TwoThousandEleven - TwoThousandTwelve

Tonight's the night, dear readers: tonight we move into a new year!  The last 365 days have been incredible in all their ups and downs, and I'm deeply grateful that you've come along with me for the ride.  We've experienced so much together; it's a lovely comfort to know that you're right beside me through the thick and the thin of life and I'm very happy to be able to share it all with you.  2012 is going to bring even more adventure, I'm sure of it, so make sure to keep your hats on!

via

I am very much looking forward to tonight's elaborate festivities - don't worry, I'm back on the sauce for the occasion - and can't wait to celebrate all of the joy of the past year.  The new year can be used as an excuse to put what's been firmly behind us, but I don't think that I'll be letting go so quickly...

So often, as the clock ticks over from 11:59pm on 31 December to 12:00am on 1 January, we resolve to change.  We commit to starting fresh.  We swear up and down that this is the year we'll reinvent ourselves - but I'm beginning to realize that the new year doesn't emerge from a vacuum.

It's part of the human condition to improve; we're on a constant quest to better ourselves.  I do believe that this is not only natural but healthy, and that in striving for advancement we are fulfilling our greatest potential.  However, I am discovering that without a full awareness of where we have come from we cannot progress to where we want to go.  I am understanding that blank slates do not exist because everything we do from hereon out rests on what we have already done.

Therefore, my resolution for 2012 is to own my past while boldly exploring my future.  Regardless of what I have done right or wrong in the last year, I will move forward having learnt from the incredible experiences that 2011 brought.

I hope that your 2011 was full of joy and adventure - may your 2012 be even more so.  Happy New Year, dear readers!

Frock Fridays - NYE

Jon and I are heading back to Suffolk for this second holiday weekend.  We'll spend some time with his parents, of course, but the real draw is a New Year's Eve house party hosted by Harry, one of Jon's best friends from childhood.  Jon keeps telling me not to let my imagination run away from me, but I predict that this is going to be no ordinary shindig.  You see, Harry lives in a stately pile full of beautiful art and fine furniture and, the last time I went to a party there, everyone was in black tie and the champagne flowed like water.  (Your posh-o-meter should be going crazy at this moment - is it?  Good.)  So, basically, I think I have the right to go all out for for the NYE bash.

The only problem is that I'm totally broke after Christmas and, even with the current crazy sales, I can't afford to buy a new frock.  My brilliant solution: renting a fabulous dress for the occasion from WishWantWear, a website that loans out designer clothes for a fraction of the retail price.  (The American version of this company is called Rent The Runway.)  I've totally fallen for the classic Hollywood glamour of this Badgley Mischka gown...

Le sigh.  To be worn avec des lèvres rouges, je pense, et un chignon, et des perles, et peut-être même des gants aux coudes - non?

[Note: due to a week-long case of indecision, I didn't put the order through in time and so will not actually be wearing this frock to the party.  Quel dommage - mais dans mes rêves...]

The Eye of the Storm

Okay, the holiday is over and we're back at the office, which means that we really have survived Christmas - congratulations!  Here in the UK we had Monday and Tuesday off work, so even though this week is very short I'm still enjoying the opportunity to de-stress from all of the wonderful mania of the weekend past and to gear up for the excitement of the weekend ahead.  I've got a facial at Bliss scheduled for lunchtime today - thanks, Mom, and Happy Hanukkah to you, too! - and Jon and I have a romantic date planned for tomorrow night.

via

I'm sure you're all taking a deep breath this week as well, so let's take advantage of this time to prepare for new adventures and new experiences.  I'm going to do a whole series of posts in early January about the ins and outs of moving to the UK to/for work.  I will craft these posts around the information that will be most helpful to you; please tell me what you want to know about:

the visa process

finding and applying for jobs

differences in workplace culture

Leave comments here or drop me an email with any specifics that would be especially appropriate for you and I will do my best to address them in the coming weeks!

Christmas in Suffolk

Hello, dear readers - hello to you from the peace and quiet of my own little flat in London.  I'm back home after a wonderful weekend in Suffolk; I'm crazy about Jon's family and it was such a delight to share Christmas with them, but it is lovely to be in my own space again and able to hear myself think!  (We were nine on Christmas Eve, increasing to 17 on Boxing Day, not counting the four cats and two dogs that made appearances throughout the holiday.)

As is the way with traditions, this Christmas was very much like the last, though with some added sparkle:  dinner on the 24th included latkes, we were joined at lunch on the 25th by some new friends who had been adopted for the weekend, and Jon's cousins' Samoyed puppy came along for our epic walk on the 26th.  

I've downloaded Instagram to Jon's iPhone - I'm devoted to my BlackBerry but the superior camera and related apps on the iPhone are making me count down the months until I'm eligible for an upgrade from 02 - and had a blast taking photos on the Boxing Day ramble.  It was an absolutely beautiful day and unseasonably warm, allowing us to trek for 10km (really!) through a nature preserve to the sea.

Yes, I did play with the images, but the colors truly were that spectacular.  What a weekend!  I hope you all were blessed as I was this holiday, and that you now have time, after the chaos, to reflect on the joys of the season.

Monday Laugh - Christmukkah

Dear readers, I've been totally remiss this holiday season in barely talking about Hanukkah.  We all know that I'm a bad Jew regardless, but besides that I do have a decent reason for having focused on Christmas in regards to my lifestyle: basically, Hanukkah is a relatively minor celebration and doesn't even appear in the Torah.  It has essentially gained prominence in order to compete with or provide an alternative to Christmas for those who don't believe in the New Testament.  Hanukkah is all about community and identity, celebrating the Jewish victory over the Greek oppressors who tried to force them to betray their religion, and although I don't feel part of a Jewish community here in London I do still absolutely identify personally as Jewish.  I have been lighting the candles each night and saying the appropriate blessings, even here in Suffolk with Jon's family for Christmas, and I remember every day that, in some parts of the world, not everyone has the freedom to safely believe in his/her religion.

On a lighter note, though, I recently found Jonathan Safran Foer's "A Beginner's Guide to Hanukkah" in the archives of the New York Times - here's my favorite bit:

There is a certain kind of Jew who, despite knowing that Christmas isn't his holiday and that it would severely distress his relatives (particularly the dead ones) if he acknowledged feelings of Christmas Envy, much less acted on them, gets a Christmas tree anyway.  And does the leaving-a-cookie-out-for-Santa thing.  And the sweaters and the nog.  But of course he never lets any of it interfere with the Hanukkah celebrations, whatever they are.  And you have to admit, "Silent Night" is a seriously beautiful song.  Then one day this twice-a-year Jew who is a once-a-year Christian walks in on his children talking about Baby Jesus.  So he sends them to Hebrew School where, over time, they learn Christmas Envy.  And the cycle repeats itself.

Sigh - so true.  This Jewpiscopalian has been singing carols from the Hymnal 1982 all over London for the past few weeks (the trick is to wait to break into the descants on the tube platform until the train approaches so the sound muffles your voice and you don't totally freak out your fellow commuters) and wants to buy a glue gun only because of the DIY decorations that she is desperate to make next year (I've got my eye on ornament wreaths but, really, the possibilities are endless) and knows the nativity story from each of the gospels better than most official Christians (actually, it only appears in Matthew and Luke, who agree on hardly any of the details) and, generally, is conflicted.  But - boy, is she having a good time!

(If you're still confused about Hanukkah, check out these painfully funny FAQs that I found through Wendy.)

Merry Christmas

On this Christmas day, I am very pleased to announce that the winner of the (500) Posts of Betsy Transatlantically giveaway is...

Wendy!  Wendy, email me with your address and I'll send you your prize full of goodies: the Keep Calm and Carry On bag stuffed with England-themed treats.  (We might as well make your stay enjoyable while you're here, right?)  Thanks to everyone who entered, and a special welcome to new visitors.

And on that note...

wishing you and yours a joyous Christmas

full of love and cheer!

Music for Christmas Eve

Yes, you lovely long-time readers of this blog are right: Hark, Hear the Bells, Part One was written last year.  We should look at this not as a failure to follow through on the promise of Part Two back in 2010 but rather as evidence that, as the Byrds say, to everything there is a season: turn, turn, turn.  And lo, the season has arrived again.

In the spirit of continuity, I left off promising you a list of choral Christmas favorites, and so, because my words here are sacred, I've asked my friend Christine to join us as an expert guest blogger.  Christine is, like, actually a singer; I'm recreational, but she's professional.  We sang together as choristers, and since then she has gone on to hone her artistry through advanced studies.  She brings an incredible understanding of historical and cultural context to the music she performs, making us especially lucky that she agreed to write today's post.  (She usually charges for this sort of thing, you know!)  Please do help me welcome Christine:

via

Hello! I’m very honored that Betsy has invited me to write this guest post on my favorite Christmas carols. She and I grew up singing in choir together in Washington, DC, so choral music is a huge part of our friendship. I’m delighted to share my choral obsession knowledge with you!

I’ve put together a list of music that, essentially, I would program for my ideal service of Nine Lessons and Carols (nine pieces, plus an introit!), thus excluding movements from large choral works like Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Both are great works, but they don’t belong here. I am also an unabashed Anglophile, and it definitely shows in this list (and not only in the prevalence of King’s College Cambridge in the YouTube videos—I would have chosen other good recordings, if they were more widely available online)! There really are hundreds of great little gems to choose from, so I hope no one’s offended that I didn’t include their favorite piece on this list. I also hope, though, that if you aren’t familiar with some of these pieces, you grow to love them as I do, and include them in your own annual traditional/classical/choral Christmas collection.

Without further ado, here are my top ten carols:

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day – John Gardner
I’ll never forget the hilarity that ensued when we first sang this piece with the Choir of Men and Girls at Washington National Cathedral! “Then was I—born of a vir—gin pure!” It’s truly brilliant text setting, especially in the minds of high school girls and immature lay clerks. And the combo of organ, descant, and tambourine in the last verse? Amazing.

There is a Flower – John Rutter
Undoubtedly the best piece John Rutter ever composed (in part thanks to the lack of super cheesy organ accompaniment, so commonly found in his other carols), this piece opens with a gorgeous solo (sung in this recording by our friend Gen!). The texture grows more and more lush, climaxing with cascading “alleluias,” and concludes with a reprisal of the opening solo.

I sing of a maiden – Peter Hadley
I have fond memories of singing this piece in treble only weekday Evensong at the National Cathedral, a tradition that I still miss being a part of to this day, and that may account for some of my love of this piece. I think it might be a little more obscure than some of the other music on this list; however, I do think that it’s absolutely gorgeous, and I hope you like it too!

Hodie Christus natus est – Jan Peterzoon Sweelinck
It was a tough call between this setting, by Jan Peterzoon Sweelinck, and the setting of the same text by Francis Poulenc, but the sheer joy of Sweelinck’s music is impossible to turn down. I love the contrasts between the different sections of text, and the enthusiasm that you feel singing (or listening to) the exclamations of “Noé!” at the end.

Videte miraculum – Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis is one of my absolute favorite composers (if you like this, check out In ieiunio et fletu, Missa Puer natus est (a Christmas mass!), O nata lux…and pretty much everything else he wrote), so I really couldn’t leave him off this list, especially with a Christmas piece as stunning as this. It’s a great piece to sing soprano on, especially if you like floaty high stuff!

Coventry carol – anonymous, 1591 MS
While this tune is very well known in several arrangements, I particularly love this one, found in a 1591 British manuscript. I’ll show my bias towards early music by saying that the semitonal dissonances at the end of each verse and refrain (called cross relations) are so, so awesome!!

Here is the Little Door – Herbert Howells
Composed by Herbert Howells, in my opinion one of the greatest British composers of all time, this piece is an absolute gem. The way he contrasts the verses with different harmonizations that reflect the text (like Warlock’s Bethlehem Down, as you’ll read later in this post) is absolute genius.

In Dulci Jubilo – Robert Pearsall
Like the Coventry Carol, this is a well known tune, sung in many different arrangements. This one, composed by Robert Pearsall, is particularly lovely. For some reason, perhaps because it is so frequently performed by young British choirs, and combines the traditional Latin text with English tropes, it sounds exceptionally Anglican to me (which makes me love it even more!)

A Spotless Rose – Herbert Howells
Who doesn’t love a nice juicy…baritone soloist? Seriously, though, maybe it’s just because I have a somewhat pathetic penchant for good baritone voices, but this piece makes me weak in the knees every time I hear it. Again, Howells = genius.

Bethlehem Down – Peter Warlock
This piece, composed in 1927 by Peter Warlock, is so beautiful! Like Here is the Little Door, I love how the harmonizations of the melody change based on the text of each verse. Of course, it helps that the text itself, written by a friend of Warlock named Bruce Blunt, is so poignant:

"When He is King we will give Him the Kings' gifts,

Myrrh for its sweetness, and gold for a crown,

Beautiful robes," said the young girl to Joseph,

Fair with her firstborn on Bethlehem Down.

Bethlehem Down is full of the starlight,

Winds for the spices, and stars for the gold,

Mary for sleep, and for lullaby music

Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.

When He is King, they will clothe Him in gravesheets,

Myrrh for embalming, and wood for a crown,

He that lies now in the white arms of Mary

Sleeping so lightly on Bethlehem Down.

Here He has peace and a short while for dreaming,

Close huddled oxen to keep Him from cold,

Mary for love, and for lullaby music

Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.

While I’ve never actually sung this carol myself, I’ve heard it several times, and I keep my fingers crossed every Christmas that it will be scheduled for one of the services or concerts I sing in. I also find it quite amusing that Warlock and Blunt teamed up to write the carol to submit it to the Daily Telegraph’s annual Christmas carol writing contest in order to fund a pub crawl! It’s precisely the mindset of many Anglican musicians I know today!

via 

Thanks so much, Christine!  It's great to see some old favorites on this list and to be introduced to new pieces that I'm sure will quickly enter my iTunes rotation.  Dear readers, I hope that your Christmas weekend is full of music and joy.

(Check back tomorrow morning to see if you've won the GIVEAWAY - you still have a few hours to enter!)

Frock Fridays

I emailed Jon's aunt to tell her that I was going to make latkes at Jon's mother's house on Christmas Eve.  This was the exchange that followed:

AUNT: oh yes!  we plan to have christmas, hannukah, and possibly chinese new year...
BETSY: oh boy.  I'm going to need a very versatile wardrobe for this visit!
AUNT: god i spend the whole time in the same jeans and sweater!!! you must lower your standards to our levels...


Basically, this means that, unlike the Duchess of Cambridge, I won't be required to wear an evening gown to Christmas dinner.  However, you know that I'm overdressed for every occasion, so this festive frock from Anthroplogie might be as casual as I can bear:

Isn't it great?  Classy but not stuffy - to be worn with pearls studs, almost definitely, and my silver stacking rings, plus black opaques and maybe my Sam Edelman snakeskin flats.  (With five cousins running around plus a dog or two and a couple of cats, heels are definitely not an option.)  What do you think?

The GIVEAWAY ends tomorrow - make sure you enter before 10pm GMT on 24 December!

Talk To Me, Harry Winston

Jewelry is such a tricky present to give and receive.  Men often don't understand the significance that a little box can have to a woman, and women often don't know how to explain the meaning behind preferred styles and pieces.  Jewelry needs to be bought with the heart as well as the wallet, and communication is the key to unlock both - so I've been leaving these adverts all over the place, hoping that Jon will pick up the hint...

 

There's no way he can misunderstand that blue, right?  Well, I can hope.  After all, diamonds are a girl's best friend!

Also, please join me in wishing my amazing father a very happy birthday today - he has taught me to never give up on my beliefs and dreams and shown me that commitment and passion go hand-in-hand with hard work and dedication to achieving one's goals, which has stood me in good stead during my transatlanticism.  I love you, Dad.  (The Puppini Sisters were chosen especially for you, you know, on the recording in this post.  Enjoy!)

Hanukkah Latkes

Well, there's not much more I can do to prepare for Christmas at this point - we're heading down to Suffolk on Friday night, so anything that hasn't been done by now probably never will be.  (Tomorrow night will be negatively productive as Jon's flat is hosting a Christmas dinner.  Who wants to wait till the 25th?  Not us.)

via

Jon's family has a lot of traditions for Christmas that are set in stone, but they've very generously made room in this weekend's craziness for something new: Hanukkah!  The Festival of Lights started last night and so I'm going to make latkes for the whole mishpocha on Christmas Eve.

antique menorah bought in Berlin in 2007

I emailed my mother in the hopes that she would send me her trusty latke recipe, but she's one of those really obnoxious cooks who does everything by feel and doesn't use measurements so she turned out to be not so helpful.  (Love you, Mü!)  I did some research on the interwebs for good options - the creative ones look amazing, like Ina's zucchini pancakes and these baked ones with sweet potatoes as well as these stuffed with apples and cheese and Bon Appétit's variety with mushrooms - but I think that, as it's Jon's family's first Hanukkah, we should stick with the simple classic latke:

1 lbs potatoes

1/2 c finely chopped onion

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 to 3/4 c olive oil

Preheat overn to 250*F.  Peel potatoes and grate by hand, transferring to a large bowl of cold water as grated.  Soak potatoes 1-2 minutes after last batch is added to water, then drain well in a colander.

Spread grated potatoes and onion on a kitchen towel and roll up.  Twist towel tightly to wring out as much liquid as possible.  Transfer potato/onion to a bowl and stir in the egg and salt.

Heat 1/4 c il in a large non-stick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking.  Spoon 2 tbs of latke mixture into skillet, forming into rounds as necessary with the back of the spoon.  Reduce heat to moderate and cook until undersides are crispy, about 5 minutes.  Turn latkes over and cook the other side until crispy, about 5 minutes.  Transfer to paper towels to drain and season with salt.  Add more oil to the skillet as needed and repeat until all of the batter is used.  Keep latkes warm on a wire rack set in a shallow baking pan in the oven.

Serve with sour cream and apple sauce and enjoy!

By the way, if you still need a holiday present for yourself... you should enter my GIVEAWAY!  Only three more days to try your chances!

Office Christmas Party Drinks

True confession: I haven't had a drink in 25 days.  While home over Thanksgiving, I was the reluctant recipient of several "you must take care of your health" talks, and so I decided to cut out alcohol - I've tried to give up carbs, sweets, and cheese at various points in the past but have always failed, though I'm still trying to be careful about all of them - and I've been much more successful than I expected.  My goal was to be teetotal until Christmas Eve, but I'm actually enjoying it so much than I might continue indefinitely.  The side effects to not drinking are fantastic: not only do I feel healthier inside, but my skin is clear and bright, I'm sleeping well, and my wallet is very happy.  At the beginning I missed out on a few nights on the town with friends because I didn't want to tempt myself, but I'm confident that I could easily say no now in any situation.

This is am especially good thing tonight because it's my office Christmas party; my motto when I drink is in vino veritas, which is a terrible idea when surrounded by colleagues, superior or otherwise.  If I were on the sauce, though, I'd follow Grub Street's guide to drinking at work events:

Makes sense to me - what were your guidelines at your office Christmas party?  I think I'll be safe from embarrassing myself, though I'll probably need you to wish me luck as most of my coworkers do drink and so who knows what might happen...

Monday Laugh

Christmas Traditions

Jon and I have established some of our own Christmas traditions, which is lovely, but one of my favorite parts of the holiday season is being enveloped in his family's rituals.  Today we drove out to a tree farm and picked out what must surely be the Platonic ideal of a Norway Spruce; the early part of the afternoon, after a lunch of runny cheese and crusty bread and cold pork pie, was spent in the sitting room twining tinsel and lights around the tree and hanging baubles and candles from the branches.  We're now all curled up in front of the fire watching The Nightmare Before Christmas and casting admiring glances at our handiwork in the corner of the room.

I hope you're all having a wonderful pre-Christmas weekend!  Just five more days of work until we get to enjoy gingersnaps and mulled wine and - oh, wait, I've been doing that since Thanksgiving ended.  Oops!

Deck The Halls

In little bits and pieces all over the course of the past two weeks, I have been getting my flat ready for Christmas.   My ideal decorating scenario for the holidays is one where it looks like an elf upchucked magic all over my doors and walls, so I do declare my home to be ready for Christmas although I have very little space and even less money: I have stuck ribbon bows on every surface, hung fairy lights over every window, and strung baubles into garlands and taped them onto the ceiling.  There seems to be some sort of fetish at the moment amongst design aficionados for minimalist/Scandinavian holiday decor, but my attitude towards the whole season is along the lines of "more is more."  (Next year, when I'm in a bigger place, I'll take photos of my madness for you.)

[ ideal ]

via

As you know, I'm a bit iffy about having a Christmas tree in my house when I'm the only official resident.  We had a splendid little tree last year when I lived with Jon and the boys, and I have to admit that I'm looking forward to sharing Jon's again in 2012.  I bring this up now because Jon and I have hied ourselves to his parents' house in Suffolk for the annual Christmas Tree Weekend, which is excellent because I'm a bit desperate to bedeck a fir.

Neil Gaiman, a nice Jewish boy if there ever was one, understands my cross-cultural yearnings: "We were not jealous of friends who got Christmas presents," he writes of his childhood.  "We were jealous of the friends with Christmas trees.  Having a Christmas tree was what Christmas was all about.  It had nothing to do with mangers and shepherds and Wise Men.  Not as far as we were concerned.  It was trees all the way, properly decorated ones, with tinsel and glass balls and a star on the top."

So I'm delighted that, this weekend, I will be a crucial member of the tree-choosing committee as well as an enthusiastic participant in the tree-decorating process.  Photos to follow, of course!

Frock Fridays - Office Christmas Party

In London, the office Christmas party is an awesome thing - and I mean that in the biblical sense of the word.  Maybe I wasn't a professional in the States for long enough to truly appreciate the annual event there, but I'm pretty confident regardless that in the UK it's a horse of an entirely different color: it is epic.  Many companies, especially big ones like banks and law firms, have a huge bash that is more like a drunken club night than anything else.  For this reason, bars all across the city have been advertising themselves for weeks as the perfect venue to hire for the event.

Apparently, one in ten workers in the UK exhibits behavior at the office Christmas party that is regretted the next morning.  I read two articles in the last week alone (in Grazia, I think, and also in the ES Magazine) saying that the office Christmas party is responsible for many ill-advised affairs and listing secret devices one could use to spy on the suspected infidelity of a partner or spouse.  Most offices, you see, don't invite significant others to their events, which I find totally strange but which seems to be the status quo around here.

I sort of understand why, given the opportunity, the office Christmas party can be such a disaster.  You're in a room full of colleagues with whom you might be perfectly friendly on a professional level but you feel obliged to let down your hair in front of them for this one special occasion.  You've probably jettisoned your normal shift dress for a statement frock that says "Hey, guys, I'm relentless when it comes to submitting invoices on time but I know how to have a good time, too!"  You've been given access to an open bar, which helps lubricate the awkwardness of, well, everything, really, especially once the music comes on and everyone starts dancing.  All of that spells enormous potential for embarrassment.

For those of you who still can't picture a British office Christmas party, let me point you to this review of an amazing piece of theatre currently running in London called, appropriately enough, Office Party:

That uncomfortable time of year has come round again, when parts of the anatomy normally kept safely hidden in pinstripes are thrust upon the groaning photocopier, and the stationery cupboard is reinvented as a hotbed of passion.Yes, it's time for offices across the country to shed their code of conduct for one night only and get dolled up for the annual Christmas party.

Every women's magazine is featuring pages upon pages of suggestions for the perfect office-party-appropriate frock; it's got to be something that shows you have a personality distinct from your reputation as a slavedriver/doormat but at the same time it's got to cover anything that you don't want exposed to the people who will have to respect you the next morning.  What to wear at my company's office Christmas party next week is, actually, a realtively simple decision for me because my job incorporates so much event work anyway that my colleagues are used to seeing me overdressed for the office in preparation for an evening do.  When I say relatively simple, though, I mean that I'm deciding between three equally fun French Connection frocks...

Check back on Tuesday for more on the British office Christmas party - and, in the meantime, make sure to enter my GIVEAWAY!

Traveling Graciously

The holiday season always brings lots of traveling: visits back home, jaunts to Jon's family in the country, and weekends away with friends.  I was taught that a gracious guest always arrives bearing a hostess gift, and as I've gotten older I've tried to be a bit more inventive and personal about what I bring as a thank-you.  I remember reading a while ago that you should generally not bring wine or flowers, especially when invited for dinner; your host might feel pressured to serve your wine with the meal even if it doesn't compliment the menu and the last thing s/he will want to do when welcoming guests is spend time hunting for an appropriate vase.

Because - especially at this time of year - the invitations can stack up without warning, I find it useful to stockpile hostess gifts.  I try to grab potential presents as and when I see them (especially if I find things on sale!) so that I don't have to run around frantically trying to scrounge something up before heading out.  If I was more organized and had more space, I'd store them in my superduper gift-wrap station that I'd carved out of a closet or cupboard...

via

Martha has some creative ideas for hostess gifts, as does Real Simple, but I find that I'm not very inclined to dee-eye-why amongst all the chaos usually associated with travel, especially during the holidays.  I suppose you could create fantastic homemade presents before the season starts so as to be amazingly prepared, but we probably shouldn't get carried away.  Therefore, for the past couple of months my brilliant idea for hostess gifts has been to look for items marketed as stocking stuffers (which are generally the ideal size and price, I think) that I'd love to receive but that I probably wouldn't buy for myself because I'd be too busy being a superlative hostess to even contemplate spending money on anything that didn't directly contribute to my guests' happiness.

I've got a few examples to share with you, of course...

[ peppermint snow / bubble bath / candle / bottle opener / notepad block ]  

Okay, now you can all come stay at my house - see you soon!

'Tis A Gift To Give

Blogs all across the interwebs - including this one - are, at the moment, crammed full of wishlists and gift guides, ooh-ing and aah-ing over the most gorgeous items that we're all just dying to open under the tree.  I certainly won't stop dreaming about all the pretty things I'd like to get for Christmas and I promise I'll keep sharing them with you, but I'd like to ask you to take a second to think about not only what it means to receive but also what it means to give, especially at this time of year.

Giving can bring such an incredible rush of joy, regardless of the need of the recipient - but imagine how wonderful it feels to know that, in a time of true need, you have made a real difference in the life of someone in desperate circumstances.

We make choices every day that can affect those around us, and during the holiday season it is especially appropriate to consciously think of others especially as we open our hearts and our wallets.  From grand gestures (with £100 you could buy Jimmy Choo's croc-effect leather coffee cup sleeve or you could pay for the services of a professional translator to assist with the interview of a prisoner at Guantamamo Bay) to small steps (forgo your daily Starbucks fix to help provide clean water to communities in Africa) we can all choose to help people whose Christmas lists are vital to their survival.

We all know that giving isn't necessarily about  money, though; it really can be the thought that counts if you then act.  Because I'm in the business of fundraising for charity and I love graphics, I made you a lovely Venn diagram:

It truly is this simple.  Identify your passion, your resources, and the opportunity to put both into action.  Regardless of how you get involved or with whom, please do give this season.  It will be the best present you've ever picked out for yourself.

Monday Laugh

At this very moment, children all over the world are writing letters to Santa, promising that they've been good and asking for their hearts' desires.  I always wondered how these wishlists were sent to the right place.  Maybe, I thought as a child, only people who actually believe in the birth of Christ are allowed to know where St. Nick hangs his hat.  Now that I'm older and I realize that Santa lives in our hearts (wow, that's a great line; well done, Betsy) I'm a little disappointed that adults can't get their act together to agree on at least a symbolic address for the letters to be posted to - the poor kids must be so confused!

Let's be honest, though - even if Santa did have an official address, we'd still only have two memorized:

our own home address

and

P. Sherman

42 Wallaby Way

Sydney

I saw this somewhere - on a blog, maybe, or floating around Facebook - but I can't remember where!  Apologies if I stole it from you, and holler if you know the origin, please.

Have you entered the (500) Posts of Betsy Transatlantically GIVEAWAY yet?

December's Best Diary Fail

Remember when I said that today was going to be manic?  Well, it was - but very much not in a glamorous way at all.  Clearly I forgot to look at my diary when I wrote up yesterday's Frock Fridays!

The past week has been totally hectic and so I let myself sleep in this morning, which was glorious, but once I left the house all was go-go-go until I got back a few hours ago: Jon and I did some Christmas shopping for his trickier relatives and then I headed into work to host a special event for our donors.  On my way back home, I got lost in John Lewis while trying to find holiday decorations for my flat; however, sparkly things were successfully discovered and so the early part of the evening was spent stringing ornaments on thread and hammering hooks into walls and simmering minestrone and making dough for more gingersnaps.  I had been asked to babysit tonight, and so I'm now curled up on the couch in my landlords' house - and dashing back into my kitchen every 12 minutes to rotate trays of cookies in and out of the oven - with a cup of tea on the floor, the Christmas radio station playing on last.fm, and the winter/holiday issues of four online shelter magazines ( un / deux / trois / quatre ) open on my laptop.

Heaven.

There really is something about hunkering down in the winter dark, isn't there?  Something primal that makes us want to nest.  The sun is setting soon after 4pm, the temperatures are firmly in the single digits, and the bare branches of the trees are clattering together; Mother Nature isn't waiting until the solstice to start the season.  All we want, truly, is to be comfortably inside, saying things like, "My, isn't it windy out there!"

I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend, and that you're settled and warm, too.  See you at my concert tomorrow!  (And don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY...)

Frock Fridays

There is simply too much to do this weekend to worry about costume changes - I'm pretty sure that whatever gets thrown on when I wake up on tomorrow morning is going to have to take me through to the wee hours of Saturday night - or is that Sunday morning?  (Make sure to change accessories creatively and reapply deodorant religiously and you'll be fine.  Trust me.)  I'm thinking that this JCrew Jules dress will hit all the right buttons...

[ for day : mascara / lipstick / bag / earrings / tights / flats ]

[ for night : eyelashes / compact / clutch / necklace / booties ]

And if your plans are still only pencilled into your diary, allow me to make a few suggestions for the weekend:

- check off your gift list on a traffic-free Oxford Street
- twirl on the ice rink at Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland
- laugh at the best and the worst of a classic Office Party
- soak up the season at my carols concert at St. George's Church

Yep, that last agenda item was a shameless plug!  One of my wonderful choirs, Quorum, is singing a beautiful concert of Christmas carols (both traditional and reimagined) on Sunday at 6pm in Bloomsbury.  The concert is in aid of Shelter, and tickets are £5 on the door.  Please do come along if you're free - it'll be a lovely way to get into the Christmas spirit while winding down from the weekend.

Have you entered the (500) Posts of Betsy Transatlantically GIVEAWAY yet?

Bawstuhn

Apologies for taking so long to post this recap of our trip to Boston over Thanksgiving, but we've only just recovered because this is what our weekend in Beantown was like:

Sike.  Jon would have loved to get into a bare-knuckle fight with some kids whose ancestors shipped over from Ireland 150 years ago, but the wildest thing we did was head to a sports bar on Monday night for artery-clogging food and watched the Patriots play Kansas City.  (Thanks to my sister Sarah, my lovely English boyfriend can probably now explain the rules of football better than me.)  Anyway.  The trip:

flying into Logan

We arrived early Saturday afternoon after an easy flight; we hopped into a taxi at the airport (I was loving the exchange rate since I get paid in pounds sterling!) and went straight to Sarah's apartment in the beautiful Beacon Hill neighborhood.  We walked around for a while - oh, hello, Senator Kerry - and I drooled over the narrow streets and elegant townhouses.  I mean, wouldn't you?

After a quick stop at the swishest Starbucks I have ever seen, where I conducted a highly scientific survey to determine that chai lattes taste better when you pay $3 instead of £3 for them, we wandered through Boston Common.  Sarah told us that it was called a common because it used to be shared land where the people could graze their sheep; Jon and I were like, "Well, duh.  We had those first.  Copycat."

We indulged in some window shopping on Newbury Street and, after a few hours, returned to Sarah's apartment to recuperate from our strenuous day of walking around.  (What?  Boston is very vertical!)  Sarah borrowed some of our jetlag, and so we arranged a perfect night in: Upper Crust pizza and the Food Network.  Jon and I were asleep by 9:03pm.

On Sunday morning, we treated Sarah and her roommate Erin to brunch at the Beacon Hill Hostel Bistro (dear Lord, I thank you for providing me with a real American brunch where eggs Benedict is not the only option on the menu) and then Jon and I ventured off to follow the Freedom Trail.  (Every time Jon made a snarky comment about walking on the "freedom street" or looking at a "freedom church," I sang the theme song from Team America: World Police.  After all, as our 43rd president taught us: if you're not with us, you're against us.)  Actually, we had a lovely day and it was a great walk; the weather cooperated absolutely and it was nice to discover a new city together.

Following Erin's suggestion, we hit up the seaport for our date night.  We stopped first for a drink at Temazcal and then enjoyed dinner at Legal Harborside where I ate the best lobster roll of my entire life.

We headed off early on Monday morning to see the Degas show at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, which was breathtaking in its exquisite beauty and developmental scope.  His pastel La Toilette was my favorite and I'd love to find a print of it:

Our next adventure was on the MBTA, where a tram ate my $20, which took us to Cambridge.  We went to a very upscale tavern for lunch and then walked around town for a while.  I was surprised that we weren't allowed onto the Harvard campus, as I never remember having had a problem wandering around the quad before, but maybe campus security was antsy because of the obvious Occupy tents dotting the lawn.

For our last evening in Boston, Sarah took us out for wings and burgers and beer and to watch the Pats game - America, [expletive] yeah!  The next morning, we headed south...

Thank You, Targé

First, let me apologize for this past weekend's radio silence.  (I had pre-scheduled yesterday's post - gosh, I am impressive - so technically I haven't blogged since Friday.  I've been going through withdrawal.  Thank you, but I don't want to talk about it; these things are very personal, you know.)  Anyway, the moral of the story is that your hair product does not belong anywhere near your contact case.  If you don't believe me, try it: I promise you'll be afflicted with your very own eye infection which will leave you unable to function as is your general wont, and this includes interacting with your computer in a meaningful way.  However, I am now on the mend and think that my eyes deserve to be rewarded for their misery by being trained upon some pretty things - namely, stationery.

While in DC for Thanksgiving, I made a pilgrimage to Target.  (Raise your hand if you're surprised.  No?  Yeah.)  Jon compared Target to Tesco Extra - yes, he was blessed to join me on my spiritual journey to this holy site - but it's so much more than that.  Basically, it's heaven with a check-out counter.    But who knew that they had such cute stationery?

Don't be surprised if I write you a thank-you note this season even if you haven't sent me a gift - I just won't be able to help myself!

Monday Laugh

'Tis the season... for ugly sweater parties, which is absolutely a Thing That White People Like:

via

I've actually never been to one, but my sister is a regular on the ugly-sweater-party circuit, and she has given me special permission to share this photo from her sophomore year of college.  Please note the added bonus ironic whiteness of the religiously aware sign; Sarah explains that, at the time the picture was taken, she was the only Jew at the party, making her a mobile Jew corner.