December 31st, 2010

Chocolate peppermint bar cookies, finished just before midnight last year as an end-of-year treat.  Probably the last cookie I'll make in 2010.  


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December 30th, 2010

Street vendors on the downtown mall where I live.  In the summer, I bought a few hippie skirts from them.  In winter, they're specializing in shawls and scarves.  If only I had money.

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December 29th, 2010

My boyfriend and I made an awesome dinner last night - he made the rice (Puerto Rican style!) and I made chicken mushroom marsala and had one of those lovely moments when you think that everything looks bad and will taste disgusting but in fact turns out delicious.  

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December 28th, 2010

Snow on holly berries outside my house.


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December 27th, 2010

This is the dessert I made for my family's official Christmas dinner: candy cane chocolate chip cheesecake.  Weather conditions being what they were this weekend, we were unable to make it to the family get-together; tragically, my immediate family and I had to eat the cake ourselves.  It was a painful trial, I tell you.  (My dad had seconds.)


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December 26th, 2010

A White Christmas in Virginia for the first time in my life.  Gorgeous.

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December 25th, 2010

My family does the holidays right.  Merry Christmas, everyone.


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December 24th, 2010

O Tannenbaum.  My family always gets a huge Christmas tree, a real proper-sized one really.  This year's model is somewhat slim around the middle - I think it looks like it hit a growth spurt.  I wasn't around to help decorate this year for the first time, but my special angel ornaments are still hung up all over the branches.

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December 23rd, 2010

Nutcrackers being sold outside of the ballet my family and I saw last night.  (Guess what we saw. No, really.)

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December 22nd, 2010

The first present of the holiday season!  Given to me and boyfriend by our lovely friend Davina. Thank you, gorgeous, and merry Christmas!


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December 21st, 2010

This is a complete inside joke, but I was delighted today to go to the local ABC store and find this: FIGHTING COCK WHISKEY.  My Conservatory fellows would have been delighted.

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December 20th, 2010

'Thirteen months to the day since Gandalf sent us on our long journey... we found ourselves looking upon a familiar sight...

 We were home.'

Frodo, The Return of the King

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December 19th, 2010

Today, there is no picture - there's only this.

http://www.shakespeare.org/

This place healed me and made me happier again than I've been in close to ten years.  I have been here since September 19th and it has been an epic journey of love and pain and discovery and heartbreak and renewed life.  I am grateful for the people I have met, the time we have shared, and the future productions we'll undoubtedly have together.

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December 18th, 2010

This is the culmination of the last three months of my life - the Conservatory production of As You Like It.  This photo courtesy of Kevin Sprague, featuring our Rosalind and Orlando.  It's been an amazing show filled with incredible and talented friends, and I've loved every moment of it.

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December 17th, 2010

This lovely girl is another of my dear friends up here.  She dances like a dream, is always on my side, and gives some of the best hugs ever.  Here she is zipping up her fly on her fabulous costume.  Because she is awesome.

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December 16th, 2010

Last Burger Night!  This one accompanied by one of my favorite teachers here at the program.  We spent the evening discussing Richard III and ghost stories.

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December 15th, 2010

Green Room hanging, part two - this time in costume!

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December 14th, 2010

Green room hanging out backstage during the tech run of our Conservatory show.  Surprisingly chill time.

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December 13th, 2010



I spent my yesterday with friends making gingerbread houses out of graham crackers.  I'm officially reverting to a five-year old as the month progresses. 

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December 12th, 2010

In the midst of a mad bout of baking last night, my fellow baker and I invented cookies!  Or a recipe of them, at least.  The ones on the left are peanut butter blossoms, which are my family's favorite holiday cookie.  The ones on the right are the ones that we created - we're calling them chocolate peppermint blossoms, and they are amazing.

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December 11th, 2010

This lovely lady is my director for the show I'm currently in as I come to the end of my Conservatory.  She spent half an hour yesterday working with me alone on the 30-second song I have to solo, mostly just reassuring me that I wasn't a total tone deaf waste of space.  I adore this woman.

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December 10th, 2010

I made cloven fruit yesterday!  Very easy to do - you get whole cloves from the spice aisle at any supermarket and then push them in to oranges or lemons.  The cloves preserve the fruit and dry it out so it never rots, and the smell of cinnamon and cloves and citrus that comes from these is incredible.  Now my room smells like Christmas.

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December 9th, 2010

This pretty girl is an incredible person and one of my dearest friends in the world.  She's one of those people who you need in your life to keep you sane.  Last night, our whole group had our final Wednesday Burger Night and she was my special guest.  Awesome times were had by all.

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December 8th, 2010

Icicles hanging off the eaves of one of the nearby cottages where I live.

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December 7th, 2010

The snow saga continues!  We're on day 3 and I'm calling this a blizzard.  I'm from the South, though - this kind of weather would paralyze us down there.  I have the vague feeling that  my Northerner friends up here are unimpressed.

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December 6th, 2010

The snow continued last night, getting heavier and heavier and finally starting to stick to the ground.  Couldn't believe how pretty it was.  It's also thick enough that snowballs can be informed, as some of my friends will find out today...

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December 5th, 2010

Woke up this morning to the sun shining through pinpricks of snowflakes, turning them fiery in the frigid morning air.

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December 4th, 2010

These horses were on parade down the mainstreet of my town today, with their riders in full holiday Victorian garb.

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December 3rd, 2010

Lovely little Christmas shop in town.  You may notice a theme in entries for the next few weeks.  I love Christmas, what can I say?

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December 2nd, 2010

Gloriously chilly December sky.  Weather report says we're not supposed to get snow till Sunday.  We'll see.

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December 1st, 2010

Beautiful candy display at the mall, with all sorts of proper sweets laid out.  I like old fashioned candy stores; this is sort of a kiosk equivalent.

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