An early Bird Christmas

We had Christmas in our house yesterday, 9 days early.  Jbird, BabyBird, and I will be on the West Coast Christmas so I wanted to give Soph a chance to celebrate with us.  Oh what a day we did have!

The food was delicious but more simple this year.  We started off with a late brunch of sour dough, omelet (on my new Christmas frying pan), and bacon with shandis* and mandarins.  This progressed to crackers, cheese, and like-minded dips.  Our friend Cassie joined us with Chocolate Charlies*. 

The afternoon disappeared pleasantly as we watched Christmas movies and played with BabyBird's new megabloks set.  There was a moment where I politely moved her away from her new toy so that I could set up the circus tower.  Yes, I was that mother.  We have added to our carol music and now have viola duets.  It was fun trying to teach alto clef to Soph but she still sounded better than both Jbird and I.  We also played through some of my new Irish music book which was a gift from Jbird.

Dinner was just a roast chicken this year.  I have a lovely recipe where the chicken roasts on top of onion slices in a dutch oven.  The moisture created by the lid nearly self-forms a gravy which was perfect after the addition of some chicken stock and marmite.  So yummy.  

We reached a climactic point in our cooking this evening where I was fussing over the gravy, there was food everywhere, we discovered some bread that needed garlic, butter, and toasting, I was simultaneously trying to put BabyBird to bed when I discovered her ceiling was leaking from a flood upstairs (!!), Jbird decided it was time to play Christmas carols on the piano*, AND I had forgotten to remind the guests that our garbage disposal doesn't work so the sink started to flood.  It was amidst this chaos that the garlic bread was forgotten under the grill, and flames started spewing from the oven.  It felt like a scene from I love Lucy.  

  

Things have calmed down now.  We're eating Soph's chocolate self saucing pudding with cream and mulled wine. The others are playing Settlers while I knit the last christmas pressie that I'm making.  

*wine and orange juice

*marshmallow, peanut butter, chocolate, peanuts, and rice bubbles dolloped in a bikkie shape.  

*I love that he plays these but it added to the chaos of the moment

What's going on !?!??

My computer died! And I think I have a disease akin to 'writers block' where I'm not much happy with anything I write: it doesn't feel inspired and it certainly doesn't feel worthy to share.  So I don't and I'm sorry for that.  Perhaps things will change.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Itsnoweditsnoweditsnowed

We woke up to snow covered ground and spent the day watching the snow fall outside our windows.  It was delicious to have nothing to do that involved leaving the house.  After a week of 10 degree C (50 degree F) weather and returning to my autumn coat, I could finally test out my winter boots.  My feet were deliciously warm.  Please don't quote me later in the season when I'm sick of the snow and ready for some sun!

Nutcracker-licious

IU presents the Nutcracker every year but I only made it out to see it for the first time tonight.  It brought back memories of the last time I saw it, nine years ago.  Syls and I had flown from New York City to London on the red eye the night before and been completely overwhelmed looking for the theatre while passing all sorts of incredible London sites for the first time.  We arrived at the theatre feeling tired, disoriented, and hot.  The result was that I slept through nearly the entire performance.  Every time I woke up I felt confused about the storyline and would allow myself to drift off to sleep again.  

Tonight was another story.  Instead of arriving right on curtain call, I mistakenly arrived an hour early so I could enjoy people watching while sitting under the giant Christmas tree in the foyer.  I managed to read the synopsis before the performance began so I could easily follow the story line.  My view in London had been peering over heads from the back of the audience.  Tonight I was on the top balcony and could see the entire stage and all of the action.  I loved hearing the well known music.  It's such a magical and Christmassy ballet.  Perfect for getting me into the Christmas spirit. 

Turkey day with family

When we first came to America I was amazed that people would ask me if I was going home for Thanksgiving.  I wanted to ask them really? Me?  There are so many problems with your questions.  Can you spot the problems?  If not, let me point them out to you.  1) NZ does not celebrate Thanksgiving and 2) it takes me at least 20 hours to get home by plane (and a $2000 airfare) and it's only a 4 day weekend.  If you get Friday off.  So no.  I will not be going home.  

But you know, in those days I was dreadfully homesick and would have liked to go home for good. They just didn't realise who they were asking, it's just the common question to ask at this time of year.

Actually, all our Thanksgivings here in the States have been really fun.  One year was spent in Texas, another in Virginia Beach, and two at my friend Ashley's place since we've been in Bloomington.  One of those years we had two meals at two different people's places.  Another we had three.  It really is a killer meal, and has convinced me to forever more say "yes" to only one invite.

This year is the first year that I can reply Why yes! I am visiting family for Thanksgiving!  We have driven north five hours to Kalamazoo to have Thanksgiving with my brother, his wife, and her family.  My brother is very happy to have his niece around, she has grown so much since he saw her last. 

It's been half a year

BabyBird is six months today.  I recently watched a few videos from when she was first born and she was so different then.  Her head was huge, her arms skinny, and she had a little pot-belly.  She would sit in her seat all squiggly, moving without meaning to.  My newness at being a mother was obvious in these videos.  When I burp her, I look like I'm  whacking her on the back, and I didn't hold her with the ease that I do now. 

A lot has been going on with her in the last few weeks.  We had a few tricky early mornings with daylight savings but I also think her recent developments were affecting her sleep.  She is very good at getting up on her knees now, though she still moves backwards rather than forwards, but she mostly just rocks up there.  She is able to balance while sitting but only when we place her in the position, and we have to watch her carefully, she also holds herself up in her bath.  However, today I looked over at her after placing her on her tummy and she was sitting on her bottom! She'd got there all by herself, what a surprise, she had a surprised look on her face too. 

We've been slowly introducing her to solids.  Did you see the carrot video?  I introduce a new food to her every four or five days and now she eats egg yolk, steamed carrot and brocolli sticks, peas, cucumber sticks, cooked apple with cinammon, banana, and pear.  I am introducing it all as finger food which is mostly fine except for  banana which is a complete mess.  I had been feeding her in my lap but I got out her high chair in the weekend and she's very good at sitting in it.  In her bumbo, she'd arch her back pretty quickly.  I think being on the floor and far away from all the action was a problem for her.  She will sit in her chair just watching me cook and we have a pretty nice time in the kitchen together.  My sweet, sweet girl.

The last of the garden

We had enough snow to kill the plants which hadn't been able to stand the recent cold.  Luckily I remembered to grab the last of the green tomatoes the night before, only missing a few.  Jbird and I spent just an hour clearing away the debris left behind.  I didn't bother to prepare it like I did last year with Mum, I don't think I'll have such a garden next year as our plot is too small and annoying.  Do you remember?  It was one of the most fun days with Mum.  We made lasagne layers of paper, leaves, compost, and soil, laying down seeds I had collected from the garden that year.  Some lovely sunflowers grew out of those seeds but nothing much else survived.  Without proper protection from critters, planting seeds doesn't really work in this garden.  I swear a couple of bunnies have been living behind the big corner bush.

The last of the tomato crop has been fun.  I made two batches of green tomato salsa.  It's sugar-free so the flavour isn't very intense but it's nice to use as a chutney.  Unfortunately I made a spicy batch and a not very spicy batch and the spicy batch felt TOO SPICY so I ended up combining them both.  Pretty boring of me, I know.  I guess I was doing things in between BabyBird naps and was too rushed to think about it and retaste.  Anyway, I have jars and jars of the stuff so I'll have to give some away.  Next I'll make spaghetti sauce and soup out of the tomatoes as they turn red.

Further into the going sugar-free journey

In March I wrote about going sugar-free here.  I didn't last very long at the time - maybe only one or two days.  Going cold turkey felt too impossible.  But slowly, slowly, I have been extending the reaches of my sugar-free-domain.  It helped that I decided that rather than being sugar-free, I would be 'refined white sugar-free'.  As other sweeteners are expensive, I am sure to think twice about baking and I end up baking a lot less than I used to.  Although I am not sugar-free by any means, I consume much fewer sugary foods and the ones I bake don't have white sugar in them any more.  

My main difficulty is trying to get the sugar substitute in good proportion.  I start off with a normal recipe and make substitutions as I see fit.  One biscuit* I baked ended up being more of a chewy scone because I guessed an amount of dates to put in and also added 1/4 cup of raw sugar.  So next time I used molasses as well as good quality dark chocolate chips and it was really really sweet (and really really yummy, like a fudgy chocolaty brownie bikkie*.  I got the thumbs up from Jbird).  Also either the molasses or the dates burn quicker than white sugar so I needed to watch them very carefully.  The date ones smoked nearly as soon as I put them in the oven, setting off the fire alarm.  I'm also careful to make sure there are lots of savoury snacks available as between meals is my weakest sweet-tooth time.

*cookie

Warm soup on a Fall night

We had lentil soup and wine on this cool Fall night.  Jbird's sister came home and it felt friendly and relaxed.  Although it didn't look very appetising, the soup was a hit and I love that I could throw it together in about 10 minutes.  It reminded me of the very early months of our marriage when I made it often.  In fact, it was this lentil soup that brings this story to mind.  It's  easy, yummy, and seemingly very healthy so I thought I'd share the recipe.  I had Jbird pick up some crusty bread and white wine while Soph and I played with BabyBird. 

Ingredients;

A splash of olive oil

1 Tblspn curry powder (whichever kind you have in your pantry)

1 Tblspn chopped garlic

1 Tbspn grated ginger

1 chopped onion

1 cup chopped carrots

1/2 cup chopped celery

1 or 2 bay leaves

1 cup brown lentils

1 litre or so chicken stock

salt and pepper to taste

chopped cilantro (coriander if you're in NZ) to garnish

sour cream to garnish

Heat olive oil in a heavy pan/pot (I used my cast iron pan).  Add onion, cook until it starts to soften, stir every now and then.  Add curry powder and cook one minute, stirring with a wooden spoon.  Add remaining vegetables and cook with onions to distribute curry flavour.  Add stock, lentils and water as needed.  Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer covered until cooked.  Around 40 minutes.  

Blend with an immersion blender.  Serve hot with bread, garnished with cilantro and sour cream.

What a price

Jbird bought me a pair of $200 winter boots today.  TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS.  We never spend that much on clothes.  Every winter I look and look and look for a pair.  But I don't like any of the shoes in my price range ($50 tops) so I decide that I'll wait until the Black Friday sales*.  Only during the sales, I'm often all caught up in the holidays, travelling and visiting people, and I forget about the boots.  Then my birthday comes in January but I decide that winter is nearly over and I will just make do and I choose something else for my birthday.  So once again I survive the winter with a pair of flats (too cold), some old high leather boots I don't really like (the leather is saggy at the ankles), and a pair of ugly sneakers (they are so ugly).  

But today I got some boots and they are lovely lovely lovely.  I sat around with the babies all day thinking about them sitting at home waiting for me.   And wondering if I hadn't spent too much on a pair of shoes.  When I finally got home I went online and found the same pair for $100 less*.  ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.  What a discrepancy!  So I bought them and I'll take the other pair back tomorrow.  Phew.  Now I don't feel so bad.  I hope I wear them happily for ever and ever and ever.  We'll see. 

*the most extreme sales day in the US is the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday.  I will do all of my Christmas shopping online at this time as the online sales are normally about a week long. 

*I chose the black pair but the pair I first bought were grey.  Which I may have liked a bit more.  Too bad, it's ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS IN MY POCKET.