Nine Years of Awesome

If you're new here to My big, fat, Cuban Family, WELCOME!

I've spent 9 years here in my little corner of cyberspace, writing and (over)sharing about my life and times. 9 years, people! And I'm excited and delighted to celebrate, not just the 9-year-milestone, but the New and Improved My Big Fat Cuban Family Blog.

Please make yourself at home and feel free to click on all the links and all that and wander around my site and see if you like it. I've got dedicated sections for my Recipes, the main body of my blog posts are under Stories, and my Shop is where you can buy my Cuban Food Posters.

But before you do that any of that, indulge me as I walk down My Big, Fat, Cuban Family Cyber-Memory Lane...

I started blogging on October 1st, 2006. My goal then was to just document our daily lives as I was still homeschooling my kids and was deeply immersed in that world. Also, I wanted a place to write down my sweet and slightly fuzzy memories of growing up Cuban, of having left my homeland at a tender age, and how that has informed my life and choices in the present.

By October 1st, 2007, I was celebrating my 1st full year of blogging and was completely blown away by the amazing (<--The TRUE use of the word. As in, "causing great surprise or wonder.") cyber-community I managed to become a part of. In other words, It's a Small (Cuban) World, After All.

My Big, Fat, Cuban Family 1 year celebration

October 1st, 2008, I had found my niche and my online tribe. I had started cooking my version of Cuban food and sharing recipes on the fabulous Babalú Blog. I felt like I had arrived. Look at me! I'm a real-life-honest-to-goodness food blogger!

So I continued to write, and cook, and (over)share my little heart out. By October 1st, 2009, I was getting some bloggy self-esteem. People were coming over and READING what I had to share. And they were writing to me and telling me nice things about my blog and my writing. It was a heady time.

I was feeling so clever and proud of myself and had decided that every October 1st I would share a badly photoshopped faux magazine cover to celebrate my Bloggy Birthdays.

Here I am, self-importantly sharing Cada Dia Con Marta Maria (with apologies to my muse, Rachael Ray).

By year 5, I was practically blogging in my sleep. Like, seriously. Everything we did and every meal we ate and every place we went became blog fodder. (I apologize for nothing.)

By October 1st, 2012, I was wondering if I had completely exhausted my repertoire of stories and recipes. Lucy had already graduated high school. Jon would graduate soon. Amy and Adam were busy getting on with their own lives. My mom, Luza was already 98.

I'd give it one more year, I decided. Surely I would soon run out of things to (over)share by then?

Nope. I'm Cuban. I will ALWAYS have something to say. Like it or not, I was nowhere near bloggy retirement.

Last year, on October 1st, I had hired Lucy to do the Photoshopping because she's so much more pro and I was doing a little too much. And she made me look way more awesome than I was feeling.

So I hired her to work for me and make me look awesome once again. "Let's bring you into the 21st Century," she said. "Let's move your old blog over to Squarespace," she said.

I got overwhelmed and may or may not have hyperventilated a bit. 9 years of blogging is an awful lot of words and posts and pictures and links.

So, I took the summer off from blogging and took the time to just BE. (I may or may not have had a minor nervous breakdown, but that's not important right now.) I'll eventually write about all the fun things we did over the summer and the parties we had, and all the places we went, but truly, taking time off from blogging was A BIG DEAL for me.

But I did it. I let my blog just languish over the summer as we made the transition from good, old, faithful TypePad. I'm so not complaining about them. They served me well for all these years, but really, it was time to upgrade and yes, the break up was overdue.

Good bye, TypePad. Hello, Squarespace. (I hope I don't sound fickle.)

Eric has been feverishly working here behind the scenes to make sure the links work and the re-directs get, well, re-directed to where they need to be.

And Lucy?

God bless Lucy, my in-house-all-knowing-hipster-cyber-designer has done the beautiful design you are looking at right now according to my exacting specifications. I'm deliriously happy with what my site looks like today. Also, she's 22 and hip and will not let me stay stuck in my old, comfortable ways, which I appredciate, but still... *shakes fist at Lucy* Ah, twenty-somethings and their endless optimism.

All that to say this - it's a brand new bloggy day aound here, people! I'll be hosting a fun giveaway tomorrow and in the days to come, but today, I'm sitting around (metaphorically) sipping champagne and celebrating my fabulous new makeover and toasting to whatever the future brings.

I can still be found (over)sharing all over the web. If you haven't already, you are welcome to subscribe to my Newsletter. I HAVE A NEWSLETTER NOW. I know. Shut up.

I'm back in business and ready to rock and roll.

If you don't already, you can like My Big, Fat, Cuban Family page over on Facebook. Or follow me on Twitter - I'm Smrtqbn.

I share photos on the daily over on Instagram. And I spend waaayy too much time on Pinterest. If you do, too, you should totally follow me, especially my Cuban Food! Board.

You know I also have a YouTube Channel, too, right? That's where you can find some of my recipes, and of course, that's where you'll find my mom, Luza, explaining (in Spanish) How the Google and Yahoo Search Engines work. I give you, "Cuco and Yayo."