Cookies!

My second year in Boston has been about me trying to make Boston feel like home. This season I've brought my family traditions to Boston. First with my advent calendar and now with holiday cookies. Tonight I made one of the cookie recipes my mom has always made for Christmas. We have the sourdough sugar cookies, candy cane cookies and chocolate chip cookies. Last year I missed out on this tradition since I flew home on Christmas Eve, so this year I decided to make all 3 cookies here in Boston. Tonight was the sourdough sugar cookie cutouts. I made a little over 7 dozen cookies tonight. I will be taking some to work and keep some here for my holiday party. I didn't get a chance to make the candy cane cookies tonight, so that will be my project for tomorrow night. And one of the best parts about making these cutout cookies all by myself, the fact that I can eat all the dough I want without having my youngest sister yelling at me and kicking me out of the kitchen! HA! Of course, now that I have all these cookies baked, I am running out of containers to put them in, and I can't eat any because I am full from all the dough I ate. Oh well, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Holiday Partied- Out

I am exhausted and sore. I got in late last night from my group's holiday party and did not want to get out of bed. When I did get out of bed, I had a hard time walking because I was super sore. I had every intention on going to the gym to use the cardio machine, but because my boss was out today, I was running the show and didn't really get a lunch break. We also had work's holiday party, so I didn't leave work until after 6. The morning flew by, I didn't get anything completed but I was busy doing tons of things that my boss usually handles. Work's holiday party was in the cafe and it was so nice mingling with people I don't normally have a chance to talk to, looks like I have some new girlfriends to go out to lunch with! I had a few drinks, mixing beer and wine (photo of one of the bars). I do have one thing to say, Sam Adams Winter Lager tastes like Oktoberfest to me, so I'm going to say that almost all the Sam beers (minus the pumpkin and other unique beers) taste the same. So no gym today, but I haven't really had an off day since last Monday, so my body definitely needed a day to recover. I feel like this week is going to fly! So much to do so little time to do it. So exhausted, hoping to sleep like a baby and feel well rested for tomorrow.

Winner!

What an amazing weekend I had. Today was our first game of the bowling season and I had an AMAZING game! Not only did I beat my personal best score, I got 4 strikes in a row and carried the team to our first WIN! 184 is what I bowled and was on fire! Hopefully I can continue to kick ass each Sunday. It has been raining all day and warm (in the 50s) which made it tough getting to the meetup group's holiday party in town. I wore my white dress with sequins and my silver glittery heels. Had a couple of cocktails and danced until I became sore (12 hours at the gym plus over 3 hours of dancing this weekend, my body is aching). My friend Aly and I won biggest sports fans in the group, which was awesome. Of course we had the Pats game on earlier and we were watching the game at the party. In the group, there's over 65 of us, and the biggest sports fans are girls...awesome! I remember this time last year not knowing too many people and cannot believe that a year has blown by and I've made so many great friends. I'm going to sleep well tonight, it's pouring out and need a good night's sleep cuz it's going to be a crazy busy week.

The Slutcracker

The nice thing about living in the city is the unique things one can do. Like tonight 10 of us (organized by yours truly) went to see The Slutcracker in Somerville. It's a burlesque version of the Nutcracker. I sported a scarf as a top, which was to be somewhat slutty. It's one like I saw at an airport that said you could wear it 6 ways, so I decided to give my scarf a try...yeah, wont do it again. The Somerville theater sells wine and beer which is awesome and they also have a Museum of Bad Art down in the basement, free with admission. There were some interesting pieces of bad art. The show was good, very entertaining and was surprised by the variety of people that came to the show (quite a lot of guys and older people- older as in 40+), the show itself had ladies of all sizes too. Afterwards, 4 of us made our way off the beaten path to Sagra for an appetizer and drinks. It was definietly a "Lorien" bar. Somewhat upscale, with sports on TVs. I fell in love when the DJ started playing a Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz song from the mid nineties "Deja Vu- Uptown Baby". Suzanna wanted to dance but I protested because no one was dancing, but she won and we danced. Us white girls dancing on an empty dance floor, it was like we owned the place. Now I wore that scarf as a top in honor of Slutcracker, so I had a problem keeping it up dancing and that sucker made me hotter than normal, but the hip hop music was the best I've heard in Boston and one of the guys did say he liked my top (now was it b/c it was fuzzy or made my boobs look bigger? I will never know). Slowly some F.I.N.E. brothas started dancing on the dance floor with us, man this place was crawling with hot guys who outnumbered the ladies (shocking in Boston) and the place wasn't crowded which made it better. Now, I don't understand why certain men feel the need to wear shades in a club, but man, if I wasn't wearing that damn scarf as a top, I would have stayed longer b/c man oh man, it was like I died and went to heaven with all these hip hop loving guys dressed so nice and smelling so good! We will definitely have to go back, dressed better so I'm not so hot and losing my top. This has been one of the funnest nights out I've had in months! And welcomed the mid 30° weather outside the place, I walked for a few minutes in my tube top scarf before putting my coat on to cool myself down from all that dancing.

Gym

I started an intense workout routine this week. I clocked 12 hours at the gym these past 5 days. From spin, to weights; from dancing to cardio and yoga. I tried a 1.5 hour yoga class and disliked the yoga teacher. She not only gave me a hard time about me wearing socks (my feet sweat and if I don’t wear socks I slip and can’t hold the poses) and then the poses had to be done her way, so when modifying she would come over and try to get me to do it her way which I explained to her I can’t do certain poses b/c of an injury. Now I will not take that class again and will just continue doing my Baron Baptiste DVD which is the exact same routine this yoga nazi I had today uses- only Baptiste gives modification and makes us listen to our body and what it says in the day’s practice what we can and cannot do. ALSO tonight this new gay guy in my Zumba class was totally pissing me off. OMG, I just wanted to punch him! He was all up in my space even hit me at one point (by accident) b/c he was hogging up the entire middle space of the room Instead of staying in his own little spot. GRRR. Not to mention his short shorts he wore – ugh, I’m being mean but I am hoping he doesn’t come back b/c I don’t know if I can put up with him again. Anyway, I’m exhausted but feel great.

Broken Coaster

Tonight was game night. I had 4 friends over and cooked homemade mac n cheese which I kind of ran out of cheese making it, we still ate it but wasn't as cheesy as I normally make it. I also made homemade buttermilk biscuits. Cocktails, wine, beer were served and we had sweet potatoes, sauteed kale and the guys brought dessert from the bakery down the street. I love having friends over, it's fun, it's cheap and I love the company. We watched a bit of the old school claymation Christmas movies (like Rudolph) before we started playing one of my new games "The Game of Things". There's a topic like "Things that make you cry" or "Something Naught" and everyone writes down a response, gives it to the reader, who reads them out loud and the person to the left guesses who wrote which response. We had a blast. We also played Catchphrase but it's difficult when there's an odd number. Chris broke one of my glass photo coasters which started the night off and made it's way into some of the answers in the "Things" game, as did a friend who wasn't even at Game Night. Before we knew it, it was 10:30 and I sent my friends on their way in the 20° weather (thankfully the car drivers gave the T riders a ride home tonight! Thanks boys!). Good food, good drinks, good company, great friends. I'm so glad I started having monthly Game Nights.

Potato Latkes

I remember a store my mom used to take us to to buy grocery's up on the hill near O'side High. I remember parking in that parking lot after the store closed down on the 4th of July because it was free and close to the beach. The Canned Food Store I think it was called. Anyway, I'm not Jewish but I am German so I don't think it's strange when I say I used to love eating these potato pancakes (or hash browns as I called them when I was a kid b/c they look like larger versions of McDonald's hash browns). They are a part of a traditional cuisine for most of Europe (at least Eastern Europe- including German, Austria and Switzerland). So today, when I walked to the store in below freezing weather, I noticed these potato latkes on sale (probably b/c it's Hanukkah) so I bought 2 of them since they were BoGo. Man, I don't remember seeing these in the store since I was a kid, so I'm pretty excited. They look nothing like the Jewish potato latkes I attempted to make one year and I just today put two and two together...you say potato latkes, I say hash browns, but anyway go ahead... say "oy vey". I love breakfast so I know I will eat them, I just hope they are as yummy as I remember b/c it has been decades since I last had me some. The store was also a place I nearly panicked b/c I lost my brand new extra toasty gloves...but thankfully some guys saw them and I was able to get them back. I would have been mad if I lost them since I just bought them, but crisis averted.