Tag Archives: holidays

new traditions

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This year for the first time in a very long time, I’m actually looking forward to the holidays. I’m cooking for Turkey Day again for the first time in a couple of years and I’ve already made a few pies.

And I really do love baking pie. (my pecan pie was a very big hit this weekend…)

I’m ready for some new traditions. I’m ready to string up lights, and bake, and start streaming Holiday music. I’m ready for a Christmas morning where everyone has a gift under the tree and a smile on their face.

I’m ready to eat my favorite Candy Cane Hershey Kisses or Ghiardelli’s Peppermint Bark.
Yeah, for the first time in a long time, I’m in a good place and actually excited about the holidays.
Are you looking forward to anything special? Or are you feeling like I did for the past few years, like the holidays are sitting on your shoulders weighing 2 tons and crushing your soul….? I really hope not, because the holidays should never crush anyone’s soul, trust me I’m a professional. 🙂

shenanigans and pie

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I will be hanging with my #2 kid (birth order, not preference) and my #1 Fella (definitely preference) at the Neon Trees concert tonight. Can’t wait. I predict shenanigans!

Check this out! They did a cover of Justin Bieber’s BABY and I actually LOVE this song now!

Tomorrow is the Hog game against Mississippi State and the night my friends do our Thanksgiving dinner. I’m bringing pies.

Because I make good pies.

Last week I made a chocolate pecan pie for El Jefe’s birthday and that seemed to be a big hit with my #1 fella, so I think I may do it all over again! Along with apple and punkin.

I love pie.

And here’s a little piece of Melf trivia: I was born on March 14 or 3/14…or 3.14 the number for pi.

I was born on Pi day! of course I love Pie!

a Melf pet-peeve

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Gather around, Internetz. Melf has a pet-peeve she’d like to discuss with you.

Halloween falls on the same date every year: October 31

So why is it that every time the holiday falls on a Sunday, the question arises “When do we celebrate Halloween?”

I truly don’t understand why this question is even asked. We celebrate Halloween on October 31…like we always do!

Okay, I bring this up because the county in which I currently reside (Saline) has voted that trick-or-treating will take place this year on Saturday.

And the reason they are giving for this? Because it’s on a school night and kids need their rest.

*cough*bullshit*cough*

They’ve never passed a resolution on any other weekday in history to observe Halloween over the weekend instead of during the week. Are they saying that kids only need rest on Sunday nights?

This has absolutely nothing to do with being a school day and has everything to do with Halloween being a supposedly “evil” holiday and landing on a “holy” day. It’s crap, is what it is, and it gives me a rash.

You either celebrate Halloween or you don’t–and the day the holiday falls on shouldn’t matter. But to legislate the day an entire community must trick-or-treat to appease a few is beyond ridiculous. Halloween is on Sunday October 31, not on Saturday, October 30. If you come to my house Saturday night, I won’t be home…sorry. However, Sunday night, I will have a big bucket o’ candy waiting for you. Because THAT is Halloween–I don’t care what the Saline County Board of Whatevers say.

I heart halloween

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I love Halloween. It’s the best holiday on earth! And I’ve already started working on this year’s costume…

Here’s a hint:

Any guesses as to who I’m going to be this year?

Have a great weekend, ya’ll! If you’re in Oxford, come to Square Books, Jr. today at 5:00 to see me!!!

fun, fun, fun (til her daddy to the flamingo away)

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This is Frederico. He pointed us into the direction of fun all weekend long. I can’t believe that was our last hoorah! There was much tubing and laughing and lazing about. And the weather was perfect. A fabulous end to a fabulous summer. I’m curious to see if my daddy decides to remove Frederico from his post before next summer. My guess is, poor Frederico will be forcibly removed before too long.

In other news, have you seen my friend Maria Geraci’s book trailer for THE BOYFRIEND OF THE MONTH CLUB yet?

I kinda wanna do one now. Hmmmm.

Did y’all have a good weekend? Ruby the Pug sure had fun, too.

how did I miss NATIONAL WAFFLE DAY?

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Yesterday was National Waffle Day. Yes, we here in America, celebrate he anniversary of the first U.S. patent for a waffle iron. Which is The Awesome if you ask me.

(the only thing missing from this picture is bacon. Hmmm, wonder when National Bacon Day is, cuz you know there is one. BRB. I’m checking that now… )

[insert musak while you wait]

and I’m back.

From Wikipedia: International Bacon Day or Bacon Day is an unofficial observance, often celebrated on the Saturday before US Labor Day (the first Monday of September). If I found it on Wikipedia, you know it’s true…

Wait. I was just totally lured away from the Waffle by Bacon. Bacon is a naughty meat and should be punished by me eating it. Come here Bacon…

ANYWAY, I love National Waffle Day and I’m sad I missed it, so tonight, I will be celebrating with my kids by making waffles for dinner(with a side of yummy bacon to punish it for being so tempting).

Here’s some waffle trivia for your reading pleasure. (Everyone wants to learn more about waffles)

  • The ice cream cone was invented at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 when an ice cream vendor ran out of cups and asked a waffle vendor to help by rolling up waffles to hold ice cream.
  • The first Waffle House restaurant opened on Labor Day in 1955 in Avondale Estates, GA.
  • Each year Waffle House customers eat more than 334,000 pounds of pecans in their waffles. That is more than 21 million pecans. Visit WaffleHouse.com for more fun facts.
  • 13th Century A.C. – Ancient Greeks cook flat cakes between two metal plates. These early waffles were called obleios and were primarily savory in nature, prepared with cheeses and herbs.
  • 1620 – The pilgrims bring Dutch “wafles” to America.
  • 1735 – The word “waffle” – with two “f”s – appears in English print for the first time.
  • Late 1800’s – Thomas Jefferson returns to the U.S. from France with a long handled, patterned waffle iron.
  • 1869 – Cornelius Swarthout patents the first U.S. Waffle Iron.
  • 1953 – Frank Dorsa’s Eggo Frozen Waffles are sold in Supermarkets for the first time.
  • 1964-65 – Brussels restaurateur Maurice Vermersch brings his wife’s Brussels Waffle recipe to the World’s Fair in New York. The fluffy yeast-infused waffle becomes a huge hit and becomes known as the Belgium waffle.

Now you know…and knowing is half the battle!

2010: day the 1st

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Last year, I chose 3 words to describe the previous year (2008) and 3 words to describe the coming year (2009). Let’s see if I did a good job predicting what 2009 would be for me.

2009
centered
bright
determined

I believe the first half of 2009 was very much these things for me. And I believe determined made it all the way through the year. Bright managed to finish the race, but I lost my shimmer every once in a while. Centered fell away sometime in the summer and never returned.

Overall, I feel pretty good about the words I chose. I think Centered was replaced by Frustrated.

2010
focused
sparkly
fun

What three words are you going to use to describe the coming year? What 3 words would you describe 2009 with?

Here are the things I planned to accomplish in 2009:
Be a better mother (Check)
Be a more disciplined writer (Nope. Not even close)
Run the 10K and keep training for a half-marathon (Did 5K and decided I’m more a walker than a runner. Also lost 35lbs)
Get a tattoo for my 40th birthday (Check)
Laugh every day at least once (Check)

2010’s list:
BE A MORE DISCIPLINED WRITER. (maybe if I put it at the top of the list and in all caps…)
Cook something new at least once a month.
Continue to exercise 4+ days a week and lose final 30 lbs.
Spend more fun time with the boys.
Teach Ian how to drive.
Laugh every day at least once. (this should be on everyone’s list every year, don’t ya think?)

I don’t think of these as resolutions, just goals I hope to accomplish. What are your goals?

Welcome 2010. It’s gonna be a great year.

Dear 2009,

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Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.

My friends and I were talking yesterday and we have decided that 2009 has been a year of either REALLY BIG HIGHS or REALLY BIG LOWS. There has been no in between. And dealing with both highs and lows with barely any time to catch our breath, we also decided that we’re exhausted.

So hasta la vista 2009.

I consider myself a very lucky girl. Even though we had a few scares over the year (a scary car accident with my niece and SIL and my BIL’s heart attack) my family remains healthy. And I’m very grateful for that. Several of my friends are struggling with illness in their lives and it breaks my heart for them. So knock on wood, we have our health.

I want to end this year on a positve note, so I think I’ll name all the good things that have happened to me over the year. If I focus on the good, the memories of the bad will fade into the distance.

  1. Wrote LOVE SUCKS!
  2. Won money at the horse races (not a lot, but hey, it paid for dinner and drinks!)
  3. Reconnected with some dear old friends and have rekindled some fantastic friendships that will last forever
  4. Got my awesome tattoo
  5. started working on a 40 things to do at 40 list and have accomplished many things on the list
  6. Ran my first 5K
  7. Celebrated the Month of Mel
  8. Turned 40 with style
  9. Went to two conferences, one in Florida and one in DC
  10. Spent some time at the beach
  11. Began to plot out a new series
  12. BUNCO BABES TELL ALL and BUNCO BABES GONE WILD both hit the stands
  13. CAN’T STAND THE HEAT also hit the stands
  14. oh yeah, and my debut novel BITE ME! finally made into the wild
  15. I found more than 100 four-leaf clovers over the summer
  16. Spent a weekend at Beaver Lake with my Thursday Girls.
  17. Got an email from CNBC’s Melissa Francis
  18. BITE ME! went into a 3rd printing
  19. After two years we finally sold our house in Oxford
  20. Saw Staind in concert!
  21. Did a local interview on a morning show
  22. Saw my ‘wee Scottish lad’ and his family in Nashville
  23. did the Race for the Cure
  24. Lost 35 pounds (and depending on the clothing) 2-3 sizes
  25. Had several successful book signings, an author talk, and visited the book club at my former high school

Looking at my list of good things that have happened this year (and I know I haven’t listed them all, but this is what came to mind this morning) I realize even with all the lows, 2009 wasn’t all that bad. Sure there have been some tough times, but I’m going to believe the good out weighs the bad.

The Universe wants me to know that 2010 is all mine. I thought I’d share that with you as well. The future’s so bright…I gotta wear shades.

Have you ever noticed how folks instinctively know that creating wealth is
much more fun than spending it, yet they dream more about spending it than they
do about creating it?Could it be, Melissa, they’ve momentarily forgotten that
they’re supernatural, that they can have whatever they want, and that life is
but a dream? 2010 is all yours, baby – The Universe

a picture’s worth 1000 words…

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Yes, it’s a bit blurry, but this sums up my boys like no other picture can. Can you believe they are separated by 4 years? Me either.

The favorite gift I gave (My mom will kill me for this. If you don’t hear from me for a couple of days, call the police and have them search her property near the pond. Or in the pond…)I had this blown up to an 8×10, framed it and gave it to my daddy. Best. Present. Ever. (Please forgive me, Momma.)

Even Ruby got a gift:I don’t think she liked her Snuggie very much. Hmmmm. She sure was cute in it for 10 whole minutes though!