Pajama Christmas = Sport Eating

Thanks to everyone who sent me beautiful Christmas cards via snail mail or email...they were all super cute. Also, sorry there aren't any pics, but I was feeling rather lazy...

Hello, hello, long time no see, how are you? Me? Well, let me tell you...


I spent the super long weekend at my mom's in what we were calling Pajama Christmas Weekend '07, and it's basically what it sounds like- five females in a large studio apartment lying around in their pajamas watching The Food Network and eating their weight in rice, platanos and cheese.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21st
I go home and pay the nanny (ouch, my wallet!!!) We have takeout for dinner and veg out in front of the TV and I let my mom know that I won't be over at her place until Saturday...it's too cold to travel at night.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22nd
We clean up the apartment of all food stuff in preparation of being gone from the apartment over the break, and order Mexican food as a treat. The girls and I have soooo many bags with us that I ask my sister to swing by and pick us up on her way home from Virginia. The ride to Queens takes twice as long thanks to traffic, but we make the most of it by singing along to the radio really badly and loudly. When we show up at mom's with our 35 trillion packages, she gives us the side eye...

Mom and I go on Jamaica Avenue to buy a few things (plus some Jamaican patties from that stand on 165th Street...mmmmmm). We feast on a lentil and turkey stew with rice and ice cream.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 23rd
Mom, Mari, K and N head to church; I go to the Queens Center Mall (YIKES!!) to do some last minute shopping. Best Buy and Target stress me out so much I buy another caramel macchiato from Starbucks and am surprised that it didn't cost $6 like in Gramercy Park. It tastes that much better knowing I saved three bucks.

My mom calls and asks me to rush home...N is running a small fever and says her ear hurts. I pick up some Tylenol and, at Ns request, cookies n cream ice cream. There's a veggie and tofu stir fry, plus tilapia n veggies waiting for me when I get back. Then K and I brave the sideways, windy rain and head out to shop on Jamaica Avenue some more...because I'm glutton for punishment... K convinces me to buy more Jamaican patties, and we enjoy them under the awning of the Nine West.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 24th
I was supposed to go to my hairdresser's at 5:30AM, but that damn snooze button... instead I washed it and blew it out myself. K & N & I meet up with my ex to see the Christmas Spectacular as we do every year, and then went to Lord & Taylor's to see the windows. Saks was a madhouse, as was the skating rink, so we stayed away from those tourist traps. We feast on my mom's very very delicious yellow rice with corn and turkey bacon (you have to taste it to understand it; at my house it's called a locrio), baked chicken thighs, plus Mari's black bean and corn salsa and new to our table: the green bean casserole. Plus lots and lots of tostones (fried green plantains) with melted cheese on top.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 25th
Our Christmas breakfast consists of homemade hot chocolate, homemade apple cinnamon silver dollar pancakes, mangu (mashed plantains) with fried white cheese, BBQ spare ribs for the meat-eaters, fresh squeezed orange juice, some really sweet cantaloupe slices, shrimp cocktail, and some hassleback potatoes with the salsa from the day before. Minnie and my ex come over to eat, too, and presents are opened and OOHS and AAHS commence. We're forced to watch High School Musical II and Mari and I take lil naps.

After K & N leave with their dad, Mari drives Minnie and I home, and mami comes along for the ride...to my aunts house. And what do you think is waiting for us there? MORE FOOD!

So we eat again: arroz con gandules, chicken, potato and beet salad, green salad, pasteles, cheese bread, broccoli quiche, grilled veggies, roasted turkey...

Finally, I get back home with my trillion and one packages, week's worth of leftovers, and enjoy the quiet of my empty apartment with some leftover chicken quesadillas, a mint tea, some OJ for the tickle in my throat and 1 and 1/16th (I fell asleep) movies: The Brothers and Last Tango in Paris.

*smooches...hoping my arteries survived that food marathon*
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of course, all this binge eating was my way of trying to forget that on Saturday, I got a call from my doctor's office saying he "needs" to see me...here we go...