Tis the Season.

The month of December has unusually hecTiC resulting in a posting drought.  I hope everyone had a Merry Jingle ho ho ho and here's to a peaceful New Year.  More to come in 2011!

O Tannenbaum.

With the holiday season in full swing I can hardly help myself from being festive. I wasted no time getting a Christmas tree.  Best place to do that?  Why in Maine, of course...

A wagon ride to the top of the hill.

Hot chocolate helps in picking the perfect tree.

Meet Twink.

Freshly cut.

Loaded up.

Ready for the trip back to Beantown,
backwards.

Ta-dah!

Pot Au Feu.

In celebration of the one year anniversary of our Paris trip, my girlfriends and I went to Pot Au Feu in Providence.  If it was a Julia Child favorite, it had to be good...

Turns out it was the perfect place to recreate our Parisian experience {full credit to B on picking it}.  The restaurant had a certain je ne sais quoi about it.  And the food was dynamite...

When in Paris, eat dessert.  I made that up but it was our mantra while we were there.  So in keeping with tradition...

Hot Tamale.

Soak your corn husks to soften them.

Slow cook your meat with

chipotle chiles in Adobo.

It makes everything better.

Prepare to assemble.

Spread the masa in the corn husks

and stuff with your meat and cheese.

Stand up in a pot and steam for an hour.

Comer.

{Special thanks to B for teaching us how to make

this part of her family's holiday tradition}

Autumn in Beantown.

For the last month and a half I haven't been able to leave my apartment without breaking out my camera.  The foliage this fall has been beautiful.  Here are some of my favorite shots...

Beacon Hill.

Back Bay.

The North End.

The top of my stoop.

The bottom of my stoop.

A rainbow of color.

Knock knock.

Halloween Treat.

The NFL gods gifted my boyfriend with two tickets to the much anticipated game, the New England Patriots vs. the Minnesota Vikings.  You know the one, the game that Randy Moss was coming back to New England after being traded.  Not a bad match up for my first professional football game...

Just a hop, skip and a jump on the T.

The fans were out in force.  By "out in force" I really mean out in costume...

The competition.

The good guys.

Even the cheerleaders.

It was an awesome game.  I saw Brady, Farve, Moss; the greats of our time...

De-fense.

I believe it was our cheering that lead our Pats to victory...

Pats 28 - Vikings 18.

Heroes in a Half Shell.

What do you get when you put five ambitious girls and a Halloween costume contest together?  This...

Our office never knew what hit it.

What else do turtles eat?

Fighting crime one day at a time.

Turtle power.

Sister, Sister.

When my kid sis came to visit, I was more than excited.  She recently moved from the land of the old {FL} to the land of the cold {NY} so it was a visit with a mission:  get her warm clothes!  And of course lots and lots of good food over several glasses of wine...

The phenomenal Franklin Cafe.

Fried Green Tomatoes.

Our Saturday adventures brought us to Haymarket and the North End.  We shopped till we dropped and then had ourselves a fantastic dinner at the teeny Pomodoro.  We ate so much between Friday and Saturday that by Sunday night we had to skip dinner... 

The famous Union Oyster House.

I could have drank that sauce by the bowl full.

Sitting outside in the cold because the

restaurant was too small for us to wait inside.

Beautiful Lengths.

For some time now I have wanted to donate my hair to a charity that makes wigs for cancer patients.  I have been growing my hair out for a year and a half to do so...



Before, cascading locks.

They need a minimum of 8 inches.

Once I met the length requirement, I headed off to see Dana at Liquid Hair Studios with a picture and a giddy excitedness.  When that first ponytail (of three) was cut, I had that feeling like right before you do a free fall.  The rest was smooth sailing...

 

My inspiration photo.

After, short and chic.

Phew, it didn't hurt a bit.

Knowing that a woman who lost her hair battling cancer will now have a wig to wear from my hair is an honor.  There are several charities that you can donate your hair to, I picked Pantene Beautiful Lengths...

One of the coolest things I've ever done.