Life is too short not to say the things that are on your mind.

In the coming weeks, I have some mailings related to Valentine’s, and more letters to write!!

It’s that time again! Oscar season! They announced the nominations this week, which means my quest to view all nominated movies and performances is officially underway. The Golden Globes results usually give a good idea of who and what will be nominated for the Oscars so I got a head start but now that the Oscar list is up, time to roll up the sleeves and get rolling. Once it gets closer to the date, I’ll post my picks.

Here’s the full list of nominees:

Actor in a Leading Role

Demián Bichir in “A Better Life”

George Clooney in “The Descendants”

Jean Dujardin in “The Artist”

Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”

Brad Pitt in “Moneyball”

Actor in a Supporting Role

Kenneth Branagh in “My Week with Marilyn”

Jonah Hill in “Moneyball”

Nick Nolte in “Warrior”

Christopher Plummer in “Beginners”

Max von Sydow in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”

Actress in a Leading Role

Glenn Close in “Albert Nobbs”

Viola Davis in “The Help”

Rooney Mara in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”

Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady”

Michelle Williams in “My Week with Marilyn”

Actress in a Supporting Role

Bérénice Bejo in “The Artist”

Jessica Chastain in “The Help”

Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids”

Janet McTeer in “Albert Nobbs”

Octavia Spencer in “The Help”

Directing

“The Artist” Michel Hazanavicius

“The Descendants” Alexander Payne

“Hugo” Martin Scorsese

“Midnight in Paris” Woody Allen

“The Tree of Life” Terrence Malick

Best Picture

“The Artist” Thomas Langmann, Producer

“The Descendants” Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers

“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” Scott Rudin, Producer

“The Help” Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers

“Hugo” Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers

“Midnight in Paris” Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers

“Moneyball” Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers

“The Tree of Life” Nominees to be determined

“War Horse” Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

Animated Feature Film

“A Cat in Paris” Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli

“Chico & Rita” Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal

“Kung Fu Panda 2″ Jennifer Yuh Nelson

“Puss in Boots” Chris Miller

“Rango” Gore Verbinski

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

“The Descendants” Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash

“Hugo” Screenplay by John Logan

“The Ides of March” Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon

“Moneyball” Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin  Story by Stan Chervin

“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Screenplay by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan

Writing (Original Screenplay)

“The Artist” Written by Michel Hazanavicius

“Bridesmaids” Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig

“Margin Call” Written by J.C. Chandor

“Midnight in Paris” Written by Woody Allen

“A Separation” Written by Asghar Farhadi

Art Direction

“The Artist” Production Design: Laurence Bennett; Set Decoration: Robert Gould

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan

“Hugo” Production Design: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo

“Midnight in Paris” Production Design: Anne Seibel; Set Decoration: Hélène Dubreuil

“War Horse” Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales

Cinematography

“The Artist” Guillaume Schiffman

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Jeff Cronenweth

“Hugo” Robert Richardson

“The Tree of Life” Emmanuel Lubezki

“War Horse” Janusz Kaminski

Costume Design

“Anonymous” Lisy Christl

“The Artist” Mark Bridges

“Hugo” Sandy Powell

“Jane Eyre” Michael O’Connor

“W.E.” Arianne Phillips

Documentary (Feature)

“Hell and Back Again” Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner

“If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front” Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman

“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs

“Pina” Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel

“Undefeated” TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

Documentary (Short Subject)

“The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement” Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin

“God Is the Bigger Elvis” Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson

“Incident in New Baghdad” James Spione

“Saving Face” Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

“The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom” Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

Film Editing

“The Artist” Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius

“The Descendants” Kevin Tent

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

“Hugo” Thelma Schoonmaker

“Moneyball” Christopher Tellefsen

Foreign Language Film

“Bullhead” Belgium

“Footnote” Israel

“In Darkness” Poland

“Monsieur Lazhar” Canada

“A Separation” Iran

Makeup

“Albert Nobbs” Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng

“The Iron Lady” Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

Music (Original Score)

“The Adventures of Tintin” John Williams

“The Artist” Ludovic Bource

“Hugo” Howard Shore

“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Alberto Iglesias

“War Horse” John Williams

Music (Original Song)

“Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets” Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie

“Real in Rio” from “Rio” Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown Lyric by Siedah Garrett

Short Film (Animated)

“Dimanche/Sunday” Patrick Doyon

“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg

“La Luna” Enrico Casarosa

“A Morning Stroll” Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe

“Wild Life” Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

Short Film (Live Action)

“Pentecost” Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane

“Raju” Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren

“The Shore” Terry George and Oorlagh George

“Time Freak” Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey

“Tuba Atlantic” Hallvar Witzø

Sound Editing

“Drive” Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Ren Klyce

“Hugo” Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty

“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl

“War Horse” Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

Sound Mixing

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson

“Hugo” Tom Fleischman and John Midgley

“Moneyball” Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, Dave Giammarco and Ed Novick

“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin

“War Horse” Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson

Visual Effects

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson

“Hugo” Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning

“Real Steel” Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett

“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier

They arrived Thursday night, got everyone settled in, ordered in Swiss Chalet and everyone hit the sack.

Friday – we went shopping (first groceries, then the mall)! The girls got ready (and had fun trying on Aunt Val’s winter gear including hat, gloves and purses).

We had Greek for lunch the girls loved the Greek salad and potatoes. Not a huge splurge on the shopping – I think we were between seasons – winter stuff is on its way out and spring stuff is just starting to come in. I only got a sweater, some jewelry and lots of stuff at Fruits and Passions (soaps and lotions – thanks to a gift card received at xmas).

It was an early day and we got home and watched the Barbie Perfect Christmas movie (yes, a bit late but it was cute). Supper was Italian night: Macaroni meat sauce, garlic bread, caesar salad, tomato/mozzarella/basil salad. Yum!! These kids eat really well – Maddie is a hoover and will eat anything you put in front of her. Sienna has some oddly adult tastes. Neither is big on sweets, love fruits and veggies and can eat a whole tub of kalamata olives if left alone…

Here’s Maddie chilling on the couch snacking on cereal. The things that come out of this girl’s mouth are hilarious. “I want a baby in my tummy” was a new one. as was the girls’ rendition of Justin Beiber’s Baby Baby Baby which they sang to my husband Chris.

Saturday we planned an arts and crafts morning and worked on a bunch of Valentine’s decorations for the “party” planned for that night. Glitter, sparkly paper, glue, pipe cleaners, construction paper, ribbons… It was like a whirlwind passed through the dining room.

They each made a Valentine’s princess caterpillar (from an egg carton) with antennae, veil, ribbons and more sparkly stuff than our house has ever seen.

Concentrating on the papier-mâché heart:

We also made a Valentine’s garland of hearts, as well as paper lanterns for the Mexican fiesta that night:

Closeup of the princess caterpillars:

We headed out to Red Lobster for lunch where Sienna devoured half the appetizer plate of mussels to herself. Maddie loves salad so much she ate Sienna’s salad too. These kids are oddballs – definitely not your run of the mill eat-crap-all-day kids. After lunch we went back home for a bit of down time and then we decorated the house (above) to prepare for the Mexican fiesta.

While I prepared the food in the kitchen, on came the latin music and the conga line came alive!

Feeling Hot Hot Hot played, along with all the popular latin classics. There were some creative variations on the classic conga line, then there was running conga, turkey conga line (walk like turkey and gobble), wiggle your butt conga (that got a ton of giggles), knees-up-left-right conga (leg kicks and all).

The kids were having a blast.

Supper was chicken enchiladas for the adults, chicken pieces for the kids. Everyone had refried beans and salad. Chips and salsa as snacks. And everyone went to bed pooped!

My sister and her girls, all conga-ed out and ready for food:

Sunday was departure day so we had a quiet breakfast. Where Maddie scolded mommy for interrupting her while she was trying to tell us a story. “Mommy, I’m trying to talk here.” Followed by “You don’t have to be a baby about it.” Hehehehe 4 years old going on 40.

Then we made cupcakes! Sienna wanted to wear my oven mitts and pose next to the just-out-of-the-oven cupcakes:

I did the icing (and started with large swirls at the top right, then quickly noticed I would run out so the icing swirls got smaller as I got to the end hehe). The girls did the sprinkles.

Perfection:  

As I sit on the couch writing this, nursing  my cold, I’m relishing the peace and quiet of our child-free home, but really enjoyed the weekend. It was a lot of fun. Hurricane Toddler left behind a trail of glitter, some leftover cupcakes, and a lot of fun memories.

It was a bit of a cheat since it was Irish soda bread (which doesn’t require yeast or all that kneading) but it’s still considered bread so it counts! It was from the Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook. The orange zest and dried currants add a little sweetness and fun. It turned out really good and we enjoyed it for a light supper slathered with butter alongside grapes and aged cheddar. Our shared plates are pictured below:

I had made cake-type breads before: banana bread, zucchini bread, etc. but never anything like this. Recipe can be found here.

Very yummy!

I’ve made the salad recipe before and it’s very good – there are nice, fresh flavours, it’s very colourful and has lots of veggies. The jalapenos and cayenne give it a bit of zing – very tasty!

The margarita recipe was new – from the Barefoot Contessa’s “How Easy is That” cookbook. Recipe can be found here.

• I sent my very first letter to a very good friend. Her reaction was so positive, she blogged about it! Read all about it here. (Psst: You are awesome and you know who you are!)
• I sent my nieces each a personalized colouring book – they should arrive tomorrow – looking forward to hearing about their reactions.
• I received a handwritten letter and cute pic from an old friend today – thanks Danielle! I loved receiving a handwritten letter!
• I’ll be sending 2 more personalized colouring books to my other niece and nephew for delivery next week.

I’m totally loving this project and have to pace myself to one item per week or else I’d be writing to everyone, all the time!

Sorry no pic – we dug in too quickly!

This brings my total recipes completed to 158 of 607!

We’ve already purchased our tickets and we’re looking forward to tasting some of the delicious pairings below. My husband and I have flagged a few particularly interesting ones (in pink) although they all look amazing!

We’ve booked our cruise to Alaska on Celebrity Infinity. We’re very excited about exploring the very different world that is Alaska! Below is the itinerary along with the shore excursions we’re planning:

Itinerary below:

Juneau:  Mendenhall Glacier & Salmon Bake

Experience the most popular attractions in Juneau – the Mendenhall Glacier – followed by an all-you-can-eat Alaskan salmon bake.   After a brief tour of Juneau, view one of Mother Nature’s most amazing treasures….the Mendenhall Glacier.  The glacier is 1.5 miles wild and hundreds of feet thick and is fed by the 1,500 square mile Juneau Icefield. This meandering river of compressed ice ranks as the largest, most rugged glacier accessible by road.  The Mendenhall Glacier Visitors Center, along with U.S. Forest Service staff, offers information on glaciers and is a vantage point for breathtaking photographs of this world-famous glacier.

Then, feast on wild Alaskan salmon and chicken along with a variety of side dishes guaranteed to satisfy the heartiest appetite. Listen to musical entertainment and venture out to explore the nearby creek, waterfall and mining remnants. Buses depart regularly back to the pier, so you may return at your leisure.

Skagway: Yukon Adventure & White Pass Scenic Railway

This one-of-a-kind excursion allows you to explore the historic White Pass Trail of ’98 from different perspectives. First, climb aboard the White Pass and Yukon Railway and ascend into the scenic mountains, hearing stories of the miners who made this sojourn on foot more than a century ago. At Fraser, British Columbia transfer to a deluxe motorcoach, designed for highway travel, as you begin your adventure along the historic Trail of ’98 to the White Pass Summit and into the Yukon. You will make a photo stop at the Yukon Territory sign. Continue down the Klondike Highway and visit the Yukon Suspension Bridge at Tutshi Canyon, where you will enjoy a bowl of Bison Chili. Listen to the awesome silence, interrupted only by the rushing rapids below the bridge.  View three-dimensional interpretive displays detailing the history of the area. Let the exhilarating experience of crossing the suspension bridge, 57 feet above a class four and five river take your breath away. Continue your journey down White Pass with views of waterfalls and Alpine Valleys before returning to Skagway.

We still have to figure out what we’ll do in Ketchikan and Victoria.

I’m really looking forward to it and seeing the excursions and activities available both in port and on the ship is fueling even more excitement! It’ll be my 7th cruise, first time on Celebrity and first time in Alaska.