Uniquely December: National Fritter Day

"Tomorrow is National Fritter Day."
"What are fritters?"
"You know, like zucchini fritters and potato pancakes.  Basically anything grated and fried."
"Oh.  Aren't there apple fritters?"
"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!  Apple fritters!!!!"

Working my first hotel job I was responsible for ordering the doughnuts for the continental breakfast.  The hot fresh doughnuts were delivered at 4AM and always disappeared quickly.  What was always the last to go?  The apple fritters. Apple fritters would normally never be my choice for eating, but watching them go into the trashcan morning after morning (and adding in the 3rd shift lack of reasoning) gave me a brilliant idea.  I figured no one was going to miss them and started pulling a warm and gooey glazed fritter out of the box immediately after the delivery man handed the boxes over to me.  One of those wired me for the rest of the morning.

In honor of National Fritter Day, I decided to try my hand at frying up my own batch of fruity fritters.  My husband and kids are loving me!  Here are the fruits of my labor...

The Pioneer Woman Apple Fritters

My kids' favorite

Paula Deen Apple Fritters

DIVINE as a dessert, or, in our case, a SINFUL midnight snack!
Uses a whole apple slice.  We added vanilla bean ice cream and caramel sauce.

Uniquely December: World Aids Awareness Day

I was just a kid when Magic Johnson announced that he had been infected with HIV/AIDS.  Back then everybody was scared.  We didn't know about the disease, didn't understand how it evolved, how it was spread, or what a life with AIDS could be. That was twenty years ago.  Magic Johnson is still living and the face of AIDS has changed tremendously.

I have to admit I haven't had personal experience with HIV/AIDS and honestly have not given much thought to the disease.  I do know that while AIDS is present in people all around the world, infected people everywhere are living longer due to increased research, treatments, awareness, and education.  Unfortunately there are still places where the infection is still an epidemic-in particular, many nations of Africa.

A prominent reason for the AIDS explosion in these undeveloped countries is transfer of the infection from mother to child during pregnancy, birth, and/or breastfeeding  With the uneducated stigma of such a terrible disease, mothers too often receive inadequate information and resources to treat themselves, and they don't know there are precautions they can take to keep their babies healthy and safe.

The good news is that the picture of HIV/AIDS is looking better.  The 2011 UNAIDS report shows a significant drop recently in the number of new infections.  This has to be a result of hard work to increase the availability of testing and education and I've been especially touched by the efforts of the organization mothers2mothers.

mothers2mothers provide a full range of help to mothers in Africa dealing with the AIDS epidemic.  These include:

•  education and support to pregnant women and new mothers living with HIV to increase access and adherence to lifesaving interventions for them and their infants
• Provide education to clients before and after they take their HIV tests during pregnancy
• Provide one-on-one peer education and group support sessions to pregnant women and new mothers with HIV
• Offer services to women together with their partners as a couple

Visit the mothers2mothers website and find out more about the important work they are doing in Africa and Europe.  While you're there check out this sweet idea to get involved...

I have no affiliation with mothers2mothers-just a cause that moved me :)

For more information:

http://www.unaids.org/en/

http://www.aidsresearch.org/index.html

http://www.amfar.org/

http://www.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,2021888,00.html

Fun Things Coming!

I had so much fun writing regularly when I was doing my A-Z's.  Yesterday when I came across a list of lesser-known December holidays I got excited again.  With a mix of serious events and hilarious observations it'll be perfect to motivate me for another 30 days of writing.  Check in later today, and every day this month, for what I'm labeling, 

Uniquely December

Even better?  Each day next week I'm giving away some of my favorite things!  Some are fun, some are handmade, some are great and amazing.  Hope you'll stop in Monday to see!

Oh, you know I'll give you extra entries (one for each giveaway)...

Tell me in a comment on this post what you love about December.

In My Heart On Thursday

-(linked to Pinterest b/c the Tumblr link was not working)

How's It Going (Hair Challenge Update)

Several people have asked how the curls are doing so I'm here to report...

Going into Week 4, this is a photo of how my curls are doing (second-day hair, at that).  I've finally pushed through the greasy gross stage and my hair feels really good.  It's softer than I can remember it ever being and I actually notice it "bouncing" as I'm walking.  The only con at this moment is that with my curls actually laying nicely I realize I have a terrible haircut.  Definitely looking forward to my sister Kimberly giving me something fun when I go home for Christmas!

Kathy is a week ahead of me and has been saying for awhile that her hair is really great.  Hers tends to be drier than mine and so she wasn't really bothered by the extra oil in the early stages-it was something new and nice for her.  She's realized she used to always wear her hair up because it was frizzy and has kept it down for weeks now because it's actually curling.  And the best part, all kinds of people are complementing her on how great her hair looks!

Brooke, I think, is still doing her own thing but has cut out the dish detergent...

My only other observation for this week?  All of sudden I'm fighting an enormous urge to pull out my flat iron and straighten every last curly strand.  That seems a little counter-productive, though, doesn't it?