ok, so here’s the thing. You all know how I feel about the increasing commercialization of blogs. That whole world, however, is not unfamiliar to me. I ran a blog for years that was all about product pushing, sponsorships, giveaways and ads too after all, but it became too much and that’s why I started this blog. I’ll never say never, but you won’t see an ad on here.

The thing is, even though the focus of our blog is not on the business so much anymore, it’s still a part of it if only because our lives are inextricably intertwined with it in every way. But can I tell you the truth? I always feel a wee bit uncomfortable promoting our shop on this blog or on any social media space. It feels like I’m yelling, “BUY OUR COOKIES!” every time I do. Who wants to be hit over the head with cookies every other day? It would annoy you, it would annoy me.

So what’s this Real Simple thing, you say? Isn’t this the very sort of thing that I’m talking about? Well, we *are* trying to run a business and I know I am being ridiculous with this whole aversion-to-promotion-thing (so please don’t make me feel any more ridiculous. I know you’re all rolling your eyes, I see you). Plus I thought it’d be fun to do a stint as guest blogger for the Pop-Up shop with a few of my other fellow guest blogger friends. You know, for the holidays. The Real Simple Pop-Up shop is expecting up to 10,000 visitors daily. It’s open from 10am-10pm, December 1st-6th and I’ll be there tomorrow, opening day, in the afternoon around 1:30. I’ll also make another visit Saturday when a certain somebody *ahem* Tim Gunn *cough* signs his book. Take a look at the schedule of events. It’s a good, festive time and if you see me, say hi!

And so if you’ve read this far, there’s one more thing. I’ve been given gift bags of Real Simple booty to give away to my readers. I don’t normally do this sort of thing, but it’s the holidays! So what’s in the gift bag? Some really good stuff, yo, like Real Simple books! Notebooks! Stationery! Nail polish! Other free stuff! I have 7 to give away, but to win, go to our FaceBook page, become a fan and leave a comment on our Real Simple post. Ok, see what I did there? Our FaceBook page has been rather neglected and lonely (give it some love, will ya?), but I’m trying, I’m trying!

Remember how we said we were going for full out cheese with the school pictures this year considering how bad last year’s photos were? Well…I don’t think this year’s photo disappoints! Seriously, is this even the same kid?

I kinda love it. It’s a slight improvement over last year’s. You’ve got the 2 front missing teeth, the hair that completely looks like helmet hair. I mean sure, we’re trying to grow it out and it’s taking foreeeever so sometimes it looks like it’s in this perpetual state of awkward hair limbo, but the hair looks exceptional here. And then there’s the shirt. I swear this shirt is really cute in real life – a very delicate, royal blue silk shirt with pretty pin tucks, but here the shirt looks shapeless, frumpy and lumpy. So now that I see the rainbow background in action, I really wish she had on that vintage Led Zeppelin blimp shirt I was wishing she had when she picked out the background. And lest you forget, this is usually a very photogenic kid. Let me show you:

Cute, right? Even if she does look a little pissed here. I’m pretty convinced now that there’s a special “class picture” photoshop filter that the rest of us don’t know about, and one that flattens the whole photograph. I know that this was taken on a green screen, but sheesh. All that’s really missing is some unicorns and bunnies on them hills.

Update: Um, I just cornified this picture. It was begging for it. Mia’s going to be THRILLED!

Holiday production is officially on! Mark and I spent Saturday cleaning and organizing our office/supply room and Sunday was spent cutting, ironing, folding, tying ribbons, piping hearts, and packaging for almost 12 straight hours. So much of the business is broken down into repetitive, tedious tasks. Mark will spend hours upon hours scooping cookie dough or cutting cookies out with a cookie cutter, sinking the metal shape into the dough a thousand times, or stuffing hundreds of marshmallow cubes into cello bags. I’ll often wrap a hundred brownies in 1 sitting or tie tiny little bows onto hundreds of wedding favors. It’s mindless, tedious stuff, but you get into a rhythm and just as soon as you swear that you never want to do it again, the cycle begins all over.

Thanks to all who participated in my Black Friday weekend sale on posters and prints, and for “cyber Monday”, we have a coupon code for 10% off your entire order for 1 day only at our website. Enter CYBERMONDAY10 at checkout. Happy Monday!

We aren’t one of those Nutella worshippers who make sure that a jar of the stuff is around the house at all times in case of a chocolate or dessert craving emergency, yet this is what Mark brought home from the grocery store Thanksgiving eve to make bread pudding with. Can’t even remember the last time we bought a jar of Nutella – must have been before the girls’ time which make it at least 7 years ago if not more. But yes, it was good and there was barely any leftover dessert. The pumpkin pie – one of the 90 that Mark baked Wednesday for the restaurant – didn’t fare too well with its journey from Central Park to Brooklyn to Long Island, but that is all gone too. My dad picked the last of the persimmons that were still hanging on like little miniature pumpkins off the leafless tree and we ate that too.

Mia likes having a lot of family around for the holidays. The immediate family isn’t enough. Good thing my grandmother, a few of my aunts, uncles and cousins came by for dinner. These are some of the same cousins who I grew up getting together with for big family holidays, but unlike me, the girls only have 1 baby cousin (so far) who lives far away in California. After they had left, Claudine and Mia treated my parents, Mark and I to a half hour dance recital which involved them taking turns and dancing different styles including disco and the robot.

On black Friday we went bowling (ok, we went to Ikea in the morning too. PS, I am having an after Thanksgiving sale on posters and calendars in my etsy shop). My dad had read my bowling blog entry and had a hankering to go. It had been about 15 years since he had bowled. He reminded me that the bowling pin I remember being in the house was high up on the shelf in the family room. Right before we left, he spent 15 minutes digging around in the garage for his old bowling ball, but it wasn’t found. Didn’t matter. He bowled a spare the first 4 times he was up. He didn’t bowl his 175 average, but it wasn’t too bad for being out of practice for 15 years. Mia was still really into the whole bowling thing, giving out high fives every time someone took a turn, but Claudine was just content eating 2 plates of fries this time, just like I did at that age. But the air hockey! Oh, she found something at the bowling alley that she really liked, so much so that she hogged that table up and didn’t even let me play. The girls even had a crowd of 7-9 year old boys cheering them on, which I thought was sweet.

Oh, but the bread pudding…you didn’t think we weren’t going to give a recipe to you, did you?

Nutella Bread Pudding with Dates (serves about 8, less if you’re a bread pudding hog like me)

2 cups water
2 cinnamon sticks
1 cup dried dates
2 cups heavy cream
3 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
5 cups of challah or brioche, crusts removed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup nutella

Bring the water and cinnamon sticks to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the dates and simmer for one minute, then remove from the heat. Set aside and let the dates cool in the liquid.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl mix the cream, eggs and sugar together. Add the bread and gently stir until well moistened. Set it aside to soak for a few minutes. Now, remove the dates from the liquid. Peel the skins off the dates and remove the pits. Cut each in half, then mix into the bread mixture. Layer one third of the bread into a buttered 8-cup casserole dish. Spoon one half of the nutella over the bread. Layer another third of the bread over that, followed by the remaining nutella, and finally the remaining bread. Bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes to one hour, depending on the shape of your baking dish. Serve while still warm with fresh whipped cream.

We’re leaving to go to the burbs for a few days, to rest up before the madness of the holidays hit. Next week is sort of killer and Mark baked almost 90 pumpkin pies this morning for the Boathouse restaurant, all before 10am. For this reason, Thanksgiving tends to be a day of rest and not of cooking. Thank god for mom!

This year has had its share of ups and downs – and the low points were the lowest of the low – but we’re thankful for our family, our friends, our customers and supporters, and also all of you for encouraging us to keep going.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American readers! I’m getting ready to put on my elastic-waist Thanksgiving pants!

You think I’m joking, but it’s really true. My parents were competitive bowlers in the 70s and I spent a lot of time in bowling alleys here in the city. We had a whole bookshelf in our house dedicated to the many bowling trophies they would bring home and our closets were always filled with bowling bags and balls (’cause you gots to have your own ball, yo, if you’re serious bowler!). I was pretty little from what I could remember because the competitive years were really before my brother arrived, but I do remember our weekly trips being a good time. It was the sort of thing where if you saw a 4 year old at a dark, dingy, smoke filled bowling alley at 9pm eating greasy fries, you’d totally judge and think the parents were awful, but this was the 70s and nobody cared about rules and bedtimes and rigid schedules. So it was all cool. Besides, I distinctly remember other kids running around the bowling alley during competitions and practice leagues, and run around we did. I don’t think we were even supervised because our parents were too busy bowling. We stood on boxes and played a lot of pinball. We ate a lot of aforementioned greasy french fries, rectangular pieces of pizza and ice cream. We spent quarters at the gumball machines. We ran around in kid gangs up and down the aisles behind the lanes (ok, I don’t know if the last bit was actually true, but I know that I ran up and own those aisles).

Occasionally, I would sit with my parents at their lane and watch them bowl. I liked the way the balls magically emerged from the dark hole of the ball return. I liked putting my hand above the air vent, the ones you used right before you picked up a ball so your hands weren’t sweaty, and feeling the cool air under the palms of my hands. But most of all I liked the balls. The saturated jewel colors, the marbleized swirls that looked like dishwashing liquid, running my hand across a row of smooth, cold bowling balls all nestled together on a shelf, trying to catch my fingers in the 3 finger holes.

I don’t remember when the bowling slowed down. Maybe it was around the time my mom had my brother when I was 6. My dad eventually took up golf and the bowling trophies gradually got replaced by golf trophies and the trips to the bowling alley stopped altogether. Except for a single bowling pin which I believe still remains somewhere at my parent’s house, the bowling trophies slowly disappeared from the shelves. But it remains a fond early childhood memory for me. I can only think of good times when I remember climbing on the bottom ledge of the shoe counter on my tippy toes to get a better look at the row of shoes. The flicker of scoring screens, the brightly colored bucket seats, and the sounds of bowling pins being knocked together are ingrained memories. So it’s ironic that I have never, ever bowled a single ball, let alone play a single game of bowling in my life.

I can’t remember the last time I stepped inside a bowling alley – it might have been in grad school – but the girls and I went to a bowling birthday party over the weekend. Aside from the glow in the dark lanes and pins that made everything look like it was on acid, the bowling alley felt the same. Mia bowled a strike on her first try ever, which immediately made me think that bowling was in the genes (it must have skipped over me, but my brother was on the bowling team in high school). I think it was just beginners luck, but, the girl was really into it. Long after most of the kids lost interest in bowling 2 hours later, she was filling in for people, all hyped up on birthday cake. Claudine seemed to like it too and I wondered why we had never done this before.

Bowling still seems like a throwback to the 70s, even though I know it’s really not, not like roller rinks, another fond childhood memory of mine. We’re definitely going to go bowling again, but I’ll make sure to sit in the sidelines. I helped Claudine carry an 8 pound ball over to the lane a few times and I ended up with a sore back and mild sciatic pain (see? I really can’t carry more than 5 pounds! Those bulging discs are ready to slip, yikes!). I guess this is why I never bowled.

Related (because this post about the 70s is AWESOME): Speaking of the 70s…

You may have heard that I’m guest blogging over at Real Simple (and if you haven’t already been over there, swing on by to find out what my first “real” job was. Trust me, it’s good). The magazine is opening up their first Pop-up shop in Rockefeller Center from December 1st to the 6th and I’ll be popping in and out to report on the happenings at the shop.

We’ve been doing lots of other press stuff too. Look for us at Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchn this week with a recipe (we’re here!) and a few other places.

And the whole holiday craziness? Not quite feeling it yet, but we will as soon as we are done with Thanksgiving. Ours is usually low-key because that’s when we rest up before Holiday!Cookie!Madness! hits. Can’t believe we’re about to head into it again. Where did the year go?

Mia just lost her 5th tooth, her 3rd in 5 weeks and she had a lot to say to the tooth fairy. Oh, kids today!

Some weeks are spent hibernating, other weeks are more social. My recent schedule allowed for one of those this week. I met with different people every day and I hung out with a whole lot of people at a party last night. This morning I met with Barbara who is my neighbor and a letterpress card designer. We took our youngest kids to eat pie in the neighborhood (yes, pie for breakfast). And oh, did I say that the weather’s been mild? Well, it was pretty cold this morning. Bringing out the scarves, hats and gloves for this one.

And saying no? I said no. It was the right decision and I have no regrets. Have a great weekend.

I think this is one of the milder Falls we’ve had in recent years. Makes for pleasant walks to school. It also gets me out of the house and really, it’s just too pretty outside.

Does anyone else think that November is the shortest month? Not in the number of days, but in passing. It seems to go by so quickly. We put Halloween to bed and Thanksgiving is only 3 weeks away, then 2 weeks, then OMG suddenly it’s NEXT WEEK. Really?

This month is not at all what it seemed to shape up to be a month ago. I was seriously questioning my sanity for taking on all this work from existing clients that seemed to collide into one very scary looking November and December, but there are unexpected project delays and schedule shifts. My schedule the last 2 weeks have been refreshingly light which has enabled me to deal with some holiday business stuff.

But I have a problem today. I am indecisive about something and I don’t know how to say no, even though I know I should. Why is that so hard?