A Christmas to remember

We spent Christmas in Charlottesville and oh, so many wonderful memories were made ... here goes!

Emery idolizes Tucker and ran after him like a little puppy dog the whole week. Fortunately, he couldn't be kinder to her and even teared up when he realized he would be in Disney World the last day of our stay and would miss seeing Emery! Melt. my. heart.

Anna Kimball was happy just to be held by anyone with a lap and a smile, so she spent much of her Christmast week snuggling. And smiling bright.

Tearing into the stocking ...

Anna Kimball got the hang of it, too.

This was Emery's "big" gift from us - a broom set! Doesn't take much to make a 2-year-old happy.

Henny and Papa gave Anna Kimball Raggedy Ann and Andy and it was love at first sight.

Anna Kimball also found some time to break some of her picky eating habits and devoured anything that was in sight all week long. I think it all started with the beef bourguignon ... thank you, Henny!

Lots of time for snuggles with Henny ...

and with Daddy ...

And even some time to do a little light reading in Emery's bed ...

It snowed enough to make a slushy, small snowman.

And of course there were tea parties with Emery's new tea set ...

More snuggles, now with Uncle Austin ...

The trip wouldn't be complete without some frozen yogurt, even if temps were in the 30's.

Bananas in the morning on Henny's bedroom floor - a sweet start to the day.

Though the girls were ALL STARS in the car there and back, this still became necessary.

Upon our return, Emery went directly to our neighbor's house and promptly fell asleep in her arms ...

... while Anna Kimball decided to get some exercise and find her way into my belt bag!

Let it snow!

Our neighborhood has a tradition during the holiday season in which every house lights luminaries for two nights in a row. The streets are then lined with candlelight and it's a pretty magical sight. It would also be pretty magical if it happened to snow here this winter and Emery's shirt has us hoping for just that ... though if you're wearing Crocs without socks in the middle of December, we'll definitely need a Christmas miracle to get some snow in these parts.

Did you know that you can't get mussels at Whole Foods in Honolulu?

Well, you can't. I know for a fact. And no, we didn't spend Christmas in Hawaii. I wish!

Me, being the food safety freak that I am, started getting a little nervous on Christmas Eve about the status of the mussels I would be preparing on Christmas Day. I've only cooked with mussels once before but this didn't really concern me ... until the last minute of course.

Yes, around 8:30pm on Christmas Eve I decided to take a peek at the bag of mussels I had bought just the day before, the bag that the man behind the fish counter at our Whole Foods assured me would be fine to prepare on Sunday, and found that the majority of the mussels in the bag were gaping open.

Of course I hit Google right away and learned that I was to discard any that were open. But me, being the overthinker that I am, then started to get worried about the wellbeing of the mussels that were still closed and wondered what to do.

I started with my mother, who has zero experience cooking with live mussels. She referred me to our old neighbor who is a caterer. I boldly called her on Christmas Eve and she didn't really know what to tell me. Just told me to do what I read on the Internet. Hmm. I wanted a more authoritative answer than that.

So I decided to call Whole Foods in Seattle, since I figured they would still be open, which they were, for about 9 more minutes. The man at their seafood counter told me that I hadn't stored them properly, should have kept them in a bowl with ice, and of course they were all dying.

After hanging up with him I still felt uneasy about the whole situation, especially because I started questioning my judgement as to "how open is too open"with a mussel shell. What if it's open just a hair? Does that count as closed or open? What if I cook dead mussels and get everyone sick? Matt reminded me that they don't send you home with a magnifying glass when you buy mussels and to stop thinking so hard about it and to stop shoving mussels in his face for his opinion.

Point taken. I got on the phone with Whole Foods Honolulu - wouldn't you have done the same at this point? As I posed my question to their seafood worker I got an astonished "Wait! This can't be possible. We don't sell mussels here. It's against agricultural law." Then I had to confess that I was in Tennessee, a victim of EST on Christmas Eve and that I was sorry to be bothering them on a what might have been a busy evening, but did he have any advice for my remaining mussels and what to do with them and if he thought they were safe to eat? He referred me to his coworker, a "restaurant guy" who might have experience with mussels. And to be honest with you, I can't really remember what he told me other than that after hanging up with him I decided to just go ahead steam the mussels that were still closed, for fear that they would be dead by morning.

End of story? No. After steaming the mussels, I just still didn't feel good about the whole situation and started having terrible visions of food poisoning our Christmas Day dinner guests. In my head I knew they were more than likely totally safe to eat, but I had just spent an hour stressing about them and at that point had lost my appetite for even daring to try them. So I told Matt I wasn't going to eat them on Christmas and he said "Well, you can't serve your guests something you're too scared to eat!"

True. So I didn't throw them away, but didn't plan to serve them either. Until I told the story and everyone wanted to try them! Can you believe it?

So everyone but me and Emery had mussels with their ciopinno. As you can see, Matt even had many.

And would you believe it, no one got sick! Me, I'm still glad I didn't try any and have learned my lesson ... maybe. I'm actually not sure that I have, as I can definitely envision this little drama replicating itself the next time I cook with any unfamiliar fish, bird or beast ... I'll just try not to make it happen on Christmas Eve next time.

If only Santa would bring us some goats

This past weekend we went to a little Christmas gathering at the home of a family from church who happens to have quite a few goats. Needless to say they were a hit with the kids, especially Emery who squealed with delight as she fed them bread and let them tickle her hands with their tongues.

Sadly, the closest thing she'll be getting to a goat this year is a wooden pull toy dog I picked up at Michael's for $2.50.

It's also too bad that in the few days after I purchased this pull toy, her passion for dogs has been waning, while her obsession with cats is on the rise. Go figure!

A Christmas miracle

I joke that that these pictures constitute a Christmas miracle only because had we taken Emery to see the window displays a week earlier, she would have been captive in her stroller. Now, with the newfound freedom that comes with walking, she can fully immerse herself in the all the magic!

For the most part, she was speechless but mesmerized, though every now and then she would exclaim "a bear!" "a mouse!" "Elmo!" (yes, there was even a teeny tiny Elmo doll in the display)

December doings

December has felt full and fun so far!  Here's a taste of what we've been up to:

Visiting the library, an outing I am beginning to loathe. Despite the fact that the kid's section is loaded with all kinds of puzzles and games fit for a toddler, not to mention books, Emery has discovered that the computers have Elmo games. Problem is, she doesn't know how to play the games, so she just gets excited, then frustrated, then excited as she moves to the next computer to try again, then frustrated, and so on. As you can imagine, tearing her away to help me find a book or to leave because our parking meter has run out is entirely unacceptable and worthy of many loud protests.

Future library trips might be solo, OK Emery?

We also picked out a Christmas tree - our first ever!

 

Last week I got an unexpected blessing - free tri-tip steak from Whole Foods! I think the butcher felt sorry for me after I looked so pitiful upon finding out that the skirt steak, which was on sale, was out. So we had a fabulous, and almost free, fajita bar!

Emery ran (well, rode I should say) with Matt in a short race that was part of a 24-hour festival downtown last weekend - they were both supposed to be in costume, but Emery was quick to rip off her giraffe hood. Matt went as a bobsledder, to my total disbelief. I am stunned that he so willingly obliged to get in costume. Just think what else could be possible!

The festival also included a stunning display of hammocks, which Emery happily played in for a little while.

I'm trying to spend a little more time at home these days, since I'm anticipating this will become the norm once Baby D #2 makes his/her arrival, and I want to get me and Emery used to being more housebound than we might prefer. So this means coming up with fun, new activities for Emery, which now include some water play at her sink.

Yes, I quickly learned that the ottoman would get drenched, as would her shirt (why I thought just putting one of my t-shirts over her would do the job I have no idea), so the next round of water play looked a lot different.

We also had our last Kindermusik class of the year. Emery totally bonded with the teacher, Miss Maria, and often spent more class time in her arms than mine! And it was of course a joyous occasion, given that Emery could finally walk and keep up with the other little tikes as they stomped and danced around.

We still go to the Y almost every morning and after I pick Emery up from the childcare center, we play around on the couches a little. As soon as we sit down, Emery hopefully begins repeating "Mo-yee? Mo-yee? Mo-yee?" This is because our dear friend Molly often meets us on the couches before teaching her dance class. It is always very sad when I have to tell Emery that today "Mo-yee" doesn't teach, but fortunately a little bit of horsing around on the couches alleviates her woes.

What will be even more sad, though, is when Molly moves to Chicago in February and I have to explain to Emery that there will be no more "Mo-yee" on the couches. Any suggestions on how to address this very sensitive issue, Molly?? :)

Yet, the good news is that Auntie Shannon is not moving to Chicago, which means there will still be plenty of fun to be had at her house. Today Emery decked herself out in Shannon's "bling-bling," trooped around the house like a professional walker and even danced to Christmas carols.

Finally, we have been reading ... a LOT. Emery will follow me and Matt around the house, pathetically pleading for "a book? a book? a book?" When you oblige, she happily settles herself in your lap, opens up your hand, puts the book in it and leans back, very satisfied at her success in making you captive to book after book after book after book ... now I know that this is normal behavior with children, but I guess I wasn't expecting it this soon. Talk about laying on the Mommy guilt!  "No Emery, I can't read with you because I have to scrub the kitchen floor?"

Wish I had a picture of us reading, but as you can understand, I'm too busy holding the book and Emery to hold a camera, too!

A Country Christmas

After Christmas #1 in Detroit, we hopped on a plane for Christmas #2, a country Christmas in Charlottesville, VA.  It truly was a country Christmas, as we stayed at my brother and sister-in-law's house in the Blue Ridge mountains, which is nearly 200 years old.  

My sister-in-law Jackie, who blogs at midwayfarm.blogspot.com, was actually the inspiration for "Motoring Forth."  I figured if she can maintain a farmhouse that dwarfs our bungalow, chase around an adorable one-year-old, put dinner on the table, and still find time to blog, so can I!

The country Christmas involved chasing around our aforementioned, and did I say adorable?, nephew Tucker, eating like kings, a few runs in blissfully temperate conditions, and much more chasing after Tucker.  In fact, that's mainly what we did because he is just that adorable. 

One night we managed to pull ourselves away from Tucker to indulge in an absolutely decadent meal at the Clifton Inn, thanks to Jackie's generous mother.  With watering mouths, we sat at the chef's table in the kitchen and watched course after course pass from the stovetop to the tabletop and straight to our welcoming stomachs.  Matt actually had venison in a chocolate sauce.  I can't say we thought about Tucker too much for those two hours ... the food was just too amazing.