Holiday cleaning

[Maria_Aya]

Hey Maria,

What is name day?? Sorry, I don't know what it is.

Well its a thing that Greek Orthodox have (i think it aply for the Orthodox in general, and the Armenians).

Because all names are connected with Saints, and each Saint have a celebration day in the year, we have our name day on that day.
And for us is much more importand than birthday, in Greece we celebrate the birthday the last 15 years or so, and much more name days.
So my husbands name is Xristos, which comes from Xristmass lol
I'm more lucky as i celebrate 2 times per year, 15 August the "funural" of Madonna and 21 November "the day she first went to church".
Now the fact that even we personal are spiritual and not religious doesnt stop all our relatives coming on Xmass for wishes (and dinner lol)

Maria Aya

 

[Maria_Aya]

We are having

Greek Antipasto plate with Kalamata olives, tomatoes, pepperocini, and feta
Greek salad
Lamb cooked outside
Chicken with yoghurt sauce
Greek style greanbeans
Greek rice
and pita with hommous


For dessert, tomorrow we are making by hand
Greek honey-nut cakes
Baklava
Sesame seed cookies

We are having about 10 people over for dinner. We all have no family who live in the area, so we have made ourselves into a family. We will also make apple pies and put out chocolates and some other goodies, since we do a dessert open house after Christmas dinner and people drop by for a few hours. It is great fun!!
I hope your holidays are just wonderful!
Love,
A'isha

Can you come and cook for me also??? Wow bravo !!!

Its Xmass morning and have to start cooking for dinner:

Stuffed Turkey with rice and nuts and raisins.

Arabian style lamp with spices and fruits and kus-kus

A huge colourfull salad with more than 10 different vegetables

A big spaggeti style pie with cheese and pepers

Light desert kind of a cheeecake with jelly on top and fruits.

Around 20 people coming

kisses to all and happy cooking.

Maria Aya

 

[janaki]

Well its a thing that Greek Orthodox have (i think it aply for the Orthodox in general, and the Armenians).

Because all names are connected with Saints, and each Saint have a celebration day in the year, we have our name day on that day.
And for us is much more importand than birthday, in Greece we celebrate the birthday the last 15 years or so, and much more name days.
So my husbands name is Xristos, which comes from Xristmass lol
I'm more lucky as i celebrate 2 times per year, 15 August the "funural" of Madonna and 21 November "the day she first went to church".
Now the fact that even we personal are spiritual and not religious doesnt stop all our relatives coming on Xmass for wishes (and dinner lol)

Maria Aya

That is cool!! Tks for explaining to me Maria. Hope you are having a wonderful Xmas!!!

 

[Yshka]

Wow, It's christmas morning already and I've just finished tidying up after breakfast, have a bit of cleaning to do but yeah, also hate that. I have to though otherwise it would crowd what little dance space I have left in my room (where I do practically live lol). A'isha, your dinner sounds wonderful. We should have Orientaldancer.net Christmas gathering next year with all you lovely ladies cooking (I suck at it mostly, but I make a mean tatziki:lol.
I'll go over the last bit of cleaning in a sec to get it over with. Most of the time I don't even have time to clean OR tidy up. I'm always running around doing stuff and something more important comes up. If I clean, next day I go to uni, dance at night, come home, open suitcase and SPLOOSH! Books, cd's and dance clothing everywhere, have to start all over again. I've made tidying a once-a week thing though (or when I desperately need dance space and it's too cold to go outside hehe), cleaning I do at least TRY to do on regular basis.

Anway, for christmas, tonight is dinner at my parents house. We have been getting along lately (things werent that good) but I never really like family-only dinners. I'm much more looking forward to spending tomorrow night with my dear teacher at a Turkish place and seeing my closest friends soon.

Dear Maria, happy name day to your husband. Merry christmas to everyone!!

Now for dusting... Sedonia and Shanazel, correct me if I'm wrong but I thought that was when your new costume skirt is too long, sweeping a trail across the floor through the dust:think: (an indication to the exact moment you might realise your floor doesn't really need all that sun-filter protection and you should do something about it - love your terminology A'isha:lol::lol

 

[gisela]

I am domestically challenged.
...
My rationale? If I put things away I lose them - I just think they don't exist any more, so they have to be where I can see them...

I think it's just because I am busy DOING things - my favourite quote?
'A tidy house is a sign of an unlived life'
YEAH!!!

yes yes yes! that's me as well! If i put something in a drawer or a box I never find it again while if I keep my important papers in piles on the floor I instantly know where they are when I need them! I "have" to see everything which is a difficult thing when you only have a room of 18 square-meters to keep your stuff and live in. It makes it even harder that I am a ceramic artist that needs a lot of stuff to make stuff. It keeps coming more and more sculptures and things that just sits under the table or on top of the wardrobe.
I'm actually suffering a bit from this, but it is good to see that I'm not the only one that is having trouble. Hang in there and clean just as much as you have time for. Never let it get any of your dancing time!

 

[Yshka]

yes yes yes! that's me as well! If i put something in a drawer or a box I never find it again while if I keep my important papers in piles on the floor I instantly know where they are when I need them! I "have" to see everything which is a difficult thing when you only have a room of 18 square-meters to keep your stuff and live in.
(...)
Hang in there and clean just as much as you have time for. Never let it get any of your dancing time!

Very well put, Amen

 

[Safran]

I just made it back home, and I'm afraid that even though I could still spend a good deal of time going over the forum, I still have to start cleaning at some point... Oh, and I learned that by an old Estonian tradition, all the Christmas cleaning was supposed to be done by the 21st... Otherwise the whole upcoming year would be a lost cause

 

[gisela]

oops! that's not good news. my whole family is screwed then.

 

[Moon]

I've had a lot of lost years then :lol:
I'll try to remember to clean up in time next year. Just imagine how awsome 2009 will be :yay:

 

[Aisha Azar]

On the Second Day of Christmas....

Dear Belly Dancer,
Our dog is a German Shepherd, on the small side. I think she weighs about 70 pounds. My cats are both Siamese mixes. I also seem to shed...

Dear Aya,
Our feast was WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!! Everything was pronounced a hit, everyone ate too much, and I made what was pronounced a "perfect" baklava. I have a Greek cook book by a Greek woman. A lot of times she does not put how much of this or that ingredient, so the things I brought to the table were by guessing the amounts in some cases.
My friend Leila and I have already decided on a Moroccan Feast for next Christmas!

Dear Gang,
I am celebrating the second day of Christmas by drinking REAL cream in my coffee this morning instead of fat free half and half. It is decadent and devine!!! I wonder how much I would weigh if I kept this up until the day after Epiphany!!!
I hope your Christmas celebrations were all as wonderful as ours!

Regards,
A'isha

 

[Moon]

Good to hear you had a wonderful 1st Christmas day A'isha!
I had Christmas dinner at my sister's place and as usual she buys too much food. It was really good and I ate sooo much meat :shok:. Good thing my vegetarian sister has a non-vegetarian boyfriend now
After that I had 2 pieces of her wonderful chocolate cake :redface:

I just cooked cooking pears for the first time (one of the few traditional Dutch food things that actually taste good) and they turned out pretty good.
I don't know what's for dinner tonight. My bf bought the food. I hope it's not so much as yesterday!

 

[belly_dancer]

Good to hear you had a wonderful 1st Christmas day A'isha!
I had Christmas dinner at my sister's place and as usual she buys too much food. It was really good and I ate sooo much meat :shok:. Good thing my vegetarian sister has a non-vegetarian boyfriend now
After that I had 2 pieces of her wonderful chocolate cake :redface:

I just cooked cooking pears for the first time (one of the few traditional Dutch food things that actually taste good) and they turned out pretty good.
I don't know what's for dinner tonight. My bf bought the food. I hope it's not so much as yesterday!

oooh what are cooking pears???
sounds interesting....
we had for xmas dinner
about 10 guests.... & they were delicious(esp. the vegetarians!)!!!...
but before that we had....
*yummy artichoke dip(2 frozen bags, cooked then chopped)/jalepenos (from a jar... about a cup after chopped.... not hot enough for me.... but those wimpy guests)/ pecorino romano cheese (about 2 cups grated)...& a cup of yummy plain FULL fat yougurt... stir & bake at about 325-350 til slightly golden) served w/ sliced baugette
*& I was gonna do hummus w/ broccoli crudites... (used to make my own... but omg... my new fav is trader joes mediteranean hummus mixed 1/2 & 1/2 w/ yougurt (fat of course!)... makes it perfect for dipping & believe it or not... the broccoli is FAB w/ hummus).. but then Uncle Bill showed up w/ YUMMY assorted olives, marinated olives, cheeses, smoked salmon, etc....
(we had said "just bring beer"!)
then "dinner"
*pasta w/ pesto sauce... (I grow/buy all the basil I can get my hands on in the summers & make TONS of pesto sauce up to the point just before adding the last ingredient... (the cheese) as to conserve room in my tiny freezer... that way I can have fresh pesto all year!!! it freezes great!)
*steamed brussel sprouts (ALL my kids love em... go figure.... they ARE great the next day chopped & stirred w/ the above mentioned hummus!!)
*this squash gratin thing I made w/ I think Delicata squash (a new variety I tried growing this year.... I am NOT a squash fan..... but ooooohhhh fried squash blossoms..... yummmmmmmm but I always end up hand pollinating some (in this area of cool summers I do not get winter squash otherwise & I dunno... I just can't help myself.....sorry I am weird like that)....) but it was not a usual gratin w/ the cheesey creamy stuff(thought we'd had enough cheese!!!!).... I baked (oops hubby baked) the squash on the bbq the night before... some of it was stilll sort of hard... so I peeled & chopped it then added tons of chopped parsley (growing now in my garden like a weed!).... & minced garlic, s&p, put it in a dish drizzled w/ olive oil & baked about 1/2 hour....
don't like squash (well soup is good).... but yummmmm
*baked potatos (on the grill)
*spiral ham (again... on the grill... did I mention that we are remodeling... so we have the "grill", 2 hotplates (recently we upgraded to a "double" hot plate.... so now I have THREE burners.... but they just do not get as hot as I'd like.....& then when they do... you cannot turn them "down".... just off for a while!!)... ooooh & my trusty toaster oven (I can bake 6 cookies at a time...but do I need MORE????)
*& grams brought a cherry pie... I was going to make an apple crisp in ADDITION, cause one of my student brought me a SHOPPING bag full of her homegrown Granny Smith apples.... but in the end I restrained myself...
as I am realizing that ALL this cooking (& yummy leftovers) is whats making me rather "larger" than usual (one of my kids is studying in France... but apparently I am still cooking like she (& her usual 1-2 friends) are at our table!!)
sorry to go on & on.... but just had to relive it.... was yummy/fun/ & NO family fights this year...... maybe it was a dream???

 

[Moon]

Wow I'm getting all hungry again! :lol:

oooh what are cooking pears???

A special kind of pear, they just sell them as "cooking pears" around here. I think they are too hard to eat raw. We cook them, usually for 1 or 2 hours, with sugar, cinnamon and cloves so they get all soft and sweet Some people add red wine, berry juice or some special kind of weird artificial colour stuff to make the pears look more red. But I don't care about colour, I care about taste, so mine were light orangy pink

 

[KuteNurse]

YUM! I love pears Moon! They look wonderful and I am craving healthy fruits and veggies now after eating all the foods I usually dont eat. We traveled over 400 miles over Christmas. We stayed in a hotel for a few nights just to get away before Christmas. It was the Radisson in Plymouth, Minnesota. It had a 3 story indoor fitness center with racketball courts, tennis courts, a basketball court, weights, aerobic machines like tread mill and stationary bicycles. It also had saunas, a hottub and a HUGE swimming pool. It was right up my son's alley...He said, where did you find this place? He loved it. My husband and I had a wonderful time also. We would walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes each day, sit in the hottub and swim together. The hotel also allowed pets, so we took our beloved family dog, an 11 year old golden retriever with. He absolutely loved being with us and walking around in the hotel lobby being petted by everyone. Christmas Eve Day we traveled an hour south to spend the day and evening with my mother-in-law in her new assisted living apartment. She seems to be settled in quite well and she cooked a wonderful dinner for us. Christmas Day, we traveled an hour north of the Twin Cities to see my family...The roads were quite slippery and I was afraid to be traveling in the snowy conditions, but my husband got us there safe and sound. My sister made a wonderful ham lunch and we opened presents and enjoyed each others company. Then we traveled another 3 hours north back home. My husband and son had to shovel our way to our house because there was a storm that dropped over 10 inches of snow with high winds the weekend before when we were away. It has been snowing constantly since we have gotten home. I believe we have snowfalls now totalling about 20 inches in the past 5 days. The snowbanks are up to my hips easily! I don't remember a snowier December. I am looking forward to New Years Eve. It will just be the three of us. We will make a nice dinner and watch movies to bring in the New Year. Happy Holidays to all!

 

[Safran]

Wow, KT, your holidays were almost like mine - I also spent most of the time driving from one end of the country to another and back (but it is just a very small country )

But, speaking of yum, here is a nice quote I found....

"Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands -- and then eat just one of the pieces."

--Judith Viorst,
author and journalist

 

[Ankhet]

I clean my place everyday. I have to as I have a free running rabbit and a messy husband!:lol: Those pears look yummy Moon. I made some a few years ago and they did not last the night

 

[Darbla]

I'm finding the older I get, the more of a neat freak I become. I've gotten to where I can't stand much clutter around me, and I'm gradually getting rid of it and not buying more. A neat, clean house feels better mentally than a lot of stuff, and I just am too busy with work (I basically have 3 jobs) and working out (I'm a heavy exerciser in general, not just with bellydancing) to deal with a bunch of junk around me.

 

[nightdancer]

Flylady.com Seriously. It look more complicated that it is. I never do more than 15 minutes of housework a day and my house is clean. Not spotless, but clean enough that I am not embarrassed when the First Sergeant wanders by.

 

[rita1969]

I keep my house cleam,its not a pigs pen.

I keep my house clean ,its not a pigs pen.

 

[teela]

due to reasons beyond my control, my husband and I have a long distance marriage. Most of the time, I live by myself in an apt and I spent new years day cleaning it so I had a clean house for the new year. When I go home to be with my husband, that is a totally different story, especially since my oldest moved home. Usually, in the summer when I'm home for vacation, I spend a lot of time cleaning up after them, trying to find some floor space to dance. I really hate cleaning up after them but its part of life and loving them. I'm hoping the basement gets finished so I can move crud down there and clear out tons of floor space on the first floor.
So happy new year to all.
I do clean up a bunch when the relatives are due through or try to be out of town if I can and leave him to face everyone.....LOL