!

I have purchased all but one of my Christmas gifts and have all but two wrapped and under the tree! I am so happy I got my stuff in gear earlier this year so that I could wrap and enjoy seeing presents under my tree. I will have to ship everything next Monday.

This coming week is madness!! I have been cleaning like crazy since I have friends coming to stay this week. In doing so I made some decisions to change a couple things up - a new shower curtain and rugs (yeah!) and finally decided on a table for my kitchen. It should ship out this week. It feels good to get this stuff going. I've lived in my condo for five years and have never had a table in my kitchen. I doubt I'll actually eat in there, but seems strange to not have one. I decided on a work table - restaurant style stainless table. I am so excited! I will have to find some kind of fun lighting and barstools to go with .. maybe I'll finally update the art there too. : )

More travels this week ...

One big step toward success is getting the yeast to actually activate!  Seems in the past my water temperature was either too hot or too cold, so now I've taken to the thermometer to make sure I'm in the 110-115 degree range and the tsp of sugar is a must.  I was delighted to see my yeast was super active - step 1 :: success!  Then onto mixing the ingredients together - no problems there. 

Now it's up to the dough rising Gods - leaving this guy behind to rise.  I had the oven on to heat up the kitchen, cranked up the heat and had the fireplace going to be sure it was warm enough (despite the fact that I was about to melt!!).  

To my delight, only a couple of ours later it had doubled and was even spilling out of the bowl - part of me was thinking uh oh is that a bad sign?  Should I have put it in a larger bowl?  eek!  

So here we are... 9AM this morning and I am ready to put this dough to work.  It was crazy sticky, so I slathered flour and pulled off a chunk to start rolling.  

Recipe says to roll out dough to be about 1/2" thick - but I believe this is one of the places where I went wrong in the past - so I went a little thinner at first - but they felt a little too thin, so adjusted a bit for the next batch. 

Grandma always put a tiny pat of butter inside the dough so that you get a little extra buttery goodness when you bite into the roll.  I am using Plugera (my new favorite butter). 

Fold those little circles over and line them up in a well greased (and oiled) pan to let them rise again.  At least two hours if not more.  Since we're not eating till 4, these should be perfectly puffy and ready to bake!  I will bake them when I get to the Robinson's (@350 for 10-15 till golden brown).

I had a couple of scraps left and wanted to see what would happen if I baked them up - would they taste right?  Would they even rise?  Ahhhh .. yes they will!  I think I can put 2010 down as a roll success!  I am extremely THANKFUL for fluffy rolls!!  Happy Thanksgiving to you!!