Saw this article posted: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2011/12/07/confused-rhode-island-christianists-sing-secular-song-to-defend-pagan-symbol/

My favorite response to the situation in the comments:

Comment by Wingedbeast:
"Let me translate for those who don't get it. "Merry Christmas" when said among strangers, particularly when we're talking about corporate or business entities to their customers, doesn't translate to "I wish you positive feelings surrounding this upcoming holiday" so much as "I assume you to be of my faith and put it on you to make waves by correcting me" or, to shorten it "Christians dominate the culture".

"Happy Holidays" translates, not to "I hate Christmas" and more to "I wish anybody good feelings surrounding this time of year without putting anybody in a position of having to choose conflict or discomfort". Or, to shorten it "Happy Holidays".

So, let's play out the scene. Let's look at a common grocery store. Let's move across the registers.

Register 1. "Thank you for shopping at Volde-Mart. Christians dominate our culture" says the teller. "We sure do" pleasantly responds the customer.

Register 2. "Thank you for shopping at Volde-Mart. Christians dominate our culture" says the teller. "Uh... yeah, you kinda do" acknowledges the nonchristian customer who doesn't want to make waves.

Register 3. "Thank you for shopping at Volde-Mart. Happy Holidays," says the teller. "Happy holidays," happily responds the customer of potentially any faith or lack-there-of.

Register 4. "Thank you for shopping at Volde-Mart. Happy Holidays," says the teller. "What?" asks the customer angrily. "It's Christians dominate the culture! Don't you try to oppress my faith!"

Thank you for going along with this little play.

It's mostly cool and quiet here in my room, but the sound of the TV and Vic's video game are drifting down the hall and through the door, where the sunlight is playing against the walls and heat pulses inward from the patio.

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I made a Boston Cream Pie completely from scratch for my mother's birthday on the 19th. I usually like to decorate cakes all fancy but my mother really loves Boston Cream Pie so I decided to make her an all-time favorite instead of going crazy with colors and shapes.

Before I started making the cake, I pulled out my cookbooks to refresh my memory about how to make this particular dessert. I was vaguely thinking that I just needed a recipe for yellow butter cake, chocolate frosting and I could pick up some vanilla pudding pre-made at the grocery store. I even bought the pudding in anticipation of doing the easy version of Boston Cream Pie.

And then I found that I didn't have the recipe for Boston Cream Pie in my cookbook. Apparently my revised version of Betty Crocker doesn't have it. Neither did I have it my hand-written recipe collection. I experienced a moment of uncertainty that I was remembering the right components and hopped online to look up a recipe instead.

As these things are wont to happen, I wound up spending a half hour reading about the Parker House Hotel and the restaurant and the history of Parker House Rolls and Parker House Chocolate Cream Pie which became known as Boston Cream Pie.

The upshot: I wound up printing out the recipe that the Omni Parker House Hotel uses today to make Boston Cream Pie and I made the whole thing from scratch. Butter genoise cake, rum syrup, creme patissiere, chocolate ganache and all.

I had to make some substitutions: I didn't have rum on hand but I did have Grand Marnier so I made the syrup to brush the cake with that instead. I also wound up with shaking hands after making the creme patissiere because of the sheer amount of stirring with a whisk required. This led to the fondant spiderweb on top of the cake being ... less even than is desirable.

Ultimately though, it didn't matter, because it tasted divine and my mother was absolutely thrilled. She got the biggest kick out of the candles too: Disney Princess star candles for the queen of our family.

And here she is in her birthday tiara and wand, getting ready to blow out the candles.





Happy birthday Mommy.

My cousin sold us her couch since she moved into a new apartment.

This is the first time in 10 years that we've owned a proper 3-seater couch and this one, is supremely cushy and comfortable.

Thank you Cousin Krissy!

It's warmer out today than it has been most of the week and I'm sitting in the big arm chair watching the light shift on the grass outside and along the spotted gray cement of the patio.

This is the first time in over a month that I've felt like I can really just sit and take in the scenery outside my window. Since September, there's been a constant pressure that's finally lifting, a long to do list that wouldn't let up. Such is the nature of moving.

I miss the dogwood tree outside the window at the house. The view here could be a lot worse, but the building across the way makes up the substance of my view beyond the grassy slope that leads to my neighbor's patio. Since our unit is an end unit, the rest of the view is of the parking lot, though there are trees and greenery around its edge and these do frame the sky prettily.

It's different. Not bad, just different.

After all of the pressure and rush, things are finally settling down. Objects are finding their places around the apartment and their locations are becoming routine and familiar once more, though there's still quite a lot of rooting through boxes while grumbling about the disorganized nature of my packing during the exodus from the house.

Today, I'm working from home, steadily making my way through the last few use cases in a requirements document. There's a rhythm to it that steadies me, serves as a sort of anchor of sameness in the midst of this ocean of change that's going on around me.

I've been struggling to find a little bit of serenity, given the ups and downs of separation and the shift to being sole care provider, 5 days a week for the kids. It's in the moments like this, when I can sit down and look around at all of the work I've done on our new home that I can finally find a little.

Round up of a low-key and tasty Thanksgiving: http://www.flickr.com/photos/littleowl/sets/72157625340693499/

As I sat in my mother's kitchen, blearily drinking a first cup of tea for the day, I saw the ghost of a snowflake slowly swirl down from the sky. Blinking a few times, I forced my eyes to focus on the gray-brown, late autumn scenery outside and saw another and then another drift towards the cold earth.

Time ticked on and the flakes grew thicker, fell faster and now are starting to stick on the remaning green leaves of the tall rhododendron outside of the guest room window and the scattering of tan needles beneath the tall pine trees along the property line.

The soft quietness of an early snowfall suits my frame of mind well after a mostly sleepless night filled with far too many warring thoughts. I'm letting the dance of snow outside calm all of that, carry it away zen-like as I get ready to ease into the flow of preparing the turkey for our little family feast this afternoon.

Tonight, while the kids were chilling out, I tweaked my family's no-dairy cake recipe a step further to make a Cinnamon Apple flavor. I used the vanilla/lemon variant I've used before and added cinnamon and apples to it.

Serious goodness of the toffee-cinnamon-apple kind.

O.M.G.


Recipe:
Pre-heat oven to 350 F
Grease (with shortening) and flour 2 9 inch rounds or a 13 inch sheet pan

Sift the following dry ingredients together into a bowl:
3 cups all-purpose flour (or your favorite gluten-free blend)
2 cups turbinado sugar or brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
(Add 1 tsp of nutmeg or allspice if desired - I didn't have any on hand)

Make a well in the dry mixture and add the following wet ingredients:
2 cups lemonade
2/3 cup salad oil
2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
1 TBSP vanilla extract

Mix together until smooth and there are no clumps of dry mixture in the wet.
Slice in 1 or 2 small apples, or 1 large apple.

Mix apple slices in.

Fill your pan/pans and shake gently until even across the top. Give the pan a light tap to release some of the air bubbles.

Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes or until the top 'bounces' back when you press lightly with your finger. If the center is still 'mushy' the cake will fall when you take it out of the oven or be puddingy in the middle.

Also works well with small loaf pans for gifts, which is my current plan for teacher gifts for the holidays this year. Wrap small loaves in colored plastic wrap, tie with pretty ribbon, add a card and voila!

A mini-van slid on the wet leaves and pavement on the way to work this morning and rear-ended Dad and I. Not my favorite way to start the day. We're both fine and J was already dropped off so wasn't in the car.

I'm still kind of feeling strange though. Nothing physically wrong, just ... you know, the whole shock thing, because it happened very quickly and then I was being very practical and dealing with aftermath right after.

I did hit the headrest a little on the hard side, but don't have any injuries, just feel a little off-kilter emotionally.

Today's lunch:
- Fresh mozzarella with grape and cherry tomatoes and petite carrots
- Pretzels
- Mixed red and green grapes
- Giant blueberries
- Cup of hot masala chai (from tea bag at work)