This week’s Ten on Tuesday list is 10 Things I Want to Do in 2012:

1. Knit myself a sweater this winter. I have two yarn possibilities in contention and about a dozen patterns. You may see more about this later this month. Of course, the rest of my knitting resolutions for this winter would also be nice to get through.
2. Bake — at least once a month. I gave some baked Christmas gifts this year and then made some quick bread (double chocolate cherry) for Rudi and me to eat while watching the Rose Parade. I like doing it. I’m not always good at it, but even when you mess up baking, it’s still usually tasty.
3. Read. I stalled out at just over 40 books for the year, well under last year’s number. I’d like to get back to reading one a week (and then quickly blogging about it).
4. Have people over. I think we fell to an all-time low for entertaining last year. I’d like to get this number back up to once a month. Maybe a potluck? Or a movie night? Or a way to not eat all of those baked goods mentioned above by myself party?
5. Focus our cleaning efforts on one major thing a month. I’d like to keep the Burrow generally tidy, but we have way more than we need, and (I hope) it’s just a state of being overwhelmed that keeps us from dealing with it. If we divvy it up into reasonable chunks — like a month to deal with our two closets — maybe it would seem more manageable.
6. Plan our next big trip. It would be nice to plan another big trip like Iceland for 2012, but it may be that we can’t take it until next year. Either way, I think it would be good to figure out where we might go next.
7. Start going to yoga again. I vowed early this fall that I was going to go to yoga every week and then I didn’t go to a single class.
8. Explore four new-to-me restaurants. We get into a bit of a rut. But given I live two blocks from a plethora of restaurants, it’s a real shame I haven’t explored more of them, no matter how much I love Pete’s.
9. Gain access to the Library of Congress. Apparently the LOC allows people to get a card. It won’t let you take books out, but you can request them and then peruse them in the reading room. I want to be one of those people. Because how cool would that be?!?!
10. Go dancing at Glen Echo Ballroom. Sarah mentioned in her list this afternoon that she wanted to dance more, and that reminded me that several friends and I have thrown around this possibility for years now. 2012 is the year to make it up there and swing dance our feet off for the night.

How about you? What are some things you’d like to do in the next 12 months?

The problem with not being a fully anonymous blog is that it’s impossible to share private details without the possibility of having them made public. As such, know I have a big resolution for 2012 that I can’t share with you right now, but that I will when I’ve made it happen. It will require me to push boundaries and open myself up to uncomfortable possibilities and, frankly, scares the shit out of me, which probably means it’s exactly the right resolution to make here and now. Except that I can’t share it with you — whom I’m sure would mostly be in support of it.

So I shall make some blog-friendly resolutions as well:

1. Attend more concerts. I like listening to music and I don’t do enough of it. The drunk-fest that was the Mumford and Sons concert at Merriweather Post this summer suggests that smaller, less popular venues will probably make me happier, so maybe this will be the year of the house concert.
2. Actively pursue daylight. I’m bad about getting outside, particularly early, which is what’s required to see the sun at this time of year. But daylight is an important part of keeping your mental health in order, so I’m going to take a lunch break outside a couple times a week and walk/bike to work a couple times a week and not dilly-dally until 3 in the afternoon on weekends before getting out of the house.
3. Review books here on the blog within three days of finishing them. I get behind every year and I get irritated with myself, because I like having a record of what I’ve read. Because I have this tendency to get backlogged (like I am right now), the three-day rule ought to just force me to write whatever crappy review will get it out of my queue and into my online records.

Today I’d like to offer you three things to make your Christmas merry:

1. An old favorite Christmas tune

Non-Flash version: The Statler Brothers – “Carols Those Kids Used To Sing”

2. Eskimo Cookies
Un-p.c. name aside, these are great cookies to make with small people and great cookies to have on-hand for Advent-related stress-outs. (C’mon. I can’t be the only one suffering from them, can I?) Your hands will get dirty, but otherwise, they are a one-bowl, non-bake cookie that can be snacked on as you make the rest. I’d suggest doubling the recipe if you’re going to go that route:

In a bowl, combine:

1.5 sticks (12 Tbs) of softened butter (malleable but not drippy)
3/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbs cocoa powder
2 cups oats (I’d try to avoid instant, because I think they might dissolve in the butter, but any other kind is probably fine, and, really, you could try instant if that’s all you have)

Take a spoonful of the dough and roll it in your hands to make a roughly spherical shape.

Roll the cookie in powdered sugar.

Voila! Eat or put aside for later.

Repeat.

3. A new favorite
Emmy the Great and Tim Wheeler’s Christmas album, This Is Christmas, has been playing non-stop on my various computers and listening devices since Thanksgiving. I share with you their official video from the cd, but suggest you visit their advent calendar to see the acoustic version, which I might like even better.

And, as a bonus for those with a little extra time, I offer you a Christmas memory of mine.

For years, I had a vague memory of a Christmas special I saw as a young kid. I described it to everyone I knew (in the same way I’d describe Davey and Goliath), but no one ever shared my memory. Eventually, though, they invented the internet, and 12 years ago or so, I typed in “Christmas special aliens ice goose” and after sorting through some bad results, came upon the fact that this was not some bad Christmas candy trip I was recalling. Raidergirl3 might be nodding her head knowingly at this moment, because it turns out this was A Cosmic Christmas, a 1977 Christmas special that aired on the CBC and must have been picked up by American tv one Christmas in the late ’70s. It wasn’t until last year that I managed to find a complete stream (rather than one in pieces the way YouTube used to restrict uploads), and today I share it with you. It’s no masterpiece and it certainly looks a little dated, but I still like the sentiment:

This is my slightly tardy entry for the Virtual Advent Tour. My apologies to readers who stopped by earlier in the day expecting a post. And do make sure you visit the others who posted today, too:

• Ramblings of a wRiter
• Grace Elliot
• The Non Reluctant Reader

This week’s Ten on Tuesday topic is 10 Favorite Holiday Traditions. Here are some of mine relating to Christmas:

1. Throw a tree-trimming party: I started this tradition the year after I graduated from college. I was working at a university and had a dozen students working for me. Remembering how sad it was to miss out on decorating for the holidays by the time you got home from school, I invited them to join my friends and me in trimming my tree. I no longer have interns, but I still invite friends over the first Sunday in December to kick off the season in style.

2. Decorate Spritz cookies with Mum: When we were kids this forced labor, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate a well-adorned cookie — and the less sweet taste of these pressed butter cookies.
3. Decorate Gramma’s tree with Dad: At some point my grandfather said he didn’t want a Christmas tree anymore, but my parents over-ruled him and bought one for them, figuring (correctly) that he wouldn’t be able to turn it down once they’d spent their own money on it. I suspect the first couple years Gramma decorated it herself, but as she began to slow down, I’d come over and assist. And then it became Dad and me doing it once it was obvious that her heart wasn’t really in it anymore. Now my parents pick one up before Rudi and I leave after Thanksgiving so Dad and I can get the tree all gussied up before we head home.
4. Make a Christmas cd: Cds are outdated technologies, but it feels nice to be able to hand someone a physical disc rather than pointing them to a url to download a playlist. It’s fun to listen to music to winnow down the contenders (and how I’ll be spending at least part of the coming weekend) and to find the perfect flow.
5. Send Christmas cards: Rudi and I like finding fun and/or pretty cards, and I take seriously the writing of each one. It gives me a few minutes to think about each friend and what they mean to me and to think good thoughts for them. I pull out my red and green pens and stickers and send them to everyone in my address book. This year I’ll be starting at the front of the alphabet after beginning at the end last Christmas.
6. Celebrate St. Nicholas Day: This is a tradition that has come from Rudi’s family, as his dad’s family was Dutch. On Dec. 6, if we’ve been good, we’ll likely find a few treats and a small gift or two in our shoes.

7. Make merry with friends: Many of our D.C.-based friends also throw Christmas parties, and it’s become part of our season to stop in for some munchies at one party and to watch Christmas cartoons at another.
8. Watch holiday specials: We watch cartoons and concerts on tv and movies (and any cartoons we’ve missed on tv or at Sarah and Megan’s party) on video. We’ve got John Denver and the Muppets and The Bishop’s Wife and Frosty Returns (the real one with Mrs. Frosty; not the one they show on tv these days) and Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (which I insist on watching Christmas Eve). And between our collection and Mum and Dad’s, we’re always able to find a new one we haven’t yet seen.
9. Go to a Christmas Eve service with Dad: It’s the one time a year I go to church, but there are candles and carols and a sense of wonder and faith and magic and it feels nice to be a part of that for an hour.
10. Spend Christmas morning with my family: We all curl up in the living room (most of us in our pj’s), with the tree lit up and a fire blazing in the hearth and Christmas music playing on the stereo. We open lovely presents (and hope that the presents we have picked out go over well with their recipients) and snack on sweet breakfasty things and ball up discarded wrapping paper to see who can get the most in a paper bag. It’s fun and relaxed and full of loved ones. Who can ask for more?

What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?

You know you are loved when your dear ones…

• offer you a stash of Samoas if yours runs out before you reach your deadline.
• give you a list of things to watch out for at the end of your project that you wouldn’t have known to look for.
• mention a much loved book that ends up being just what you need to read in the mornings while waiting for the Metro.
• come into work on the weekend in large part so you won’t have to be there by yourself.
• don’t complain about how late you are at the office for a month.
• keep pots of soup on the stove for when you finally make it home at midnight.
• send emails and texts checking in on you.
• wash your workout gear so you will have something to wear this week.
• make you tea so you have cups to drink when you drag yourself out of bed and when you arrive home.
• snuggle into your lap as soon as you collapse at night.

Thank you all.

One more day…

Carole‘s Ten on Tuesday topic this week comes at a good time. Neither Rudi nor I had to work on Columbus Day, so we headed north to spend the holiday weekend in Connecticut. This offered plenty of options for this week’s subject.

Ten Things I Did This Weekend

1. Finished my first pair of Socktoberfest socks in the appropriately titled New England colorway and started my second. (Photographic proof coming soon.)
2. Worked on some trip-prep for the upcoming Iceland vacation by catching up on my reading and buying a red winter raincoat.
3. Celebrated Dad’s birthday.
4. Ate Mum’s delicious apple crisp.
5. Sat outside in the sun.
6. Slept in.
7. Took in some fall color. (It’s muted and still edged out by green leaves after a ridiculously wet summer, but the yellows, oranges, and reds are still there.)
8. Bought unpasteurized apple cider (Note: should you decide to do this, I would recommend against storing it in a non-refrigerated garage for two 85+ degree days and then taking it on a cabin-temperature, 8-hour car ride. It pretty much guarantees that your trip will end with the cider blowing its seal and leaking all over the car, the sidewalk, and the entryway to your apartment. You will, however, remember that cider forever regardless of its flavor.)
9. Dozed in a hammock.
10. Decompressed and relaxed enough to realize that a work deadline can be moved back a week without disastrous results.

How about you? What did you do this weekend?