Baby It's Cold Outside

Oh hello again. Sorry I went missing for a week, but finals are my extreme enemy! Luckily I don't have to worry about school again until January 25th! Gotta love UMass' ridiculous break schedule. And on that note, let's proceed to tonight's entry...

Twas the week before Christmas and all through the city, there's at whole foot of snow but at least it looks pretty. Unfortunately, it's also ruined a pair of Uggs due to all my last minute holiday shopping and various parties. I ask for a "white Christmas" every year, and it looks like this year I've gotten my wish. But as nice as it all looks (especially now that I'm home in the suburbs where the snow stays white) it really isn't the weather that makes it feel like the holidays.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and being Italian, this is far more important than Christmas Day itself. Every year I count the days until I can eat seven fish dishes and entirely too many desserts. When I was about twelve my grandmother also got me and all of my younger cousins trashed by giving us too much wine. We're slightly older and slightly more responsible these days, but these crazy traditions are honestly my favorite part of the year. I spent all day today whipping up literally eleven different cookie batters and I can't wait to bake them tomorrow!!

It makes me so sad that in the past few years my family spread out a bit across the country and it's tough to see traditions change - but all of the important things are still there. We've come a long way from my childhood where Nona ran the kitchen and tried to serve us dishes like eel. Not a single one of us still believes in Santa and we don't go entirely overboard with our swap gifts.

But some things don't change. I will still probably gain a good ten pounds over dinner tomorrow, my little cousins are going to fight for mine and my sister's attention all night, the kids are going to love their presents, and undoubtedly Annie and I will convince our parents that it's a good idea to open about fifty percent of our gifts that night.

And then some things do change. Inevitably I will drunkenly text all of my friends to wish them a happy holiday and Annie wants to organize a family beer pong tournament. There will only be about ten people at dinner, not the usual fifty plus that I remember, but they're a very important ten people and there's no one I'd rather spend the holidays with.

I love the uniqueness of my family, our crazy get togethers, our delicious food, and our ridiculous conversations and I love how the holidays bring all of these things together. I hope that everyone else has something so special to look forward to and that Santa is good to you all.

Getting Ready for the Holidays

It's the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Tuesday marks the start of December, and my DVR is set to record about ten different holiday movies and specials in the coming week. There's no doubt about it, the holidays are here and let me tell you, I am ready.

For the last week or so, my iPod has continuously looped a playlist consisting only of the three Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas albums, Josh Groban's holiday CD, and that annoying Mariah Carrey version of "All I Want for Christmas Is You." I was no sooner done eating turkey and apple pie on Thursday when I just had to watch Love Actually on TV and today I went to see my little cousin dance as Fritz in Boston Ballet's The Nutcracker.

Growing up we had the best holiday traditions. We went to my aunt and uncle's house in NH in early December to select the perfect tree from their Christmas tree farm. On Christmas Eve the whole family would gather at my grandparents' house for seven courses of seafood and presents. On Christmas itself, my granny would make a pot roast and spoil us silly with presents.

But with time, traditions have changed. My parents don't go crazy with decorating now that my sister and I have moved out and my roommates think I'm crazy for wanting to buy a real tree (which I expect them to help set up in our third floor walk-up). We still have Christmas Eve dinner with all that fish, but people have moved and there are fewer of us. My grandmother has cut back to a sensible amount of gifts but the pot roast is still amazing.

And despite these changes, I am still looking forward to the holidays as much as ever. My daily gingerbread soy lattes and never-ending lists of people to send cards to really seem to help.

Meanwhile, this year I find myself getting ready for the holidays at work as well. At CSN I am busy making sure that all of the holiday requests are in and that we're finding coverage for them. This coming Monday is the infamous "Cyber Monday," the e-commerce equivalent of Black Friday. At Second Time Around we had a post-Thanksgiving sale all weekend and we're encouraging people to stop in for gifts as well as fabulous outfits for holiday parties.

Oddly enough, I think that Twitter is the source of much of my early holiday cheer, both work-wise and personal-wise. Using Twitter to advertise holiday sales and seeing the holidays under trending topics is helping me realize that I am not the only nutcase out there who starts celebrating over a month early!