Dreams and Risotto

So my first work week back is done. Yes, it was a short week. Good thing about having a similar schedule to the military is that I get all the same holidays and other days off. With only one partial day with little K, it was a quiet, easy week. Elsa got a fever yesterday and slept and snuggled for the entire day. I wrote out some hopes and dreams for this year.

my friends, you must help me....

I also tried my hand at making risotto. I used chicken thighs and baked them up with lemon, salt and pepper and along with 1.5 pounds of mushrooms, it turned out quite nicely. Best part is, it made enough risotto for lunch for all four of us the next day and Elsa loved it.

Looking for something fun to do over the weekend here in Clarksville, but I don't really have any great ideas. I've been pleasantly surprised by how I haven't been too homesick during this transition back, but weekends make me want people to do things with. 

January: The First Week Back

To say this week has been blissfully quiet would not exactly be true. Not for at least two hours on Monday morning....

When K's dad brought him over on Monday for me to watch him for around 5 hours, he was already crying, snot dripping down his nose, tears down his cheeks and noisy blubbery/complaining. Elsa, who had slept until he came into the house woke up and was a cheerful as can be. He pitched a fit almost immediately. No big deal, I thought to myself, a baby can't cry for that long. An hour later, I was thinking quite differently. I tried everything, I tried being nice, being firm, threatening with Time Out (which I don't even know how to do), reading, listening to music, singing songs, snacks and even watching movies, but nothing helps. 

While K was in the corner, I looked at Elsa and pointed to the other baby 

"Elsa, K's being naughty. That's bad." I said, not wanting any of his poor attitude to rub off on my sweet niece. 

She looked up at me and for a second looked like I had scolded her, but then she smiled and pointed at K and with a low voice said 

"Naughty." Just like I had said it. It made me laugh. 

Elsa played perfectly through the entire thing, she didn't seem fazed at all by all the crying. So Little K got picked up early... Let's just say,I got paid extra for those two long hours... 

The rest of the week I haven't had to watch the second baby and so the week has felt like an extended break in a lot of ways. Elsa has a good routine, she is sweet and obedient, falls asleep quickly and loves reading to herself. I have had a chance to workout during naps, do dishes while she plays and write thank you notes for gifts, so it has been a productive week so far. 

I would appreciate prayer that I could manage this other kid. I really want it to work out, so if I come to mind... :-)

Travels

At 2:45 am I got up and got ready for a day of traveling. Dad's gift was in the living room and scared me more then once as it stood, dressed in Ian's coat. Samuel and Lisa picked me up at 3:30 and we drove to the airport. Checking in and checking bags went smoothly because Samuel took care of most of it while I held Elsa who had been sleeping until we had to check her car seat and while Lisa returned the rental car.

Dad's gift

Everything went smoothly, the middle seat in my row was unoccupied, I was on the aisle... Everything was ready, except the deicer was broken. We ended up waiting on the plane at SeaTac for an additional hour, causing us to miss our connecting flight from Chicago O'hare Airport by a mere 15 minutes.

Listening to the Duck Song

My traveling companion for part of the journey

I miss Washington and the mountains there.

 The next flight out of Chicago wasn't until 6:30, so we had to spend 5ish hours in the airport. Thankfully the USO was nice and quiet, so we spent the time there, besides getting dinner. Elsa took a nap and we played cards and snacked on the gift Grandma gave me.

Grandma has good taste in Candy. Brookside chocolates are my fav!

Comfy little nap. 

I was the winner of  the 18 holes of Golf

When we finally got on the airplane, I was so happy to be on the second row, with Samuel, Lisa and Elsa in the first row. It was going to be a quick flight. Then the flight attendant asked for a volunteer to move to the back row, right next to the bathroom, so I went from front to very back. It kinda sucked. It was super loud in the back, but after one episode of Bones and a couple games, we were landed in Nashville. 

Our bags were on the next flight, which arrived an hour after we did, so we had to hang around the airport and wait for them, so we didn't get back to Clarksville until 10:40 pm. Talk about a long day. We made dinner and watched a movie (Okay, I didn't get through the movie) and headed to bed at 1 am... It was a full day. 

Celebrating a New Year

New Year's Eve or Old Year's End like we sometimes call it, is spent in cooking, eating and remembering the previous year.

Traditionally, we have eggs Benedict for breakfast, but this year it was the only day Samuel and Lisa could cook for us. I helped out since I had made the recipe before. We served savory crepes with mushrooms and spinach cooked in balsamic, steak and blue cheese butter drizzled with balsamic reduction. It was so good I didn't even take a picture! :-) After breakfast, they gave gifts to everyone, which was super thoughtful and sweet. I really missed living with them, so it was great to catch up!

We cooked a whole bunch of appetizers and finger foods for the evening and while we ate them, we watched all the family videos from the year. It is always interesting to remember what we've done.

New Year's Day is celebrated with gifts and good food... Noticing a trend with the food? Mom and Dad started doing this when we were little or non-existent, I can't remember.... They always sneaked little gift bags on the end of our beds which we could open when we woke up. There were always other gifts given throughout the day. 

The number one rule of gift giving in our family is: NEVER EXPECT ANYTHING. As we've gotten older and started to help Mom and Dad with finding gifts, it has become a bit of a joke. I helped Mom pick out tons of gifts for all the kids, sending her links and prying/stalking my siblings to see what they want/need. It is fun. 

This year, I had a record number of family members ask for help with gift ideas. Samuel asked me for ideas for Lisa. Lisa for Samuel. Allen for everyone, Kayla for Elsa, Allen for Elsa, Dad for Mom, Mom for Dad... It was funny because no one else knew that the others were asking for help. 

I started my morning off with talking to Mom and Dad and toast with leftover cheeseball and tea. It was a quiet, lovely start to 2016.  

I waited until the next person got up to open our gifts together, because it is more fun. I got some awesome stuff including this book written by the same woman who wrote one of my favorite childhood books (Twenty and Ten or the Secret Cave), pepper spray (Yeah, beware...), an awesome necklace that I picked out and a leather wallet from Allen and Kayla which matches my leather satchel perfectly!

Pancakes-Paris by Claire Huchet Bishop

 We made prime rib for dinner with all the fixings. It tasted the best it ever has, but perhaps it was the good company that helped. Dessert was a huge hit! I made a raspberry chocolate torte, which was so incredibly rich that you could either only have a small piece of balance it out with fresh raspberries and coffee. Cool thing is, it was one of the easiest recipes I have ever made!

Sadly, the rest of my day was spent packing and saying goodbye. It was a great New Year's celebration and it makes me love my family even more! Here's to another year, may it be the best yet! 

Christmas Traditions

Now that I finally have a chance to sit down and actually write, I want to share my family's Christmas traditions, silly as they are. We have always celebrated Christmas as Jesus' Birthday. No gifts, no tree... We find a phrase about Jesus' birth either from song or the Bible and Dad draws large letters. Everyone makes designs and colors the banner and it hangs in the kitchen until all the holiday decorations get put away. This year it said "Son of the Most High". This is by far the classiest banner as far as designs go and even though I am not artistic at all, mine turned out quite nicely.

                       

Our other Christmas traditions include watching part of Handel's Messiah (from the 80s, I think) and A King is Born, the animated movie of Jesus' birth. We continue to watch it even though the youngest is a teen...

Travels and Patience

Yesterday Samuel, Lisa and little Elsa traveled from Tennessee to Washington to visit for New Years. We were all ridiculously eager to see them, but I had really been missing them. Three and a half months with a family makes you really love them and miss things about them. It was much to my disappointment to receive a message from Samuel saying they were delayed in Salt Lake City. We continued to text throughout the day as they found flights and waited. After a long delay, they finally got in around seven (instead of 2pm). We had dinner and hung out. Elsa loves me and called me Gracie and comes to me, which makes me indescribably happy.

Ian and I went to practice his parallel parking. The five who have taken their driver's test have failed and so I was a little determined to help Ian. We'll see if he passes...

Patience is something I have never been good with. I have learned a good deal during the last few years, but for some reason or other, have a hard time gracing my siblings with said patience. Yesterday, amid the cooking, cleaning and waiting around for the visitors, I hit the point I had been dreading. Think about it from my perspective, I have no one but a baby to talk to from 6am-7pm (or sometimes later), My patience ran out and I was snappy. I think I made a good recovery and apologized, so all is well again.

Today we went to Canada to visit Granny (96), Grandma, Uncle Billy and Tracy. I made a whole bunch of tortilla wraps and potato salad as well as mini peanut butter pies and key lime pies. It was delicious. It was also a fantastic visit with the family although the drive back was miserably long. The 15 passenger van had 13 of the seats filled.

Anyway, this is what happens when I am in charge of putting the ganache on the peanut butter pies

Tomorrow starts the real party....

Canadia, Parties and Suits

So yesterday morning after a crazy evening the night before hanging out with some good friends for hours and hours (which was amazingly fun even though we didn't get back until 1 am), we left at 8 am for a trip to Canada to visit Grandma. The drive felt really short because I slept for a good deal of time.

Ever since I've been in Washington again, I've have really bad allergies. Don't really know if it is from the dogs and cats, the mold or dust, but I am having quite a hard time breathing with an itchy throat. Nothing helps. I'm really hoping it goes away because it affects what I do. Last time it lasted for a month before going away.

We hung out at Grandma's for 24 hours, played games, visited and just had a good visit. It was good to see her again although it was a really whirlwind visit. We're home again now and after a break and making the giant holiday shopping list, Ian, Ev and I went to Kohl's and JCPenneys to look for a suit for Ian for the 12th Night Ball.

We were just pulling up to Kohl's when we all saw this girl probably six years old outside the store and crying. Ian immediately told me to go see what was wrong with her and he would (illegally) park the car. I walked up to her and asked her if she was okay. She said she couldn't find her mom. I asked her which store they had been in and we were on our way to the customer service desk in Kohl's when she saw her mom and ran to her. It made me furious that the mom didn't even realize her daughter was gone and ignored her hug when the girl ran up to her.... Some people...

We found a suit and it looks great on him. We also found a gorgeous dress for Ev. A a-line dress with silhouettes of ladies in vintage looking dresses and hats.

Anyway, Christmas shopping and Mockingjay (and I know that sounds sooooo teenaged girl...) tomorrow with Mom.