Christmas Numero Uno

We had a really wonderful holiday. It was relatively stress free, and I think we just really enjoyed ourselves a lot. Christmas Eve was at my parent's house, which I like the best, and we had our usual feast of pasta. This year it was lasagna with all the fixings (meatballs, sausage, Brucie, caesar salad). Yum! The kids did really well all night, and I even was able to put Eleanor down to bed then wake her up before we left. It didn't faze her much.

Ethan, after staying up until about 10:30, slept in for us until 7 and then seemed to not even realize it was Christmas, asking to go downstairs and watch a cartoon. We were glad because then we could just wait for Eleanor to wake up. Once she was up, fed, and changed, we called Ethan upstairs to see what Santa brought. He was pretty pumped, and it took him well over an hour to open his many presents. Will got a lot, but all small things, and he loved everything so much he would play with them for a while before getting interested in another present. It was really fun to watch. We had a pretty leisurely morning and then went to Mass at 11am. Both kids were good there, though Eleanor was a bit difficult to hold the whole time and was getting antsy by the end.

When we were home from church, I got the turkey ready to go in the oven and then both our sets of parents came over. Since I had prepped most of the food a couple days before, I didn't have to start really cooking until about 4, and then it was pretty simple stuff. I was really enjoying entertaining the family. Dinner was delicious, I think, and we all stuffed ourselves and then enjoyed the rest of the evening.

I cannot tell you how fun it was to have all of Christmas Day at our house. I know we're very lucky to only have to travel locally, and I really don't mind it, but it was a nice break this year to have the whole day at home. No rushing! And, now we get to have Christmas #2 tomorrow, on New Year's Day. Laura Elizabeth spent Christmas this year in Superior, with Chris's family, which is why we are celebrating late. I like that it gives us more to look forward to, especially since Christmas always comes and goes so quickly.

Many times throughout Will's two week break, I have taken mental snapshots of my little family and said a quick prayer of thanks to God for our blessings. We have the cutest kids on the planet (in my unbiased opinion), and we have a lot of fun together. Hope everyone had as blessed a Christmas as we did!

Before everyone else got to my mom's.
Our best family picture (yes, Grinch is in the family).

Auntie Nancy with the baby. She made Eleanor's stocking, so now we all match.

Sisters - the one with Malia is on Lisa's camera. I know we took one!

I love my cousin Amy!

Eleanor liked lasagna - well, or whatever I was feeding her.

Table one.

The cook - mom!

Table 2 (1)

Table 2 (2) Table 3 was the kitchen table with Lisa's and my families (i.e. the kids table).

The annual cousins picture, this one with spouses, kids, and grandma.

And just the cousins. Can't believe how big (literally for some!) they're getting.

Eleanor got to open some presents before going to bed.

I guess she likes it.

Our tree before bed on Christmas Eve. This was my year of "green" wrapping. I used white easel paper (one roll for all presents, and I still have some left) and saved all my pretty ribbon. I thought the presents were really pretty!

Our stockings, all homemade by Auntie Nancy. I love, love, love that we have these.

Our nativity with the rope Ethan fashioned to it in case anyone needed to climb up to the top. You never know...

The cook - my first time hosting Christmas Dinner. We started small with just our parents.

My table. I used snowflake ornaments Ethan and I made as place cards.

Mom helped in the kitchen.

A great looking turkey, if I do say so myself. The menu was turkey (I brined it for the first time), bacon and apple stuffing, green beans with toasted almonds and caramelized onions, mashed potatoes, and fresh cranberries. It was all pretty good, and I was happy that I timed the meal just right. I did all my prep two days before, too, making that day very easy in the kitchen.

Pop Pop Bill and Grandma chat after dinner while we try to get a very hyper Ethan to bed.

You can see by my belly how tasty dinner was. ;)

At the Field Museum, following a failed trip to the Aquarium. Line was very long (outside in the cold), so we left. Field Museum is not as fun as the Aquarium, but we made the most of it.

Eating lunch at the FM.

Cutest polar bear around.

Ethan insisted on stretching with Will yesterday. Too funny.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Not a lot of time to write (it's Christmas Eve), but wanted to post these pictures I uploaded last night. Eleanor loves when Ethan plays with her, which basically means he puts things on her head. Here, it seems the tables have turned. Will's "Spiderman" cake. I had some frosting issues... :(

I went to visit my friend Annie, and her baby Lainey, in their new, beautiful home.

Eleanor had fun in baby jail.

This is Ethan after he discovered the hole punch. Hours of fun that day...and lots to vaccuum.

We couldn't wait to give this to Ethan, so our Elf, Pumpkin, delivered it a few days before Christmas.

He he.

Crawling forward - finally!



This is Ethan singing along to "Defying Gravity," from Wicked. To say he's obsessed is a bit of an understatement.

I used the camera as bait to get Eleanor to crawl forward to me. For the longest time, she'd just been scooting on her butt or crawling backwards.

A Case of the Blahs

Well, I jumped the gun on the birthday post since we never got to celebrate. Thursday evening, Eleanor threw up (twice), and then Will came down with a bit of a bug that night. He ended up staying home on Friday and we cancelled his party for fear others would get sick. He was better on his actual birthday .but still being very cautious about food, so I think he ate chicken soup for dinner that night. Poor guy. To make matters worse, my big surprise gift - tickets to Seinfeld this Friday - ended up being a bust. Will has a concert his students are putting on to raise money for Doctors Without Borders that night. He never mentioned this event, and I got the tickets without asking if he had anything, assuming he wouldn't have anything on a Friday night that I didn't know about. He is not able to cancel, so we ended up selling the tickets to my physical therapist. I think I'm more sad than he is. I was really looking forward to it and thought he would really love it. Before we had the kids, we would always watch Seinfeld together, and we know about every episode. Needless to say, it's been kind of a rough week.

I really don't do well with GI illness. It's not even the vomit, it's the unpredictability of it. You just don't know when things are coming. Eleanor seemed fine the next day and the next few days and then she threw up again after dinner on Monday night. I nursed her before bed, 40 minutes later, and she was fine and slept all night. She's been okay the last two days now. But every time she's fussy, I wonder if something is coming. I just hate it. I keep telling myself that it's not a big deal, and logically I know that, but I feel like I've been living with butterflies in my stomach the past week or so. Sick kids are just the worst.

These are the times that I honestly feel like it would be easier to be working. The winter has only just begun and I'm already feeling very trapped. Ethan requested a picnic yesterday, and it made me so sad. We picnicked so much this fall, and it was sad to have to explain that it would be quite a while before we could have a picnic again. The evenings are the worst, really, because it gets dark so early but you still have hours before bedtime. Ugh. I know it will pass, though, and I'm very lucky to have a hubby who is able to be home relatively early most days.

Today, Will had a field trip in the city, so he's still not home at 8:15pm. The day was pretty smooth, though, I have to say. It's fine as long as I know he's going to be gone. The house is actually cleaner tonight than on days when Will is around. And I got a lot of cleaning done today, too, which made me feel better. I turned all my negative stress energy into cleaning today. And that made me feel better because we're having Will's birthday party - take two - this Saturday now, and I got a few of the bigger cleaning projects done.

In more exciting news, Eleanor finally got a tooth. I noticed it this morning and used a metal spoon to confirm. Sure enough, there is a tiny tooth poking out. What's encouraging about this is that her nights have been fine lately, so I'm hoping that teething for her won't be too bad. She's been fussier during the day lately, but I've just chalked that up to her GI bug. Maybe it was actually teething. Who knows? Also, I think she may be starting to crawl forward. It's really very entertaining to watch her get around these days. But I think even she is getting frustrated with not going forward. Today, she seemed to be moving a bit in the right direction, if you will.

Ethan has been keeping us entertained lately with his obsession with watching and singing along to Defying Gravity from Wicked. It started from listening to his "pump song," which is Glee's version of "Don't Stop Believing." He requests it EVERY time we are in the car, and then wants to listen to it all the time. He knows the words by heart, or at least what he thinks are the words, and it's really hilarious to listen to him sing. Anyway, in an effort to get him to listen to other songs on the soundtrack, I told him about the song from Wicked. He was hooked by the story of the witches, and know he needs to listen to his "witch pump song." Then we made the mistake of showing him the YouTube video of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenowith singing "Defying Gravity." He is obsessed with it! He watches it and has it memorized and even says the lines along with it. And he grabs his broomstick (a tiny broom that comes with a dust pan) and lifts it in the air at the appropriate times. I got some secret video of him today but it's too long for the blog. Anyway, it's just too cute. Yesterday in the car, I asked him, "Ethan, do you want to be a singer when you grow up?: His reply? "No, Mommy. I want to be a singer when I'm little." Too funny.

Someone Loves Her Husband

Saturday is Will's birthday. The big 3-9! I can't believe next year I'll be married to a 40 year old. Crazy. But, I digress...

For his birthday dinner, Will requested homemade ravioli. My sisters and I made some earlier in the year, but he had to miss the dinner. I, of course, brought him some leftovers, and he commented that it would make a great birthday dinner. And, because I love my husband, I said yes. And I invited his family over, so I need a lot of ravioli. Today, I made it (mostly) while Ethan was at school, and I thought it would be fun to document it in pictures. It's not difficult, just time consuming. But I had a glass of eggnog and some Christmas music going, so I had fun.

Here is the egg and flour "volcano." For a pound of pasta dough, you have 2 1/2 cups of flour for 3 eggs. I doubled it and then ended up making another pound later, too. I wanted to be sure there was enough for everyone (and hopefully some leftovers).

After incorporating the eggs and flour slowly, you knead it into a dough, adding water if too dry or more flour if too moist. You knead it until the color and texture is consistent.
The dough needs to rest for 10-15 minutes. While it rests, I made the filling, which is made up ricotta cheese, romano cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, and eggs. I used two pounds of ricotta and had plenty to fill 30 large ravioli. I have at least a pound left to fill manicotti shells.

Once the dough is done resting, you cut pieces off of it about 1/4 inch thick. Then, you put it through the rollers on the highest number (seven on my pasta machine). You flour the strips in between and then keep moving the number down (causing the rollers to get closer together) until the strip reaches your desired thickness. For ravioli, I only go down one number to six.

Ethan was my helper for my extra batch. He loved turning the handle.

Once the strips have dried a little bit, you trim them to make them uniform and then cut then into rectangles. Each rectangle gets a dollop of the cheese filling.

Fold one side over.

Then press the two sides together with a fork.

Oh, and here is another lovely assistant.

See how her tongue is out? She really wants ravioli, too!

Finished! Well, almost. They need to be cooked and covered in gravy. I'll make the meatballs, sausage, and gravy tomorrow or Friday. Yum! I may be more excited for Will's birthday than him.