Happy Holidays To You

Once again I have been a neglectful blogger. We've been so busy over the last few weeks, hopefully next week will give us a chance to decompress.

In the past few weeks we...

Visited Santa



Made gingerbread houses at cousin Danielle's



Went to Patrick's preschool holiday sing (in the rain, ugh!)



Celebrated Christmas Eve at Grandma Mildred's



Set out cookies for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer)



Opened presents Christmas morning



Spent the afternoon with cousins and grandparents





And had dinner with Nana and Papa, where Uncle Nick gave Patrick this awesome Batman Big Wheels



And my Buche de Noel turned out fantastically



So there you have it. The last 2 weeks in pictures. Hopefully we'll have some adventures to report on next week :)

Summer Jam

Guess what I've been doing? Making jam! Patrick's been helping as both my official taste tester and cherry pitter. In the last few weeks I've made about 18 jars, which will definitely be enough to get us through the year. Between buying all of the jars and the cases of fruit, I am pretty sure I've spent way (WAY) more than I would have spent on a few jars of Costco jam. But homemade jam is surely more delicious and maybe my scrawny little apricot tree will bless us with a bumper crop next summer!

The Luck Of The Irish

My mom is 100% Irish. And anyone Irish knows that we tend to be damn proud of it. So not only is St. Patrick's Day a big deal in our house because of our heritage, but also because my little laddie shares his name with the saint. We had a traditional (well, traditional in America) corned beef (sans cabbage) dinner last night. If you've ready my blog for a while you may recall that last year on St. Patrick's Day I ended up with second degree burns all over my very pregnant belly while I was draining some boiling potatoes. I still bear those scars, though they now have a few stretch marks among them. So this year had to be better, right? Dinner was lovely, and Patrick loved the attention of his special day. He even helped me make Irish Soda Bread and green shamrock cookies.

If you're lucky enough to be Irish, you're lucky enough :)

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's less than a week until Christmas and we're as busy as the elves! Last week Patrick had his preschool holiday concert. He's really been enjoying singing Christmas carols so we were looking forward to the show. Of course he was the one kid in the back row making faces, picking his nose and singing at the top of his lungs. Lovely.







On Sunday Danielle had her gingerbread party, Patrick and I both made houses. When he shows them to people he points out his his is the "crazy" one, hee hee.







We finally got our tree this weekend. You may notice that the top third of the tree looks a little crammed, all of my Christopher Radko ornaments are safely tucked up there and out of reach of little hands. We also got a small second tree, I've always wanted to do a smaller tree for my collection of moon and star ornaments. This year we finally got around to doing it and I love it.



















And last night we had a surprise visitor! There was a knock at the door and lo and behold, Santa was there! Patrick promptly ran and hid under the coffee table until Santa announced that he had brought presents, Patrick scrambled out as quickly as he had hidden and happily posed for pictures. He's really learning how this Santa thing works!



Patrick has been very concerned about how exactly Santa will get down the chimney since he recently saw for himself that our chimney has a cap on the roof. Daddy had promised that he will unscrew it on Christmas Eve so Santa can make his way down easily ;)

Still on the to do list this week... wrap a zillion presents, make some cookies for Santa, decide on a menu for Christmas morning breakfast, go to the grocery store and finish a little Christmas shopping, all with a 3 1/2 year old and a baby. I'm full of the holiday spririt, oh yes I am. HA!

Halloween Rehearsal

Another busy weekend! On Saturday Molly and I went to a bridal shower in Sonoma, it was a long day and a long drive but Molly was such a little sweet pea.



Tom took Patrick to Great America for their Halloween celebration and a little male bonding. Patrick had a great time, and especially enjoyed a soap foam station they had set up for kids. Patrick though it was snow, awww.





And today our playgroup had a Halloween party, it's so much fun now that the kids are old enough to understand it all. I got to use my new Cupcake Courier which thrilled me to no end (seriously, I love it that much). Tomorrow we're carving pumpkins with Danielle, Patrick cannot wait. Patrick (of course) is going to be a fireman for Halloween, and Molly is his "firedog". Since I thought the dalmatian costume looked a little gender neutral I had a friend make some bows that I hot glued onto the costume. Perfect :)









Patrick has his Halloween sing at school on Tuesday, then Trick or treating Wednesday afternoon downtown and Wednesday evening in our neighborhood. I think Halloween is even more fun as a parent than it was as a kid, I'm loving every minute of it all!

Cut The Cake

Happy birthday Tom! Now you are as old as me ;)

Patrick was in muuuuuch better spirits today, we actually made it to the grocery store but then a potty emergency necessitated cutting the trip short and jamming back home. I'm so ready for Patrick's potty issues to ease up. Anyhoo, Tom wanted to go out to dinner so we made our way over to the very kid friendly Peninsula Creamery, except it hasn't been called that in 15 years or so and I honestly do not even know the new name. Patrick's been eating and feeling much better but will happily tell anyone he comes across about his barf-o-rama sessions. Such a boy thing, I am sure!

Tom got a store bought, but delicious, birthday cake.



And a sweet picture of Molly.



And now for something totally random. Some friends and I were talking a few weeks ago about the fact that Jell-O Pudding Pops were the bomb and why on earth did they stop making them? They came in a zillion flavors and they rocked, plus they were low fat and low calorie. So I started digging around online and it appears Popsicle brand brought them back but they aren't the same. So we decided to make our own and they were awesome. Patrick loved helping and the end result was almost as good as the original. I highly recommend picking up some popsicle molds and making your own. We're also used the molds to freeze juice and applesauce. Applesauce pops are surprisingly magically delicious.

Home Cooking

This morning Patrick decided that we needed to have a birthday party for Daddy (never mind that his birthday isn't until September). So I asked Patrick what we needed to do for the party. He thought for a second and said "I know! First we need to make a cake!". Sadly we did not have any eggs in the house so we made birthday scones instead. Patrick was very excited to help out in the kitchen, pouring ingredients into the mixing bowl and stirring. When Tom got home tonight Patrick ran up to him and said "Daddy! We made you little cakes!". Isn't that the best?

After The Holidays

I finally downloaded my Christmas pictures! We had a great Christmas, I'm starting to feel better (but still cannot hear out of my right ear and now I have a nice ringing echo in there). Patrick loved every minute of it. We spent Christmas morning at home, Patrick was very pleased with his haul from Santa, especially his Mickey Mouse Club House. We went to my grandmother's for a Christmas brunch and Santa made a surprise appearance! Patrick got to run around and be silly with his cousins and got even more new toys. We then had a lovely and tasty Christmas dinner with at my Mom's. I got a new lens for my camera so I've been enjoying playing with it (even though I have yet to really venture out beyond auto mode on my camera, wish I remembered more from those photography classes almost 20 years ago). We hope everyone had a lovely day!

Patrick on Christmas morning


With Great Grandma Mildred and his cousins


Saying "hi" to Santa


My Christmas Buche De Noel



And since Tom had the week off we decided to play today and took Patrick to the zoo. It was a beautiful day, especially for the city. Patrick continues to favor the little steam train over the animals.