DJ John Land

Now that Christmas has passed (it was a lovely Holiday, overall), it also marks the end of the regular NFL season.  Actually, the official end this year is December 28th.  The Giants and the Eagles will face each other at 1 pm at home (meaning, MetLife Stadium) and I will be glued to the 52" Samsung. The husband will probably be out walking (tragically, he isn't a Football fan...LOL). It's not that this game will really mean anything, except (I hope) that the Giants will mercilessly humiliate the Eagles.  Neither team will be in the playoffs this year.  Of course, it's very disappointing that the Giants ruled themselves out much earlier than Philadelphia did; they had a bad season (understatement).  The Eagles fell apart in the last weeks, with Dallas assured a shoe-in about a week ago, as they are now safely in first place and the wildcard spots will be taken by other teams in the conference. Hopefully, Dallas will be "one-and-done" and eliminated early....

Allow me to re-introduce myself: John Q. Procrastinator . My claim to fame : putting things off to the last minute . Credo : The best work is that which is done at the last minute. Anyway, Christmas Day is a week from now, and stepping back, I'm actually not that behind the 8-ball.  The Christmas cards were mailed out today, and much (but not all) of my shopping and cooking are done.  Because no one will really be over in Avon this year, I decided to take the year off from Holiday decorating.  Mom's family will be in NC.  Al is having his annual open house festivities at his place, and Christmas Day will be spent with Dad & Co. Most of my family are getting gift cards this year to various restaurants and department stores.  Of course, I could never, ever get away with this sort of thing with the husband, so I did a little better for him.  He got a main present (of course, I won't divulge that now) and a number of stocking-stuffers. I'd like to g...

We're in December now!  Seems like the older we get the faster time flies: July didn't seem that long ago! Thanksgiving was very nice; we spent it with Dad and Michele at their townhome in Branchburg.  Because I wasn't cooking this year, Al was very disappointed that I wasn't making my sausage stuffing.  But, of course I went ahead and made it as a surprise while the Thanksgiving Day parade was on (recipe below).  We enjoyed it when he got in. Black Friday did not find us among the throngs at the various "door-buster" sales.  Seriously, I cannot believe that human beings act like complete savages just to save a few bucks on material items at the big box stores.  My mother participates in this madness...she and my stepfather went to Walmart ( ugh ) to buy two flat-screen TVs...on Thanksgiving!  Sure, a deal is nice, but this part of the Holiday season has been a complete turnoff for me for at least a decade now. I used to enjoy ...