meringues and late night musings

For my first Christmas in Ontario (2005), my parents sent me a massive recipe book, "The Little Big Cookies Book" and when I say massive, I mean 976 pages of massive. If you want to overwhelm a girl, give her that book. Just kidding, Mami! When I got it, my friend Matt said to me "how many recipes are in there?" and I said "about 500", to which he responds "ooh, great! If you make one batch a day, you'll be through that book in about a year and a half".

I think he was hinting that I needed to make him some cookies.

So now, not quite 8 and a half years later, I must confess that I've hardly put a dent in the book. I guess I haven't been baking enough cookies for friends and neighbours.

This weekend I'm headed to Duane's (no big surprise there - since we started dating 3 1/2 months ago we've spent every single weekend with each other, either in St. Thomas or Hamilton) and I promised to bring desserts (yep, that would be plural) to events we're attending. I was originally going to go up on Saturday afternoon, but my Friday plans got cancelled, so I'm now leaving after work tomorrow - which severely cuts into my 'available baking time'. Hence why it is midnight and I'm writing a blog (waiting for the cookies to bake).

I realize that I haven't posted anything since November (I know, Amanda, I know ... I promised Part 2 would be coming!) and yet, so much has happened.

For example, I was approached by a non-profit I've been volunteering with to see if I'd like to work for them full-time (I wasn't even looking for a new job), so after much prayer, deliberation and talking with wise people, I took the job. Then I quit my job at the accounting firm. Then it was Christmas. As in, I got offered the job on December 19, forty-five minutes later I gave my resignation and 3 hours after that I was on Christmas vacation, headed to Duane's parents for 2 weeks of "no commuting" bliss. It was wonderful!

This past Christmas were some wonderful 'firsts' for me: first time having a boyfriend at Christmas, first family Christmas with said boyfriend, first time I got jewelry from a boy (he bought me a beautiful silver necklace with cubic zirconium stones and the word 'love' in cursive, which I proudly wear every day), first time I spent a considerable amount of time looking at flooring options (eeep, exciting times!!). Although I suppose it's safe to say it wasn't my first "Dutch family" Christmas. It was really quite lovely.

I started my new job on Thursday, January 23 at the annual staff and board retreat at the beautiful Rathfon Inn and for the past few weeks have enjoyed the luxury of working from home, which is a true luxury in that we have had one of the worst winters most of this country has seen in the past 20~ years.

Looks like the cookies are done and it's time for bed. I'll try to get some more updates, but before I go - here are a couple pictures from a banquet we attended last Saturday (you can spot the Christmas necklace in the second picture):

Note: I don't think I referred to meringues at all in this post, which makes the blog title very bizarre. I was going to make them, but then decided to blog instead. I'll make the meringues tomorrow :)