Christmas Eve Pictures

Christmas Eve has always been celebrated with my mother's side of the family, only now Greg's mother joins us as well. The kids tend to get a lot of the attention, but I feel that's how Christmas should be, with a focus on children.

I like the photo below because of the details. I am the only one posing. Henry is engrossed in the soft teddy bear. Rusty the dog is also interested in the teddy bear, but for more nefarious reasons. (I believe he likes to chew on stuffed animals.) Nick is looking bored and impatient because it isn't his turn to open a gift. 

Auntie Mandy got Nick a hexbug, which looks remarkably like a cockroach. I told him to make sure not to have it crawling around the floor or I might stomp on it.

Nick also got a nerf gun from his Uncle Andy, and boy did all the guys have fun with it. Even Grandpa Ray joined in.

Henry got the neatest bristle blocks. I haven't seen those in years, and he adored putting them together. I am thinking we'll have to get more so he can build bigger things.

Nick got a V-Reader that he calls his "Nook." It is a kind of e-reader, so he's not too far off, actually.

Grandma Linda was just as excited about her books as Nick was about his "Nook."

Henry adored all of the cars he received. He loves cars, and "Ca!" is one of the few words he has been saying consistently. He also makes car noises.

Grandma Toni had a great time watching the boys play with their presents. I think my sons must be some of the most photographed children in the world. I believe there are over 900 pictures on my computer just from the 24th and 25th of this month.  :)

The boys were MOST excited, though, at the end of the evening, when Grandpa Ray brought out his new helicopter and let the boys play with it. (All the boys. . . Uncle Justin, Uncle Andy, Nick, Rusty, and Henry).

Besides the helicopter, Nick also loved the all time favorite. . . empty wrapping paper tube. Typical.

Here's Henry rocking around the Christmas Tree.

Santa Visits

Nick really understood about Santa coming this year. He was super-excited when he went to sleep on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning at our house was full of joy. . . as well as plenty of plastic packaging and cardboard.

Nick's 2011 haul from Santa included a "Cars" rug  with roads to drive on and a set of the character cars, a set of Lincoln Logs, a wooden fruit-cutting kit, and a set of lacing beads.

Santa must have thought Henry was a very good boy as well, at least for the six months he has spent with us. Santa brought him a penguin to knock over. He has balls inside of him, and he sings and taunts you until you whack him good. Henry loves him, but I think Nick likes Mr. Penguin just as much. Santa also brought him baby cookies, several teething toys, a toy airplane that vibrates and has a propeller that spins, and keys to chew on that make realistic car noises (so realistic  that you'd think he has a baby BMW or something). Henry now has three or four sets of keys, which is excellent, because he's always losing a set. He takes after his mommy.

Nick loved eating candy before breakfast. I'll admit that I stole a few pieces myself.

Christmas morning was very memorable, and I'm so glad Nick will remember it this year.

Just A Small Dose of Adorableness

I'm swamped this week, but I figured I'd give you two pictures containing gratuitous cuteness. First, here's Henry playing with toys. He adores playing with toys.

Next, here is my baby naked on our new living room rug. Yup, I censored him. 

I have many, many fall and pumpkin-related pictures to show, and stories to share. Hopefully I can do that later this week. For now, just revel in the cuteness. And pardon the messed up photos. I think my camera lens is dirty and I can't figure out how to fix it. Drool got on it and I tried to wipe it off and now the lens is all smeary. 

A Tapas Birthday Dinner, Part Two

During our tapas dinner, Nick played with his cars. Gigi (Nick's great-grandmother) was kind enough to let her legs be the road.

One of the tapas I served was Magdalena cakes, which are light, lemony cakes that melt in your mouth. They were actually pretty easy to make. You can find the recipe here.

Greg made several dishes to contribute to this fancy dinner. First, here are grilled plantains with a spicy sugar glaze.

On the grill, Greg made flank steak marinated in garlic and hot peppers. Yum!

Our dinner was not completely bereft of vegetables--Greg made a green bean and cabbage salad.

He also made lemon-thyme wild rice, which turned out pretty well. I thought it was delicious.

Oh, dessert? Of course we had dessert! My mom is a big fan of chocolate, so I chose a bittersweet chocolate tart on a hazelnut crust. It's one of the more challenging dessert recipes I have tried, and I had to carmelize the sugar twice. The first time it burned, and nearly set the house on fire. Then, I got chocolate all over my nose.

The recipe involved crushing hazelnuts and grinding them into a powder for the crust, carmelizing sugar (which is somewhat dangerous for absentminded people like me), and separating eggs. But it was worth the trouble. It was chocolatey and rich but not too sweet. I did, however, forget to buy birthday candles. So we improvised. . .

Yes, that's a scented candle. Hey, we had to have something for my mom to blow out after we sang. Here's what the tart looked like up close:

It was definitely a filling trip to Spain. By the end of the evening, everyone was sprawled out watching the Cars movie with Nick, barely awake. I think my mom had a good birthday, though, and that was the point. Maybe next year we'll go to Italy. . .

What I Should Be Doing. . .

What I Should Be Doing:

1. Working on the 4+ loads of laundry piling up. Between the three onesies Henry has been through today, and all of the wet man panties and shorts Nick has gone through, I really need to get started on this.

2. Editing my 30 page chapter, which is due by Sunday at the latest. I'm way behind.

3. Making sure that I got all of the oatmeal clumps cleaned up after breakfast this morning. The sheer scope of the sticky oatmeal disaster was enormous. That stuff is like glue, not to mention the blueberries that Nick somehow squished.

4. Cleaning the breast pump for the umpteenth time today.

5. Making a grocery list. We're out of everything.

6. Weeding my garden. Enough said about that.

7. Doing my monthly budget and paying bills.

8. Deciding how to make a healthy dinner tonight out of leftover smorgasbord.

9. Finishing addressing the birth announcements. I'm way behind on that.


What I Am Actually Doing:

1. Helping Nick build a garage for all of his cars.

2. Cuddling with Henry. He seems to have some kind of tummy irritation, and he kept us up all night, making sad faces. Poor guy. The only thing that calms him is skin to skin contact.



Doesn't it look like he's waving at you?






































3. Taking a nap. Right. Now. Yawn.