Chinese Food?

Everyone knows the classic Jewish (not-so untrue) stereotype of Chinese food on Christmas. The reality is, its a tradition in many families and while its certainly not a religious observation, I'm all in favor of family traditions. Well, the Rosenthals have never really upheld this tradition, but lets be honest - when is Chinese food not delicious? I've been sitting on my couch literally all day. And at about 1:00 pm I started craving Chinese food. Its like my Jewish roots are beckoning me to a nearby wok. In any case, I've spent the last 20 minutes trying to motivate to get dressed and head to Jenny's to pick up some take-out. I think I'm almost there - but I just think its funny that I can't fight the Chinese food on Christmas :)

UPDATE: Mission accomplished and Chinese food has been purchased. Hot and Sour soup consumed and was delish! Totally worth getting up off the couch!

Family Fun

Over the last few months, we've had a spattering of Rosenthal family gatherings at my mom's house. We had Thanksgiving, and impromptu Chanukah dinner, and birthday celebration for me, and last night we had a birthday party for my Uncle Les. I must say, these family gatherings have been a total and complete blast. Granted, the house is LOUD - (my cousin and I are the two loudest people on the planet) but there was lots of laughter, love and a TON of food. My aunt made enough pasta last night to feed a small nation... it was hilarious. My mom has pictures of it, which I'll add in later - but it was amazing to see my tiny little mom carrying a bowl of pasta about the same size as her entire body.

Its been really nice to spend time with the Rosenthal's... and one Siegel :) Cousin Naomi recently moved from Grand Rapids (by way of Ashville, India, Thailand.... and various other locations) to Bellingham. It awesome to have her close enough to join in on family festivities. Cousin Katie has been out of Gig Harbor for a while, but its nice to finally find time to hang out together. Cousin Kerri currently lives in Pullman (not Poland, Uncle Sam) though I'm sure she'll get the heck out of there when she graduates - and hopefully she'll move closer to Seattle as well.

We were pretty close growing up, and then life happens, and people get busy, go to school and find careers. It's really obvious why we all spent so much time together as kids, because we have a total blast together now. My mom has become quite the little hostess and has been really willing to be our home base for these gatherings.

I tend to get a little sappy around this time of year, but this year, for the first time in a while, I am full of happiness and joy. I'm pretty sure I can credit my family for most of it... Especially my amazing husband who averted my cell phone crisis yesterday by promptly taking me to the AT&T store and buying me a new IPhone. I felt so loved and appreciated.... New technology will do that to a girl :)

Happy Holidays everyone!

Toffee

So on Friday night, I was at my friend Briana's house and she had this amazing toffee. She made it herself and I literally couldn't get enough of it. I had to be cutoff from the stuff because the ingredients are slightly less than healthy. Nevertheless, it was one of the most incredible things I have ever tasted. She was good enough to share the recipe with me and this morning I made a batch. I didn't have enough almonds for a whole batch, so I made half almond and half pecan. Evidentally, toffee is extremely temperamental, but it appeared to be ok. We'll see how it turned out when its a reasonable hour in the day to eat toffee. I can't bring myself to eat it at 9:30 am :)

I realize it doesn't look that amazing in that picture, but it looks - and smells - amazing! Thanks B!