Tis the season...

December 7th - December 13th

BEST

Tis the season to have crazy fun at your neighbor's holiday party while G'ma and Pop babysit the Babyhead and mommas and dadas eat, drink and sing their hearts out.  Sing? Oh yes...I said sing.  As co-planner with Fabulous Neighbor Laura for their holiday party on Saturday night I suggested some tasty treats we could make and activities for the guest to take part in if they felt compelled to do so. One of these activities was Karaoke Caroling...hook up the mic and let the fa la, la, la, la's loose. I knew it would be a big hit.

What I didn't expect was that it would be a big hit with me! To the point where I didn't let go of the mic for several hours and by the next morning I had practically lost my voice.  What I also didn't expect was that the karaoke wasn't just your average night of tipsy singing...this was a competition!  The culprit is called "Lipz" on Xbox, where it pits singer vs. singer.  Game on my friends!  

After way too many holiday cocktails I can't tell you what song it was, but I won a round and was crowned a "Hit Maker" by my new friend the Xbox.  This is the title they give you if you score over a cool 3 million points during your song.  Those who were there will remember it for the rest of their lives...or maybe not because they might have had as many holiday cocktails as I did.

WORST

Tis the season to be the busiest momma ever! This year is not just about present shopping, tree decorating, and card writing...it is all about planning a trip and wedding for 20 people in Costa Rica!  The TO DO lists are endless and for every item I cross off a different item is added. Oh and did I mention we are also planning another event for even more people here in LA to celebrate the Costa Rica wedding? Yes that too...so trying to be a good little party planner I decided to send out Save The Dates just to give our party people the heads up (and to buy myself a little more time!)

But here is what happens when you try to do a million things at one time...you make a mistake.  And sometimes I forget that I am human and therefore am prone to making mistakes so when they happen it is meltdown time.  I ordered the Save the Dates custom made online awhile ago and then spent the last month addressing, stamping, and labeling them in order to send them out before we left on our trip.  As I was putting the last few stamps on I noticed that there was a misspelled word on our custom printed message.  

Now I have never claimed to be the world's best speller. In fact I am the werst. But I couldn't believe that I hadn't caught my typo before I confirmed my order and now I have 150 Save the Dates that I am sending to all our friends and family that shows what a harrible speller I am.  Meltdown time commencing.  It took me three days to get over the blow. I decided to still send them out to a few people who would probably think the typo was funny.  As I started to go through them...a light from above beamed down on me and angelic voices sang a harmonious chord...there was only 40 Save the Dates with the misspelling on them!!! The rest were perfect.  I had know idea how it happened, but I didn't care...it was a holiday-way-too-busy-for-her-own-good-humbling miracle!

Ya win some and lose some

November 23rd- November 29th 

Happy Thanksgiving

BEST 

"I'll make the turkey."  As soon as I said it I instantly became nervous.  Why did I say that? I have never cooked a turkey before in my life and as a witness to the many experiences the other women in my family have had with cooking the turkey on Thanksgiving...I knew I was in over my head.  There is so much pressure being the Turkey cooker.  It is the star of the show and if you mess it up, people will remember, oh yes they remember.  Then you become the bad Turkey cooker.

Enter stage right "Google search: How to cook a turkey."  Which also lead to "How to thaw a turkey" and "How to brine a turkey." After gaining some courage through my conversations with our friend Melissa, who's family was attending our T-Day dinner, I went to the store to buy the frozen bird. The smallest one they had was 15 lbs, way more than what we needed but it was go time.

 

I brought the sucker home and had to clear out the fridge so I could wedge it in there to thaw.  I was pretty nervous about the thawing process because most of the research online mentioned that improper thawing could basically breed bacteria and give all your turkey eating guests salmonella.  The next morning my little bird felt nice and soft, but I knew some of those 15 lbs were still probably a little icy.  So into a sink full of water it went to finish off the thawing.  

6 hours till dinner it was time to step it up. Feeling very fancy pants I began to brine my turkey.  Which is really just a culinary term for soaking the bird in salt, herbs, lemon, orange, onion and water. After a nice long soak and the preheated oven ready to go, the turkey found a new home in a cozy little roasting pan.  So far, so good...could this be too easy? I guess the hardest part it the actual cooking part so I shouldn't get too confident.  Into the oven you go my little turkey!

Every hour I opened up the oven and gave little turkey a rinse in our delicious brine water.  Ding! Four and half hours later it was time to whip out the thermometer and check the temperature inside to make sure we cooked off all those nasty little dinner ruining bacteria.  I have to say the outside looked picture perfect. Golden brown and juicy. If I had to pose for Norman Rockwell I could have.  And when the thermometer showed we had a perfect internal temperature I was on my way to a home run.  Of course the ultimate test is how does my first little turkey taste?  I can proudly say...just as good as it looked. I thought about snapping a picture to capture the moment...and as I write this I wish I would have, but I didn't.  Except the one I have locked away in my mind along with the confidence that...yes I can cook a turkey.

Worst

We are just about to be launched into the craziest shopping time of the year.  Consumers are attacked from all directions by businesses competing for their money. Sales, discounts, and coupons oh my!  One of the newest tactics for these businesses is rewards programs.  Stores offer you "reward points" for every dollar you spend with them.  Which helps us consumers rationalize spending more money because we just get more points and therefore more rewards.  

Babies R Us is now a staple in my life...one stop shopping for all the Babyhead supplies we need to stock up on.  So when BRU began a rewards program not too long ago I signed up hoping to get a little something back for my continual bulk purchases of diapers and formula. So the day finally arrived when the magical envelope came in the mail from BRU with all my fabulous "rewards."  Here is what I received:

-Earn $5 for every $150 spent from Dec 12th to Dec 25th...5 bucks for every 150? That doesn't even cover the tax, or the amount of gas it would cost me to drive out there and spend $150.

-Buy 9 Value boxes of Pampers and get the 10th free...mind you Value boxes have like 100 diapers in them and already cost around $45.  So why would I spend 400 bucks on diapers just to save 45? And where on earth would I store 1,000 diapers?

-Member shopping Night on Dec 10th 8 pm -11 pm save 20% on one item but excludes diapers and formula... I guess this would be worth it if you were buying a big ticket item like a stroller or car seat, but the last thing I want to do between 8pm and 11 pm is be at BRU with crowds of bargain shopping parents.  You couldn't give your "Members" just a whole day? Just 3 hours...really?

Be wary my friends.  Even though these rewards programs are free... the cost of aggravation from reading through your "rewards points" and asking why these businesses think we are all a big bunch of suckers...comes at a high price.