happy holidays

A couple weeks ago, Andrew asked me how I ranked the holidays, which got me thinking. How DO I rank my favorite holidays?

Well, here goes:

1. Christmas – obviously, number one.  I love everything about it, from Jesus’ birthday (we always do a cake!), to new pajamas and snow and presents and family and cookies and stockings and time off of work…I could go on forever.  My family growing up didn’t have many traditions, but we did have special things at Christmas.

2. Birthday – What other day of the year gets to be all about me?  Just kidding…  But since my mom’s birthday is the day after (and her mom’s is the day after!), I have happy memories of Memorial Day joint parties at either Bamma’s house or ours.  Lots of family, lots of love, lots of good weather.  Oh, and did I mention my love language is gifts?  So, really, ANY day I get something makes me feel special.

3. Valentine’s Day/Anniversary – a close third to Christmas and my birthday is Valentine’s Day, and just three days later is our “dating” anniversary, so we typically do something big for one or the other.  February is a good month for me.

4.  Thanksgiving – I almost ranked Thanksgiving higher, and maybe I should have, since it’s food-related and all, but the top three are pretty big.  I love Thanksgiving because of family, and all that once-a-year food goodness.  Bring on the pumpkin pie!  And let’s not forget it’s the start of “holiday season,” which gets me all sorts of jolly 🙂

5.  Anniversary – Our real anniversary is Dec. 17, which is hard because it tends to get lost in the chaos of Christmas. Our first anniversary we flew to Chicago one week before Christmas…it was terrible.  We’ve done all sorts of different things, from almost-nothing to trips to fancy dinners, and I have to admit, I’m not really happy with any of them.  I’d like to pick something–anything–and make it a ‘tradition’ (there I go with my traditions again).  Like, ‘every year we go to [insert restaurant here],’ or [every year we give each other [insert certain type of gift here].’  Guess we’ll keep working on that.  We do have seven months.

6. St. Patrick’s Day – I’ll admit, this one’s out of left field.  It’s green.  It’s all about beer. It’s huge here in Buffalo–who knew?–but neither of us are, indeed, big drinkers… All I know is that I have a pair of bright green running shorts and a special “I’m not Irish but kiss me anyway” t-shirt that I wear proudly every year.

…hmmm, what am I missing…?

7.  July 4th – …is always fun!  Bbqs and fireworks and good weather and food and family and friends.  And checkered tablecloths.  And decorations.

8. Memorial Day – this one is obvious: my birthday, as well as bbqs and family and friends being off of work.  At least they were growing up…in the military you get like EVERY holiday off, so I’m not used to Andrew working on days like Martin Luther King Jr. Day or President’s Day.  I was so spoiled. But then again, it’s the military; I kinda think they should get the most time off of anyway.

9.  New Year’s Eve – this one is a hard one.  We aren’t big party-ers, so we aren’t really into clubs or going out.  We don’t drink that much, or dance or really even stay up that late regularly, but we don’t want to be boring and you definitely need the right crowd for an occasion like this… So, it’s always a bit of a conundrum.  Perhaps our favorite one was the year we went to Columbus with Heather and Silas and went to fancy-schmancy dinner all dressed up.  Last year was an adventure…

10.  And bringing up the rear is Halloween…  Growing up we celebrated Halloween for awhile,  then we didn’t celebrate Halloween for awhile, (during which time we went to the ‘Harvest Festival’ at church), and then when we got older we passed out candy and Christian tracts (our parents made us) at the door.  Andrew and I have done everything from nothing (this past year…I think we went to Panera or something) to dressing up at a Halloween party the night we got engaged!  I love dressing up, so this holiday only ranks highly if we have an awesome party to go to.  Take notes, friends–someone plan a party!

And that’s all, folks.  It was kinda nice strolling down memory lane as I recounted various holidays from my childhood…

food = reward

I’ve been learning a lot doing the Made to Crave Bible Study with Emily.

I’ve definitely had eating issues my whole life.  No, I was never bulimic or anorexic or over-exercised or anything; I just started out as kind of a “chubby” kid and learned to find comfort in food.  Despite losing the extra pounds as I progressed into puberty and became more active, I always saw that ‘big kid’ in the mirror.  Even now, as a phenomenally healthy and active (if I do say so myself) woman pushing 30 (gasp!), I still struggle–so much–with food.  After my weight loss last summer, I’ve finally found a peace, if you can call it that, with my body that I’ve never felt before.  As a kid, I always thought to myself, “If I was thinner, I’d be happier.”  Well, we all know that life doesn’t magically become perfect or anything, and it’s ridiculous to think that something like losing a few pounds can change everything.  But, as I tell Andrew, now that I AM thinner, I’m happier, but it isn’t because I weigh less; it’s because I FINALLY met a life-long goal of losing those extra pounds and becoming confident in my body.

Anyway, this isn’t about weight-loss or body issues (but don’t we all have a ton!); this post is about how this Bible study is changing my life, one chapter at a time.

One thing I’ve realized is that I view food as a reward.  All the time.  For everything.  I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with going out for ice cream after your team wins the tournament, or celebrating with a nice dinner, but people, I went out for an ice cream sundae to celebrate my weight-loss!  Is that not insane?  (It WAS good, I can tell you that!)

Anyway, I tend to think of food first when I want to celebrate, or do something fun, or meet up with people, or anything, really.  And it goes past just a ‘reward’ sometimes; it becomes something I ‘deserve.’ And it’s not just me.  Just the other day, I was at Wegmans to grocery shop–my ‘reward’ after my stats test–and I stopped in the cafe for a coffee.  As I deliberated between a regular cup of joe (to which I could add just a bit of cream and sugar and get by with minimal calorie damage), and that “candy bar latte” I’d been eyeing on my past few shopping trips, the lady behind the counter was patient enough to wait for me.  I ordered the regular coffee and mused that ‘it wouldn’t be such a calorie bomb, like the latte I was salivating over,’ when the cashier offered to put fewer pumps of flavor in it for me.  Realizing what I truly wanted was a “fun” coffee drink, I decided to go ahead with that.

Side note: I actually do that ALL. THE. TIME.  So much so, in fact, that Andrew’s sisters think it’s this huge joke and tease me that I always want ” half the pumps” when we go to Starbucks.  I just, for some reason, didn’t feel like it that day.

Anyway, back to the story.  While the barista was making my drink, I mentioned off-hand that I had just come from school, where I aced a test.  She quickly responded, “See? You DESERVE this drink!”

Just hearing those words come out of her mouth gave me a bad taste in mine.  Food–especially decadent food–has become such a comfort to us that we feel like we ‘deserve’ it after some arduous task.  Or triumph.  Or defeat.

Her comment definitely stopped me dead in my tracks and immediately made me think of what I was learning in the study.  I need to think of food LESS and God MORE.  That’s really all it boils down to, people.

I’ve been learning so much about myself, and in different areas of my life, through this study…more revelations to come.

MUST. CRAVE. GOD.

a breakfast Pioneer Woman would be proud of

Or dinner, rather.

(And yes, I know I shouldn’t end a ‘sentence’ with ‘of,’ but it’s not really a sentence, and it just wouldn’t sound the same any other way.)

ANYWAY….

This is what ‘cooking’ (a.k.a. piling things on top of one another) looks like in my house right now.  Can I just say that Pioneer Woman has a dream house AND a re-done ‘lodge’ with a potentially nicer kitchen than her own?  Seriously jealous.  Not that I ever want two houses to clean.  EVER.

So, I decided tonight would be ‘breakfast for dinner’ night since it was supposed to be sometime last week when we had no food in the house (does anyone else revert to pancakes for dinner when you have nothing else??), but it never happened.  I’ve been dying to make PW’s Lemon Blueberry Pancakes since they appeared on her blog awhile back, and when they were included in the new cookbook, I put them in the rotation ASAP.

Note the plate of pancakes ON TOP OF the yogurt maker.  (I also made bread and hummus today, in addition to yogurt–AND I had a class, AND swimming, and two dog walks, and two loads of laundry, and vacuuming–whoever wonders what I do to fill up my time, well folks, that’s where it goes.  Unemployed Holly doesn’t know how employed Holly ever made it.)

I can’t tell you how sick I am of the yellow light in our dining room…. And the tiny kitchen.  And the carpet…I’ll stop before I a) bore you, or b) start sounding like a whiny brat.  CAN. NOT. WAIT. UNTIL. DREAM. KITCHEN. WITH. NATURAL. LIGHT.

The reason I say P-Dub would be proud is because I also made canadian bacon and eggs with salsa.  Well, I eat eggs with salsa, Andrew doesn’t.  But since he didn’t even start eating eggs until we went on a backpacking trip in the Boundary Waters a couple years ago, I’ll take it.

I hate to admit it (I really do), but they were a bit anticlimactic.  Good, definitely, but not so amazing that I can’t wait to have them again.  Andrew said they tasted like a blueberry muffin and that the blueberry flavor overpowered the lemon.  I told him he didn’t know what he was talking about since he a) doesn’t even really like muffins (according to him), and b) doesn’t eat blueberry pancakes.  EVER.  He’s a bit of a purist; plain pancakes, vanilla ice cream, strawberry yogurt, no mayo or mustard…  Whatever he is, it’s BORING.  (But I love him…)

All in all, they were pretty good and I’m glad I have another serving in the freezer, just waiting for me to drizzle a bit of my ginger maple syrup on them…  Because ginger goes so well with both lemons and blueberries!

And, in case you were wondering if we had any more counter space to spare…

Nope, not so much.  Dishes done compliments of Andrew, who has become dishwasher extraordinaire.  Seriously, he does them in the morning before work as I’m packing up his breakfast and lunch, then he does them immediately after walking in the door after the gym as he dumps his lunch stuff into the sink and I’m in the kitchen making dinner, and then (if I haven’t gotten to them yet), he picks up after we eat where he left off while I was prepping dinner!  Whew!  WHO IS THIS MAN?

If you like lemon and you like blueberry, make the pancakes.  If not, make Foster’s Market’s Panama Pancakes…you won’t regret it!