Last month I published one of my old “Letters from the Publisher” from back when The Magical Buffet was a monthly e-zine because the letters didn’t migrate over to the new blog format. As I said then, most of my letters aren’t worth republishing. However there were a few that shared some of my more personal thoughts that I wanted new readers to have access to. With that said, here is my “Letter from the Publisher” from August 2007.

My husband and I don’t really make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day, or our wedding anniversary for that matter. We never really talked about it, but somehow we ended up on the same page. I know it’s going to sound corny, but I swear it is true, when you spend everyday being grateful that you’re with the one you love, you tend to not really care about holidays or events designed to make you feel the thing you are already feeling. However, there is one fun Valentine’s Day tradition that I would like to share with you.

For those of you who are new to The Magical Buffet, you may not be aware that in October 2006, when we launched The Magical Buffet, it was actually a monthly e-zine. Once a month our subscribers would have all the content emailed to them. Since it was trying to follow a magazine-like format, I decided there should be a letter from the publisher, like most magazines have.

When we relaunched The Magical Buffet into it’s new blog format, all of the old e-zine articles migrated over. This means even if you’re new, with a little time you could read all the content you may have missed from the “old days”. However my opening letters to my readers did not make it over to the new blog. I didn’t worry about it because they’re “just letters”, they’re not “real writing”. But as time passed I started to wonder, was something missing by them not being here on the blog?

So recently I started to read them again. In truth, as a new reader you’re probably not missing out on too much. The letters were generally just filled with gratitude. Thank you letters of the most earnest kind, published in response to the surprising outpouring of support and faith that I received, and continue to receive today. I’ve always prided myself on loyalty, and it made me happy to see that many of the people who I thanked in those letters are people and organizations that I still interact with today. It felt good to think that maybe I’ve done all right after all.

That said, there were a few letters that stood out. These were letters that I found offered up a piece of who I am and what I believe to my readers. Things that I thought I would like anyone who reads The Magical Buffet at any point to know about me, the person behind the keyboard.

This is one of those letters……

There is a Garfield strip I remember from my youth. In it, the new year has started and as one would suspect, Garfield is holed up in his cat bed covered by his blanket with no inclination to get up. Then Jon tries to reason with him that it’s a NEW YEAR, to which Garfield responds to by sticking his paw out of his box and feels the air. Funny, he says, feels like the same old year to me. (Or something to that effect) However off my paraphrasing here may have been, the spirit is just right, feels like the same old year to me.

…you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

Despite my love of action movies I’ll admit that I have a soft spot for some films considered to be more “chick flick” in nature. One of my favorites is “When Harry Met Sally”. After seeing that movie I could never look at New Year’s Eve the same way again. So to celebrate the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 I want to share one of my favorite New Year’s Eve moments with all of you.

You may think this is going to be a Merry Christmas, God bless us everyone, holiday post, but you’re wrong. In fact, this post is in reference to the fact that today is the FIRST day of Christmas. You know, the one where you get the partridge. Anyway, the new year is approaching, making this the time that’s rife with best of, top whatever, lists. Since I’m a blogger these days, I figured I would share with you fine folks my favorite blogs (assuming that somehow having a blog gives me the authority to recommend other blogs). And, since I fancy myself as a clever girl at times (much like the velociraptor in “Jurassic Park”), I thought that I would acknowledge that today marks the first of the twelve days of Christmas, the twelfth day being the last day before Epiphany, the commemoration of the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi, and go with 12 Days of Blogging. That’s right, I’m getting Catholic on y’all!

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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the United States. I found myself wondering how is it that, three years of having a website, and I have not given appropriate Thanksgiving Day respect to “Addams Family Values”? It is a horrible lapse on my part, one that I will correct now.

It’s hard not to fall in love with Wednesday Addams when she states, “The gods of my tribe have spoken. They have said, ‘Do not trust the Pilgrims, especially Sarah Miller’.” Inevitably I wander around the apartment singing “Eat me!” It’s a whole lot of holiday cheer for me, wrapped in a tight four minute bundle. When a student pressed my Native American Anthropology professor for an example of the appropriate portrayal of Native Americans in film, he instantly responded, “Addams Family Values”.

However you chose to celebrate Thanksgiving, be it with a take away meal from Boston Market, a day long event with friends, or at a resort, please accept this offering along with best wishes from The Magical Buffet.

December is rapidly approaching, and like most of you I’m going to lose all sense of reality as I attempt to keep my life on the rails while prepping for that magical holiday season that is SO magical that thinking about it makes me want to reach for the rum. What I’m trying to say is we’re all going to be getting very busy. With that in mind there are a few things I want to remind everyone, or let people know about before I forget.

For those of you who follow the exciting world of “tech” news, you may have been hearing a lot of noise about how on December 1, 2009 The Federal Trade Commission will require bloggers and celebrities to clearly state when they receive cash or “payment in kind” for endorsing a company’s products or services. This seemed as good of time as any to let you in on how I, and in turn The Magical Buffet, operate. Prepare to probably not be surprised.