Christmas with Florida's governor: Cinnamon rolls, gifts, church services and board games

Cinnamon buns, Waldorf salad, board games and an evening at the movies are how Gov. Rick Scott and his family will spend their first Christmas as Florida's first family on Sunday.Scott, his wife, Ann; their two daughters and their husbands; and the Scotts' first grandchild, August, will keep their Yule traditions going at the Scott home in Naples where they'll open presents Christmas morning -- but not until after Ann Scott's cinnamon buns are done, Scott told The Palm Beach Post this week.
Scott said he can remember only one year when his entire family was not together for the holiday -- the year that daughter Allison Guillard didn't make it home from France, where she was going to school.
The Scotts will attend services at their hometown church, Naples Community Church, on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas morning, after the sweet treats, the Scotts will open gifts and then head into the kitchen, where the state's chief executive will transform into a sous chef.
The Scotts will have their traditional family meal of ham, green beans and Waldorf salad, a childhood favorite of Scott's.
"That's the one thing I make," Scott said. "Ann really likes to do everything so I say I'm going to make it but I generally cut things up or I assemble it. That's about it."
Scott shared his recipe for the side dish: one apple, one can of pineapple, two handfuls of small marshmallows, one-half cup of nuts, one cup of grapes, one cup of Cool Whip and one-half cup of celery.
They always top off the meal with a pumpkin pie "because I like pumpkin pie," he said.
But there was the one time when a friend tasked with providing the pie instead purchased a sweet potato look-alike.
"It wasn't the same. I don't like sweet potatoes," Scott said.
In his Capitol office on Wednesday, Scott, clearly excited about spending the holiday with his clan, quickly shifted an interview about his first year in office away from politics and policies.
"Let's talk about family," Scott said. "That's more fun."
He lit up when asked about his family's Christmas traditions.
After their midday meal with friends, the family plays board games, organized by daughter Jordan Kandah, who hunts down a new board game for her father every year, he said.
This year, they'll be playing a strategy game with a sultan theme, but their current favorite game is Wits and Wagers, where players make up answers to trivia questions such as "How much does the biggest cat on record weigh?" and bet on the responses.
"It's fun. What's fun is the answers some people come up withPeople say foolish things. So everybody laughs. It's hilarious," he said.
One of Scott's unfortunate family members once guessed "100 pounds" to the cat question. The answer was 32, Scott said.
"We still give them a hard time about that," he said.
After the games, the family -- with the exception of Guillard and son August -- will head to a swank movie theater in Naples to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, chosen by Kandah, who's in charge of the movie selections.
The Silverspot Cinema in Naples features chairs Scott likened to first-class airline seating.
"You can take in food. You can take in wine. You can take in coffee. They have mozzarella pizza. They have all this stuff," Scott said. "That's where I go."
And, the multi-millionaire pointed out, it's a relative bargain.
"It's $4 more," Scott said.

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Gov. Scott’s Waldorf salad
1 apple, cored
1 can, pineapple
2 handfuls, small marshmallows
1/2 cup, walnuts
1/2 cup, celery
1 cup, grapes
1 cup, Cool Whip
Chop and mix ingredients.

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Make your favorite sugar cookie recipe healthier

 

 

Photo: kristin_a (Meringue Bake Shop)/flickr

For many of us, sugar cookies play an important part in the upcoming Christmas celebration. Whether you are in the crispy, thin sugar cookie camp, or the cake-like, chewy, sugar cookie camp, they are certainly worthy to enjoy on Christmas day. But what if you wanted to make your favorite recipe just a little bit healthier? Have no fear! Here are several tips to get you started in the right direction. 

 

Use unbleached white flour 

Not all white flours are the same. If you use unbleached white flour, you will be using flour that is simply refined-rather than using flour that has gone through a chemical bath. I don't know about you, but the less chemicals we avoid, the better. Alloxan is a by-product in bleached flour which is highly toxic and is linked to diabetes in animal studies. One brand of unbleached white flour that I like to use is Bob's Red Mill unbleached white flour.

 

Of course, you can always substitute some of the flour with whole wheat flour as well. My preference is to use sprouted whole wheat flour, but I have to special order it online.  Using some almond flour is also a delicious, protein-rich addition to your cookies.

 

Use better sugar 

Admittedly, sugar is sugar. However, like the situation with white flour, some sugars are much more refined than others. I also avoid genetically modified foods, which means I buy organic sugar as sugar beets can be GM. Rapadura or sucanat are the most simply processed, as they are only boiled down to remove the water content. They both have a robust flavor. For a more neutral flavor, evaporated cane juice still retains some trace minerals, and is certainly much less processed than typical white sugar. 

 

Use organic butter 

If you want the best cookies ever, try making your cookies with pastured butter (butter from cows that graze on grass). Trader Joe's carries Kerrygold butter, which fits the bill. Make cookies or pie crust with this delicious butter and it makes them instantly taste richer and better (as well as being healthier for you!). Pastured butter is a good source of a lesser known vitamin, K2, which is important for bone health. 

Option number two would be to use organic butter, which allows you to avoid the high amount of concentrated pesticides found in nonorganic butter.  I also sometimes use coconut oil, which is delicious, but is a little more tricky to use as a substitution.  However, it makes a great vegan substitution, so keep that in mind for vegan guests! 

 

Frosting 

Frosting can be one of the most delicious things in the world.....or one of the grossest. Using a simple buttercream with basic ingredients is delicious as well as better for you. (Go read the ingredient list on the frosting tubs in the store sometime for a real scare!) You can buy natural dyes at health food stores for making different colors and even organic sprinkles for decorating!

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Happy holidays Google doodle plays jingle bells for Christmas

New Delhi: It's time for Christmas and Google has come up with an interactive doodle on the eve of Christmas, playing the celebration tune of 'jingle Bells'. Making the 'Happy Holidays' Google doodle musical and interactive, Google wishes us Merry Christmas, bringing us in a festive mood.
The happy holidays doodle has six glowing buttons. Each button plays a sound from the musical notes of 'jingle bells', when we click on it. Once we click on all the six buttons, it shows a button with a musical note. When we click on this musical note button, it plays 'jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way'.
This year's Google happy holidays doodle is made up of lit up holiday symbols - snowflake, Santa Claus, bell, snowman, candle and a gift box - on a dark background, symbolising the night sky. The Google logo appears as a faint outline behind the holiday icons.

Once we click on all the 6 buttons below the Google text, it shows a musical note button that plays 'jingle bells'.

Google has been wishing its users with a pre-Christmas doodle for the last 10 years. In 2010 Google has put up a doodle of interactive portraits of holiday scenes from around the world. Before 2010, Google used multiple doodles for the holiday season.
Google recently announced the revamp of its Doodle site (www.google.com/doodles) which houses all Google doodles since the very first back in 1998.
By our estimates Google has put up as many as 259 doodles on its home page in 2011 commemorating different events of importance across the world. Some of the doodles are limited to Google's country specific home pages while others are appear globally.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)

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Taylor Swift Releases ‘Safe and Sound’ From ‘Hunger Games’ Soundtrack

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Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift surprised her fans by releasing “Safe & Sound,” a song that will be featured on the soundtrack to the coming movie “The Hunger Games.”
“Something I’ve been VERY excited about for a VERY long time is going to be happening VERY soon,” she tweeted shortly before the song was made available on iTunes.
On her last album, “Speak Now,” Swift made a point of writing every song by herself. The new “Hunger Games” tune also features The Civil Wars, a folk-country act that has drawn critical acclaim. “”We wrote & recorded a new song, Safe & Sound w/@TaylorSwift13 for The Hunger Games sdtrk!” The Civil Wars tweeted.
The new song has a rural feel,  but doesn’t sound like a commercial country song. The music is acoustic and contemplative, and the lyrics, while outwardly soothing, have an undercurrent of hurt and dread. “Just close your eyes/ the sun is going down/ you’ll be alright/ no one can hurt you now,” Swift croons.
“The Hunger Games” is a futuristic film about a young girl living in a dystopian world where havenots are forced to do combat in to-the-death fighting games.
Swift also plays a lead voice role in the coming animated movie “The Lorax.”

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Melanie Amaro to Use 'X Factor' Winning Money to Buy Foot Massager

Photo credit: Nikki Nelson/WENN

Winning the very first season of "The X Factor (US)" on Thursday, December 22 night, Melanie Amaro took home $5 million recording contract and a Pepsi Super Bowl commercial. The morning after being crowned the champion, the singer from Tortola, British Virgin Islands revealed what she plans to do with her prize and it involves a foot massager.

The 19-year-old told reporters during the Friday conference call, "I'm definitely going to buy myself a foot massager and buy my mom a new house." Asked if she's going to use the money to help her family, she replied, "As of right now, what I can help my family with - my family has always been that support for me, and whatever I can help my family with, I will most definitely help my family with."

Speaking about her mentor Simon Cowell, Amaro insisted she wouldn't trade him for the other judges. "I don't think that I would have gone very, very far at all," she admitted when responding to question if she could've won with one of the other judges as her mentor, "because I needed Simon to be that tough judge that he was with me in order for me to grow - to get to a higher place. So for me, I needed Simon. I needed Simon."

On what she did after initially being cut before the live shows, the teen singer said she went back to working. "I went back to doing the same old thing I was doing before, and I wasn't too happy," she shared. "I was a little miserable, but after getting a chance to come back - after Simon told me I'm coming back - I felt so, 'Wow, I really wasn't meant to be doing any of the stuff I've been doing. I'm meant to sing.' "

Amaro also said she has no hard feelings for Simon for originally thinking she couldn't win the competition. "He was so sincere about coming back to my house and apologizing about everything, that I could not stay mad at all," she explained. "No. I was hurt at first, but you know, I forgave and forgot and let go and I grew really at peace with it."

Asked about her biggest competition, Amaro admitted, "For me, I thought that Chris Rene was my biggest competition. I don't know, I guess it was just because everyone thought he was -well not thought, but - everyone knew that he was an original artist and that he wrote his own music and was original and he connected well with everyone. So I figured that was my biggest competition."

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Air Jordan XI Concord buyers line up at Nike Portland to buy the $180 shoes

Police near Seattle resort to pepper spray to keep Air Jordan XI shoppers in line and there was pushing and shoving at an Atlanta mall for the coveted shoe. But at Nike Portland this morning, courtesy prevailed.

Hundreds arrived at the downtown flagship store of the Oregon-based footwear and apparel giant at about 6:30 a.m., wearing wristbands that designated their place in line to purchase the $180 sneakers that are replicas of the 1996 model designed for Michael Jordan when he played for

 

Allan Brettman / The OregonianJ.C. Pinedo began his wait in line at 8 p.m. Wednesday to receive a wristband at 10 a.m. Thursday to return to Nike Portland at 6:30 a.m. Friday to pick up his shoes at about 7:30 a.m.

the Chicago Bulls. Perhaps the wristbands contributed to the relative calm, though Anthony Young suspected something else was at play.

"This is Portland," said Young, 22, a University of Oregon sport marketing student. "People are cool."

The crowd was instructed on Thursday to return at 6:30 a.m. today but it took about an hour before the first customer was allowed into the store at the corner of Southwest Morrison and Fifth Avenue to make their purchase. Inside,

 

Allan Brettman / The OregonianThe line down the block formed by 6:30 a.m. today.

Tinker Hatfield, the Nike designer who worked with Jordan on several of the Air Jordan shoe designs include the Air Jordan XI Concord, waited inside to sign shoe boxes.

More of a party atmosphere prevailed at Nike Portland. The store had set up speakers playing music -- much of it played by the rap group Run DMC, an interesting choice as the group is closely associated with footwear produced by Nike rival Adidas.

Nike employee Mark Chan chatted with the

 

Allan Brettman / The OregonianA drawing by Air Jordan designer Tinker Hatfield was displayed in a case next to a collection of Air Jordan XIs inside the Nike Portland main floor.

crowd and worked with Nike Portland employees to arrange the crowd into the order designated by their wristbands. Chan officially is an "EKIN," a core of employees that serve as brand representative for Nike. EKIN, by the way, is Nike spelled backward.

"We're brand ambassadors in the field," said Chan, 28, who's worked at the World Headquarters campus for about two years after having worked two years in Los Angeles. He wore his favorite shoes, Air Jordan 3s.

 

Allan Brettman / The OregonianAnthony Young, a University of Oregon sports marketing student, said he wasn't surprised that the crowd waited calmly in the cold for the Nike Portland doors to open an hour after people were told to arrive. 'This is Portland,' he said.

The first 100 or so people in line earned their spots the hard way -- spending Wednesday night and Thursday morning in front of the store.

"We got here at about 8," on Wednesday night, when the Nike Portland store closed, said John Bellmer, 23, of Gresham. He waited with his friends and fellow shoe collectors Vincent Perez, 21, of Portland, and J.C. Pineda, 21, of Portland.

Bellmer only recently returned from Afghanistan after serving four years in the Marines.

Allan Brettman / The OregonianMark Chan, an EKIN representative for Nike, entertained the crowd as well as arrange the line.

"I've been out of the game the past few years," he said of shoe collecting, which, before his time in the service, had been a hobby for about five years. He has nearly 40 pairs in his collection, all Jordan Brand.

"Honestly, the reason I buy them is that I liked them as a kid," he said, adding that his family was not wealthy enough to buy him the shoes. Now, he can do it for himself.

While waiting the 14 hours until the Nike Portland store opened at 10 a.m. Thursday, the three

Allan Brettman / The OregonianEven though large crowds turned out Thursday for Day-glo orange wristbands to secure their shoes and a place in line, some sizes still remained. This Nike Portland employee distributed the wristbands.

friends talked with others, ate fast food, took bathroom breaks and tried, without success, to stay warm.

When the Nike Portland doors opened for business at 10 a.m. Thursday, the early birds were given wristbands to return this morning -- well before the scheduled distribution at 5 p.m. Thursday. For that distribution, a line snaked north on Fifth Avenue.

Even with such high demand, a few pairs -- in sizes 14, 7.5, 8, and 8.5 -- remained.

While the wristband system may have contributed to the calm this morning, the reports of violence at the Seattle-area store and Atlanta took place at mall stores. The usual outlets for Nike products in the Portland area, were expected to be selling the Air Jordan XI Concord this morning.

According to The Associated Press, police used pepper spray to break up fights among pushing and shoving customers waiting outside a Seattle-area mall to buy the Air Jordan XI.

Tukwila Officer Mike Murphy says about 20 people were sprayed. One man was arrested for assault after police say he pushed an officer. Murphy says more than 1,000 people lined up to buy shoes at 4 a.m. at four stores in the mall.

At a suburban Atlanta mall, at least four people were arrested after a crowd of customers broke down a door before a store selling the Air Jordans opened.

-- Allan Brettman;

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'X Factor' winner Melanie Amaro on how victory feels

Melanie Amaro, the freshly crowned Season 1 winner of "The X Factor," sounded tired and perhaps still a little dizzy after her big win as she took reporters' questions over the phone Friday morning. It was understandable: She'd had no sleep since getting the life-changing news Thursday night, having given what she estimated to be around 30 interviews in the intervening hours.

She wouldn't release details about her plans for a forthcoming album. ("I'm going to keep that as a surprise," she said, adding, "I'm just going to say that you should look forward to it and know that I'm going to make some great music.") But even exhausted, Amaro, who revealed only the occasional hint of the Caribbean accent she slipped so comfortably into midway through the season, was unfailingly gracious and thoughtful as she addressed such topics as which contestant she felt had been her biggest competition, how she managed to forgive Simon Cowell for sending her home prematurely, and whether she had believed she'd actually win it all.

Here's some of what she had to say:
On what was going through her head when she won:
It's so surreal. I feel amazing. I feel as though I'm in a dream. This is not real. Last night was an amazing thing for me … I was so shocked … I feel so blessed.

On what she's going to do with the prize money:
I'm definitely going to buy myself a foot massager and buy my mom a new house.

On who she felt had been her biggest competition:
I thought Chris Rene was my biggest competition [because] everyone knew he was an original artist and he wrote his own music and he connected well with everyone.

On how she thinks her talent compared to the other finalists:
I think my talent was a gift, and I think I had a big range, a stronger range than a lot of the other contestants. I think me doing what I do with all of my heart kind of put me apart from a lot of the other contestants, because when I sing, I sing with all of me. I sing to the very, very pit of my soul.


On how she's changed and grown as a result of "The X Factor":
I've grown not only as a person, but as an artist as well. I've matured and really stepped into my own. I'm growing and learning so much from the industry and from being in the competition. And I'm really happy about everything, all the changes that have happened in my life.

On the transformational mid-season moment when she revealed her Caribbean accent:
To be honest, that really wasn't planned. Something came over me during that performance, and I said to myself, "You know what? Accept who you are and just speak," and when I did my accent just came out. But it really wasn't planned.

On whether Simon Cowell eliminating her and then bringing her back was staged or a surprise:
That was a total surprise. I had no idea he was coming. I had no clue Simon was coming to my house. So when he showed up it was like, "Oh my God!"

On what the judges and her family and friends said to her after her victory — and Simon Cowell's backstage nerves:
[They said] they're all so very proud of me and that I really deserved this. And my mentor [Cowell] was so proud. He was more nervous than I was backstage, actually. He kept saying to me, "I'm nervous. Tonight my stomach is in knots. I'm so nervous." All I kept saying was, "Why are you so nervous? I'm the one who's supposed to be nervous!" But they were all proud. My family and the judges were all happy for me.

On artists or producers she might like to work with:
I'd love to work with Mariah Carey. And I'd also love to work with L.A. Reid, because he's a great producer. He's a great mentor. He's wonderful.

Her advice to anyone who's hit a roadblock in the path toward a goal:
Continue pushing and never give up, because if you give up you're letting yourself get defeated. You can't do that. If you give up, you're not going to go anywhere. You won't succeed. You won't fulfill your dream. If it's something you really want, you really have to fight for it. Anything that's important is worth fighting for.

On whether it was difficult to forgive Simon Cowell for sending her home:
No. He was so sincere about coming back to my house and apologizing about everything that I could not stay mad at all. I mean, I was hurt at first, but I forgave and forgot and let go and I really made peace with it.

On whether she imagined that when she came back after being eliminated that she could actually win the whole thing:
Actually, no. This is really bad, because I should have really believed in myself, but I kept thinking to myself that I wasn't good enough. I constantly kept telling myself that. When I broke that was when I sang my song [R. Kelly's "The World’s Greatest," around Thanksgiving] and I consciously was telling myself, "Just be yourself, Mel. Just let go and just be you." And I did that and I let the accent out and let everyone know about my journey and everything I'd been through.

On whether that was the moment she thought she might win:
I still was thinking that, regardless of anything, I still was going to go far because I had accepted myself for who I was. [I believed] I was going to go far regardless of the competition, because I actually started to believe in myself.

On whether she could have gone as far in the competition had Cowell not been her mentor:
No. I don't think I would have gone very far at all because I needed Simon to be that tough judge that he was with me in order for me to grow to get to a higher place. So for me I needed Simon. I needed Simon.
 
On conspiracy theories that Simon staged her early elimination and retrieval (two weeks later) for dramatic effect:
I really don't know. All I know is he [said he] made a mistake. He apologized about it. I moved on from it, and look where I am now. Whatever happened in the past is the past, and I'm looking toward the future.

On whether she had resumed her old life after her early elimination:
I did. After being cut, I went back to working. I went back to doing the same old thing I was doing before. And I wasn't too happy. I was a little miserable. But after getting a chance to come back, I felt as though, wow, I really wasn't meant to be doing all this other stuff I was doing. I was meant to sing. Do you think you'll buy Melanie Amaro's album when it comes out?

— Amy Reiter

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