Yes this is true! I am not sure what day I will be able to do it this year but it begins with Home Alone, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, a revisit to some of the classics, and The Polar Express.

Are you going to be baking/cooking this Christmas season?

Yes! I plan on making 3 or 4 different types of cookies starting this weekend. I have been studying up at Americas Test Kitchen and Cooks Illustrated. There are some free recipes on Americas Test Kitchen but Cooks Illustrated requires a membership.

Here is what I plan on baking this weekend:

• Thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies
• Big, super-nutty peanut butter cookies
• Chewy chocolate cookies
• Brown sugar cookies

I also plan on making this beer cheese/pretzel recipe.

Are you planning on going back to school?

Yes! I start school on January 20 at Cincinnati Christian University. I went there right out of high school and I have 3 years under my belt. I am going back to finish that out. I wasn’t planning on going back there but they part of the consortium with different colleges around the area. They just started offering their Information Technologies program. I only have 8 classes left at CCU and the rest will be at Cincinnati State. I am excited and nervous at the same time!

Are you a Mac or PC guy?

Its funny you ask that…I just bought a Macbook Pro <— click here to read the blog post about the day it arrived! I love my Mac. I will never be without a PC because of the field I am in but I am not forced to boot up my PC everyday and wait 10 minutes for it to be ready… and that is on a quad-core. Crazy I know!

Well that is all for now… go eat some cookies, drink some awesome tea, and watch a Christmas movie. Have fun!

I got up with Ryan this week to do a little Q & A. I won’t make you wait any longer…here it is.

Me: What are you doing to make a difference this holiday season?

Ryan: Well, for one thing, we are trying not to be wrapped up in the
consumer tornado that tells us we have to buy a ton of stuff for
Christmas. We are purchasing more “consumable” gifts for people and
also using our money to meet some basic needs people have. My wife and
I are in life groups and each of our respective groups have been doing
projects to let people know they are loved by God. My wife’s group
adopted a family and raised money to buy them Christmas gifts when we
knew they couldn’t do so on their own…they also made homemade
ornaments to give out to random people. Our men’s group made up some
massive batches of Cinnamon rolls and we’ve been giving them away to
unsuspecting people to let them know we were thinking of them.

Any little thing we are able to do is a worthwhile venture and the
holidays are simply a helpful time to be generous. Allison and I ate
at Steak and Shake yesterday and left a $25 tip for a $15 dollar meal.
We wrote a note to our waitress that read, “Merry Christmas! Know that
God loves you and that you are His princess.”

Me: What is your favorite Christmas tradition?

Ryan: As far as a favorite Christmas tradition goes, I really love what we
do at our church. We’ll be handing out hundreds of dozens of Krispy
Kreme donuts after our Christmas Eve service. We’ll go to bars and all
kinds of places that are open for business on Christmas Eve and give
away a tasty treat. It’s fun and it helps us not be so inward during
the mad rush of everything.

Me: From reading your blog, I see you like to cook what is your favorite recipe and dessert?

Ryan: My favorite recipe would have to be rocking out a whole beef
tenderloin. There is simply nothing like a high-quality steak with
some Gorgonzola melted on top, sauteed mushrooms and roasted potatoes.
My favorite desert would probably be a good cookie, still warm from
the oven.

Me: You seem to be will respected among the blogging community. How did you get to this point?

Ryan: I’m not exactly sure why people stick around to read my blog, but I do
know that I work hard to make it a good blog. One of the top mistakes
that people make when creating a blog is that they assume people will
read it. You’ve got to do things to make people read it. I got people
reading my blog by reading other blogs and commenting on them. When
someone had a question that no one else was answering, I took the time
to answer it. I also had to get over the fact that I wasn’t someone
else. I kept trying to make my blog into all the things that I liked
about other people’s blogs and finally it began working for me when I
was just able to be myself. I got several big pushes for people to
read my blog by putting myself out there. I’ve been known to write
blog posts for other blogs and email them to the author asking if they
might be willing to post it as a guest post…and many times they did
just that. What’s the worst that can happen?

Me: What is one thing you are looking forward to do the most this Christmas?

Ryan: I can’t wait to get all the fat cash and loot this Christmas. Nah, not
really…I’m just excited to spend some down time with my family and
slow down for a few days. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks!

If you want to find out more about Ryan head on over to thisisreverb.com to read his blog.