Feliz Navidad

This is my niece Anoushka. She's awesome. She's in kindergarten but next year she's going into second grade, because she's a genius. She's travelled to India three times and she's only 6. That flight would make me cry and pull my face off, but she handles it like a champ. She's cool. When she was 2 she flew to Australia with her parents. While they were groggy and jet-lagged trying to figure out the international plugs in the hotel bathroom, she piled all the pillows from the room on the floor making a ladder into her crib, and fell asleep. She'll probably be an astrophysicist or president or something like that. But no pressure.


Today I received confirmation that she does indeed share's my DNA. As some of you who know me know I love Christmas music. Mostly just old Christmas music like Nat King Cole, and The Rat Pack, and Ella Fitzgerald singing those old timey songs. But I also love me some Run D.M.C. Christmas is Hollis. I've been known to listen to it in July, and I even have a Pandora station that plays nothing but. So when my brother Josh sent me this picture this morning, I thought "Oh little one, the judgement you'll have to face in your life! I'll be there for you." It's June 13th. Never too early to let Santa know what you've got your eye on. That guy gets busy later in the year. Well done sugarplum. Santa is headed to the great internet mall workshop with your list right now.

In solidarity with my elvish kin, I made myself a gingerbread latte this morning. Yes. Yes I do have a secret stash of Starbucks gingerbread syrup in my kitchen. I'm hard core people. 

cross your fingers and light a candle

oh sure he looks all sweet and innocent now...

On December 22rd Jack and I shot an All Detergent commercial. We were informed on December 23rd that some of the film was destroyed at the lab, and we might have to reshoot in January. Gulp. Getting a two year old to do ANYTHING for more than a few minutes is difficult. Getting a two year old to let you take his shirt off, put it back on, make him run around a strange laundry room, giggle, throw laundry in the washer, look natural, take his shirt back off, put it back on, run around the laundry room again, laugh, look natural, NOT FREAK OUT, for two hours, while someone is filming him, and there are strange people standing around staring at you, is really hard. I got him to do just that on December 23rd. Now I get to try again. Should have known that it was too easy. I predict full family collapse by 9:05 am.

If you're in the South Pasadena area tomorrow and you hear a child sobbing and a mother muttering things like "this business is a pox upon our house", you know you've found us. Throw a soy gingerbread latte and some Buzz Lightyear swag out the window of your car as you pass, we are people in need.

Fat Willy Taft

That's what Nipper is going to start calling me if I don't knock it off. "Good morning Fat Willy Taft! Jack tell Fat Willy Taft good morning!" I'm going to blame the holidays, and the turn of the weather. It's been in the low 70s all week in LA, you know sweater weather. Last weekend I made two giant lasagna dishes filled with comfort food for us to eat all week. I made brownies, bought some mint fudge covered oreos, which are like kryptonite to me, and I would like to tell the good people at nabisco that they are ruining my figure... but also that they have made life worth living. Yesterday I made the salted brown butter crispy treats from smitten kitchen. And then I had the brainstorm to melt some scharffen berger dark chocolate and dip the tops in it. Nipper Knapp and I have eaten half of them already... since yesterday.

I don't know that I've gone on a food bender like this since I was a kid. When I was 9 or 10, I would sneak down to the corner store and buy a bag of mini reese's peanut butter cups, and eat THE WHOLE BAG. I would hide them under my pillow, so my mom wouldn't know. I would buy a tub of chocolate frosting and eat it with a spoon. For the life of me, I can't figure out why I did this, but I would spread butter on saltines and sprinkle them with sugar and eat them. I was a baby closet sugar smack. What's funny, is that as an adult, I am much more of a savory food person. I'd much rather have something salty or cheesy than something sweet. But as a kid, I couldn't get enough. Maybe I'm going through puberty again...

The red holiday cups are back at Starbucks, and along with them the treat I think about a good part of the year. The gingerbread latte. I think about it before I go to bed at night. As in, "fuck I have so much to do tomorrow, and there's no way I'm going to get it all done, but hey, at least there will be a gingerbread latte in there somewhere...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz". Unfortunately this year, I've given up caffeine and so I thought I'd have to go without. But I decided to try it anyway, and of course I'm hooked. Something about a hot beverage that's made for you by someone else, that you can carry around with you, feels like the ultimate in being nice to yourself. The bad part is that I'm a little ashamed of my order, because it's basically just a milky syrup delivery system. This is what it sounds like "I'd like a grande soy gingerbread two pump latte with no foam and no toppings".  Hello douchebag, nice to meet you. I'm filled with self loathing every time I say it.

Today, when I got up, Jack and I went through the drive through Starbucks by our house. They have the little screen up that shows your order as you're telling the person inside what you want. Here's what it looked like:

1 Grande Hot Chocolate
1 Horizon Milk
1 Grande Soy Gingerbread Latte (ask me)

There it is, confirmation. I have become the dressing on the side person. I have become a high maintenance orderer. I used to be happy with butter on a soda cracker and now I need a thesaurus and a manager approval to order coffee.