I'm preparing a list of things to do over the Christmas holiday, besides live for free and wear pajama pants all day. It looks like I may need a separate list for the time off I have in New York before I go back to Texas, too.

Here are my holiday goals so far:

1) Learn how to apply eye makeup in such a way that I don't look like a tranny caught in a rainstorm.

2) Find old family photos to use for my apartment hallway gallery project, especially the ones of my parents looking like Urban Outfitters models.

3) Bake these cheese muffins. Consider them a vegetable to go with dinner.

4) Ride in the back seat and sidecar of my dad's Vespa.

5) Get through at least five chapters of The Power Broker, the longer-than-long book that TBID gave me.

6) Go thrift store shopping with my sister Megan. Covet her finds, convince her not to get them, and then snatch them up for myself.

7) Eat Whataburger taquitos.

8) Make caramel. Possibly use it for some other endeavor beyond eating it straight from the pan.

9) Attempt to get back in touch with an old friend.

10) Try to take a beautiful candid portrait of each of my family members.