Christmas 2012!

This year was amazing. I never knew how different Christmas would be with a child. Last year Mae was one month old, and that was sure different, however this year – where she took an active role in the festivities – was worlds away. We went to three family parties throughout the month and two work parties. My parents had everyone over to decorate gingerbread houses (mine was the best), open presents, and eat so much food. My mom reserved a private space at Zucca Trattoria, a fine Italian restaurant in South Ogden, and we had a four course meal, opened gifts, and riotously enjoyed ourselves. Adam’s extended family had a large scale, fiesta style potluck at a church house. I made wanton tacos – they were super fun. For Adam’s work, they had the company go to Boondocks, an arcade/bowling alley/laser tag/go carts/pizza type place. I was worried it’d be geared too much towards a 14 year old boy, or my pregnancy would have the better of me. But for some reason, we had an amazing time and did everything (except me on a go cart, I don’t think a pregnant woman should have an engine between her legs racing on a slick track.) My work rented out a little golf course house for a dinner and music kind of night. It was nice to see all my old friends.

All that wasn’t even close to Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, I prepared a lovely meal that I have been stewing over for about a month. I chose to do lamb, since celebrating the birth of a Jew with ham seems a bit strange to me. And since Christ is the Lamb of God… I don’t know. That is all I’ve come up with so far. I had the lamb ordered for weeks. The day before I started the bread that needs 18 hours to rise. I also made the cake the night before so it could sit overnight in the fridge, as per the recipe requests. I had cleaned like crazy for two days. Then I got a text from my mom in the afternoon telling me that she decided not to come. Without her there, and my brother in Idaho, then it’d just be Adam, the little girl, and I. Not really the evening I had planned. Just my luck, my dad and step-mom had plans that weren’t too set, so they managed to come let me entertain them. They rode the train over and we had our dinner. Good times rolled out at the Smith home. Here is my Instagram of the place setting:

The menu was my favorite. One time I made a fancy Valentine’s dinner for Adam, and after the first course of roasted artichoke he looked really worried, later I realized he thought that that was all we were eating. Also, I feel like I am constantly reminding my guests what we are eating, and what is to come next. Not that I don’t like talking about my food… but I figured that this would be a nice addition. T’was! I used my font of the season – Jane Austen – and some paper I had left over from Mae’s birthday invitations, and voila! Menus.

Adam and I opened a few presents that night. We let Mae open her awesome block set, which she loved, then I opened my ceramic egg holder (which I love), Adam unwrapped a shirt, and then we busted out the Blu Ray player from its wrapping, and let Mae unwrap our first Blu Ray – The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Mae passed out shortly into the film, but we stayed up to finish it out.

Christmas morning could have come sooner. I was up, bright eyed and bushy tailed, way before the rest of the people in the house. I had breakfast all in mind, my awesome wheat dough cinnamon rolls, but I was extremely sick, and chose a few glasses of water instead. Poop. The little one was down as hard a rock, and I feared she would never wake up so I could see her open the rest of her prizes, so I convinced Adam to start waking her up, which is always a bad idea. She gets real whiny when we do that. We still did, and at least had a solid hour of happy Mae. She opened her blue piano, and instantly started playing it, totally ignoring the awesome box and packaging it came in. Adam opened his new running shoes and I opened my awesome skillet and new cook book.

Here is Mae rocking out while Django sings along. Needless to say, Adam pulled the piano apart attempting to tune and discovered it may be a bigger project to tune than anticipated. But he will!

Later we went to Adam’s parent’s home for Christmas lunch. It was such a great time. Then we drove to Salt Lake to see my mom, then went to my dad’s for Christmas dinner.

This was a very special year, and I loved being able to make it special for the little lady. She was so tired she slept in this morning, and went back down for a nap only two hours awake. As I type she has been napping for an hour now. What a precious sweet heart.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Decorating!

Christmas is a special time of year. It is the time we set aside to celebrate the birth of my Lord and Savoir, Jesus Christ. I have told the Internet world about my qualms with the traditional way of celebrating the holiday, I titled it – Dissertation on Claus. I wholeheartedly agree with everything I wrote there. I always told my family that I probably would end up getting a Christmas tree when I had kids, but I never thought that I would, but something happened. In October I just wanted a Christmas tree this year so bad. I even considered a palm tree, since that is slightly more nativity-like than a freaking pine tree, however, I am a Mormon, and in the LDS church they practice the awkward, but much-loved tradition of a pine tree. I may be a hypocrite, but hypocrite I will be. It is the one thing I broke this year.

We decided if we were to do the tree we were to do it right. The day after Thanksgiving we got our saw and went to a local tree farmer. He grows them in his small farm on his property. Adam chose the tree. It is a small pretty thing. I love it. I looked into it, and most trees at lots are cut in October anyway, so if you cut it yourself you are ok to put it up a little sooner than others with real trees.

Adam is a tree cutting master, don’t you think? I think so.

(Notice that only the top half of the tree is decorated. Mae came into my room this morning with half an ornament in her mouth and the other in her hand…)

I really wanted to keep my symbols and practices Christlike. An Advent calendar is a very good way to do that. I was so excited about this one I couldn’t stand it. This wall is actually a big blank wall throughout the year(s), so finally being inspired to change that was great. I had Adam (who gets free vinyl) print me out my “Merry Christmas” design (I used ‘Jane Austen’ typeface) and all the numbers. The other day we went to See’s Candies, which is without a doubt the best chocolate store I have ever been to – believe me. We got 24 pieces each, a 2 lbs box, and filled the bags with one of each. Now, advent calendars usually count down to Christmas, but my pregnant brain doesn’t allow me to manipulate numbers in such fashion, so I figured I would just do the days of the month to make it easier on myself.

Next were the few ornaments on the tree. I made stars out of a mixture of 1 cup applesauce and 1 1/2 cups cinnamon. If you live around here, I bought the cinnamon from the bulk section of Winco for less than a dollar. The mixture kneads to a dough that can be rolled out with more cinnamon (like flour with pie dough), then I cut out my shapes, placed in a 200 degree oven for an hour. I live in Utah, so it only needed another hour afterwards to dry out, but it may be longer to finally dry for others. I really love these and they smell very lovely.

While I was tying strings to the cinnamon stars, I heard Mae’s little pitter-patter of feet on a wood floor, but it wasn’t coming from the kitchen I was in. I went to look for her and found her at the bottom of the stairs on the landing by the door. Apparently, my 12 month old can now go down the stairs all by herself. She gave me this big old proud smile, and I smiled back then went back to my ornaments. Honestly, that girl is so independent and clever it amazes me everyday.

During last night’s airing of Vampire Diaries, my favorite show on TV, I strung cranberry bracelets for the tree. Holy crap – Damon and Elena? Yes please. I only got four done, because it is difficult to watch the greatest episode ever, yell at Caroline’s dumb face for ruining the hook-up scene, watch Mae so she doesn’t over-do it on going up and down the stairs, and string cranberries. Oh, my life is so difficult, haha.

I loved decorating for Christmas and still have a ways to go. I have the tree skirt to make, a star or angel for the top of tree, and eat all those chocolates for the month.

I really like Instagram, so here are a couple of my Instagrams from the last couple nights of my decorating:

Merry Christmas everyone!

Holiday Decorations Sneak Peak

 

 

Is ‘Family Vacation’ an Oxymoron?

This last week the little lima bean, the husb, and I got aboard the big blue gas-eating monster, drove into the harsh head-on winds, followed the worse directions in history (got lost), and then arrived to a deserted, dilapidated, locked-up cabin in the woods where there was no cell-service. Oh, it was a lovely start to a Smith family reunion, let me tell you sarcastically.
I told Adam I wanted a photo, and he said that he wasn’t going to smile so not to make him. I wasn’t about to. We sat there for a little more than two hours waiting for the rest of the family to come back from leaving for the day. Can I just say that sitting within feet of a bathroom and still having to go in the woods is a joy? I was in a most foul mood, sorry family. It got worse before it got better. I am a moody little thing.

But the vacation did get better! We got to see a Harley parade, shop in little fair booths (which is mostly a game of who can spot the most unnecessary piece of garbage for the highest price), and my favorite part: spelunking the Mammoth Caves! There wasn’t much to them, but I have been telling Adam how much I have wanted to go spelunking this summer, so it was a lovely turn of events. Mae was in stimulation overload in the caves. Then I got to make dinner! I made lime cilantro chicken, chile cream sauce, basmati rice, and fried plantains for the lot of us. It took a lot longer to cook for such a large number of people, and Mae was seriously in need of a nursing and a nap, but my sister-in-laws held me to my promise to make cobbler (which turned out to be a great idea so I am glad they made me finish that out, and helped tremendously!).

It was a great time. Despite the fact we had to sit on porches in front of locked houses twice… that was a little lame. But it’s family so you just get over it and have a great time!

My First Mother’s Day

I love my husband. So, the story starts a few weeks ago. We were driving through South Weber (a windy road with rural farms nestled into a beautiful canyon) on our way to our niece’s 2nd birthday when we saw it. A baby donkey. I don’t know what came over me, but I just started screaming like a little girl. It’s head was so big and fluffy and it’s little donkey baby body was running and kicking, it was the sight to behold. Because of my overwhelming emotions, my brain went dead and I couldn’t remember the word “donkey” so apparently my brain really went bonkers and found the next best thing, I squealed, “Burro! It’s a baby burro! A burrito!” And don’t worry, I rolled my r’s with much vigor. I don’t know Spanish, so I don’t know what that was all about. Needless to say, I got laughed at, and the story was retold at the party.

Well, the day before Mother’s Day, Adam surprised me by packing up the babe and I, along with cut up apples and drove to this little farm. It was not my idea and I was really afraid. Apparently Adam told me that he has never seen me freak out that much over something and thought a great present would be to take me out there and feed the burrito some apple slices. He kept laughing at me when I would say things like, “What if the burrito is all grown up now?” Well, she was a bit older, but she still looked like the giant headed little baby donkey she is. The donkey family came up to fence, but the burrito wouldn’t take the apples. The daddy made a very loud “heehaw” at us and demanded apples. I was too scared so Adam fed him apples while I just held Mae and smiled from ear to ear. Best present ever. The burrito’s head was fluffy and large she looked like an alpaca. It may just go on record that I really like donkeys. I don’t know why, but there it is.

Adam really went out of his way to make Mother’s Day special. On that Saturday, him and my dad finished building the rest of my garden boxes. On Sunday, my mom came up for church and brunch afterwards, so that was really nice. We dropped off some gerber daisies at my mother-in-law’s and Adam’s grandma’s house. Then Adam did something I have only ever dreamed of- he made dinner. I can’t believe he actually did it. He doesn’t make dinner. The occasional waffle or pancake, and he packs up his own lunches with leftovers or sandwiches, but dinner? No, no, my friends, that just doesn’t happen. He made grilled steaks and grilled corn on the cob, a green salad, and mashed red potatoes. I was floored. He even cleaned up the dishes. (BTW, Mae got her first taste of mashed potatoes. Her first reaction was disgust, but it grew quickly into positive interest.)

It was a lovely first Mother’s Day. I love being a mom, and I love that Adam made it such a special day. I will leave you with a video that made me ball like a baby without a burrito:

 

My Mom’s Birthday!

So, I didn’t have the gas to take my giant SUV to Salt Lake (about an hour drive away) for the third time in the last week, so I told my mom that meeting up with her downtown was out of the question and I probably wouldn’t see her. Nice, I know. She, being the stellar lady she is, said I should just take the train down. Awesome idea! I wouldn’t spend the $50+ in gas I swear it takes. I wouldn’t have to have my backwards facing baby out of arm’s reach when she needed her binky or assurance that I still exist. So I packed up my diaper bag with all sorts of scenerios, then got aboard the train with my little babe. Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. I could just hold her and play with her. All the people commented on how pretty she is. She loved looking at the outside world rush by. Then 40 glorious minutes later we were in the city and my mom was there to pick us up. Since we needed to do a little driving, I had to tote the stupid car seat with me. But it worked out, because at the restaurant she napped in it.

Mae and I enjoying the heck out of the train

We went to one of my favorite restaurants in Salt Lake, Gourmandise. Sadly, the French onion soup was quite tasteless and, let’s just say it, crappy. We told the waitress only on the hopes that they fix it before sending it to anyone else. It tasted like water with onions in it. The rest of the lunch was really good. I got the lobster bisque, which more than made up for the French onion disaster. See for yourself my Internet peeps.

Here are some cute photos my mom took of Mae and I after she woke up from her nap. We dined on the patio so it was nice and cool and shady. Absolutely lovely.

When we were sufficiently full, we went to see the new great and spacious building: City Creek Center. This thing is the new hot mall thing. People are freaking out. And I can see why. It is insane. It is so big there is a causeway that goes over Main to connect the two halves. The city just swallows the indoor outdoor environment that it winds through like some grand bazaar. Mae was so interested and calm. It was wonderful.

Then after about two hours, I told my mom that Mae would probably act fussy then fall asleep. Right on queue she was really fussy when we walked through Tiffanys, and was completely asleep by the time we went through the Swarovski crystal store. To which I picked out the most beautiful necklace that I would want Adam to purchase for me when we become filthy rich.

A little bit after that my back felt like a well tenderized piece of meat, so I decided to call it a day. Mom took me to the train station and I headed home. I was so tired it was insane. However Adam needed me to go buy some donuts for his guitar students, but that sounded like the last thing I wanted to do, so I made them. They were delicious. I might just post the recipe.

Happy birthday mom! I had a great day in the city!