It has been exactly one year since I left my job at the Central Park Boathouse. I stayed on long enough to get them through Thanksgiving, which is by far their biggest day of the year. Over 1200 people are served a prix-fixe meal, which means everyone gets dessert. That’s a lot of dessert, especially for a staff of three to produce, so you can imagine how I felt when I had Thanksgiving off this year. I thought that I’d finally be able to cook a wonderful Thanksgiving feast for my family just like any normal family. The thing is, after one of the busiest weeks of the year for the business, I didn’t really feel like cooking. Come to think of it, I’ve been cooking on Thanksgiving for almost every year of the 14 years that I have lived in New York. What should have been my favorite holiday became one that I dreaded. So no cooking this year for me. The food was taken care of by others and I took it easy, more or less. It was exactly the kind of Thanksgiving that I needed.

I do, however, still do a bit of consulting at the Boathouse, so I did write their Thanksgiving dessert menu this year. They served the usual apple crisp, warm chocolate cake, and pumpkin pie, plus a caramel custard, a maple cheesecake, and a cranberry bread pudding. I worked a day there on Tuesday to help them get it all ready, so I guess I did do my share of cooking this year. 80 pumpkin pies counts as cooking, right? I’ll share my pumpkin pie recipe as a holiday treat for our readers who aren’t yet tired of pumpkin pie. It really is the best, even Claudine likes it!

Pumpkin Pie (makes one 9-inch pie)

Pie shell for a one-crust 9-inch pie, unbaked
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup half & half
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
2 cups pumpkin puree
2 Tablespoons melted butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix everything except the pumpkin and butter together with a hand-held blender until smooth (if you don’t have one, use a whisk or a regular blender). Add the pumpkin and butter and mix again until smooth. Pour into the prepared pie shell and bake in the preheated oven for about an hour, or until completely cooked throughout. Chill completely before serving.

On one of our walks out at my mom’s, I saw these little roses still clinging on to their mostly bare bushes – the last signs of seasons passing now that winter is upon us. It looks and feels like winter already, so the equinox in a few weeks is only a formality. We head back to Brooklyn today after a few days of glorious leisure and we had all sorts of family dropping in, including cousins I haven’t seen in a while. Our full, extended family doesn’t spend the holidays together as much since all the kids are scattered around the country, but seeing the girls play with my younger cousins made me remember what holiday gatherings used to be like in the past. I just hope that in our busy schedule, we’ll be able to enjoy the weeks leading up to the holidays since that’s where the fun lies. Anyone else think that the actual day (Christmas or whichever holiday you celebrate) feels like a letdown after all those weeks of anticipation? I used to get quite melancholy when I was a kid, and in years past, Mark’s absence because of work didn’t help either. Now that we can all spend Christmas day together, I’m hoping to establish some sort of new yearly tradition with the kids -what are some of yours?

Park and playground in the morning. Thanksgiving meal around 3. In our family, the turkey is never carved at the table, but instead it’s shredded in the kitchen and brought out with the rest of the food, buffet style, eaten on paper plates. Is that weird? It’s never a formal sit down dinner and the spread is always a clash of 2 cultures – turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and canned cranberry sauce, intermingled among the Korean dishes and soups. And what did Ms Picky Claudine have for her Thanksgiving meal? Some bites of apple, oranges, plums and asian pear. Oh and a few cookies. Could be worse, I guess…

We’re at our thanksgiving destination already (just my mom’s house) and Mark finally gets to relax. Never mind that it will be hectic again once we get back to Brooklyn in a few days as we dive into holiday orders, but it’s sort of amazing that he has *nothing* to do at the moment. Not even watching the kids as my dad is playing with them. He may even write a post or 2 in the next few days.

We’ve got a lot to be thankful for this year. I’m thankful that I am busy with work (and more is coming in, which is making my head spin, but seems crazy to turn anything down right now). We’re thankful for our good health (but not our health insurance conundrum), for our family, friends and our funny, cute, amazing kids. We’re really thankful that the business we started just 8 months ago has gone farther than we ever imagined and that we’ve managed to turn unemployment into an opportunity and a dream that is actually profitable the first year. But most of all, we are thankful to all of you who have given us encouragement through comments and emails, supported our business (and our family) through orders, and for coming to our little corner of the web again and again. It has been nice getting to know you guys a little bit – the internet is amazing in that way, isn’t it? Thank you.

It starts earlier and earlier every year, doesn’t it? But somehow, even though the stores all have their tinsel up, it doesn’t quite register until Thanksgiving rolls around. Then it sort of clicks and instead of scoffing at all the holiday catalogs and the trees and fake snow that have been on display for a few weeks, it’s suddenly feels festive and charming. Holidays have taken on a whole new meaning now that we have the business and I can sort of see why Mark never looked forward to them because of all the work and holidays that he missed while being at the restaurant, but at least we can take the actual holidays off even if the days surrounding them are crazy. I am debating whether or not to get a tree. Like a lot of people, we are really trying to budget and it seems a little frivolous given how uncertain next year will be. But then I can’t help but think of how the girls will react, especially Claudine who will actually be able to express herself this year if we drag a tree into the house (ever feel like this is a really weird thing to do sometimes? We never had a live tree growing up, just fake ones, so I am still getting used to the whole idea). I can hear her now, as she stands there by the elevator, looking up as Mark brings the tree in, “Ooooooh!”.

And the wind isn’t helping. Winter just came on full force after such a mild October and first half of November. It’s the kind of weather that makes you want to stay in bed all day because coming out from under the comforters might prove to be a most unpleasant, cold transition to the morning. I worry about Claudine who sleeps in footed fleece jammies, but who most likely kicks off her blankets at night. She’s too tall for even the biggest sleepsack, so I guess I’ll just continue piling blankets on her and hope for the best.

I’m feeling fairly good today. Both Mark and I managed to get in 7 hours of sleep last night after having only slept about 12 hours in the past 3 days. I had an all day photoshoot for work yesterday and went through periods of crashing and picking up steam, but today I am home with the kids. We are finally all caught up with orders and Mark will be at the Flea again this cold day. Luckily for him, it will be the last one outdoors before we move in for various holiday fairs. Send him some warm thoughts. The last thing he probably wants to do after a marathon of sleepless, baking and packing days is stand outside for 9 hours in 30-something degree weather.

Did you know that we now have maple marshmallows? They quietly snuck in our etsy and 1000 Markets store a week or so ago, but for some reason I haven’t made a mention of it here and they haven’t made it to our online shop yet. They are soooo good in coffee. I like to plop one in and nuke it in the microwave for a few seconds to get it melting (well, at least I did before cutting out most sugar in my diet). I never thought they would be compatible, but the 2 flavors are pretty spectacular together.

I was at New York Central Artist Supply store today after dropping off more cookies to Martha Stewart and I overheard a customer saying that NY is like a weird time warp – time just moves so fast here. It’s true, you know, that things move fast and each day is so full and busy that it’s over before you realize it. I’ve been needing to take a mental break each day from work and kids, and writing in this blog helps me pause and mull things over, usually done with another cup of coffee.

But while my mind needs to rest, my body needs to move. After finally getting a physical after years of not seeing a doctor other than my OBGYN, my bloodwork came back with slightly elevated cholesterol and high blood sugar levels, which is a little surprising since I don’t eat too many fatty foods, red meat, breads, cheese or pasta, and despite what it might look like at our house, sugar. It’s true that my sugar intake may have increased because of taste testing the products since we started the biz, but I’ve cut that out considerably. It may be genetic as my mom is prone to both those things, and I have had high blood sugar levels before, so I just have to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t advance to diabetic levels which the test showed I wasn’t too far from. Great. So what did my doctor prescribe since there isn’t too much sugar or carbs to cut out of my existing diet? Cardio. Sigh. I guess that means I need to get my lazy ass off the couch and actually exercise on a more regular basis. I did walk very briskly about 30 blocks across and down town today between my 2 errands and I think that will be my preferred method of exercise (I’ve quit running years ago as it does a number on my knees and back, and I am so not a gym person). This all goes to show that I am, indeed, getting older.

I’ve written about my love of Ismodern, the children’s clothing line designed by my friend Tami Nguyen Rael, and her enormous generosity (Mia’s flower girl dress was also an Ismodern design). Well, I just received another surprise of samples last night after placing an order for some dresses currently on sale to include in the girls’ Christmas presents (Ismodern has the best sales!). I adore the 2008 fall/winter line and once again, Tami has tucked in shirts, skirts and pants from her current season that will fit both girls. Thank you Tami, for helping to make the girls so fashionable (Mia was sooooo excited).

I don’t know why/what/how, but we got swamped with orders today, both online and wholesale. It’s been a little overwhelming for the last few weeks and we’re trying our best to keep our heads above water. Mark’s been baking non-stop – today since 7am – and he just left to go to the kitchen tonight to bake some more. We just keep telling ourselves that we’ll look back at this time fondly when the post-holiday slowdown settles in come January (which we have to admit, that at this point, we are almost looking forward to!), but first, we have a few tough weeks ahead. Fortunately we have help arriving: Mark’s mom will stay with us for 2 weeks during our most busy period to help watch the girls (um, can we make this a yearly tradition, Lani?)

I sort of chuckled to myself the other day when I remembered that this time last year I was madly researching and planning a tropical beach vacation for this winter coming up because I finally had made the decision that we were going to do it after pining for it for years. We so rarely take vacations that I wanted to splurge for once when Claudine got old enough to really enjoy the water and play in the beach. Well, as it turns out given all the circumstances of this year, that plan is dead, but I did make sure to fulfill one promise that I made to myself last year: to take Mia to the ballet. We haven’t been very good at taking Mia to movies or shows (or museums for that matter) for reasons of time and money (and yes, also pure lameness), but I’m really excited to take her to the Nutcracker this year. And to make sure it happens, I’ve bought the tickets tonight. Feels good to check things off your list.