Our Long Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Monday. We are all very happy to be back at work and school today. We had a very busy Thanksgiving weekend but it was full of really fun things. But we were all very weary by Sunday night! Here's a photo-heavy recap of our weekend! 

Phil and I both had to work on Wednesday. Luckily it was a quiet day for me so I did the bulk of the childcare. Paul is easy because we let him have his iPad on days like that. He only has access to PBS kids games/videos and ABC Mouse so we feel fine about the excess screen time he occasionally gets. Will is the challenging one to manage, of course. He's in a tough stage of having VERY big feelings and an inability to tell us what he wants. Which = lots of screaming/tantrums. Being a toddler is HARD. Being a toddler parent is HARD. 

He insists on sitting on our laps for most breakfasts. This morning, he wanted a car. Which car? I don't know, which is why he has about 10 different toys next to him. 

"Helping" mommy work. 

The weather was really beautiful over the holiday weekend so many walks were taken with Will. 

Thursday started off with a 10k around the lake in our neighborhood. I ran it with my neighbor and we took it VERY easy. I've basically been sick for most of the last 6 weeks and she's had a busy schedule so we took walk breaks when we needed to. Neither of us cared about our time - we just wanted to start the day with some fitness! 

I got home got, showered, and got our food contributions together (a brussel sprout salad, veggie tray and dip) and we headed to my brother's in the west metro. We had a great day together. The boys enjoyed playing with their cousins and my mom got to hold Will quite a bit. He hasn't always let her hold him so she was thrilled to get so much time with him - especially since the boys will spend a week there in December! 

We ate at 1pm, which is when Will typically is sleeping. We thought we could put him down after dinner. Nope - he refused. But then fell asleep on my mom around 4 and woke up in THE WORST MOOD. He screamed for the whole 30 minute ride home and then for 45+ minutes when we got home - basically until he calmed down enough to go to bed. I share to keep it real around here. The holiday was wonderful, but holidays with young kids can be HARD. I remind myself it's only going to get easier as the kids get older!

Snuggles with nana, the baby whisperer

On Friday, I took Will for a long walk in the morning. You can see how excited he was for the walk at the start. But he perked up when we saw tons of ducks on the lake. 

That afternoon, my Chicago niece and nephew came over. I had planned to take them to a really cool local children's book store. I checked their website that morning to see what their mask policy was - and found out the store was closed on Friday! Doh! So we pivoted and went to Barnes and Noble instead. We got some treats at Starbucks and I bought a book for each kid. Will stayed home since he was napping at this time. After that, we headed back home and had pizza for dinner. 

On Saturday, we went to my MIL's after naptime. We took a picture for her Christmas card and ordered them for her. The boys had a great time playing with all her toys! 

And that brings us to Sunday. I hosted my college friends and their kids for our annual cookie decorating party. It was our first one since 2019! 

Paul helped me make the GF cookies in the morning and everyone came over around 4. My boys enjoyed participating and got lots of attention from the big kids. 

Will really enjoyed the sprinkles. I gave him a spoon so he could put some sprinkles on his cookie, but he took a big spoonful - and ate them! 

I served chicken wild rice soup to the adults and the kids had frozen pizza. 

And that was a wrap! We have a busy week ahead of us as I have book club Wednesday night, I have a wine work event on Thursday, Paul and I go to a light show at the local arboretum on Friday, and then it's Will's birthday on Saturday... So we just need to get used to being busier than usual for the next couple of weeks!

How was your weekend?

I'm the Kind of Host...

Greetings and Happy Tuesday everyone!  Today is kind of my "Monday" as I took yesterday off as a study day.  Don't be jealous, though.  I spent 6 hours studying for the CFA so it wasn't exactly a day of leisure...  I did fit in a movie night with Phil, though, so at least it ended on fun note!

On Saturday night, I had a little dinner party at my place.  It had been well over a year since I had friends over for dinner and I really wanted one last hurrah at my place before the big move ahead of me.  At the end of the night, we got to talking about what kind of hosts we are, mostly as it pertained to our approach to doing dishes, so I thought it would be a fun post topic to talk about the kind of host I am/have become over the years!

I'm the kind of host...

- that fails to take pictures of what I made to share because I get too caught up in getting everything on the table.

- that prefers to serve things that can be mostly made ahead of time - like the lasagna that I served on Saturday.  I had assembled it and froze it ahead of time so that I would just have to bake it that night.

- that is totally ok with having people bring things to share instead of taking on the whole meal on my own.  On Saturday, I provided the appetizer (olive tapenade, assorted olives, crackers, and cheese), the main dish (lasagna), and the dessert (baked apples with a rum sauce + vanilla ice cream).  My guests brought wine/beer, salad, bread, and the rum for the dessert sauce as I didn't have any rum!

- that has to do the dishes when the meal is over.  In other words, I am not a soaker.  I know that this is not optimal host behavior because it sort of takes me out of the hub of conversations, etc, but I just can't handle having dirty dishes piled up on my counter or a dirty lasagna pan soaking in my sink.  Luckily my condo has an open floor plan so I can still be part of the conversations.  

It was kind of bittersweet to gather in my condo one last time.  I know there will be dinner parties in the future as I do really think I will move back eventually, but I am not sure how soon that will happen, so I tried to savor the time as much as possible on Saturday night.

Do you enjoy hosting dinners?  What kind of dinner host are you?  I LOVE having people over for dinner, I just don't do it as often as I would like!

Feliz Navidad & Gingerbread Party Recap

Last week, I had the opportunity to host 2 different gatherings - my Feliz Navidad holiday gathering and my annual gingerbread house decorating party  Both parties went really well!  I bravely tried 2 new recipes for Saturday's gathering (enchiladas and tres leches cake), and both turned out pretty well!

I'll let the pictures do the talking!

Or course I wore an apron, but I opted to wear a more practical, festive-colored one!  I did remove it once guests arrived.  I only wear an apron for the whole evening on Julia Child night!

I love my new dining room table - and my fiesta dishes.  A big shout out to Mandy for being my fiesta ware buyer!  One of the couples cancelled due to a sick baby, so there were just 5 of us!

The drinks and appetizer area.  We drank wine, beer, and margaritas, and ate chips, salsas, guacamole, and chili con queso (not all pictured here)

Besides serving shredded chicken tacos, I also made Mama Pea's Green and Red Enchiladas (except I couldn't find red lentils, so they are technically just green enchiladas!)

Dessert was tres leches cake with made-from-scratch whipped cream.  It tasted good, but the cake sort of 'dropped' a bit when cooling.  I must not have incorporated enough air into the egg mixture.  Oops.  Lesson learned. 

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Now for the Gingerbread Party!  This is the 5th time we've gathered for some Holiday fun!  The first 2 years, we decorated sugar cookies & gingerbread men/women.  Then I found out about my gluten intolerance and we changed it up and started decorating gingerbread houses as I didn't want to make/decorate cookies I couldn't eat or make/decorate cookies that these girls wouldn't want to eat (GF baking is... interesting...)

To start things off, here is a picture of my tree - I love the Eiffel Tower tree topper my friend gave me!

Decorating requires intense concentration...

But we also have lots of fun.  Elliot was a BIG FAN of the frosting!

Eventually, he tired of the crafting and showed off his ability to do a plank on my couch.  Gosh I love this kid.

And voila!  Here are the houses!  Mine is the 2nd from the right.  It turned out pretty good this year!!

When is the last time you decorated a gingerbread house?  Mine has improved over the years.  The first year, we had to assemble them and I put my roof on upside down, so the shingles, well, didn't look right.  I've gotten a bit better, but mine never look as good as Amanda & Brooke's do!

It's Party Time!

Wow, oh, wow, my calendar is filling up with parties!  I know it's that time of year, but it still always surprises me to see my calendar fill up.  My condo building had their Christmas party last Thursday, I had 2 birthday parties last weekend (one of which I had to miss because of the flu), I had a holiday service project gathering with my women's networking planning committee on Tuesday, last night I had my office Christmas party, and tomorrow night I am hosting my own little Christmas gathering with friends!  Phew.  That's just the last week or so!  I have one more party - my annual gingerbread house decorating party - and then life is quiet until Christmas! :)

On Saturday night, the theme of my holiday gathering will be "Feliz Navidad".  It's cheesy (no pun intended), I know, but Mexican food is so easy to make gluten free, and it's a cuisine that everyone tends to like.  It's a small, casual party with 3 other couples, and each couple will bring a dish to share.  I'll be making enchiladas (from the new Peas and Thank You cookbook that Amber got me!), tacos with all the fixings, and Tres Leches cake for dessert, which is naturally gluten free (yes, I will be treating myself to dairy tomorrow night!).  I am really excited to make the cake because a) it will introduce me to a new ingredient, masa harina and b) it gives me an excuse to use the double boiler I got for Christmas a couple of years ago!

I'm really excited to gather with friends, enjoy yummy food, play some games, and raise our margaritas glasses and cervezas in celebration of the many good things in life!

Do you  have many holiday parties to attend this year?