95. Learn How To Bake Red Velvet Cupcakes From Scratch.

Just before Christmas I was wracking my brain trying to come up with gift ideas for Ratty's dad.  I'd bought his mom a Yankee Candle, naturally, but I was having a hard time thinking of ideas for Bob Ratty.  I was well aware that his dad had a soft spot for sweets, so I decided that I'd attempt Number 95 and bake him red velvet cupcakes.  Okay, not really cupcakes, rather red velvet sandwich cookies from Paula Deen, but the batter and frosting are the exact same, so I'm counting it!  Task completed!

Obviously, because I am an awesome daughter, I waited to make these until I came home for Christmas.  I did this mainly for one reason and one reason only, my mom had all the stuff I needed.  I don't have baking powder, or red food coloring, and don't even get me started on a mixer [which has been totally taken care of thanks to Ratty, but remember, this was PRE Christmas gift.]  To me, it made perfect sense to make these at my mom's house, but I thought my mom was going to legit murder me.  As if she didn't have enough work to do, putting together a Christmas eve spread, Christmas morning breakfast spread AND Christmas afternoon dinner spread, her wonderful daughter came home and tore her kitchen to shreds.  No seriously, shreds.  You'll see.

I started off by putting all the dry ingredients in a bowl and BOOM, realized I already made a mistake, and I'd JUST started!  Apparently I was supposed to whip the sugar and butter together, separate from the other dry ingredients, then add them later.  Whoopsie!  If this was any indication of how my baking outing would go, I was in for a long night.  [Cue scary music.]

So because I had inadvertently skipped a step, I just blew through the rest of the instructions and got down to mixing.  By the time I was done, there was red batter EVERYWHERE.  It was on my mom's white curtains, all over my clothes, it honestly looked like someone had been stabbed in the pantry.  Steph was not pleased.

According to the next step in the directions, I was supposed to scoop a little bit of batter onto the sheet tray, creating little perfect, yummy red velvet cookies.  Somehow, and I'm not totally sure how I let this get so out of control, all my cookies merged into one.  It was an entire cookie sheet of batter.  I think it may have been the fact that I sprayed the cookie sheet with Pam, and the sheet was so slick the batter just spread everywhere. It was right about now I locked my mother out of the kitchen.

I poured all the dough back into the bowl, now glistening with it's non stick cooking spray addition, wiped down the cookie sheet and started again.  I'd like to say that my second attempt went a little better, and it did, but Ina Garten I am not.

I let the cookies cool before I cut them out of the pan, and yes, I definitely mean cut.  They were supposed to be on the small side, so I could make them into individual sandwiches, but because they were so ridiculously gigantic, I decided that I'd quarter them to make mini cookies instead.  That was a MUCH better plan.

I made a batch of cream cheese frosting, this went off without a hitch, mostly because my mom supervised i.e. made it while I watched.  I matched up the cookies based on size and shape, they were ALL different so I tried my best to make the sandwich cookies roughly the same shape. I filled them with LOTS of frosting, because that's how I like it and I knew Bob would too.  Plus, with enough yummy frosting, no one would even realize they were poorly constructed.

Then I quartered them and added more frosting to the sides.

I obviously needed more frosting on the sides in order to get as many chopped almonds as possible.  The recipe called for pecans, which would have been equally as awesome, but I think we've learned that I'm apparently not one for following directions.  Did I mention I also forgot to add the vinegar?  Not sure what it was for, but they still tasted amazing without it.  Must have been all that extra Pam.

I then packed them up in a little red Christmas tin with doilies and some of my mom's homemade fudge.  The doilies were my mom's idea, obviously.  And Voila!  It'll be totally easier next time I make them, right?  Just tell me it gets easier.  Especially now that I have my Ina Garten approved standing Kitchenaid mixer.  I'm practically a pro already and it's not even out of the box yet.

For the record, Ratty's dad LOVED them.

62. December 31st, 2010 Picture.

We woke up bright and early [as bright and early as vacation allows, which isn't really all that early to normal people], and went off to meet Chad, Christine and Emily for lunch.  They had suggested trying out the new Irish Pub in town, RiRa's, which was the bar Ratty and I closed the night out at the evening before.  It is very strange going to a bar at night and being there less than 12 hours later, when it's light out.  But that's what vacations are for, right?  I mean, kinda sorta.

The lunch was great, and I finally got to spend a little quality time with Miss Emily!  Chad and Christine live up in New Hampshire and most times we see each other are at non-kid friendly events, like weddings, where the don't bring Emily along.  We had a great lunch, catching up and picking up all the toys Emily threw on the ground.  Christine had to head into work that afternoon, so our visit was brief but still so much fun.

Once we walked the cute little family back to their car, Ratty and I headed off to walk through town and do some actual shopping.  Ratty still wanted to buy a Christmas gift for Eddie, Christine, Cassie and Abs, so we were on the hunt for something they might like.  He'd already bought them the Despicable Me DVD, since we took the girls to see that, but he wanted to add something to it.  While browsing through the most awesomest of home goods stores, we found a stove top popcorn popper.  Eddie and Christine don't have a microwave, don't worry, I make sure to tell them how weird it is any chance I get, so they usually make Jiffy Pop on their stove.  Ratty ended up buying them that, plus popcorn kernels, sprinkle butter, and adorable little individual popcorn buckets, so everyone in the family could have their own.  

We continued walking around town, it's pretty adorable, with lots of cafes, shops, and restaurants, all along the waterfront.  Not that waterfront property is ideal in the middle of winter, but it was still pretty gorgeous.  The whole town was getting ready for the First Night activities that were taking place that afternoon/evening, and it make me slightly sad that we weren't staying an extra night.

They were doing ice sculpture carving in front of the church in the town center.  All the children, and adults, were pretty much rapt with attention.  This is right where we bumped into my friend Shelby's brother Tommy - I saw him from across the crowd and he came over to say hi.  He went to school up there, and stayed in New Hampshire after graduation.  It was totally random but so nice to bump into him!

{Red Velvet Woopie Pie mix at the Stonewall Kitchen store in town.  MUST make these!}

Just before leaving, we popped into the Gaslight restaurant for a bite before hitting the road.  We got a seat right at the bar, and sitting right next to us was my sister's Arleen's brother-in-law Ed.  We were bumping into everyone in Portsmouth!  I swear, between Ratty and I, no matter where we are, we always bump into someone we know!

We finally had to pull ourselves away from our serene little town and head back to the city for Jess' New Years Eve party.  Jess was one of my new co-workers, and her birthday is New Years Eve.  This year she was turning 30, so she was throwing a huge bash at her still in the throws/newly renovated house.  Her husband and her had bought a slightly run down little house in Medford, and had spent the past couple of years fixing it up.  She had the most amazing spread of food and drinks, with a champagne cocktail station set up in the kitchen.  She had ingredients and instructions set out for two different types, a candied ginger cocktail and a Kir Royale, which is champagne and Chambord.  There were a few other co-workers at the party, along with a slew of friends.  We spent the whole night eating, drinking, playing Apples to Apples, toasting with champagne at midnight and closed out with a showing of the hangover.  No seriously, we left at 2:30am.  It was definitely time to go.  What a great, and exhausting day!

62. December 30th, 2010 Picture.

As I am sure you've noticed throughout my year of blogging, Ratty and I like to take weekend trips here and there to get out of the city.  It's fun to visit a new town, experience new places and test out new restaurants.  Ratty had come up with a great idea to head to Portsmouth, New Hampshire for the night, over New Years weekend.  We had my co-worker Jess' birthday/New Years Eve party, so we decided to go Thursday night and head back to the city on New Years Eve day.


I'd been to Portsmouth as a kid, but hadn't been in at least 20 years.  I was really excited to see how adorable it was, walk up and down Main Street and just relax.  I worked until about 1pm, and then picked up Ratty and hit the road.  Portsmouth wasn't far, probably an hour or so, so we zipped right there.  We checked in at the hotel, unpacked a little, and then walked into town to grab a bite to eat.  It was probably close to dinnertime by the time we actually sat down and ordered food, we got sidetracked at a few really awesome stores along our walk.  We wanted to order something light, so we could go out for a nice dinner later on, at least that was the plan.  Even though it was 5pm, this was our 'lunch', meaning that at some point, we'd need dinner.  This makes perfect sense to me, as I am pretty sure I inherited it from my dad.  Apparently, he'd come home from work at 4pm, eat a meal, and then be asking what was for dinner an hour later.  When my mom would remind him that he'd just eaten an hour before, he'd claim that THAT meal was his lunch and now he was ready for dinner.  I am the exact same way, it drives my mother crazy.


My idea of a light lunch was a burger, what?  I was hungry!  I'm apparently not that great at sticking to plans, but Ratty is way worse.  He ordered not one, but TWO bacon wrapped hot dogs covered in cheese.  I wish I was joking.  It was absolutely disgusting to watch him eat his meal, even though he claimed it was the most delicious thing ever.  Every time I made a face he would say something like, 'but Amy, at least I didn't get the chili.  You should be happy I didn't get the chili, because I could have!'  He said this as if he was doing me, his heart AND his stomach a favor by 'taking it easy'  I think there was enough cholesterol in that lunch to kill a small horse.  SPOILER: We weren't hungry for dinner.


In true Ratty fashion, he'd packed a bottle of champagne and some flutes in his bag, and once we were done walking around town, and done sweating out meat, we headed back to the hotel to relax, have a few glasses of wine and freshen up before heading out again.


The plan was to go to this speakeasy type of a martini bar called The Red Door and then grab a bite at one of the many restaurants in town.  Ratty's friends Chad and Christine had lived in Portsmouth when they first got married, their wedding reception was actually at the hotel we were staying at, so they recommended a few places that only the locals knew about.  We walked to the address where The Red Door should have been and were faced with a burrito place.  We didn't see any sign of a cool martini bar, and ended up pacing the block, checking to see if we'd somehow past it.  I pulled up the website on my phone, and saw that it was in fact supposed to be right where we were.  We finally buckled and asked a couple walking by and they showed us the door.  It was literally just a red door.  No sign, no number on the door, no hint at all that there was anything of note inside.

{It doesn't even LOOK red!}

We walked up to the second floor and finally saw what everyone was talking about.  It was a cool little bar, with leather couches and a dance floor, and 1 little bar with 1 bartender.  The place couldn't hold more than 75 people tops, but I got the feeling it could get crazy.  I snagged a few comfy chairs while Ratty went and grabbed us some drinks and chat with the bartender.  We hung out there, listening to the DJ who was playing the most ridiculous mash-ups that almost caused Ratty's head to explode.  Maybe he'll comment and elaborate, since I couldn't tell you one thing about the music.  We hung out for two drinks apiece before deciding to go and grab a bite someplace else.  I know I know, you're asking 'how could they be hungry again?!' And here is what I'll say to you, I have no idea.  I wasn't starving, but knowing that we wanted to stay out and have some drinks, I thought it would be in our best interested to eat something.  Like a salad.  Or a smoothie.  Or a miracle substance that could cleanse your system immediately.


Since it was the middle of winter, it wasn't surprising that a lot of places stopped serving food around 9pm or 10pm.  We'd missed service at most places, but ended up at the Portsmouth Brewery for a late night bite.  I grabbed a bowl of chili and a little salad, because somehow that seemed 'light' to me, but the absolute best part of my meal was the pretzel bread.


Now, not everyone knows what pretzel bread is, but let me tell you, it is a little piece of heaven.  It exactly what the name states, it's a roll made out of pretzel dough.  It is awesome and delicious and somewhat elusive.  I've only ever seen it at the Gamma Phi Beta Convention in Chicago, which I went to my senior year of college.  They'd serve it with every single meal we had and we'd still have to ask our server to bring back more.  We talk about pretzel bread as if it's as mystical as a unicorn, so I obviously had to take a picture.  Then post it to Facebook.  And text all my friends.

Once we finished eating, I know you're all saying 'FINALLY!', we decided to hit up a bar that was right down the street called RiRa's.  We grabbed two seats at the bar, ordered a few beers, and listened to the awesome singer that was performing that night.  The music was great, it was 2 guys, one with a guitar and one on the drums, playing every popular song ever played on the radio.  They played rap songs, pop songs, 80s, honestly they played everything!  What made it even better was that they ended the night with Bryan Adams 'Summer of '69', which made me freak out.  I love Bryan Adams, I know, totally random but totally true.


We called it a night and headed back to the hotel to get some shut eye.  Chad, Christine and their daughter Emily were coming to meet us for lunch (MORE food?!) so we needed to be refreshed in the morning!

62. December 29th, 2010 Picture.

As you can imagine, the week between Christmas and New Years was absolutely dead at work.  And when I say dead, I mean DEAD.  There was not a sole in sight, plus I was the only one from my department in the office, so literally not a sole in sight.  We all have the capabilities to work from home remotely, but I was having issues with my laptop, the work one not my beloved MacBook, I would never speak ill of my personal laptop, it's perfect and I love it and it never fails.  I don't ever want it to leave me [i.e. crash.....again], so I need to make sure I keep it happy and say nice things.  Happy wife happy life!  Or something like that.

Anyway, since I was having issues logging in from home, I went into the office every day that week.  I was relatively new at that point, and there was honestly no reason for me NOT to go into work.  If I had plans, or a vacation to go on, I obviously would have taken the days off, but I couldn't rationalize using precious vacation days in the middle of winter for no real reason.  There was absolutely nothing preventing me from going to work, except that pesky whole getting out of bed thing, so off I went like a responsible, and well dressed employee.

Ratty was off that entire week, so he stopped by to drop off a huge box of treats from Mike's pastry in the North End.  He'd left them off in the mail room and they got delivered to my desk right around lunchtime.  Isn't that so sweet?  He's really thoughtful, but obviously you all already know that.  He'd even written out a card, telling me that I had to share with my work friends.  Hm, what work friends?!  I was totally alone!  I thought about taking all the pastries home and eating them myself, but something about that seemed wrong, plus I'd already gotten called out for not sharing, so I had to prove Ratty wrong.  I can share!  I made sure to send my co-workers an email, gloating about my delicious desserts, just to make everyone jealous.  As if they would really be jealous that they weren't at work.  Wishful thinking on my part. 

I grabbed a few things that I wanted, like a moon pie and cannoli, and then took the box of sweets around and offered them up to people on my floor.  Boy, I got to meet people real  quick!  If you want to make friends, walk around with sugar, it's a no fail situation!  Thanks Ratty!

{Ratty knows these are my favorite!}

62. December 28th, 2010 Picture.

It snowed a lot in Boston over Christmas, 18.2 inches to be exact, and we are still struggling to clean up the mess.  You'd think that we'd have a handle on it by now, but we are still lackluster at doing things, like shoveling, plowing or general labor.  Snow doesn't cripple us, like some other cities across the country, so no one really batted an eye to a blizzard warning over Christmas, or at least I didn't.  I can drive in snow, don't panic about where I'm going to park, and do my best to shovel out my car in a timely fashion.  I apparently, am a rarity in Boston.  I never knew how psychotic people were about snow until I moved to Southie.  And when I say psychotic, I mean P-S-Y-C-O-T-I-C. 


I grew up literally one city over, right across the Charles River.  We got the same amount of snow that Boston did, but we did not lose our minds during a storm.  Cambridge kind of had a tough guy snow mentality when I was growing up, so weird, who would have thought Cambridge would have a tough guy mentality about anything?  When I was in grammar school, they rarely had a snow day.  I would get so mad at Canton because they would always pop right up on the school cancellation list where Cambridge should have been.


So you can imagine my shock (not really shock, I had known about this before since it always made the news after a snow storm, but I had never experienced it first hand), my SHOCK that people saved spaces.  How can you save a spot on a public street?  Did you pay for that spot?  Half the time they don't even SHOVEL it, they just throw an orange cone, chair, trash barrel, saw horse, paint can, lawn jockey, porcelain Elvis head or some other piece of junk into a mounting snow drift and 'claim' it as theirs.  Forever.  

About 2 or 3 winters ago, Mayor Menino decided that he was tired of Southie making up their own rules and sent garbage trucks around the city to pick up all the stuff that was claiming spots and throw it away.  Well, when everyone came home from work that day, it appeared as if spots were stolen, a HUGE no no, and lets just say lots of tires were slashed.  The Mayor never announced he was clearing out the spot savers, so people parked in what they thought were available spots, and people came home to find their spot savers moved and someone parked in 'their space'.  There was one incident 2 winters ago where someone parked in a handicap spot, illegally.  Hey there wasn't a cone!  Free grabs!  Anyway, the poor little old lady parked in the spot directly in front of her handicap spot, moving a cone that was 'saving' it.  She made the news when all 4 tires were slashed on her car.  For real.


Once that disastrous winter was over, Mayor Menino decided to let people keep their space savers for 24 hours.  Because that's logical!  Give people an ambiguous timeframe and then don't enforce it.  That will work out well.  These are all pictures that I took around my apartment of saved spaces.  A casual 3 days after the storm hit.  No big deal!  [End Rant].


On a completely unrelated note, I have a cone in my trunk at all times, and I DO save a spot, hey if you can't beat 'em JOIN 'em!

62. December 27th, 2010 Picture.

I had taken Monday off, prolonging my mini Christmas vacation, but it turns out that because of the snow, work was cancelled!  While at my Uncle's house the night before, I got an automated phone call telling me that the office would be closed and to not come in.  I could definitely get used to getting messages like that!  Since it was oh so snowy outside, I didn't leave the house, except to shovel out my car.  Here is a shot of my front door.

You can see why I didn't leave!

62. December 26th, 2010 Picture.

The day after Christmas, my family hosted the annual Downey Family Christmas Party, a yearly tradition, obviously.  There are so many of us that we now rent out a hall, hire a DJ and have our party catered, oh and a bar, and usually TV so we can watch the Patriots game.  It started when I was 10 and has continued for the past 17 years, at various locations.  It's completely impossible for one person to host us all, at their house, when it's the middle of winter and the kids can't be running their energy off outside while the adults sip beers in lawn chairs.  I told you - there are A LOT of us!

It was a great venue, our first time testing it out, mainly because there was a separate room for the music, i.e. kids dancing, running and yelling.  There are so many young kids now, that when we're all thrown together in one room it's utter CHAOS.  Like, I want to pull my hair out and throw myself off the roof chaos.  I love children, especially those I'm related to, but I have always said I cannot handle them in mass, it's one of the reasons I didn't become a teacher.  That and because I'd have no patience and would most definitely hate teaching, but I would really love to only work 9 months a year.  Anyway!  I loved that the adults could be in one room, talking like, you know, adults while the kids caused absolute mayhem next door.  The DJ was great and played all the songs the kids loved, including the Hokey Pokey, and the Chicken Dance (which he played twice).  What?  It's the quintessential family party playlist.  I'm pretty sure we threw in a little Sister Sledge too.

{A handful of kids doing the Chicken Dance.  I use the term 'handful' loosely.  Trust me.}

The day after Christmas we were actually hit with the most ridiculous snowstorm.  The news was saying that we could get 2 feet overnight, which caused a lot of family members to stay home, including my brother Eddie.  Here's a shot of my Uncle Bill calling Eddie to give him a piece of his mind.  I'm pretty sure he called him the biggest wimp ever.  God, I love Uncle Bill!

{My Uncle Paul getting in on the Chicken Dance action.  This was the second time the DJ played it, we're total dorks.}

{We even did crab races.  The kids were hilarious at this, but the best part was when the adults tried it out.  Fortunately for us, those photos don't exist!  What a shame.}

Ratty had spent Christmas night at his parents house, so his mother drove him down to Melrose for our party.  She came in for a few minutes, and got the opportunity to meet my mother and most of my extended relatives.  She could not get over the size of our family and when I told her that there was probably only about 35% in attendance, her head almost exploded.  That's the typical reaction we get from people.  To us it's completely normally, to me it seems strange to come from a small family, like, what do you mean you're an only child and you have NO cousins?  I have 50 and I love them all!

We stayed at the party until the last possible second, and then decided to go to my Uncle Paul's house for an after party.  This was the plan all along, though almost everyone backed out due to the weather.  Most sane people would have just headed home to wait out the storm, but being the adventurous couple that we are, Ratty and I braved the weather to spend more time with my family.  In all it was me, Ratty, Uncle Paul, Susan, my cousins Annmarie and Richard.  We spent all night cozied up in the living room, drinking beers and just hanging out.  I love spending time with my family, a theme that is well documented on this blog, so I didn't want to pull myself away.  Eventually my mom called, repeatedly, and said that we had to leave, the roads were closing due to the storm and unless I was willing to sleep in a twin bed next to my cousin, it was time to go.  We all said goodbye and headed home.  Poor Annmarie's car got towed, and her, Richard and Sue spent a good portion of the night trying to get it out of the impound lot.  We left a few minutes before her, so it wasn't until we got home that we heard the news.  I was totally upset for her, what a horrible ending to an awesome day. 

Uncle Paul lives probably 20 minutes away from my apartment, but the highways hadn't been plowed, AT ALL, so we had to crawl through the back roads.  It took us over an hour and a half to make it the few miles back to Southie, even the side streets weren't plowed!  I don't know what the cities were doing but all the roads were totally unsafe.  I was so tense going up small inclines, knowing that if I stopped for a second, my little standard wouldn't make it.  BUT we made it home and lived to tell the tale!  Regardless of the commute home, and the car towing of course, and you know, all the snow, it was a great day!

{So much snow.  We had no idea that this was JUST the beginning!}

62. December 25th, 2010 Picture.

 [NOTE: For some reason, Blogger has had issues, and this post was lost somehow.  I am reposting it, but I think all the comments were lost.  Thankfully I have all my posts emailed to me, so the entire post wasn't completely lost!]

Nothing like a great Christmas post in May, right?  Isn't that how the old saying goes?  No?  Okay, cool.  Let's recap it anyway!  

Christmas is always chaotic, there are so many people in my family, so many guests, children, presents, last minute gift panics, glasses of wine, bottles of beer, more glasses of wine and lots of shrimp, it's impossible for the day to not fly by.  

It started bright an early when Eddie, Christine, Cassie and Abigail came to open stockings.  We are a big stocking family, so it's tradition we always wake up and open them together.  Eddie and Christine alternate spending Christmas with us and her family, and since they were at my mom's house this year for Thanksgiving, they'd be spending Christmas afternoon with Christine's family.  We still obviously needed to see them, open stockings, presents and have breakfast, so they came over super early in their PJs so we could spend Christmas morning together.

{Me and my cutie pies, all decked out in our comfy, cozy pajamas!  Check out Cassie's lime green hair, she tried to convince me that her mom let her dye it, I totally played along.}

{The super awesome sparkily eye shades that caused pandemonium.}

{Check out my sweet Glee fleece pants!  They were from the girls and they are totally awesome.  Pair it with my Glee t-shirt and I am officially all Gleeked out!}

{And Abby wants the eye shades!  But look at her cute little face, it's impossible to say no.}

{By far one of the best Christmas gifts I got was a stamp from my mom.  She knows how much I love cookbooks, food, cooking and The Food Network, etc, so she got me this adorable personalized stamp.  I love it!  I went around stamping everything I could find, random scraps of paper, paper towels, back of wrapping paper, and my Ina Garten cookbook, which is what you see here.  I love that I can stamp an envelope, recipe card, wrapping paper, part of a gift, wine tag, or pretty much anything I want - the possibilities are endless!  It's so so so so so perfect.}

Once all the commotion died down from the first round of Christmas, my mom and I got going on producing the second portion.  We had to clean up all the breakfast items, wash all the champagne glasses, and get all the food in the oven for round two!  I was in charge of the cheese tray, I always claim this as 'mine', so I assembled all my hard cheeses on a platter with crackers, honey, cranberries, fig jam, nuts, mmm fig jam, then got down to making my baked brie.  I'd bought some puff pastry at Trader Joe's, along with a mini wheel of brie.  I cut off portions of the rind, to allow for the cheese to ooze, because who doesn't love gooey cheese?  I covered the top of the brie with brown sugar and honey and wrapped it in the puff pastry.  I had some left over pieces and decided to try a little decorative flair with the hearts.  I think it looks pretty good!  The I popped it in the oven for about a half hour until it got all brown and flaky and gooey and now I'm hungry.

Everyone started arriving, my sister Kate, her husband and two teenage girls, my brother Ronny, his wife and their two children, Cameron and Chloe, my cousin Susan and my Uncle Paul, phew it was QUITE the full house!  The kids went off to watch Christmas movies on TV, while the adults kicked back, relaxed, ate and drank.  I was on my bestest behavior, not wanting to pull another Thanksgiving episode where I drank a wee bit too much champagne, which pleased no one, especially me the next morning.

We spent all day just laughing, telling stories and enjoying eachother's company.  Our phone rang no less than 1 million times, each with a different family member, friend or neighbor wishing us a Merry Christmas, my mom is pretty popular, but I'm sure you all knew that already.

My sister had to leave on the early side, she'd worked the night before, she's a nurse, so she was absolutely wiped out.  I don't blame her!  We quickly exchanged gifts with her, Harry, Devon and Amanda [the recipient of the awesome slippers], and she gave me the OTHER 'best gift of the year'.  A KINDLE!

It was the biggest hit I've ever seen.  The Kindle won Christmas. [Ratty's KichenAid mixer won Christmas Eve, don't worry!]  No one could get over how tiny it was, how thin, and forget about the fact that it could hold thousands of books, plugs right into your computer AND has a battery life of a month.  A MONTH!  Nothing lasts a month anymore, not even a bottle of shampoo!  It was an absolutely epic gift!

Once Katie left, the party continued for a few more hours, with everyone opening their gifts.  Since there were so many of us, we let the kids tear into their first, they have the attention spans of fruit flies, and then the adults went around and opened their gifts one at time, so everyone else could admire what they received.  The funniest gift of the night was a pink tool belt Katie got my mom.  My mom is always fixing things around the house, we joke that she is the super, so they thought it would be hilarious to get her a tool belt she could wear around.  It was a huge hit, obviously.

We called it a night at a pretty decent time, we all needed our beauty sleep to rest up for ANOTHER Christmas party the next day, the Annual Downey's Family Christmas Party, which is always pure insanity.  You'll see!  I hope everyone had a nice Christmas, you know, 5 months ago!

24. Try Brunch at 25 New Places - Stephi's on Tremont.

Remember my pumpkin?  My awesome little pumpkin that I was borderline obsessed with all fall/winter?  I bought it at the SoWa Farmers Market and carried it around with me all afternoon – it was just so darn cute!  Well, I think I have waited a sufficient amount of time to recap out actual brunch that took place on that very same day, what do you think? 

Since the South End is filled with lots of amazing restaurants, practically one on every corner, it’s no surprise that this neighborhood is a destination for Sunday Brunch.  Each restaurant was filled to the brim, with people packed in at the bar, enjoying mimosas and bloody mary’s on the beautiful fall day.  We decided to try out Stephi’s on Tremont street, mostly because it has a phenom reputation and was offering brunch later than a few other places we’d popped into.  Stephi is the same Stephanie who runs Stephanie’s on Newbury Street, and is the wife of TV advertising lawyer Jim Sokoloff.  Fun Fact!   Totally random right?  They're totally poor, but I digress.  

Since we’d spent the morning shopping at the open market, we had missed the majority of the brunch rush and some brunch options all together!  That’s what we get for wanted to eat at 2:45pm.  I think there should be a law that makes restaurants serve brunch until at least 3pm on Sundays, what say you all?  It totally worked in our favor though as the place was  relatively busy, but we only had to wait a few minutes before our table was ready.  Thankfully, we had mimosas in hand, which made the 5 minute waiting period so much less painful.  Mimosas are known to make almost anything less painful, I mean, think about it.

Stephi’s is an adorable little spot with lots of windows, natural light, and comfy booths all around the dining room.  The molding is white, accented with dark wood floors and leather studded booths, which makes the place modern, classic and utterly perfect.  It is what I imagine a millionaire’s kitchen to look like – amazing upholstered chairs outfitted in traditional yet funky prints, white marble bartops, white pendant lamps and a private dining room with French doors and beautiful textured wallpaper.  Seriously, I want to know their designer, whom I obviously would never be able to afford but I could at least stalk their website and steal decorating ideas.

{The true star of the day!}

I was having a definite craving for huevos rancheros, which is quickly becoming my new favorite brunch food, I still love you Eggs Benedict, but I’m just taking a little break, hope that’s okay!  While Stephi’s didn’t have huevos on their menu, they did have this amazing Mexican dish which absolutely hit the spot.  It was called Arepa con Chorizo, which was a corncake topped with grilled chorizo salad, 2 eggs sunny side up covered in pico de gallo.  It was spicy, yummy and all around delicious.  I even joked that I could have eaten another order, but I refrained. 

{Doesn't it look amazing?!  Minus the cilantro, I hate cilantro, but it was easily removable and in no way hurt the deliciousness of my meal.}

The service was great, with our waiter bringing coffee and mimosa refills exactly when we needed them.  I definitely rank Stephi's high up on my brunch list!  Two down, 23 to go!

{You get the idea.}

62. December 24th, 2010 Picture.

Every Christmas Eve, Ratty's Aunt and Uncle host a party at their house where they serve lots of Chinese food and open presents - Chinese food is a must at any Christmas eve party, obviously.  This is the same Aunt and Uncle who host the awesome Lobster Bake at their summer house on Lake Winnipesaukee, remember?  This was my second year attending the festivities and I was pretty excited to enjoy some Christmas cheer.  Ratty and I were exchanging presents at the party, I'd bought his mom a Yankee Candle, his brother a case of his favorite beer, and made his dad some Red Velvet sandwich cookies, yes from SCRATCH! [post coming soon!].  Ratty was getting a brand new Project RED ipod, but he didn't know it yet.

 The tradition at this party is that Uncle Bill [I'm pretty sure everyone has an Uncle Bill], calls out each gift individually, and always says the gift is from Santa.  For example, he'll pick up a gift, yell out 'To Amy!  From Santa!' and then everyone will watch said person open said gift.  Ratty had been all secretive with my present, saying that he'd left it in the trunk and he'd run out and grab it later in the night: cue suspicions.  Even when Uncle Bill was calling out gifts left and right, Ratty had yet to make a move - hello priorities!  Don't pull the same stunt as last year when you didn't bring my gift and I waited until two weeks after Christmas to get it!  Granted it was a flat screen TV, so all animosity was forgotten, but still.  The waiting game was not cool.

To my surprise Uncle Bill called out my name and dragged over this enormous purple gift bag, like, massive.  I looked dumbfounded at the bag and equally as dumbfounded at Ratty.  He'd arranged for his mother to bring my gift to the party, so that whole thing about it being in my trunk was a total ruse.  Such a sneak!  

So my Christmas present from Ratty was, drumroll please..............

A KTICHENAID MIXER!  I almost lost my mind I was so excited.  A MIXER!  And it is JUST like the one Ina has, which makes me one step closer to being her best friend.  Ratty definitely won Christmas.  Yay presents!

62. December 23rd, 2010 Picture.

I lined up all my mini jars of Holiday goodness for you today.  I love Christmas scents and feel there is a really small window to actually use them.  I can't exactly burn Balsam and Cedar in the middle of August no matter how much I'd like to - I can feel the air getting too heavy as we speak.  I recently burned Mountain Pine in my bedroom and my asthma flared up, it's like my body knew it was out of season.  Something about woodsy, Christmas scents are only acceptable when it's snowing outside, which is perfectly fine by me.  I loved having this little holiday sampler to get me through the dark, cold months.   What's even better is that I received all these Yankee Candle creations from work.  Sparking Cinnamon was a gift for donating blood, and Mistletoe, Christmas Cookie and Red Apple Wreath were Christmas gifts from my bosses.  What is not to love about that?!  I'll tell you, absolutely nothing!

62. December 22nd, 2010 Picture.

I told you I was waiting until the last minute!  The day after I wrote out all my cards, I put this giant stack in the mail.  I had to send them out in waves mainly because I kept running out of stamps and I didn't want the mail people at work to hate me.  I hope they all made it to their intended destinations by Christmas Eve!

Note the adorable stars on the envelopes - I seriously love stars.

9. Send Christmas Cards.

Remember when I bought all my Christmas cards in November, in preparation for this exact task?  I put those cards in a really safe place, and waited until it was almost Christmas to write them out.    Literally, almost Christmas!  If I waited any longer they wouldn't be delivered until after Christmas, which pretty much ruins the whole point.  I finally buckled down one evening after work and wrote nice little festive messages to all my friends and family.  It wasn't until I had them all fanned out on my bed that I realized they looked a touch like Hanukkah cards, if such things exist.  I thought they were really beautiful, non traditional cards, with blues and yellows, complete with snow and little sparkily stars.  I'm a total sucker for sparkily stars so I needed to own them, obviously, religiousness aside.  I re-read the message and determined they were perfectly suitable for Christmas.  Then I noticed a church with a white steeple and stained glass window.  Hello!  Totally Christmas!

I'm really glad I sent out Christmas cards this year, it's a totally sweet gesture that I hope people enjoyed, I mean who doesn't LOVE getting mail?!  I love getting Christmas cards, and now I appreciate all the effort it takes! By the time I was done writing out my notes and address the envelopes, my hand was cramping, bad.  It's been a long time since I've had to actually hand write something, and I'm pretty sure I developed arthritis or carpel tunnel or both - in BOTH hands.  It definitely spread.  I totally understand why people have holiday cards printed, though I think that's reserved for people with kids. I mean, isn't the best part about Christmas cards seeing adorable little kids? Yes, yes it is.  Guess I'll just have to keep handwriting mine!

62. December 21st, 2010 Picture.

I love Christmas shopping, no seriously, I do.  I love coming up with great gift ideas and hunting for the most absolute perfect thing.  I like to think I'm a really great shopper, my mom has even said that next year she is paying me to do all her shopping, because I end up getting awesome gifts for next to nothing.  I bought my nephew Cameron an orange zip up hoodie with a skateboarder graphic on the front and I swear that every single time I've seen him since Christmas, he is wearing it.  My brother said it's the only thing he wears and that it's a struggle to get him to take it off long enough to wash it.  I got it at Old Navy for $6.  I should have bought him 3.

I'm not really one of those people who buys stuff all year long and tucks it away until the holidays.  First off the whole issue of storage would drive me insane, plus I am sure that I would forget what I put aside, eventually finding gifts I like better, and be stuck with wayyy to many things. I like to go out on one, massive shopping expedition and come back with gifts for almost everyone.  I feel very accomplished when I have a lot of shopping bags.  I love shopping bags.  I love carrying shopping bags.  I also love places like TJ Maxx and Old Navy, where I can buy lots of adorable things that don't totally break the bank.  I tend to buy a few extras of things I like, because inevitably, you'll need to throw a gift together at the last minute.  Or at least I do, considering I have the largest family ever.  I made the mistake of not following that rule this year, I bought Cassie fancy sparkily eye shades that she loved, and Abby was beside herself that she didn't get fancy sparkily eye shades to match.  I should have obviously bought multiple pairs, just in case.  She has since received her own fancy sparkily eye shades, so everyone is happy!

Here's a look at my haul.  I had things stacked in the back corner, on my chair, not to mention these bags that completely took over my floor - I bought a lot of stuff!  There were a few things I bought for myself, you know, to keep it all fair.  I bought adorable knitted slippers from Old Navy for my sister in law Christine and niece Amanda, I loved them so much I bought myself a pair.  I even wore them on Christmas, where Amanda asked me no less than 10 times where I bought them.  Little did she know I'd already bought them for her, in her favorite color, pink.  I also bought some extra cookbooks that somehow weren't given away.  I guess I will have to keep the limited edition  Better Homes cookbook for myself.  Twist my arm, why dontcha!