Rock Band & Pre-New Year's Eve Party

During the holidays, I usually only host and/or attend family parties. My family likes to party so much that just being with them keeps me pretty busy during the holiday season. This year, however, has been especially difficult - that post is coming up later! - so we decided to invite some friends over for a little Rock Band party.

I spent MANY hours baking all sorts of goodies! It all started the day before with my Pumpkin Maple Pecan Cheesecake. I got this recipe from foodnetwork.com, and when I made it for the first time for Thanksgiving dinner, it was a hit!

[caption id="attachment_703" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Pumpkin Maple Pecan Cheesecake"][/caption]

Here's the rest of the menu for the night:

Strawberry Jam Tarts. I got the original recipe from The Hungry Girl cookbook. It called for store-bought pie crust, but one time I couldn't find it and used puff pastry instead. I loved it!

[caption id="attachment_694" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Strawberry Jam Tarts"][/caption]

Cream Cheese Tarts. This is a mashup between the Strawberry Jam Tarts above and a Puertorrican Quesito. It has all the elements of a Quesito, but made in the same way as the Tarts.

[caption id="attachment_695" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Cream Cheese Tarts"][/caption]

Homemade Pralines. This is super simple. It has dried fruits and nuts, cooked in sugar until caramelized. That's it! Great for snacking.

[caption id="attachment_696" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Homemade Pralines"][/caption]

Caprese Salad Bites. This is my cocktail-sized version of the Italian specialty. I just took fresh mozzarella balls and skewered them with grape tomatoes, drizzled in oil and herbs.

[caption id="attachment_697" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Caprese Salad Bites"][/caption]

Olive Ricotta Spread. I saw this on a Rachael Ray show on the Food Network a long time ago and wrote down the recipe. Good thing too, because I've tried to look it up on the website, and can't find it! Anyway, it tastes delicious!

[caption id="attachment_698" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Olive Ricotta Spread"][/caption]

Polvorones. These are traditional Puertorrican Christmas cookies. They're similar to Sand Tarts, but are made with almonds.

[caption id="attachment_701" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Polvorones"][/caption]

Here's the complete spread, already half-eaten.

[caption id="attachment_702" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Snacks"][/caption]

We can't forget drinks! I made Coquito, which is the Puertorrican version of the Egg Nog. It's made with Coconut Milk, Cream of Coconut, Evaporated Milk, Condensed Milk, and Rum. Since Bailey's is my absolute fave drink, I like to add chocolate and substitute the Rum for Whiskey, which are the elements in Bailey's. Salud!

[caption id="attachment_706" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Bailey's Coquito"][/caption]

We had a blast playing Rock Band, mainly the Beatles songs. Here's the team hard at work.

[caption id="attachment_699" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Rock Band Team"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_700" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Rock Band Team"][/caption]

Even lil man got in on the action! He had a great time, especially since he got to stay up late.

[caption id="attachment_693" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Lil man and his guitar"][/caption]

I hope this is the beginning of many Rock Band parties. We had a blast!

Praying for a Christmas miracle

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Rebecca and her hubs"][/caption]

Tonight I was deep into my Twitter conversations, when all of a sudden I saw the following tweet:

@bitofmomsense Twas the night before last Treatment...;) http://plixi.com/p/64112528

I stopped completely. It was such a simple and sweet photo of Rebecca and her bald husband looking happy and at peace. I had seen many tweets from her over the past few months about her husband's treatments, and several times I've replied saying something like "hope everything turns out OK!" or "praying for you and hubs!" Do people actually pray when they say that?

But tonight, for some reason, it made me stop. If you look at that photo out of context, all you see is a very happy couple in a very intimate cuddle. And you know what? THAT'S HOW IT SHOULD BE!! It breaks my heart when there's a stupid disease that changes the way you look at everything, including a simple photo. I'm pretty sure that they both look at everything differently now. Maybe not better, maybe not worse. Just different.

You see, I kinda know what Rebecca is going through. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993, when I was 19 years old. FREAKING 19!! I didn't know what cancer was, or that it was so dangerous. I wasn't prepared to deal with such a serious situation. All I saw was my mom's courage through it all. Through the surgery, the treatments, the baldness, the throwing up, and eventually, the recovery. It changed her, somehow. Made her stronger, if that's even possible.

So when I saw that tweet from Rebecca, I felt compelled to finish her thought. I looked at the original poem, and looked at the photo, and came up with this:

'Twas the night before last Treatment
and everyone's at peace
not a single sign of sickness
not even a cyst.

I hope that's what's going through their minds right now, the confidence that everything will be OK, and they can put all this behind them. They can say it's simply something that happened. In the past.

Also? It's freaking Christmas, for chrissakes! No one should feel sad this time of year. I know what that's like, because exactly two years ago, I miscarried my second pregnancy, two weeks before Christmas, and had to have the baby surgically removed. ONE week before Christmas! Let's just say I'm a sucker for people who go through tough situations during the holidays.

So to Rebecca and her husband, I know it may not be a literary masterpiece, but I'm glad it made you smile. Here's to a very healthy 2011!!

-----

While on the subject, won't you consider being a part of @Frosting4Cause? If you have a blog, and love to bake, just visit http://frostingforthecause.com/ to see how you can help. It's very easy and fun! You don't have to be a professional baker. You can even use cake mix and canned frosting! The point is to help, get involved, and "bake" a difference!

What I'm thankful for this year

I meant to post this on Thanksgiving day, but it's been a hectic weekend, what with planning our trip, decorating for the holidays, and my recovery (still) from my back spasm.

The year 2010 has been very good to me. Not like 2009 when I spent most of the year battling depression and PPD after my miscarriage during the holidays of 2008. No, this year I vowed to change things up, and am so grateful for everything that's happened to me, and everyone around me. Am I depression-free? Heck, no! Did I lose all the weight I gained during the depression and hypothyroidism? Not even close! But I feel a LOT better, and can honestly say that I'm prepared for whatever 2011 has in store for me.

These are the things I'm most thankful for right now:

♥ My husband. Last week we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, and last Sunday we renewed our vows in church before God and our family. It was a short but very special act that proved that we're ready for our next 10 years. He has definitely been my rock, my best friend, and my soul mate. I can't imagine my life without him. Well, I can imagine it, but it's not pretty. If you want to know more about how I feel towards him, read my last post, 10 years of wedded... bliss? I just read it before starting to write this, and I'm still crying like a little girl. Please don't tell hubs, I need to keep my cool front!

♥ My son. The people who know me pre-child will NEVER believe this, but Daniel is the light of my life. Everyone always told me "your life will change completely once you become a mother", and I would always say "only if you want it to". Well guess what, turns out I wanted to! Everything that was important to me before seems so stupid and trivial now, and I have a whole new set of priorities that I would've never thought of before. I even used to criticize other moms about their obsessions with their children, and now I'm one of those moms, yikes! But loving every second of it. If you want an example of how motherhood has changed me, read this post, The Mommy in me.

♥ My family. This is a complicated one, because I've had so many negative situations with my family, that one would think that I would not include it here. But I am thankful. Friends come and go, and when friendships fail, there's usually nothing keeping you together. But with family it's different. You may have your downfalls, but come the next holiday or family gathering, and they're all there, and like it or not, you have to face them. I kinda like that, because it forces you to face the situation and move on. Besides, who else can you count on to tell you the truth to your face, not even caring if they hurt your feelings or not? Oh ya, feelings get hurt (A LOT!), but the truth is always told.

♥ My friends. As you can imagine, I don't have a lot of friends. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably don't know me in real life. What I mean is, friendships, like all relationships, take time and effort, and I usually forget to keep up with my friends. The few friends that I have probably don't even know this, but I treasure them deeply. I guess I'm more of a quality, not quantity kind of gal. Also? Twitter friends. Yes, I mean the ones where I only know their @ names, and live in a different country than I do (cue my family groaning in disgust and looking at me unapprovingly). Lately, I have gained a lot of friends who have a lot in common with me. Fellow mompreneurs who juggle motherhood, home businesses and/or corporate life, and home and family. They've been my sounding board to all my struggles, doubts, questions, and moral support. Most of my newfound clarity and outlook on life, I owe to them.

This is not a comprehensive list by any means, but I think these are the most important aspects of my life at this moment. I'm a firm believer that there is no such thing as a negative experience if you use it to learn and grow. The person you are now is the sum of ALL your experiences - the good, the bad, and the ugly. I love the saying "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger".

And by now I might as well be freaking HULK!!

Overwhelmed - an open letter to a dear friend

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="164" caption="Image courtesy of www.jane-finch.com"][/caption]

A few days ago, I learned that a dear friend was having a hard time struggling with her daily demands: mom, wife, business owner, homeowner. This letter is for her and everyone else out there who feels the same way:

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear you're having a hard time. Your message struck me because I've been going through the same thing.

I've been feeling pretty overwhelmed too lately, and it's because of so many changes that have been going on in the past few years. You see, before lil man was born, I used to work full time at a Pharmaceutical company. You know how it is, the suit, the commute, the long hours in the office - on a normal weekday I could be at the office 10 hours a day! On top of that, I used to sing in not one but 2 choirs, so add to that all the rehearsal time several nights a week, plus concerts, etc.

When lil man was born, I requested to work from home more often. Since I report to Headquarters in the US and don't really need to be at the office to do my job, they didn't mind me working from home. Everything was fine until I had a miscarriage at the end of 2008. My life, and my body, changed completely. The whole 2009 was horrible for me, the depression, the hypothyroidism, the weight gain - I've always been overweight, but I gained about 40lbs! By this time last year, I was up to 210lbs, the same weight that I was when I was 9 months preggers, yikes!

Thankfully, I'm on meds now and have my hypothyroidism in check, also going to therapy, cause, you know, *cuckoo* {circling my ear with my finger}.

One of the things that helped me last year was baking. I started taking classes strictly as a hobby, but somehow it grew into a business... who knew? So now I have way too many things that I do AT THE SAME TIME:

1. My full-time job. I work mostly from home, but still have to conform to regular office hours and attend many, many conference calls, yuck!


2. Mom. Lil man is at school now and I have to pick him up at 2pm every day. From that point on, I'm a full-time mom, doing the whole homework, dinner, playtime thing. DURING business hours, when I'm supposed to be working! I get a little break when the physical and speech therapists come by to work with him, but still, it's not the same.


3. The bakery. Every time I get more and more orders, and I have to figure out WHEN to bake! Usually it's whenever I find free time, which is never, but I do a little bit in the mornings (during business hours!) or in the afternoons (during business AND mom hours!), or at night (during hubs and me hours! see below...)


4. Hubs. Did I mention I have a husband? Yeah, sometimes I forget too. I usually spend a little bit of time with him and lil man just before he goes to bed, or after that we sit down and watch TV together. That is, unless I have to bake, then it's no hubs!


5. Sleep. My shrink, my neurologist, and my endocrinologist gave me strict orders to sleep 8 hours a day. BAHAHA!! Sorry, it's just that it makes me laugh every time. Yeah, I understand that I need to refuel to keep my thyroid in check and not feel tired during the day, but I NEVER manage to get in bed before midnight, and I have to get up every day at 6am to take lil man to school, so... yeah, it doesn't add up to me either.


6. Exercise. My nutritionist gave me strict orders (yeah, more strict orders!) to exercise at least 5 days a week. BAHAHA!! Oops, sorry, that wasn't an actual joke. But did you read points 1-5 above? How on earth am I going to take time to exercise? I mean, last time I checked, the day only had 24 hours, and I'm already doing 2-3 things at the same time most of the time! I mean, I ran out of time at point 3 - points 4 and 5 are already being compromised. I have no idea how I'm going to do this.

Then there's my original hobby, singing. I had to leave one of the choirs last year in the height of my depression, so I'm down to 1 choir, which is strictly weddings and special occassions. It's good because it doesn't take up a lot of my time and I still get to sing, but not as much as I would like to.

So that's basically what my life is like now. Most of the time I'm running full speed ahead, but sometimes I get overwhelmed and start thinking: "how the hell am I going to do all this, and do it RIGHT?" I guess I still haven't found the answer to that question.

I'm not telling you this so that you feel sorry for me, or to downplay your feelings. I guess in a way I'm glad you feel the same way I do, so that if you ever receive a tweet from me with an "AAAAARRRGGHH", you will know exactly what I'm talking about, and I'll know too if you do the same.

For now all I can tell you is hang in there. No, it will not get better, in fact, it will get more complicated as the kids get older, but at least you know you have a friendly ear many miles away, and at the same time, just a click away.

Lots of love,
Zelma