Tag, you’re it! (and other reindeer games)

Happy holidays, beloved readers! We hope you are all happy, healthy, and stuffed.

University life is a strange thing. It’s a very specific time, where we are surrounded by very specific types of people doing very specific things. Some people study writing. Some people study children. Some people study numbers and formulas (although I’m not really sure why you would want to do such a thing).

But it’s also the only time of my life where I can take a walk down the hallway in my pajamas and converse with my neighbors or coworkers or employers, all living together in the same little boxes, dealing with the same sorts of things. 

Most of our readers were in the same boat, but for those of you who need a reminder…finals weeks means a ton of studying, essay writing, stressing out, eating crappy food…and very little sleeping. I personally ate nothing but scrambled eggs and Morningstar chik’n nuggets for four days.To save our sanity after a few very busy weeks, I decided to take a short break from blogging so I could sleep and relax. Our winter vacation extends into mid-January so I’m at home for three lovely lovely weeks and intent on doing NOTHING. Well, nothing but sleeping, cooking, and drinking wine in my pajamas.

Regular updates will resume shortly, I just needed a bit of time to adjust to being home – sharing a room with my 16-year-old sister again; living out of a bag; belongings shoved into the trunk of my car; finding my way around the new kitchen.

In other news, we’ve been tagged! John and Lisa, who just welcomed a beautiful baby girl, sent us this little blog game a few weeks ago. 

The rules of the game are pretty simple:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules.
3. Write 6 random things about yourself.
4. Tag 6 people and link to their blogs.
5. Let each person know they were tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry has been published.

Brandon and I will split these down the middle. Sharing is caring.

1. Alexandra met David Sedaris during her senior year of highschool and he said she was delightful. And had a very fashionable hat (it was her great-grandfather’s fedora, complete with a feather in the brim). Love at first sight.

2. Brandon is a professional puppeteer. He took several puppet design and performance classes in his undergrad and got some gigs performing. Yes…he did get paid to play with puppets.

3. Alexandra had a brief stint as a rockstar, previously touring in New Jersey and all the major bars in Philadelphia. When she was 18-years-old, her band headlined at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park twice! She’s played music all her life, as evidenced by the bass and treble clef tattoos on her feet. Favorite instrument? Her acoustic guitar.

4. Brandon has a massive gargoyle collection (hence why his brother calls his room “the hobbit” room. His parents have a gnome collection and the house is covered in them.

5. Alexandra grew up in a farmhouse in a very small town, and passed at least a dozen working farms each day on her way to school. Fond childhood foodie memories include picking endless baskets of cherries from the trees in the yard, turning the old pool into a vegetable/herb garden, and getting milk from the neighbors’ cows and skimming the cream off the top to make butter.

6. One of Brandon’s favorite childhood memories is winning a Halloween poetry contest in middle school. His poem was hand selected by the writer of Bunnicula, which was one of Brandon’s favorite books.

We are tagging:

Messy and Picky – Frequent hosts of foodblogger potlucks, this adorable foodie duo plays a big part in the Philly food scene. The Inquirer recently wrote an article about their latest shindig (which I sadly missed, due to an unfortunately timed stomach flu).

Straight from the Farm - a blog voted most-likely-to-make-me-insanely-jealous. Gorgeous photography and farm-fresh food, right in Philadelphia.

Bake & Destroy - I have been singing her praises for over a year now – and rightly so! This Chicago-based blog makes me laugh with hilarious stories of tattooed motherhood and drool over the many unique recipes for cupcakes. 

Hungry Student – My friend and beloved editor-in-chief of Rowan’s newspaper started a food blog this year. One weeks she surprised our editorial staff with gifts of red velvet cupcakes. Swoon! If there’s anything that will get me working, it’s sugar and cream cheese frosting.

Ezra Pound Cake – Reading this blog is like getting a big smack in the face with the envy stick. Maybe I’m being dramatic again, but it’s a highly entertaining read, accompanied by great photography. I really just want to be a guest in this kitchen and have the author cook desserts for me (like her recently posted old fashioned 12-layer cake).

Jersey Bites- This Jersey mama is a fabulous cook with a huge heart, as evidenced by her recent “Blogging Out Hunger” campaign to raise awareness about the sad state of New Jersey food banks. 

All the best,

Alexandra