So, it's officially that time of year when I start to get so stressed/overwhelmed that if I let my brain think too hard, I literally start shaking. Christmas is my family's big holiday, even though I was raised a full-blood Jew (long story), and my mom and I have a tendency to go nuts. This Christmas had to be different, though, mostly due to the economy but also because we're hosting extra family members. Since this year was particularly difficult for Joe and me fiscally, and since we're trying to save up for a wedding in the not-so-distant future, we thought we'd put our craftiness to good use and make a lot of gifts. Only, the second bedroom - the one we've been trying to turn into an office/craft room for me since August 2007 (note: 2007, not August 2008) - was still unfinished as of last month. Which means we've been hustling our butts off trying to finish it, seeing as how nearly all of my craft supplies are stored randomly in what we refer to as the Jungle Room (a bonus room off the side of the house that's getting zero use because it's crammed full of everything we have no place for).

Anyway, Saturday and Sunday were largely spent working on the craft room. And, as of 6:15 p.m. yesterday, all of the painting is officially DONE! The walls are my favorite shade of robin's egg blue; the trim, which Joe sanded down to bare wood practically, gleams a bright white. Now he just has to finish pulling up tape and getting paint drippings off my hardwood floor and we can move me in. Well, that and installing the black glass chandelier I purchased on deep sale sometime last spring. And measuring the window for a roll shade I want to fix up with fabric and trim like I saw on DECORATING CENTS. And taking down the doors and sanding/painting those to match the trum, cleaning and sprucing up an old floor lamp by attaching fabric that matches the roll shade to its drum shade spray adhesive, painting the pegboard white and attaching some peel-and-stick trim in glossy black, painting my old Target bookshelves white and nail-gunning the luan backer boards to the wood after painting them the same robin's egg blue as the walls ....

Okay, so we still have a little ways to go. But we were able to get one corner fixed up enough to move my "new" desk in (it was purchased on deep, deep discount last December, assembled in August, and taking up major space in our bedroom since we dug back into the project last month). And my old dining room table is about to become a craft table, thanks to some lovely black-and-white oil cloth I'm going to staple to its top. The larger is issue is that of the projects we need to get underway, the first of which must be ready Friday, since that's when Joe's team at work is doing the holiday party thing. We thought it would be fun to put together jars of homemade cocoa mix and make homemade marshmallows to go with them. I'm using Tyler Florence's recipe from a Christmas special the Food Network did a year or two ago. Most of the ingredients were wicked cheap at BJs, and we decided to substitute semi-sweet chocolate chips for bittersweet chocolate chunks, since neither of us are a fan of bittersweet.

Yeah, so there's that and I'm making soy candles and coffee foot scrubs and crayon-batiked picture frames, and then for Joe's dad in Mexico we wanted to get one of those photo books you can order from the Kodak Gallery. He hasn't seen Joe or his brother in several years, and I probably won't even meet him until our wedding, so the book is kind of a recap of our last 18 mos. together. But I was up until 3 a.m. Photoshopping pictures (yay for the zit-removal tool!) and designing the pages, so I am officially teh exhausted.

The good part is that except for the last few supplies I need to purchase for crafty-type things, I'm finished with my shopping and just need to get wrapping. And cooking, of course, since it's never a holiday without me having to make several dishes. For Christmas Eve, I'm making Alton Brown's Christmas Soup (mostly because kielbasa was on sale at Shoprite last week), and then I'm making some sort of strata for breakfast Christmas morning (recipe to be determined). For dinner that night, I'm making this scalloped corn thing Joe's grammy made at Thanksgiving, and for dessert I thought I'd give Ina Garten's old-fashioned gingerbread a whirl. Finally, for day-after-Christmas dinner with Joe's friend Mike's family, I think I'm going to attempt another tiramisu. I'm determined to beat that thing into submission.

Our weekend wasn't ALL work. We hit the gym twice (arms = owie) and took time out to watch TROPIC THUNDER (hilarious) and WALL-E (best. movie. ever). And I got a little caught up on sleep before last night's marathon Photoshopping session. So, you know. All in all, a good time.

Happy Monday, everyone!

P.S. Did anyone else read this article in EW and want to run right out and buy a DVD of THE ROOM? It's totally sold out on Amazon, but I'm so getting my hands on a copy as soon as it's back in stock.

Sunday, 11/23

Boarded an early flight to Atlanta, where I caught another flight to San Antonio, for the ALAN conference. Checked into my hotel around 1:30 p.m. local time, took a 15-minute stroll around the Riverwalk, and then back to my room for a hot shower, a little relaxing, and then some major primping. Met my speaking agent, Catherine Balkin of Balkin Buddies, for drinks in the hotel's lobby at 4 p.m. Then met up with the Random House crew and walked over to the Marriott for the ALAN cocktail reception. Spoke to two very nice, bubbly teachers from a Catholic school and discussed how to get an institution with a very strict moral doctrine to accept books into the curriculum that went against that doctrine. (My answer: if parents pay all of this money to go to a school that will instill strong moral values into them, then why do they thing reading a book that goes against those values will immediately strip said children of all morals?) Got to meet some friends I've known online for a while, like the lovely and fabulous Jennifer Lynn Barnes (aka jenlyn_b), as well as catch up briefly with old friends like David Lubar (aka davidlubar) and E. Lockhart (aka e_lockhart). Eventually was shuttled off with the Random House crew to a dinner in a wine cellar, where I got to meet with several spunky teachers and a newish RH editor who looks half my age but was so smart and fun and really made dinner a delight. Had to leave the dinner early due to a disagreement my stomach had with the salmon and ended up missing this kick-ass authors-only party. At hotel, tried to watch WILDCATS on TV but passed out at 10:30 p.m. Ah, the glamorous life!

Monday, 11/24

Woke up around 7 due to fiance calling and forgetting that I didn't have to be up until 8. Got a few more minutes of shut-eye before hauling self up and getting ready for the day's activities, which included speaking on a panel with David Levithan, Laura Ruby (aka lauraruby), and Tanya Lee Stone (aka tanyaleestone). The panel was called "I Feel Good: Positive Portrayals of Sex in YA Novels," and it was wonderful except for the fact that we all felt like we were preaching to the converted (we were a breakout session instead of a general session). The highlight of the panel: when David Levithan suggested we break the last tabu of sex in the YA novel - the orgy - and write the book as a "group project." I laughed so hard he thought he was giving me a heart attack. Oh, my goodness! Got to meet (and hug) Coe Booth (aka coebooth), spent 20 seconds telling Virginia Euwer Wolf how she inspired me at the beginning of my love affair with YA, and signed some books. Throughout the day I got to spend chunks of time with Jen and her good friend, Ally Carter, who's absolutely delightful. I also got to have a few short conversations with John Green, who I'd somehow never met in person, and was shocked to find out that he gets nervous before speaking in public. Jen, Ally, and I had all bonded over our collective fear of the cocktail party. Put me on a stage and I can talk like nobody's business, but stick me in a social setting and I want to blend into the walls. Got to hear maybe five minutes of John's speech before rushing out to meet my ride to the airport. Flew back on a direct flight and got home a full forty minutes before expected. Crashed hard.

Tuesday, 11/25

Decompressed from trip. Unpacked, did laundry, caught up on some DVR'd TV, rebonded with dog. Was fortunate to have finished 98% of all holiday cooking supplies prior to leaving, but that night had to hit two grocery stores to find suitable stuffing mushrooms and two liquor stores to find a small bottle of Frangelica (a vital ingredient in my mother's semi-famous pumpkin and sausage soup). Picked up Chinese takeout and then spent the rest of the evening just hanging with Joe.

Wednesday, 11/26
Was supposed to spend the whole day cooking, but spent most of the morning answering e-mail and catching up on online business. Worked on a freelance project and got the call that Joe was getting off at 3 p.m. This made me post-pone cooking even later, because we like to cook together, but I totally misjudged the time. On our list to prepare: sausage-stuffed mushrooms, the aforementioned pumpkin and sausage soup, coconut buttermilk pie, and Southern pecan pie. Stayed up until 2 a.m. cooking/baking/cooling pies. Joe crashed around 1 a.m. but I prevailed to the bitter end.

Thursday, 11/27 (aka Thanksgiving)

Up at 8 a.m. to shower, get the dog groomed/ready, pack the car, and drive to Bethlehem for Joe's family's Thanksgiving. Was nervous as meeting several new-to-me family members. Also nervous that pies looked over-baked or that the mushrooms (new recipe) would suck or that I'd somehow managed to screw up a soup we've made every Thanksgiving for the past seven years. Fortunately, the new-to-me family members were awesome, all of my dishes turned out perfectly and got major kudos, and I was introduced to Joe's family's tradition of watching NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION immediately after dinner (my family's traditional post-dinner viewing = RUDOLPH). Had an awesome time and drove home happy, happy, happy.

Friday, 11/28 (aka Thanksgiving Part Deux)

Joe worked from home while I prepped two more dishes for our second Thanksgiving dinner, this one with my parents. Made another batch of sausage-stuffed mushrooms and another coconut buttermilk pie. Scouty was in heaven, as he spent Thanksgiving with his boyfriend Terry and the next day with his aunt Daphne and uncle Jake. Dinner was awesome; my mom had made her sausage and cornbread stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin and sausage soup - great because we didn't take any leftovers from Joe's family's dinner, but Mom loaded us up big time. Watched some of the Christmas classic cartoons, including SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN, before catching the tail end of BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE on TV. Once again, I was exhausted and crashed by 10:30. I am getting old.

Saturday, 11/29

Worked on the craft room with Joe. This is the project we started August 2007. Now we're very close to completion. Most of the day was spent sanding trim, if you can believe it. At night, after we lost the natural light, we watched some more FREAKS & GEEKS on DVD. Another early night.

Sunday, 11/30

Second day of work on the craft room. My main job was brushing away sanding dust, tack clothing everything, taping off trim, and cutting in on the walls/trim. Joe repainted the ceiling and then finished up my trim work. Still need to put a final coat on the walls and repaint the trim, but the floor needs to be masked off because neither of us are precise or neat painters. Why do these jobs seem to go so quickly on TV? Are there secret crews they don't film who come in and do all of the work? Throughout the day we'd take quick breaks to watch more FREAKS & GEEKS. Only two episodes left; I've already added UNDECLARED to our Netflix queue.

Monday, 12/1

Today is the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, and to commemmorate the occasion, Joe and I are attending a vigil tonight sponsored by AIDS Delaware, where my friend Ebbie works. Still reeling from the impossible feat of losing four pounds over Thanksgiving weekend. Who does that?

Tomorrow I'm starting a new feature on this blog: recipe of the week. This is in part a nod to THE SWEET LIFE OF STELLA MADISON, my next book for Random House, which comes out in July. There's a lot of food and cooking in that book, and since I like food and I like to cook, I thought I'd share some of my favorite recipes and cooking sites/blogs with you. First up: the recipe to my mom's pumpkin and sausage soup, which everyone should experience at least once.

First, thanks to all of you who sent in meatloaf recipe tips! The boy and I ended up incorporating some of them into the GOOD EATS recipe (love Alton Brown! Love him!). I can't remember the amounts, but we used meatloaf mix with 3/4 cup of Panko (Japanese) breadcrumbs that had been pulsed in the food processor to make them more fine (I've used oatmeal in turkeyloaf, but never with meat). In the veggie department, we dumped a small onion, five baby carrots, one large roasted red pepper, and a couple of cloves of garlic into the food processor and pulsed until they were fine chopped. That, plus a lightly beaten egg, the Panko, and a mix of cayenne and chili pepper went into the meatloaf mix, which we formed into a loaf shape on top of a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. We blasted it at 450 for 10 minutes, then put on a ketchup-and-other-stuff glaze, turned the heat down to 350 and cooked it until it reached an internal temp of 156. Then, per Alton's instructions, we left it under tented foil for about 45 minutes (he said 60, but we couldn't wait that long). GOOD LORD, DID WE LOVE OUR MEATLOAF!

To read more about Alton and his meatloaf theories, go here.

Then, on Saturday, we drove up to Chester County Book & Music Company for Liz's reading (her debut, THE OPPOSITE OF INVISIBLE, came out last week, and this was her first public signing!). Joe and I dorked out by putting on matching snowflake sweaters and "Hello, my name is" tags that read TEAM LIZ! (We brought supplies and ended up making more tags for other supporters). Oh my gosh, what a turnout! There must've been like 40 or 50 people there, buying multiple copies, and indulging in the gorgeous layer cake that had the book's cover on its frosting. Plus, it was so good to see Liz, who radiated happiness in her special Liz way.

Sunday was divided between more revision work (STELLA is almost - ALMOST - ready to be turned in) and playing DESIGN REMIX with Joe. For the uninitiated, DESIGN REMIX is this great show on HGTV where Karen McAloon redoes a room using only what the homeowners already have, $50, and some paint. The long overdue craft room remodel is coming to a close, so we were in high gear. First, we took the legs off my old dining room table, sanded them and spray painted them a matte black. Then I orderd two yards of this gorgeous, black-on-white medallion print oil cloth, which I'm going to staple to the table's top (an idea I actually got from DESIGN REMIX). We tried painting peg board apple green (one of the accent colors), but even after sanding it the peg board was still too slick and showed every single brush stroke. So it was more spray paint (a light sage, but now we're thinking white might play better in the room). Oh, and there was this old lab table-turned work bench I'd picked up at a resale shop for $15 a few years ago, and it was rusted and ugly, so we sanded it down and sprayed it with a dark pewter paint that has a hammered metal finish and now it is fabulous. In the actual room, I sat down with a zillion plastic bins and got crazy with my label maker, so now there's even a clear shoebox marked "glass gems." Once my new desk arrives, I'll be moving into the space and oh - I can't wait. Before and after pictures to come.

So now it's Monday morning, and the ALA book awards have been announced, and I feel so completely divorced from the whole thing. I mean, the ceremony took place less than 35 minutes from my door step, but these books ... the only Printz finalist I even heard of was Amanda Jenkins' REPOSESSED, and I haven't read a single one. This started about a year ago, when I got burned out on the business and quit every single industry-related listserv I belonged to. I don't hear about buzz until the buzz has passed. And you know what? I'm okay with that. I like living in my little dark corner of the world (though when I was at Liz's signing, I did feel the need to purchase 13 REASONS WHY, which was edited by Kristen Pettit (who I work with at Razorbill), and about which I've heard amazing things.

CURRENTLY READING: an ARC of Sarah Dessen's LOCK & KEY, which I managed to snag at NCTE last November.
UP NEXT: Liz's THE OPPOSITE OF INVISIBLE, of course.

Happy Monday, all!