My Big, Fat, Cuban Family is 8 Years Old

I sat down at my computer 8 years ago today and started crafting my very first blog post. I wasn't quite sure exactly who I was writing for, but I tentatively introduced myself and my family to cyber-space.

I crossed my fingers and hoped that maybe somehow, some way, someone out there would read the stories about my extraordinarily ordinary life and maybe enjoy what I had to say.

I was homeschooling both Lucy and Jonathan at the time and started over sharing about what our days were like. I reminisced about my childhood in Cuba. I posted photos. I told my tales of growing up Cuban and wondered if they were just going out into the ether. 

I decided early on to write to please myself. Not trying to sound self-serving here, but writing about my life and the things I care about is a very personal and vulnerable process. Also, I have a tendency to crack myself up, but that's not important right now.

To date I've written over 1400 posts and have had almost 2 million visitors. (GUAT?) Obviously, someone out there has indeed found me (or they just keep forgetting to write down my picadillo recipe).

And oh-so-much has happened in my life these past 8 years. I'm so glad to have had a place to document the little things and the Very Big Ones. And I'm grateful to all of you for following along. This has been such a cathartic experience for me. Would you believe me if I told you that at first I was very much afraid? (Obviously, I'm over it now.)

My family has been truly amazing these past years for putting up with me as their lives have been so publicly showcased, without a word of complaint. And of course, you know that I now have a grandson, so the over sharing will very likely reach stratospheric levels. Be prepared.  

Please join me today as I celebrate 8 Years in the Blogosphere. (<--is that a word?)

There are times I do better at self-disclosure than others. There are times when my real life gets so busy that my cyber-life has to take a back seat. But I have always enjoyed the process of sitting down to the empty page and hoping what I have to over share amuses, entertains, enriches, inspires, or just makes you think.

I'm grateful to those of you who have been faithful readers for these many years. I'm delighted to have found an audience, who, like me, are lovers-of-all-things-Cuban or you're just my friends and are gracious enough to read my stuff. Thanks, guys!

I hope to be over sharing (si Dios quiere) for many more years.

Hey! According to Dictionary.com, "blogosphere" is totally a word. So there's that.

Here's a quick photo recap of the cyber-celebrations of previous years. Also, I really want you to appreciate the whole I-made-a-custom-magazine-cover thing I do every year.

October 1, 2007 - Thank YOU.

October 1, 2008 - In my dreams...

October 1, 2009 - ... is a Magic Number

October 1, 2010 - Cada Dia Con Marta Maria

October 1, 2011 - Five.

October 1, 2012 - Celebrating Six Years in the Blogosphere

October 1, 2013 - Seven Years.

Last year I even managed to create a celebratory video. And, okay, so I didn't do one this year, but I totally wanted to. (Shut up. I know.)

And because I can't just celebrate and not give you anything (I think that's a Cuban thing), in celebration of my 8 years here in this space, I'd like to do a few giveaways in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Today, I'd like to do a giveaway for 3 (three!) of my Comida Cubana (Cuban Food) Posters. I have one hanging in my kitchen and it makes me super happy (and super motivated to cook) every single day. 

It's a beautiful 16x20 poster with all of my favorite Cuban foods, suitable for framing. Fabulous, no?

To enter the drawing for a chance to win one of three Comida Cubana Posters, please leave a comment on this post and answer the following question:

• When and how did you find My big, fat, Cuban family?

I'll choose a winner on Friday, October 3rd, 2014 at 11 am PST.

Thanks for reading and for putting up with my over sharing and being so willing to engage in my "relajo" 

The Best of MBFCF in 2013

I'm looking at my calendar and it's already the 8th day of 2014. I was planning on taking a few days off at the beginning of the year and wow, did they go by quickly!

Come to think of it, 2013 feels like it went by pretty quickly also. Is it just me, or is this one of those things people tend to repeat a lot as they get old? Shut up. Don't even say it!

This past year has been quite eventful in lots of ways, which makes me happy that I blog (and scrapbook) because I would otherwise forget the thoughts and events and conversations I've had this past year. I know. There's that getting old thing again. Stop it.

Here are the top posts for each month of 2013. (Time is seriously flying, isn't it?)

Drum roll, please.

1.The Things I Didn't Blog About in 2012 - Luza - in which I confess my growing discomfort with my mom aging and how our roles are shifting.

2. #LookAtMyFood in which I continue to overshare what exactly I had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner via Instagram. (Also, if you don't already, you should follow me. I'm Smrtqbn.) I'm really very good about sharing my food.

3. Cuban Word of the Day - in which I share my delight at being honored by the wonderful artists from Wassup En LA? in their Cuban Word of the Day segment. (Technically it was 3 words - Pastelitos de Guayaba - but that's not important right now.)

4. 99 Red Balloons in which I share how we celebrated my mom, Luza's 99th birthday. Cute video attached to that post, too.

5. Ahora Sí! in which I tell about the night I finally got to meet Andy Garcia. (I know. I still can't believe it. Pinch me!)

6. Hello, Outdoor Movie Nights - in which I list all the great movies we have to choose from for our Summer Backyard Movie Theater. Also, it always marks the official beginning to our summer. And this pleases me greatly.

7. "If you build it..." - in which I celebrate the wonderful farmhouse table that my kids built for me.

8. Hurry up...and wait - in which I tell the story of Jonathan's first acting job in a feature film. (Now that I told you, I'll probably have to kill you.)

9. We Visited Coffee Heaven and Lived to Tell the Tale - in which I describe (in great over-sharingly detailed detail) our wonderful visit to the Gaviña Coffee plant.

10. My Big, Fat, FROZEN, Cuban family - in which I gush (yes, there's gushing) about my day at the Walt Disney Animation Studios and the making of the animated feature, FROZEN. Also, the Disney Animators made me a personal video which totally put me over the edge.

11. ALL the Picadillo at the Blurb Books Food Fair in which I share about my visit to San Francisco and how I got to cook for lots of hungry book buyers. Also, there's a very cool video they did about me and my picadillo.

12. Cuban Picadillo Pies^® - in which I developed a new and fun way to eat and share picadillo. (<--also, what a weird descriptive sentence that was!)

Thanks to all of you who have been faithfully following MBFCF for all these years or who have just found me in the last year. I write this blog mostly for myself, so it genuinely pleases me when you respond so generously to my over-sharing.

Also, did the year just fly by for you, too? (I know. Old. Shut up.)

Happy New Year, my friends!

Just call me Marta, La Blogona

We (Eric, Lucy, Jonathan and I) are headed down to San Diego. For the next three days I'll be up to my eyeballs in BlogHer 2011 activities.

Because I blog. So I'm attending a blog conference where I will meet other bloggers. And celebrate being a part of the blogosphere. (And I kind of like seeing my name and blog on a badge, but that's not important right now.)

But now comes the moment when I have to try to explain all of this to my mom. (Yes, the same 97 year old who understands how Google works.)

But there is no good word for "blog" in Spanish. It comes out sounding unspeakably weird. More like "el blok."

Me: "Es una conferencia para blogueras." (<--That last word sounds even weirder when it's spoken aloud.)

Luza: "Bloguera? Que palabra mas fea."

Hmm....we've reached an impasse. She finds the word, bloguera, to be ugly.

Come on! It's the best I can do to translate a made up English word! This is impossible! (<--You can tell I'm getting stressed about the conversation and the lack of a good word explaining what I do by the use of many exclamation points!!)

I try to defend myself: "Es una palabra inventada." It's a made up word, I tell her. A combination and abreviation of web+log. By the way, there's no good Spanish translation for either "web" or "log." 

I was just trying to explain why I'm going to San Diego, but now I'm caught up in an impossible conversation. I'm getting a little upset and my voice is rising. In fact, I'm practically yelling, like that's going to make the "B" word any easier to translate.

But lucky for me, my 97 year old mom still has her wits about her and has a good sense of humor.

Luza: "Entonces tu eres una BLOGONA. Yo tambien puedo inventar palabras." ("Then you are a BLOGONA. I can make up words, too.")

*sigh*

San Diego, here I come! ;-)

Do you have a better word? Let's hear it.

Cada Dia con Marta Maria

I have been blogging now for 4 years and I'm celebrating! (It seems I'm always celebrating something, but that's not important right now.)

I started this blog on October 1st, 2006. I never pictured I'd still be going four years later. Four years, people! I thought by now I would have run out of stuff to write about. But, obviously, I haven't.

This surprises me, too. I sit down most days at my keyboard and wonder what I'm going to write about and the keyboard stares back at me and says nothing. But then, I start looking at my photos. And I remember that behind every photo I take there's a story.

Every day, no matter how ordinary, has a story.

And that, my friends, is the secret to blogging. Just tell your stories.(<--This bit of advice right there is like gold. You're welcome.)

So won't you celebrate with me? Here's to:

1. My Happy New Year.
2. My Blog Birthday.
3. My New Beginning.
4. The First Day of the Rest of My Blogging Life.

I'm celebrating that I get to tell my stories everyday. I love that you seem to enjoy them. I love that they are saved for posterity. (Win-win.)

To celebrate I'm giving stuff away. (You love this part, don't you?)

Since there are so many of you who tell me that you start the day with your coffee and MBFCF (this pleases me, by the way) and that you like cooking with me, and it's my 4th Bloggiversary, I'm inspired to give away 4 fabulous items:

1) A My Big, Fat, Cuban Family Mug

2) A Cafe Cubano Mug from CubaToGO!

3) A Marta's Cuban American Kitchen Apron

and of course,

4) A My Big, Fat, Cuban Family Cookbook

To enter the drawing for a chance to win the above mentioned uber-cool MBFCF stuff, please leave a comment on this post and I'll do a random drawing on Monday, October 4th at 11 AM Pacific Time. 

A big thank you to all of you who keep reading about and relating to the misadventures of my big, fat, Cuban family.

I look forward to many, many more bloggy years.

Mil gracias. De todo corazón.

[Disclaimer: That's not a real magazine cover. But you knew that, right? =D]