Christmas Eve

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

A Bit Non-traditional

Christmas this year was very different from Christmases past. I made the mistake of getting super excited for this year to be the best Christmas ever, owing mostly to the fact that the boys are such fun ages right now and I'm neither pregnant nor nursing a baby, so I felt like we could all participate in the holiday fun as a family. Of course, we all know what happens when you make plans. Other stuff happens. Thankfully Jack never did get sick, but he did curl up on the couch around 3:30 in the afternoon Christmas Eve and take a nap. I thought he was probably coming down with the stomach virus Matteas had just recovered from that very morning so I let him sleep. Turns out he just needed a nap, the kind that would let him stay awake until the wee hours of the morning. I'd been so excited about our plan to go to the 4 p.m. children's Mass on Christmas Eve so we'd have plenty of time to have dinner with my family that night and still be able to get the boys to bed at a decent hour. I love the idea of Midnight Mass, but Jack is the sort of kid who is absolutely wrecked the next day if he goes to bed any later than nine; he doesn't know how to sleep in and often will wake even earlier if he's up past his eight o'clock bedtime. Being four years old, he's a little bit of a handful right now anyway and with all the stimulation I knew Christmas morning would bring I really wanted to set him up for a good day. That's why I wasn't too disappointed when Matteas got sick and I knew we'd be canceling our usual plans. I thought we could use the opportunity to focus on our little family, have a cozy dinner together at home. get the boys to bed early, not have to be anywhere on time in real clothes, and have plenty of time to wrap presents after the boys were asleep before getting to bed at a reasonable hour ourselves. None of that happened. Well, we didn't have to be anywhere on time. I made duck and had to keep fiddling with the sauce since it wasn't coming out the way I wanted. It eventually came out fantastic, but not before Matteas decided he was done with Christmas Eve and he was going to bed. At least one of us would be well-rested. I thought. Dinner was beautiful, even though a family member was missing. Tristan stopped by on his way to Midnight Mass(he represented the family) so we still had four at the table. Jack, being a normal four year-old, declined to eat the duck. We'd watched Peter and the Wolf that afternoon, a version where Peter's only friend is a really cute duck. Who gets eaten by the wolf. So Jack had grilled cheese. The rest of us ate duck, just as lustily as the wolf. Perhaps more so, it was that good. I've eaten duck before, but it's always tasted too greasy and a little dirty to me. Not this duck. It was rich and flavorful, with crisp fat that I can only describe as tasting like poultry-flavored bacon. The flesh tasted the way I've always wanted Thanksgiving turkey to taste, like ultra-rick chicken but wilder, but it never does. And oranges and duck were made for each other. The sauce I made was a simmering of duck stock(made from the neck), red wine vinegar, freshly squeezed orange juice, garlic, ginger, orange rind, sugar and rosemary. I brushed it on the duck during the last few minutes of roasting, after I'd simmered the duck on the stove in an orange-garlic-bay-leaf brine. I served it with green beans and arugula salad, and as it turns out, Duck a L'Orange with arugula and fresh oranges is one fantastic combination. We will be eating duck again. Probably for every birthday I ever have after this. Matteas woke up after dinner and had serious trouble falling back asleep, especially after we tried putting Jack to bed(they share a room) and Jack kept singing. Until two o'clock in the morning. Christmas morning featured more citrus, with orange rolls and coffee. Lots of coffee. I also made a really simple egg dish after discovering we only had three eggs left in the house and I didn't want the boys eating just pastry for breakfast. I chopped up half a loaf of crusty french bread, mixed three eggs with one cup milk and one cup half and half, tossed some dijon mustard and paprika in the egg mixture, then layered it in a buttered baking dish with a good amount of cheddar cheese. I soaked it overnight then baked it in the morning, and it was really good. I was extra pleased that I'd fed my whole family with only three eggs. Matteas still declines to eat most of the time, but there were leftovers so three eggs still would have been enough. Aaron and I both got each other arguile socks. Matteas decided he really like Aaron's and demanded to wear a pair. I'd gotten the boys matching Christmas pajamas, but Matteas leaked through his diaper all over his and Jack barfed(not sick barf, just a loose burp) on his shirt so I have no pictures. Another plan that didn't happen. We did actually put clothes on Matteas that morning, but somehow they kept coming off so he spent most of Christmas Day in a diaper and dad's socks. In the background you can see one of the gifts I made for Aaron's parents. I was inspired by Stephanie, who makes silhouettes of her kids every year. This was the first year I've done it, and I have to say I'm really pleased with how they turned out and what a cost-effective gift they were. The greatest investment was my time, which is a more meaningful gift than something I could buy anyway. I love the way the back of Matteas' hair turned out.

And yes, Jack's lips really are that big. I double-checked.

I thought $50 was a bit much to spend on a toy vacuum cleaner, but I have no regrets. Matteas loves it, and had used it every day since Christmas. Also, it's nice and quiet. It's loud enough that it satisfies the child using it, but not loud enough to be annoying. In the yuppie spirit of Pottery Barn, it's modeled after an actual Dyson which I think is actually kind of cool.

In the afternoon we headed over to Aaron's parents to exchange gifts, have Christmas dinner and play some games. Some were rowdier than others.

I gave Aaron this really cheesy "portable ping pong" set. It came with a net which is supposed to suction cup to the top of any table, but we couldn't get them to stick so we stuck them to glass plates. The paddles that came in the set were also dreadfully small, but Aaron's mom had some bigger ones that worked much better. The boys saw us playing and wanted to join in, which was more fun because Aaron is frustratingly good at ping pong. He hits the ball really fast and at an angle so that it goes shooting past you before you can even see it, which really irritates me. He slowed it down for the boys though, and it was hilarious helping them play. Jack had a really hard time waiting until the ball was actually near him to start swinging, so a lot of Aaron's energy was directed at restraining Jack. For such a simple game it was a lot of fun. Today we did some stamp work with one of the gifts I got for the boys. I found this stamp set on Amazon and was nervous about getting it because Amazon didn't have a lot of information about it, but I really wanted to get them things they could do and not just fill them up with things to have, and this set worked out really well. It only comes with three ink pads, but I ordered another set so they'd have more colors. Too keep them from contaminating the colors, I sat there with diaper wipes and cleaned off each stamp as they used it. Neurotic? A bit. Did it work? Totally. After watching me do it for a few minutes they started cleaning the stamps on their own. I like getting stuff for Christmas that you can use because it helps alleviate post-Christmas let-down. After the roller coaster of excitement and disappointment, contingency plan excitement and more disappointment, I don't feel done celebrating Christmas. I had a good talk with my Mom about it and she had some really good advice. She told me that while we have really little kids and only really little kids, Christmas is just going to be like this. I have very fond memories of staying up late for Mass on Christmas Eve after having a big dinner with all my cousins, and coming home really late at night to find new pajamas(which my Mom usually made herself) on our beds. My Mom pointed out that by the time we had Christmases like that, she had lots of older kids to help out with the younger ones. Right now we have "younger ones" and no help. Jack actually picked out fabric for me to make them pajamas, but I bought them some from Old Navy as back-up. Even with nowhere to be in the days right before Christmas I still didn't have time to get to everything I wanted to. I'm also irritated that while from a liturgical perspective we're not even halfway into celebrating Christmas, but my feelings about when Christmas is over are largely dictated by the retail world. I don't want it to be that way, but I can't help feeling like I'm reaching too far to still be playing Christmas carols and keeping the tree up. We're planning a dinner with my side of the family on January 6th to make up for Christmas Eve, and after that I think I'll be okay with taking down the decorations. And then I'll start planning what I can do differently to make next Christmas even better.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Because It's Not Christmas Until Somebody Barfs

Snowflake banner in our dining room.

Tuesday afternoon, Matteas started running a low-grade fever. Tuesday evening, he got very mellow. Towards the end of watching "Home Alone" he started dozing off in my lap, very unusual for him since he'd taken a big nap in the afternoon. My eyes scanned the room, looking for something I could use as a barf receptacle should the need arise. Not five minutes later, Matteas opened his eyes and I heard the trademark wet cough. I lunged for the plastic dish pan full of toy cars I'd spotted earlier and managed to catch all the barf and save myself from having to scrub it out of the carpet. We went upstairs and took a nice long shower, then made a cozy bed downstairs layered with towels to prepare for a long barfy night. Thankfully it wasn't that long. One more big barf of Gatorade and that was the end of the gastric eruptions, though a low-grad fever persists. One thing I'm really grateful for is that someone at church already had the bug and shared that it's a kid-only virus, so I appreciate being able to take care of sick kids with an able body. I was also worried about him having a fever for so long after he quit barfing and was beginning to fear we were at the beginning of something instead of towards the end, but the gal from church said her two year-old did the same thing. Technology is really great sometimes; someone in another city can keep you company while your kid is barfing. I decided to do a "December" sign before switching to "Winter" and hang up all our Christmas cards under it. I haven't kept up well with my picture project, but the last couple of days haven't been all that picturesque.

This little stocking is my favorite part of the banner. I was so tickled when I thought of cutting a candy cane out of the striped paper.

So our recent illness means we won't be participating in my family's Christmas Eve dinner this year. As viruses go it was pretty mild, but the transmission rate seems really fast and we don't want to give any cousins barf for Christmas. Initially I was really bummed about this, but I'm already embracing the opportunity to slow down and de-stress. We have nowhere to be and nothing to finish before we get there; we can take our time, wrap presents, and eat duck. My Mom always makes a beautiful prime rib roast for Christmas Eve dinner, so to make up for missing hers we made a small one of our own tonight. It was amazing. I usually use the slow-roast method because we usually have a larger roast, but tonight it was just the four of us and a little 2.5 pound beauty, so I decided to try the high-heat method from The Joy of Cooking. Before putting it in the oven I rubbed it all over with a paste I made from fresh thyme, oregano, rosemary, garlic and dijon mustard. I think I'm officially a high-heat convert. The texture was sublime, soft and succulent and with a cleaner meat flavor than the slow-roast method I've used before. I made a potato gratin to go with it and steamed green beans. Jack ate in total silence, which is always a sign that he's so focused on enjoying his food that he can't speak. Hopefully he doesn't barf it up later. I'm so curious to try roasting my own duck. Since our usual traditions have gone out the window this year, we decided to make a theme out of non-tradition and our Christmas Eve dinner this year will be Duck a L'Orange. I've eaten duck a few times, but it's one of the few proteins I've never attempted to cook myself. Success or failure, there will be pictures. It's really comforting to me that in the face of not being with my family for Christmas, I've come to the realization that my husband and our two boys really are my family. I still love my parents and everything and I love the tradition of big family get-togethers, but I'm actually looking forward to this Christmas being just the four of us. The boys are such a fun age for Christmas magic, and every snowflake we cut and ornament we hang is a little miracle to them. Christmas was always a huge deal when I was a kid, then as an adult I was always frustrated that it didn't seem to measure up to my memories; kids have changed that, and it's more magical now than ever. Aaron is also full of Christmas cheer, hiding presents for me in the garage and putting mulled cider on the stove. Yes, I think this Christmas will be our best yet.

Getting There

I can't believe Christmas is in six days; I know this happens every year, but I was really hoping to savor Advent a little better than I have. Thankfully it's not too late, and I plan on wringing every last moment of waiting out of the next six days. There are practically endless opportunities for baking, crafting, wrapping, card-writing and cleaning that come with Christmas preparations. So naturally I decided it would be a good time to make new curtains for the kitchen window. Yesterday, Aaron's mom took the boys for the whole afternoon and I cleaned like a maniac. It was so great to be able to work on a project from start to finish and not get interrupted 50 times to make a snack, change a diaper, settle a fight, read a story...I did the deep-down dirty stuff like washing the drapes, scrubbing the entry-way floor, bleaching the toilet, so I now I can relax and do thinks like make paper snowflake garlands with Jack. At the end of my cleaning frenzy I drove over to pick up the boys and ate my mother-in-law's lasagna, which is a feat of meaty, saucy, cheesy glory, and I didn't have to mess up my perfect kitchen to enjoy it. It was the perfect comfort food at the end of a really productive day. I keep a big basket of books in the coffee table in the living room. When we have library books they stay in this basket so they don't get mixed in with books we own, but for now it's filled with Christmas books. The boys never get tired of hearing them, and I never get tired of reading them. And now, back to my snowflake garlands.

Priorities

This happens every year. I look back at previous Decembers and sort out the Good from the Bad, the Things I Should Not Have Done from the Things I Would Absolutely Do Over Again, and try to organize the current December accordingly. From previous years, the Things I Should Not Have Done: -traveled prior to Christmas. It doesn't leave enough time. -stayed up so late Christmas Eve. -taken the kids to ten o'clock Mass on Christmas Eve -stressed about every niece and nephew(21 of them) having something to open Christmas Eve -forgotten to water the tree The Things I Would Absolutely Do Over Again -stayed home all of December to cook, bake, have parties -made toffee and put it into jars for ready-made gifts when someone unexpectedly drops by -made more toffee -taken the kids to the 4 p.m. Mass on Christmas Eve -welcome being snowed in and taking the opportunity to relax -have a special Christmas dinner with a few close friends on a day other than actual Christmas/Christmas Eve This little Christmas house is one of my efforts to focus on my priorities, namely, making Christmas magic for my kids. It was a partial success. I took one of our old moving boxes and made wallpaper with some scrapbooking paper I bought, then cut a big felt tree out of green wool. I meant to glue the silver beads on while Jack was at school, but I was trying to clean house and didn't have time. Decorating the tree was a semi-disaster. Jack was frustrated about having to wait for the glue to dry, also about Matteas getting into the jewels I told Jack not to open until we were ready to use them but he ignored me, so I let Matteas have half the jewels to keep him busy while I did the gluing. Jack wept over the loss of the jewels. In fact, he pretty wept the entire time over one thing or another. We quit, had dinner, and resumed later. Today he decorated. I'm anticipating that our Christmas House will get more use later in the day. I bought myself these mugs for tea. Damn Anthropologie. I go Christmas shopping with the best intentions, and then find things that I can't live without. Gifts are always a toss-up, you might not get anything you actually like, and I know I'll love these mugs. So what if I have to buy them for myself? The way I see it, bringing myself joy takes the pressure off of others. It just made too much sense to bring them home. They were happiness waiting to happen, I couldn't just leave them there. Yesterday was a circus. Jack was at school, so I tried to clean house so we could do some Christmas crafts in an organized space. Matteas was not an asset. While I did the dishes, Matteas threw all the couch cushions on the floor. While I was cleaning out the fish tank(which hasn't had live fish in it for, um, a long time) he threw himself on the floor and wept. While I swept the dining room floor, he re-cluttered the living room floor. While I picked up the re-cluttered living room, he snuck into Jack's room and took apart the elevated track which Jack had carefully built before school. When Jack got home and saw the destruction, he wept. There were a lot of tears around here yesterday. After my fourth failed cleaning attempt, Matteas got his bottle of milk and found me in the kitchen. "Come snuggle me, Mama." Okay. We settled in on the couch. He nestled against me, slipping one little arm around my neck so he could put his fingers in my hair. I held him and we were both quiet, and the house wasn't clean. I looked at his fuzzy blond hair, his big soft brown eyes, his little baby cheek. I nuzzled his hair and took a deep breath, smelling the sweetness of his skin and baby shampoo. He doesn't care of the house his clean, he just wants to be with his mama and feel her hair. "Matteas," I said, "you are what matters." "Mm-hmm," he said with his bottle in his mouth. Funny how often I forget that.

My Mantle

The colored lights on the tree in the mirror are no more; I couldn't handle how dark they made the tree look. I went to Rite Aid at 9:55 in the freezing cold five minutes before they closed and bought some more white lights so I could do red and white like we have every year. I hate colored lights, Aaron hates plain white, so red and white is our compromise. It works out nicely because we both like it and it accidentally gave our tree a theme; most of our ornaments are red and white. I tried wrapping white and colored lights together and I like that better; if the boys are devastated about the colored lights being gone I may just decorate the tree again tomorrow. For the third time. Who knew I was so Type A?

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

...Christmas. I can't help myself, I love everything about Christmas. It's not even Thanksgiving and I already have Christmas-scented candles and lights up. I hate how stores put out Christmas stuff right after Halloween(even before Halloween this year), but I feel like making my home ready for Christmas is the opposite of what the stores are doing. I did some shopping today and while I succeeded in finding some great stocking stuffers for Aaron, I've decided the rest of my shopping will be done on my sewing machine or online. I've already ordered several things for the boys from Moolka, a company I found through Amazon. It's so great to find things I like and then have them show up at my front door. I am venturing out to shop one more time, but only because Rachel and I are starting a tradition. Last year we went to Holidate with the Girls and had a great time even though I signed us up too late to get a Swag Bag and I was depressed about it all night because I just knew there was lip gloss in there, and who doesn't love free lip gloss? Okay, so it's not exactly free, but it's in exchange for donating money to a really good cause. That was the night we discovered that Sonrisa has delicious cocktails. The Cosmorita is especially good, and the food is fresh and flavorful. If you need to get some shopping done in beautiful University Village, have a cocktail and appetizers after shopping courtesy of Sonrisa, donate money to Ronald McDonald House and get a goody bag and a VIP shopping pass, you should sign up.

On my way to bed the other night I noticed the Christmas lights reflecting in the wine glasses; I really appreciate little glimpses of loveliness. My day is always so much better when I take the time to notice or create something pretty. One of my favorite ways to bring a little loveliness into the ordinary moments is to use good soap. I will pay way too much money for soap if it makes me slow down, breathe deeply, and shift my focus. Plus this soap smells like Christmas magic. I also bought the matching dish soap. The situation in my kitchen is about to get totally out of control. Stay tuned...

Monthly Post

We have been busy. Busy with Christmas, relatives, travels, recovery, colds, parties, more recovery, and cleaning. Both a lack of it and occasional spurts of it. The above picture is of Aaron's parents, brothers, Aunt Sandy(Sonia's sister) and Uncle Dan, their two daughters Rachel and Amanda, son-in-law Chuck(married to Rachel) and Chuck and Rachel's four kids: Hannah, Levi, Aden and Ellie. We drove up to Steveston, Canada to visit the day after Christmas. Dan and Sandy also have a son and daughter-in-law, Avi and Wendy, who couldn't make it. Jack had a great time playing with his cousins, especially Eli, who is charmingly bossy and ridiculously cute.

Jack and Eli sharing some dessert under the dining room table, where they played most of the evening.

Everyone loved Matteas, especially Eli.

Matteas under the Christmas tree. He was too excited to sleep, so he kept me compnay while I wrapped presents and we watched Midnight Mass at the Cathedral on TV.

Christmas morning breakfast. We had fresh fruit, The Dish, and sticky buns.

Jack in his Christmas jammies enjoying some fishy crackers out of his stocking.

This is Ingrid. She is special for many reasons, but she is especially dear because she named Matteas. And she speaks French to him, which he seems to understand perfectly.

We went downtown to see the trains in the Macy's window again, although it was a little trickier than last year when we had only one kid and three adults on the trip.

This is what happens when you have eleven children in your house and you ignore them for five minutes so you can eat dinner. We needed new toothbrushes anyway.

Presumably, this clever disguise was intended to hide the naughtiness with the toothbrushes.

Three sisters, twelve years, eleven kids. We're not totally insane yet, so I feel that we're doing well. Things got a little crazy that day, and after an hour or two of screaming Briana and I took ten of the kids to the park while Moira stayed behind with sleeping Adam and cleaned the kitchen. It took a while to assemble all the kids, find coats and shoes, and get out the door. As soon as we did, it started raining. But we pressed on, and after an hour of running around in the cold rain we brought the kids back for a nice warm tea party and spaghetti dinner. It's good to have family. Crazy, but very good.