Navidad, Part 2

El 24 we celebrated, as is our tradition at Tia Marga and Jacksito's house with our traditional beef tenderloin, cardiac potatoes (so named because really, you need to see a cardiologist after eating them), creamed onions and all sorts of delicious-ness. I made dessert as usual (Buche Noel - one of my best) as well as one of our apps (cha gios - little vietnamese spring rolls that make you just swoon when you eat them. The food (and drink) were spectacular as always and the company could not be beat.

emilia sporting a's glasses - she was in rare form. note - yes, she's wearing the same xmas dress from last year. it fit her TONS better than it did last year and was so gorgeous, we decided to recycle it - won't be able to do that again!

she was pretty enamored with everyone's nativity scenes - taking them apart, naming each person/animal and putting them together. this little silver one of tia marga's was no exception.

the menfolk in the kitchen.

As usual, the nenas, (Nena Marga and Emilia) were thick as thieves the whole night....

um, nena... i'm kinda watching a little george here.

not sure who's enjoying the george episode more.

mi familia querida....

javi, a, marga & nana.

the bug (laura)

a sad attempt at a semi-group shot - bug, a, javi, nana, marga, emilia and i. you can tell it was L-A-T-E at this point. missing: jacksito, tio richard, marcus, and cutter.

so about 10 minutes after getting to their house Emilia had stripped off her tights, undershirt, and shoes. every once in a while she'd just disappear to stand at the entryway of the family room where we left curious george playing. she'd just stand there for a little while and then come back. i have expected her to fall asleep in there, but she never did. trooper.

rare mother-daughter shot. side note, i knit my sweater!

finally present time - emilia got a cool new puzzle....

...babydoll...

and gettysburg college t-shirt as just a couple of her gifts. she's now ready for her first college kegger. yikes.

LOVED the babydoll from tia marga and jacksito - started walking her around almost immediately.

done.

tradition... tradition... Navidad, Part 1

So this post is all about the winter traditions - both old and new.

To start, for the past 5 years I've held a Holiday Party for all my ladies at TES. This year we put a spin on it since one of my besties, Tracy, is expecting baby number 3 (just shows you, you think you're done and oops! you're not!!) so it was a Holiday Baby Shower Party. The ladies had a grand time and a thousand thanks to Mary and Ozlem for all the help. Awesomeness.


the gals - love them all! - think there were like 15 of us.

again this year emi was not invited to the party - she had her own social event to go to and enjoyed the fun from the stairs with a.

This year we started a new tradition with Emilia, the Elf on the Shelf. Our elf's name is "Gnomo" ("Elf" in Spanish - I know, super original). Basically, the elf's job is to 'spy' on Emi and report back to Santa on how well she's behaving. The added bonus is that Gnomo would bring Emi a little prize and leave it in her Advent calendar. He brought her all sorts of good stuff.


gnomo would show up in the most unusual places!

Another new tradition - Emilia got to pick a tree of her own for her bedroom for the holidays. She loved looking at the lights every night (and during the day too!)

of course it's purple - i tried to direct her to pretty much any other color/size/shape but this is the one she wanted.

Every year my Tia Lo makes matching pjs for her and her family. I've always loved the idea and decided to steal it. With help from my mom (and a super easy pattern) I made matching pjs for Marcus, Emilia and I for Christmas. Cheesy - yes. But it's Christmas. It's all about the cheese.

modeling her jammies and bedhead. note the eeyore slippers next to her - a present from Fafa and Abu Cesar (Marcus' parents).

gnomo came with his own book. poor nana had to read it about a million times during our visit.

The 'girls' used to be really good about having 'girls only' events. But then life got in the way, Nena went to college, Bug went overseas to school and we didn't have the chance to do these types of things. We decided to reinstate 'girls only' events and started off by having holiday tea at the Ritz.

buggie, nena, nana, a, and tia marga.

some of the delicious munchies... though we decided that next year we'd skip tea and stick with the bar!

Holidays mean eating TONS of yummy food at Gampa's house (my dad). Meals at his house can really be quite a show. Emilia got lots and LOTS of delicious stuff thanks to Gampa.

attacking a big old pile of delish cookies.

Finally, visits to DC would not be the same without our traditional stops at Firehook bakery in Old Town Alex. They have delicious pastries, the kind folks there don't mind if a certain someone runs around a bit, and the coffee is divine. We love having quiet breakfasts there just the 3 of us. It's a great way to slow down during our busy DC visits and enjoy the moment.

in a moving car - hence the blur... can you tell i still can't really work my camera?

look mama - chocolate donut!

Next up - Navidad, Part 2!

fighter

Go figure, A wasn't gone more than 24 hours and my Puchis gets injured.

So last night, during a rousing game of "keep away" in the playroom, Emilia lost her balance, tripped, smashing her face right on the corner of one of her baby beds. Ouch. At first it didn't look that bad, then the blood started coming out. Yikers. Thankfully, Marcus had the genius idea of giving her a popsicle as her 'ice' since the ice pack wasn't working out. Of coures this thrilled her, but it made it bleed even more. After a while though, it stopped bleeding and she was running around just fine as ever. Scary though.

photos of the walking wounded.

makes her look kinda tough, right? :)

story of my life/prima ballerina

Guess what, I'm behind in posting pictures. Sorry! In my defense (Dad), I took over 400 pics over the holidays - it'll take a while.

In the meantime (and starting with more recent events), Emilia had her first day of ballet class today. She is doing ballet through our local Y and has half-hour classes from now through the Spring. There's even a recital at the end of it all. Her pals Kyrie, Kate & Mia (from playgroup) are also doing ballet, however we couldn't be in the same class with them because of her school schedule. However, we did know that Emilia's friend/classmate from school, Ginna, signed up for her same class. Little did we know (and what a fortunate and wonderful surprise it was) that the other two girls from Emilia's preschool are ALSO in the SAME class! HURRAH! Emi was thrilled (especially since the nerves were starting to set in - performance anxiety perhaps?) to see some familiar faces.

tentative first steps in to the class.

pre-class photo shoot with A

still tentative - getting the lay of the land

nice face emi - the black smudge under her eye is not a result of a bar fight... someone got a hold of some mascara.

l to r - ginna, emi & betsy (all go to st. john's together along with natalie, not pictured). they are the only 4 girls in their class at school - how funny is that?!

doing a couple of laps around the room before class as a warm-up?

emi is, by far, the smallest/youngest in the class - technically not even old enough to be IN the class since she's not quite 2 1/2.

*i have no idea what's happening with the layout portion of the pics - am using a new program, so perhaps that's it? bear with me!*

safety in numbers

Yesterday was our turn to host playgroup and I thought it would be fun to meet at the mall to get the pictures with Santa. A couple in the group had already seen Santa and I knew Emilia would be nervous about it, so I figured a little "peer pressure" could only help the situation (we'd done several 'drive-bys' of Santa already in preparation). Due to unforeseen circumstances, I wasn't able to make it to playgroup (thank goodness, once again, that 'A' is here and was game enough to tackle the job). However, the mamas did manage to get a group shot. Granted none of the kids looks particularly thrilled, but hey, it'll work. (I love that Santa is essentially hiding behind them).

left to right: front row, aston & kate; back row: emilia, ava, maisie (look at those tears!) and morgan.

hil.ar.i.ous.

thanks for the inspiration, em....

Warning: This post has little to do with Emilia. Those of you who are huge fans of the under 3 foot crowd - sorry to disappoint.

Saturday I co-hosted a baby shower for one of my bffs, Tracy. Tracy got the surprise of a lifetime when, over the summer, she learned that no, she was in fact, NOT done having kids and that baby #3 was on the way. Sadly, yes SADLY, T is of the 'don't-find-out-what-you're-having' crew which makes gift giving a real challenge... but we amused ourselves anyway with the thought of her giving birth to a 'girlie girl' - one who only wants pink and frills and ribbons and bows. HA!

Anyway, at the shower my friend Emily suggested that I use this blog to sometimes include recipes I've made/love/tweaked. My friends know I love to cook. Baking, not so much, but definitely cooking. I come by it honestly as both sides of my family have produced fabulous cooks, including my Dad who's classically trained. Well, I figured I'd give it a shot. So I introduce to you...

Peppermint Bark Cookies (because really, at holidaytime, is there anything better than bark?)

My mom and I have been known to scour local purveyors of bark to find the best ones. Last year we settled on World Market's bark, but this year they seem to have changed the recipe. The gold standard remains the bark at William-Sonoma. Then I came across a recipe in this month's Bon Appetit magazine, tweaked it a bit for my own purposes and gave it away at T's shower on Saturday. It was a hit!

can you tell i took this pic with my old point-and-shoot? sometimes it's just a little easier.

Peppermint Bark Cookies

Nonstick spray (aka PAM)

2 c. ap flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1 c. room temp butter

1 c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract (i used peppermint for more peppermintyness)

1 egg yolk

6 oz. bittersweet/semisweet chocolate (i used half each)

1/2 c. finely chopped red & white stripped hard peppermint candies (here's where you have to be picky - Brachs candies were no good - gotta get GOOD peppermints - otherwise it tastes kind of like toothpaste).

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 13x9x2 inch metal baking pan with spray, line with parchment and then spray again. Whisk flour & salt together. Beat butter in large bowl until creamy, then add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 min. Beat in extract and then egg yolk. Add flour mixture and beat on low speed just to blend.

Drop by spoonfuls onto prepared pan. Then moisten fingertips to press dough into an even layer in pan. Pierce dough with fork all over.

Bake cookie base until light golden brown and slightly puffed, about 30 minutes. Place pan on rack; immediately sprinkle chocolate all over and let stand until softened. Use small offset spatula to spread chocolate over top of cookie in thin even layer. immediately sprinkle chopped peppermint candies over. Let cool completely, lift cookie from pan and cut into irregular pieces. Inhale most of bark in one sitting.

(I also modified it and made a batch with Heath bar pieces - even more delicious!)

Perhaps I'll post about my attempt at making my annual Christmas cake.... hmmm...

thanksgiving - FINALLY!

Look - it's picturepalooza!!!!

Finally, FINALLY posting the Thanksgiving pictures. I feel better about this though, then my Halloween posting which was 2 + weeks late. It's just been crazy around here.

First, Emilia's Thanksgiving Feast at her school was last Monday, Nov. 23rd. The mamas arranged for 'special lunch' (chick-fil-a nuggets, grapes, cheese cubes, and juices). The kids had painted special tableclothes for their tables...

... and had painted little 'indian vests' made out of paper bags. So cute. Emi didn't have one because she'd been absent the day they made them.

Have to include this video of the blessing they sing - sure it's mostly the Mamas singing, but you get the idea. Too presh.

enjoying the 'feast' with her good friend, Ray.

at the beginning of the school year we had to complete a family homework project where each of us had to decorate a petal of a flower and in the center, put a pic of our family. the one on the right is ours.

friends jackson j. (emi loves him), robert, and ginna.

papa, meet ray (school bff and fellow milk-allergy-sufferer:).

cooking for papa and jackson.

dress up. (the squares on the rug are the color/shape they are 'studying' that month).

a crappy picture, but i love it because there's my emilia in the mix with a bunch of boys playing with the cars and trucks. there are 8 boys and only 4 girls in the class, but it's been great. the boys are BEYOND sweet and she loves playing with jackson, 'otro' jackson (other jackson), ray, schaefer, and alejandro.

On to actual Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving morning we participated in our neighborhood 'Turkey Trot' - a 5 km. run through our neighborhood. It was an icky morning, but was tons of fun. Emilia loved it but about halfway through the run she insisted on getting out of the jogging stroller and running alongside with me. Hilarious.

post-run pics...

Back from the run, Marcus had to get working on our bird. We got one from a beautiful fresh organic 14 pounder and had brined him for 24 hours.

inspection time. yes, i used one of emilia's baby bathtubs to brine the bird in - it was the biggest thing i had. thanks ikea!

celebratory wine for running in the morning/putting turkey in oven. sure it was 11:30, whatev.

the 'kids' table - the cankurtarans came for thanskgiving so emi got to eat with alara. their china is my old set from when i was a baby.

wagon rides.

the bird - i forgot to get a pic of the table of food.

while the adults finished up eating we sent the girls upstairs to the playroom where they destroyed the room but had a blast. then they decided it would be fun to send some animals flying.

giving tuana some love. we got to break out emilia's bouncy chair and seeing tuana in emilia original thanksgiving outfit made us so nostalgic and ready for another.

someone was ready for bed... and so was alara ;)

we were so glad the sunds were able to stop by for a drink and some dessert. i didn't get a good shot of the 3 girls (they were hysterical together - could've been they were so tired), but sweet baby brooks just chilled with his mama, looking dapper in his sweater vest. scrumptious.

So these last pics are hilarious and tell such a story. It was way late (past 8) at this point and she had been running around like a crazy person for hours with Alara and Kyrie at this point. Suddenly, Emilia came out into the living room with a dish towel and did this...

someone was done!

happy happy day.