Sample Holiday Menu for a Family Gathering

Planning and cooking Christmas Dinner is a memorable and gratifying way to share the love with your family. Here is my sample menu, with links to the recipes that I followed.

I mentioned in my last post that my husband and I were honored to host Christmas Day at our house this past year. Like most writers, I am an introspective person-- so although the holidays are behind us, I like to reflect back on how things went and what I learned from hosting 18 people (14 adults!) for a holiday gathering in our home. It was a Christmas miracle! The day went very well, and my guests seemed to really enjoy the holiday menu that I had prepared.

The key to the day's success (aside from being a Christmas miracle!) is that I spent a lot of time planning and preparing. I once mentioned that I had a former music teacher who was fond of saying, "You're only nervous if you're unprepared," and it's true-- careful planning and preparation really are the key. In a future post, I plan to provide a detailed schedule and timeline of the to-do list that helped make this holiday dinner a success.

Celebrating 2016 as Classy Local turns 3!

The Classy Local blog turns three as we enter a brand new year.

Hello again to my few but fabulous readers! I hope that the winter holidays were a time of happiness, memory-making, and joy. December was a busy month for us, as my husband and I spent nearly every available moment visiting with friends and family. This naturally leads to another decrease in blogging, but I am so thrilled to be able to share in future posts all of the lessons and ideas that I've appreciated during this time. My husband and I were honored to have the opportunity of hosting family at our home Christmas Day (14 adults and 4 kids!), and despite our cozy (read: tiny) living space, I am really thrilled and happy with how wonderful everything was. In a future post, I plan to break down my newly learned tips on how to host and cook for a major holiday gathering.

Happy New Year! (2015 Edition!)

Catfish makes time to enjoy the Christmas spirit.

After a long and busy hiatus from blogging, I am ready to start 2015 with renewed focus and balance.

When I began this blog two (!) years ago, it started as a little hobby that gave me a chance to flex my writing muscles while occupying my time during the day when I was working evenings/nights. Over the past two years, my life has become progressively busier since I began a career in teaching. Unlike my former desk jobs, teaching requires a lot of hours working from home: grading papers, planning lessons, and responding to students' emails! I've always felt that I've done a good job managing stress and general busyness, but the past semester has been exceptionally challenging since my teaching schedule had suddenly doubled. Although working so much gave me valuable experience and new opportunities, it also took a toll on my personal life and passions-- as evidenced by the sharp drop-off in my blog posts!

I once read somewhere that, "It's only in America that people go around bragging about how busy they are." Wouldn't it be nice if instead, people went around bragging about how happy they are? Or how much time they enjoyed spending with their family? Or about the delicious meal that they prepared from scratch? Or the great book that they finished? Any and all of the pursuits sound much more enjoyable than discussing how many emails one answered, or how late somebody stayed at the office, or how someone worked through her lunch break. I now realize that "keeping up with the Joneses" is not only limited to material possessions, but also to our general attitudes and feelings about working and home life. People are expected to prioritize work and sacrifice their home life for reasons that often have little or nothing to do with financial stability-- it again goes back to our competitive nature to "keep up with the Joneses." After several months of working in this fashion, I've definitely decided that this is not how I want to live my life.

Like the recovery from a holiday's hangover, my recovery from 2014 has been slow, but not without reflection and the accompanying regret. Looking back at my resolution from last year, I realized that I didn't really make a lot of time for myself, as I had promised myself that I would. I was just too busy! However, I've learned something about myself over the years: I am a person who strives to be busy, whether it's from working too much, volunteering too much, or finding multiple projects for me to occupy my time (alas, like blogging). Whatever it is, for whatever reason, I just have a tendency to overextend myself to the point where I no longer take joy from whatever it is that I am doing at the moment. This is so absurd! Unfortunately, this is also a reflection of my exact thoughts at this time last year; apparently, I didn't progress as much as I had hoped in 2014. Although I know that I am someone who likes to stay occupied, I think the past year has been a wake-up call for me to strive to achieve balance between being busy and not. Although being busy has its benefits. we all know that too much of a good thing is certainly bad.

Although my resolution from 2014 failed, it's never too late to try, try again. Here's to another chance at finding balance and joy during 2015. Wishing my readers a happy, healthy, and peaceful new year! How was 2014 for you? What are you looking forward to in 2015?

What’s Christmas without a steam whistle?

Local traditions are a great way to enjoy the holiday spirit, no matter how strange they may seem.

This afternoon, I listened to a 15-minute-long rendition of “God Bless America” as played by a steam whistle.

It was… strange.

An eerie, haunting, and kind of mournful sound. The steam whistle brings to mind days of early risers and efficiency, of men in overalls walking to the factory with lunch pails in hand.

Yet the only time citizens of York, PA (within a 5-10 mile radius) hear this call from days past is on Christmas Eve, when the steam whistle at the New York Wire Co. plays carols conducted by Whistlemaster (yes, that seems to be an official job description) Donald Ryan.

Today, I listened to the practice session for tomorrow night’s concert. Having totally forgotten about this annual ritual since I heard it for the first time last year, I was really spooked when I heard the high-pitched wailing from afar, and wondered if either 1.) a neighbor kid was whining somewhere, 2.) a lost dog or a pack of wolves was howling, or 3.) someone’s saxophone practice wasn’t going so well.