Author: Average Jane

Hey there! How was your holiday?

Mine was quite nice. Everyone seemed to love the gifts they received. I couldn’t say anything before in case they read this, but I was especially excited about getting my sister an iPod Shuffle (one of the adorable new ones that clips on) and my husband a Roomba for the studio. (See Tomato Nation for a very funny article about the Roomba.)

On Sunday, I cooked pretty much all day. I made dinner rolls, an ice cream cake roll, pomegranate salsa and Big Soft Ginger Cookies. Aside from that, the only other thing I did all day was drive from grocery store to grocery store trying to find some fresh cranberries.

I was supposed to get to my sister’s house on Christmas morning around 7 a.m. to help her make stuffing (I was bringing the recipe and the celery) and get the turkey into the oven. Unfortunately, the Keeper of the Alarm Clock, my husband, forgot his promise to wake me at 6. I woke up at 7:30 and ended up having to talk my sister through celery-less stuffing preparation over the phone.

In my frantic race to load the Jeep with gifts, a card table and chairs, and all the food I’d prepared the day before, I overlooked the cake roll in the freezer. That’s right, I forgot the Christmas dessert. According to my sister, I’d also promised to make a pumpkin cheesecake, but that slipped my mind long before everything else and I never even settled on a recipe or bought the ingredients.

Continuing with the theme of forgetfulness, I realized about an hour after dinner that I’d never made the cranberry sauce. After all those trips to the store specifically to get cranberries… With the amount of coffee I drank that day, you’d think I’d have been more alert, but you’d be wrong.

Still, those were minor quibbles in the grand scheme of things. We all had a good time, the food we did have was delightful, and the gifts were thoughtful and generous.

The only damper on the day the news that James Brown had died. My husband played drums in James’ backup band, James Brown’s Famous Flames, back in the 1980s. When I saw how sad he looked upon hearing the news, I wished I’d waited until later to tell him.

I don’t go back to work until next Tuesday, so I’m going to settle down with the many books and DVDs I received as gifts and drink in entertainment until looming housework intrudes upon my conscience. Are you working this week or are you off? If you’re off work, what are you doing to keep busy?

For the last photo in this week’s series, we’ve jumped to the 1980s. I wore my hair like this for a long, long time and it never occurred to me except in retrospect that it was a mullet. Ah well, live and learn.

Yesterday I finished the last of my gift shopping, so I’ll be ready for all of my holiday celebrations as soon as I make one last trip to the grocery store. My cooking assignments for Christmas day: chocolate cake roll with peppermint ice cream filling, pomegranate/mandarin orange salsa, dinner rolls and maybe cranberry sauce.

You might have noticed that I recently moved all my recipes to the upper right navigation area. Next year (maybe as early as next week if I’m feeling really motivated), I’m going to create another blog devoted entirely to recipes and cooking. It will be part of this same account, but with a different look and feel and plenty of photos.

The focus will be largely on recipes collected by my grandmother that encompass five generations of my family, but I’ll also share recipes that I’ve created or gotten from friends.

Have a delightful holiday, and to quote Ze Frank from yesterday’s episode of "the show," "If you get overwhelmed by family or overwhelmed because you’re celebrating by yourself this year, just breathe…it’ll all be back to normal soon enough."

I’m starting my series of old Christmas photos with one that was taken long before I was born. This is my uncle and mother visiting Santa sometime in the late ’40s or early ’50s. My uncle looks like he’s putting in his bid for a Red Ryder BB Gun.

I didn’t find a lot of black and white holiday photos in my collection, even though I ended up with the lion’s share of the family photos when my mother and grandmother passed away.

I’m going to look through my old scrapbooks and baby book to see what I else can come up with for later this week. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I can dig up a photo of me at age seven or eight dressed as an elf.

It’s 7:33 a.m. and I’m sitting in my home office in my pajamas surfing my Bloglines feeds and listening to iTunes in shuffle mode (now playing: "Dream Warriors" by Dokken). If it weren’t for my oil change appointment at 8:45, I wouldn’t have to get dressed until midday.

Today I’m taking my last full vacation day of the year. As much as I’d like to take it easy, I have a bazillion things on my schedule, including the aforementioned oil change which will inevitably take far longer than I’d like, lunch with a friend, another visit to the vet for my cat, housecleaning, and holiday decorating.

My niece is spending the night tonight and staying all day tomorrow so we can bake cookies and go Christmas shopping. Our guest room is still packed to the metaphorical rafters with drums, tubs of office junk, large empty boxes, and miscellaneous music gear, so she’s going to have to sleep in my dressing room. Fortunately, six-year-olds are small.

I’m ridiculously close to being finished with my holiday shopping. I really need to get the tree up and wrap everything before I forget where I put some of my purchases. There are a few online orders that probably won’t make it here in time, but I’m sure the recipients won’t mind.

Next week: holiday photos from my youth (assuming I can find the right USB cable for my scanner).

Have a great weekend!