2013 Reflection

I don't have an elaborate reflection this year as I have in years past, but I will say this:  I continue to be so thankful for my family, my friends, my home, and my health.

2013 was an interesting year.  In some ways, I think it flew by faster than any other year before it.  In other ways, it seemed to drag on.  As we adjust into our "family life", (with less vacations to look forward to and more responsibilities each and every day), it was easy for us to settle into a pattern where every day felt like the day before it.  But this was not necessarily a bad thing!

It was a year of spending a lot of down time.  With a toddler, it's often a lot easier to stay at home - so we did a LOT more cooking (obviously) instead of eating meals out.  We absolutely loved having friends and family over for dinner this year, which continues to be one of my favorite ways to celebrate a weekend.  I can count on one hand the amount of times we interrupted Ben's nap schedule, so on weekends you could usually find us at home together between 12:30 and 3 or 4 pm.  Ben and I took countless walks together.  There is an excellent 3+ mile loop for us that we would do at least 3 times a week, often ending up at the grocery store to pick up a last minute item for dinner or returning a red box movie.

The last week of December was spent cleaning out closets, donating unused items, and utilizing the space in our attic to store items we only use rarely.  I love the feeling of going into the new year with a lot less clutter!

My goal for 2014 is for it to bring a little more: Adventure, patience, date nights, reading and yoga....

...and a little less: sleep (for me), iPad (for Ben), and spending (in general).

Cheers to a brand new year!

Christmas 2013

Another wonderful holiday is in the books.  It really is true what they say about how Christmas becomes magical all over again when you have kids.  I honestly couldn't WAIT until Christmas morning so that I could see Ben's face when he walked out and saw his train table!  

And here it is!

My parents came over in the morning and we had a delicious brunch (while Ben watched).

On to stockings!

Ben playing Santa ;)

My mom made my dad a coupon book good for all of his favorite meals!  He LOVED it!

Ben playing with the light my dad got for us.

Ben and Grandma playing with his train!

Delicious winter toddys.

Christmas place setting.

Dinner!

It was a fun-filled day!  In true OCD fashion, I have already taken the tree down and cleaned up most of the holiday clutter :)  I have also put away about half of Ben's toys to pull out in the weeks/months to come.  I'm also starting to seriously consider taking some of his stuff to consignment - I feel OVERLOADED with toys.  What a lucky guy Ben is :)

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!  

Meal Planning: Week of December 30th

Review from last week:

The Mills all ended up sick last weekend, so we had to reschedule our date, but we made the pasta for ourselves and it served as left overs a few different times.

The Sausage and Apples dish was interesting.  Both ingredients cooked WAY faster than the recipe said they would, which threw me off a little bit.  My kitchen was also very greasy after pan-searing everything.  BUT, the end result did taste good.

Our Christmas meals.  Oh my.  I will admit that I woke up this morning feeling quite lethargic and still very full.  Worth it!  

Brunch, (not pictured) was so delicious.

But dinner really hit it out of the park.  Everything turned out so great, particularly the thyme au jus that went with the prime rib.  You basically reduce the pan drippings (after you have removed the roast), add wine and reduce again, add beef stock and reduce again, and then whisk in fresh thyme and season with salt and pepper.  YES.  

So, now on to next week (or, at least through New Years Eve, which is all I have mentally planned):

I received 2 cookbooks off my wish list for Christmas:

Both by Jessica Seinfeld!  The first, Deceptively Delicious, is all about creating meals that are healthy (often recipes that hide vegetables or lean meats by pureeing them).  The second, The Can't Cookbook, contains recipes that require few ingredients and are VERY clear in the step by step instructions.  While I think I will officially remove myself from the "Cant Cook" category, this book is full of helpful information and great looking recipes that I have learned so much from already!

So, on that note, most of the recipes this week will be from these two books:

Thursday: Roasted Chicken Drumsticks with Mustard and Rosemary Sauce, with broccoli

Friday: Turkey Chili

Saturday: Pan Roasted Chicken Breasts with Roasted Cauliflower and Sage

Sunday: Left overs

Monday: My vegetarian friend Mark is coming over for dinner, so I plan to make Garlic and Rosemary Cannellini Beans and a loaf of homemade bread.

Tuesday (New Years Eve!): We had decided that we wanted to stay home this year, so why not make an elaborate and delicious meal to enjoy? :)  I had been looking for a recipe for lamb so that I could recreate the delicious meal we had a few weeks ago.  I am going to pick up some lamb chops or lamb shanks and then make the Creamy Cabernet Mint Sauce from this recipe.  We will probably have roasted red potatoes and a still TBD vegetable.

Pre-Christmas

We have had a very fun and festive month!

We decorated Christmas treats - pretzels dipped in white chocolate, with sprinkles!  Guess who was on sprinkle duty?

Aunt Karen sent Ben Despicable Me 2 for Christmas, and we couldn't wait to open it!  Ben was SO excited about this.

And even happier when I put it on the iPad for him.

It has been so nice to have all of our holiday decor out - something just feels cozier with a lit up Christmas tree in the living room. 

I went over to my friend Debbie's house for Eggnog martinis one night.  So delicious!

It snowed!

On the day it snowed, I took Ben for a walk to check out the new, white scenery.  When we returned home, I noticed that there was sled tracks on our driveway!  Apparently some stranger decided to take advantage of our perfect sledding driveway.  (Without asking - so strange).

We opened a present early - this garbage truck!  He is obsessed.

Lisa, Shirley, my mom and I had our annual Christmas Lunch!  We drove up to Mount Vernon to eat near Shirley and Fred's house, and when we came back to their place we were served tea and Christmas cookies!  Yum!!

Lisa telling us the story of how her and Evan scaled their building to break into her condo when they were locked out.

Shirley wishing she hadn't shared the story with her ;)

When I got home, we played with the new gifts Lisa had bought for Ben!  This bear dress up puzzle....

And a grow-with-me trike!  It still is a tiny bit big for Ben, but he loves sitting on it!

Rachel and her sister Sara (in town visiting from NYC) came over for a few hours, and we played a rousing game of basketball with fruit/veggies :)

Ben took this selfie on Christmas Eve

We tried on the 3T jammies that Hil, John and Violet sent for Ben.  I thought that even if they would be swimming on them, they still might be cozy - but Ben was so frustrated with the sleeve and kept saying "it's big, Mama, it's BIG" and wanted me to take them off.  I'll give it a few months and they will probably fit then, haha!

We decided to have take out pizza on Christmas Eve and it was so delicious :)  Love these two!

Meal Planning: Week of Christmas!

Ah, Christmas time.  Also known as Christmas BREAK (for me, at least).  I'm very much looking forward to December 23rd being my last day in the office this year.  I plan to truly disconnect from work (well, as much as possible anyway) and focus on spending all of my time with Ben.  I have a feeling Santa will be spoiling him a bit this year, so I'm sure our days will be spent enjoying a few new toys.

Toys, long walks in the stroller, and of course, FOOD!

But first a review from last week:

We had the Broadys over for dinner on Friday night and we had a great time catching up with them!  Bronson and Ben always seem to have a great time together - Ben seriously plays better (shares better, laughs more) with him than with anyone else I have seen him with.  Perhaps it's just been the timing of our visits?  Or, as we joked, perhaps these two got the memo that they were destined to be friends since before they were born?  But for real, these two went in for a hug with one another at least 5 times - all unprompted.  <3  Oh, and the chicken parm was bomb (I really love this recipe).

Unrelated side note - but this week I was thinking about how much easier it has been for me to put together meals/meal plans than it used to be.  I realized that one of the major reasons is something I learned from my mother in law while she was here visiting, and that is:

You can cook your dinner at ANY time in the day that makes sense for you.  I observed Marcia as she would get everything ready, a lot of times in the early afternoon, and then warm it all up when it was time to eat.  I don't even think I made a mental note of it at the time, but subconsciously I realized how efficient she was (is) at getting things done!

So, on the days I work from home, I will often spend 15 minutes in the morning doing ALL of my dinner prep.  I will measure out all of the ingredients and put stuff into bowls or tupperware and then set it aside for later on.  Or I will even go as far as cooking dinner (especially something that goes in the oven) and then reheat it as needed when it's time to eat.  Sometimes I will do all my meal prep the night before so things are ready in the fridge when I need them (for days I'm at the office and have less time at home to cook), and sometimes I will cook dinner during nap time.  Anyway, this was a total tangent to say that I owe much of my strategy and success (on meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking) to her :)

The other recipes from last week have already been reviewed here before, so I will take a moment to write about the best. meal. I. have. ever. had:

If you are anywhere near Bothell, WA, please do yourself a favor and go to Tandem Dinner & Wine Bar for your next romantic night out.  It is my new favorite restaurant.  It's owned by a husband and wife (he is the chef and she is the host/sommelier) and they immediately make you feel like family.  Greg and I went here a few weeks back.  We shared a bottle of cab franc, and I had the rack of lamb (in a minty, cream, cabernet sauce) - and it is serving as my inspiration for the New Years Eve feast I'm planning.  Drool.

Warning: Please also do yourself a favor and ask for prices on everything.  Not everything is listed on the menu and you will WANT to know what to expect from your final bill so that you are not surprised :)

For next week, I've decided that I'm only going to plan through Christmas and then use my time off to decide what sounds good):

Friday: Jamie and Collin are having their annual Christmas Party, and this time instead of a white elephant party, we are doing a wine exchange!  I guess this is the year we all became too sophisticated to buy gag gifts, although I had already selected what I would be bringing :(

Saturday:  The Mills family is going to come spend the afternoon/evening with us, and I thought I would make Baked Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes and Cheese.  Seems kid friendly enough :)

Sunday: Tomato Basil soup and grilled cheese.

Monday:  Pan-Seared Sausage with Lady Apples and Watercress - Found this recipe in my Bon Appetit magazine and it looked pretty simple so I wanted to try it.

Tuesday (Christmas Eve): Soup!  I have a batch of Chicken Potato and Florentine Soup in our freezer - time to eat it.

Wednesday (Christmas): Brunch consisting of Costco Quiche, Bacon and a Danish Puff.

Dinner will be Prime Rib Roast with Thyme Au Jus, garlic roasted red potatoes with rosemary and garlic prosciutto green beans.

"I want DIS"

Lord, help me - I know there are a few habits we still need to break.  Bottles (when drinking his milk) and binkies - I just can't quit you.  

You see, a binky can make a wild and crazy Ben go from 60 to 0 in a few seconds.  He settles down immediately, and I'm convinced sleeps longer when he has one.  He also will become SO SNUGLY with me, and as his mama, I'm so terrified that the end of the binky will mean the end of my snuggle bug.  Can't. Let. Go.

But the point of this post was to describe the funny new thing Ben is doing at bed time.  We have always brought him into our bed for a few minutes before putting him in his crib.  It gives him the opportunity to settle down a little bit, and it's so much nicer putting him down in his crib when he is a little sleepy and happy to say good night to us.

With Ben's expanding vocabulary and ability to tell us what he wants, it's always so fun (and funny) when he point blank expresses his desires.

So we will be laying, both of our heads on my pillow, and I will start to say, "Ben, can you say good night to daddy"?  And he will simply say, "no".  So I will say, "Let's go get you cozy in your crib"....

...and his response is now to reach above his head, point to the pillow he is already laying on and say, "I want dis".  (It seriously cracks us up). He will do that in response to everything I say for the next minute or two, until I finally just pick him up and start walking to his room.

He will say good night ("Bye!!!" ) and wave to the following on our way to his crib:

Greg

The Christmas Tree

The bathtub

His puzzles

His stuffed animals

(Then we will pause and look for the moon on the ceiling from his Twilight Turtle)

His rocket tent

And then finally, he will say goodnight to me.

Photo catch up

A random group of photos:

We had the annual Chi Omega cookie exchange last weekend at Sarah's house.  Perfect pretty much describes the food, the fun games, the pinot gris sangria, and most importantly - the COOKIES.  Everyone brought their A game this year and I very much enjoyed devouring cookies all week long :)

Callie brought over an early Christmas gift for Ben last week - a shopping cart!!!  He has loved playing with the one they have at their house, and he loves playing with this one at home now!  No fewer than 5 times a day he will take all of his play food on a spin around the house, often dumping it all out, loading it into his dump truck, loading it back into his shopping cart, and then finally "parking" it back in his room.

My fun car companion ;)

I can't remember what he wanted, but I'm pretty sure he wanted to lick the spoon I was using when making cookie dough.  

Bus Adventure

If you have ever spent much time around Ben, (particularly on a ride in the car with him), you will likely know that he has a slight obsession with buses.  In the mornings on the days I drop him off at Callie's, I hear no fewer than 20 times:

It's a bus!

Hi, bus!

Bye bye, bus!

Mama - BUS!

Greg and I had been talking for a long time now about how much fun it would be to take him ON a bus.  We decided that yesterday would be the day.  In the days leading up to it, we would ask Ben if he would like to ride a bus and his response would always be an enthusiastic YES!

When we arrived at the park and ride yesterday (a little ahead of schedule), we quickly realized that an earlier bus was getting ready to leave.  We decided to run across the parking lot to try to catch it.  I'm not sure if it was the fact that we were rushed, or that he hadn't quite understood what we had been asking him, but he spent the first 10 minutes of our ride sobbing in terror.  (I'm sure the bus driver was VERY excited to have stopped to let us on).

When he finally accepted that I was not going to allow him to walk towards and out the door, he managed to calm down enough to enjoy himself.  But man, parenting is FULL of surprises :)

I wish I could say that our experience downtown was a good one, but it really wasn't what we had been envisioning.  Ben is not one for doing the following in public places:

Listening

Staying with mom and dad

Understanding that "No, we cannot ride the escalator 100 times" actually means no

Accepting the word "No" or "Stop" in general

Ben had his own agenda that morning....so after 1 hour we got right back on the bus!

Luckily, he always manages to redeem himself with enough cute moments :)