Trembling reed

Italians really know how to celebrate Christmas, called Natale in Italian. It's not about tacky decorations or shopping frenzy, if there is any excess, it's of delicious food, well wishes and love for family. The traditional celebration of "La Befana" for the epiphany, Christmas eve midnight mass and multi course meals with lots of special dishes are all wonderful, but it's the "fare gli auguri" that I appreciate most about Natale Tape replacement.

Like so many concepts in Italian auguri which is translated as "best wishes" is a multilayered and complex concept and almost impossible to fully translate into English, and it has significant religious and moral dimension. And I promise if you spend time with Italians around the holidays, you will experience it. My friend Valeria describes it much better than I possibly could.

"Currently auguri is used for every good wish, from a birthday to a degree to a wedding. But I think that Christmas "auguri" are special because it is the end of the year and we all pause to take a look at the year passed and start thinking about the next one, so it is a time for reflection and balance. We usually are grateful for the good things we have and wish to improve the not so good ones, so auguri is a wish to improve and do better, but it is not referred to material wealth alone, it is in general a wish for improvement and happiness."

Really, what could be better than that? But it has to be experienced. Short of going to Italy for the holiday, I encourage you to attend some of the Italian events in the Bay Area where you can enjoy a bit of this very Italian, true spirit of Christmas facial treatment.


Mercato di Natale
December 7 & 8 from 10 am - 6 pm at Fort Mason
Germans aren't the only ones with Christmas markets! This Italian Christmas market takes place this Saturday and Sunday December 7 & 8 from 10 am - 6 pm at the Museo Italo-Americano at Fort Mason Center Building C. There will be artisanal Italian foods, handmade jewelry, accessories, craft items and more. I hope to see you there!


Festa dei Dolci Italiani
December 12th, 7 pm at Fort Mason tickets $35
This annual holiday event at the Museo Italo Americano is hosted by the Museo Auxiliary. Wine, prosecco, cheese and fabulous sweet and savory treats prepared by Auxiliary members will be served. RSVP to 415.673.2200 or email for an invitation.



An Italian Holiday Dinner
December 19th, 6:30 pm at Cavallo Point tickets $95
Learn to make Casunziei all'Ampezzana (red beet tortelli with brown butter and poppy seeds)
Tagliatelle al Cacao con Speck e Panna (cocoa tagliatelle with smoked ham and cream) and Lasagna alla Bolognese (classic bolognese lasagna)

I highly recommend Viola Buitoni's classes. I can't imagine a better Christmas present for yourself or someone you love. I finally got to take one and it was even better than I could have imagined. Viola is from a family famous in Italy and the world for both pasta (yes, that Buitoni) and Perugina chocolates. While the family no longer runs either of those companies, Viola's firsthand knowledge and her warm and encouraging manner will inspire you to tackle any Italian cooking project with confidence. Her classes virtually always sell out, so sign up for updates from her blog so you will know as soon as classes are announced. Her pasta and polenta classes in January still have a few spaces at 18 Reasons (check the schedule for more details).

Everyone in the depths of my heart there is a flower mound, burial unknown but many poignant emotion. Jun seen in that tree blossoms, brilliant scenery of the garden, but left many past weathered. Tagore said: "The best place long day, I come before you, you will see my scars, you'll know I've hurt has healed." Torrent promenade through the memories, the time from my fingertips man too, in our splendid Love, there will always meet a person, this person will appear before you forgive all living things difficult for you headphone stand, but it can bring you a lot of hard heart pain.

Remember the "Norwegian Wood" Murakami said in this sentence:. "Everyone has their own piece of the forest, lost people lost, meet the people will meet again" at the moment I would like to ask your one, today's parting, tomorrow we will also have to meet the possible? Long life, you go with I gradually became two parallel lines never intersect, your way across country, under the sky, I could not help but return again and again, want to come to you, but had to choose to leave.

You and I are destined to be separated, three hundred nights as you want three hundred crib walls, sea mercilessly blocked us, you look into the distance on the other side, I was wandering in this shore. Time slowly slip away when we do not pay attention, do not rest anything else, except for memories. At the moment you my separation makes countless lonely evening even more sad.

The total open patch of gardenia in the depths of my memory quietly, let me Language tired, you can have one moment sitting corner. I do not remember at what time seen North Island "ending or beginning," the promise is what happened a long time ago. "On the grass and leaves on each channel sincere eyes, I wrote a poem of life, this ordinary aspirations, has become all the costs of my life." Always remember his words, perhaps, I can not be like the North Island, as in a grassy field to write a poem about life; and maybe , I do not know what they were going to pay the price of life is, but I still choose to go ahead, choose to treat life.

I do not know why, I really like the North Island of poetry, then you do not know who is the North Island, but it will be listened to me, then you have to give up my fleeting tenderness, but now, I'm lost in your heart, were displaced. Please tell me, I choose where to go next, see the end of me, alone in tears, but still unable to get your answer.

Once you write poems for me, it will hurt me, me, you were looking at the silly, silly put you in mind. You have asked me: "To love someone is to say it out loud, or should in my heart?" At the time I answered, still in my heart it! You looked at me and said softly after: "Fool You say::" If you do not say it, how could she know? "I said," you will never escape, not your force and no fruit. "you do not tell her, how she would know it. "Later, you said to me in earnest:"? do not change because maybe, he would not say the phrase beautiful oath, not because of the separation may dare find a cordial encounter. "I stare at you ageloc me, quietly eating at the side of you to buy me ice cream.

Jiang Liu Ruyan, this spring, I walked from the willow smoke.

Spring rain, gentle who dream? Around the universe tube amp
Maid Agency, endless spread, stick surface not wet, but lost my mind.

I walk, the green Liu Cuidi, Lake boats, fragrant soft rain, and it is easily gather a tree white pear. The breeze blows gently Lai Lai, blows the thick willow catkins, who also raised the free thought?

I can't do that and sat outside, red flowers, how the pear white full of rain, to see how they turn into Chunni more quadrangle. I walked into the rain, reached out to capture a branch, although the bloom is short, but the moment the fibrillation branches nuhart, such as heart tremble, shake off a cool rain, in the heart lake Dangqi a circle of ripples.

Jiang Liu Ruyan, this spring, I walked from the willow smoke.

I walked quietly silent, water, birds. The song melody and vast, copy from rolia, who got a cavity deep sorrow water sit playing the "Pipa" on the other side?

I can't Wade and Du, to pursue the other side of the string and wind sound, listen to her say infinite things, just across the water Lute Music listening tom ford sunglasses, in the misty rain, telling her the mood at the moment.

Jiang Liu Ruyan, this spring, I walked from the willow smoke.

I passed, leaving my footprints, and whose footprint? The song of Taiwan warm response in time, dance hall sleeve cold in years, only Zhu Yangai of a mansion, has witnessed how flourishing, has seen how the wind? The ignorance of youth, how persistently pursue the dreams, how helpless let dreams? Life had tasted, how ecstasy, and how.

When the chunhuaqiuyue, only sadness still. Even if those years is old, the dream has been old, no squandering charming eyes, only love and hate all year long Cloud Provider.

Jiang Liu Ruyan, this spring, I walked from the willow smoke.

Amidst the fog in, great It's only human, in a flat Zeze heart in flooding, drunk out longitudinal poetry Fu word thousands of style. In the world of mortals, we weave the love and pain of the trap, be most willing to fall in with, the pain and happiness, never be bored with sth., refuse to realize one's error!

Spring has quietly fall, spring no longer leave quietly. Butterfly gently over the blue sky, draws the outline of a rainbow iPhone 4 casing.

Do you have a grand aunt? A grand ole dame of a grand aunt? I do. And let me tell you, they are the best ever. Mine ran away to Spain in her youth where she spent many years doing what I probably will never fully know. She played flawless bridge, if the many trophies on her shelf speak true, and even flew to Monaco for a tournament, many moons ago, where she saw (ladies, hang on to your panties) Omar Sharif. She also made the best apple pie and pineapple upside down cake ever. She was a great cook and baker, and I still go to her for cooking and baking advice. Without her help I could have never made this Flower shop. She can also mix a mean cocktail, learning at a young age under her mother’s exacting tutelage (note to self: teach little C to make my gin tonics). She loves to have wine and listen to live music, every Wednesday afternoon, at one of our more refined hotel lobbies, where the orchestra plays her favorites when they see her there.

She loves her crepes Suzette extra boozy to the point that at one of her favorite restaurants they have taken to calling hers “crepes a la R”…which simply means crepes Suzette with an extra generous glug of Grand Marnier.

This breakfast is the result of one Saturday morning’s craving for crepes Suzette, my laziness to actually whip up crepe batter, and my reluctance to let food go to waste cube organizers.

French Toast “Suzette”

2-3 slices of day old bread (or older, I won’t tell), each sliced in half
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
A couple of pats of butter for frying
1 1/2 tablespoon butter for the sauce
4-5 tablespoons of marmalade
Grand Marnier (optional if serving to children)
Optional: fresh orange juice to thin

- Whisk together the egg and milk until homogenous.
- Heat a pat of butter in a non-stick skillet. While the butter is melting soak your bread slices on both sides in the milk-egg mixture.
- When the butter’s foam subsides SKI TRIP, lay the soaked bread slices in the pan. Fry until golden brown, flip to the other side, and repeat. Do the same with the rest of the bread.
- Wipe down the skillet and return to the heat with 1 1/2 tablespoons butter. Once the butter melts and the foam subsides, add the marmalade. Stir until incorporated. If you’d like your sauce a little thinner add some orange juice (I like mine thick and luxurious so I left that out). Add a glug or two of Grand Marnier, if using, and cook on high heat until it bubbles up and most of the alcohol is cooked off (just 1-2 minutes). You can also opt to flambé this if you have the chutzpah. I'm still getting up the nerve.
- Serve the French toast immediately, with the hot sauce poured over.

I love love love this version of French toast…almost as much as I love crepes Suzette (one of my favorite ways to have crepes). And believe me, I am no stranger to French toast – the perfect combination of deliciousness and frugality. If you are looking for a new way to enjoy French toast, or are too deliciously lazy on one sunny Saturday morning to make crepes, or simply looking for a way to use up the remaining few slices of bread or the last of a bottle of marmalade…this is the absolute and unequivocal ticket.

Here’s more ways to use up your marmalade remnants if, like C, French toast is just not your thing.

Sometimes, when we look at our grandparents and grand aunts and uncles, it’s hard for us to see beyond the person who has been, for most of our lives at least, someone we consider our “elder”. But there is a whole other life there; one of passion and daring and grand adventure that belongs to a time leagues more glamorous than ours. All we have to do is ask about it. My grant aunt R may be living at a slower pace nowadays but she is living to the hilt…with every extra swig of Grand Marnier that douses her crepes! Cheers and happy breakfasts to you all!

生活當中，自己所做的事情不一定都是別人認可的，也許這在當時會成為心中的糾結。但是，在經曆過後，仔細想想，歲月的洗禮才能讓自己逐漸走上成熟。這個時候，要感謝那些曾經讓自己成長的人，是他們讓我們走向成熟睿智。學會感恩，收獲別樣的人生。

在生活中不如意事十有八九，如遭受挫折，被人誤解，受到批評等等。當時是滿腹的委屈。曾幾何時那段陰霾還藏在心底，糾結成一小段暫時無法逾越的障礙。人只有在經曆了無數次歲月的洗禮後才會逐漸的走向成熟睿智。那時的你再驀然回首，曾經的陰霾只不過是人生長河中的職位一朵浪花，如梭歲月裏的一縷馨香。

生活需要一顆感恩的心來創造，一顆感恩的心需要生活來滋養。常懷感恩心，一生無憾事。翻開日曆，一頁頁嶄新的生活會因為我們的感恩而變得更加的璀璨。

感恩斥責你的人，因為他們讓你學會了思考

人與人之間的相處過程中，有欣賞就有斥責。遭遇斥責請不要惱羞成怒。要學會自我反思，試著換位思考。這樣在以後的人際交往中，你就會以此為戒，有則改之無則加勉。所以請感恩斥責你的人，是他們讓你學會了思考。

感恩絆倒你的人，因為他們強化了你的室內設計意志

競爭的社會就免不了爾虞我詐，有些人為了達到自己的目的，會不擇手段的在你前進道路上放置各種障礙。當我們遭遇這些阻撓時，請不要輕言放棄，要勇敢的面對。請相信，只要你堅持，陽光就在風雨後。壓力就是最好的動力，這種越挫越勇的精神無形中便強化了自己的意志力。所以，請感恩絆倒你的人。

感恩遺棄你的人，因為他們教會了你要獨立

一個人在成長和成熟的過程中，難免要經曆自我獨立。因為親人不可能一生陪伴在你身邊。正所謂，花無百日在深山，人無百年在世間。當我們的親人因為某種原因放棄了自己，我們不能心生埋怨和悔恨，要懂得感恩，感恩他們一生不求回報無限地付出，感恩他們的及早放手。有一種愛叫放手，因為他們的放手我們才學會了獨立。

感恩欺騙你的人，因為他增長了你的閱曆

生活中欺騙無處不在。當你被騙，請不要仇視對方，也不能自責。所謂吃一塹長一智，害人之心不可有，防人之心不可無。所以，請感恩欺騙你的人，因為有了他們的欺騙，才讓我們無形中增長了社會閱曆。

感恩傷害你的人，因為他磨礪了你的心志

一個人在成長和成熟的過程中，難免會受到不同程度的傷害。因為人生不可能一帆風順，當你的真誠換不回來等同的回報，請不要怨天尤人。請堅信，每一次傷害都是對你人生的洗禮，每一次傷害都是一種嶄新生活的開始。舔舐傷口，把痛楚化作前進的動力，相信終有一天你會化繭成蝶。所以，請感恩傷害你的人，是他們磨礪了你的心志。

感恩在困境中幫助過你的人，是他們讓你堅定了信念。感恩在順境中忠言提醒你的人，是他們幫你校正了航向。感恩汙蔑你的人，是他們讓你知道正人先正己。

小草心存對陽光雨露的感恩，一歲一枯榮之後又萌發新綠；雄鷹心存對藍天白雲的感恩，在清寒玉宇中展翅高飛；溪水心系對巍峨高山的感恩，從山澗低吟下瀉；泥土心存對廣袤大地的感恩，在田野裏散發沁人的芬芳。我們生活在感恩的世界裏，感恩生命的偉大，感恩生活的美好。感恩父母的言傳身教，感恩老師的諄諄教誨。我們感恩大自然賦予生命的一切恩澤。

感恩是力量之源，愛心之根，勇氣之本。感恩父母，你將不再辜負父母的期望；感恩社會，你會輕輕扶起跌倒在地的老人；感恩人生，你將笑對狂風暴雨，笑迎天邊那一抹彩虹。讓我們一起學會感恩，收獲別樣的人生！

剔透的青春渴求幸福leonichole's Journal潜心花匠cedricnichole
聆听古琴终身如恋人松下留影clarknichole跏趺莲座