Santa's Visit

Christmas morning.  I woke up before everyone else, made myself a cup of coffee and did my usual morning routine until Hannah woke up.  I was positioned on the couch so that I could see her coming down the hallway, before she had a chance to see anything.  We had her "big" Santa gift setting out, with paper Santa footprints leading up to it.  I didn't want her to see any of this before everyone else could get up and enjoy her finding it all.  So I ran up to her and we woke everyone up so the day could begin.  She was so cute.  Santa left her a new baby stroller, a new outfit for her Build A Bear, a kitchen and some other stuff to go with the kitchen.  She followed Santa's footprints to her kitchen/stroller and immediately noticed the stroller.  She giggled and started pushing it around.  She did this for 5+ minutes, without realizing the kitchen sitting there as well.  While she was in the kitchen, and couldn't see us, David placed her coffee pot on the burner, which makes a percolating sound.  Then she noticed the kitchen.  She squealed, and said "My Kitchen!"  It was the best.  It's the moments that being a parent are made of.  All day long she cooked and made coffee for all of us.  Other gifts included make up and nail polish, a purse, a tee ball set, books, a baby doll, kitchen stuff.  The make up came from David and I, mostly I.  I know many of you may wonder why I got her make up.  It's because she always wants to play with mine!  Plus, if I give it to her now, it's not big deal to her later in life.  It's something she's been exposed to already, and been allowed to experience.  And she likes to put make up on other people.  I watch her, she understands where it is appropriate to put on her make up (not on the couch) and when she paints her toe nails/my toe nails, she places paper below our feet.  And I have no idea why the pictures are spread out as far as they are, sometimes blogger really drives me nuts!

                                                

Pulling out her gifts

Her Tee Ball set from Grandpa Bob

Applying make up to her face

Mommies new look by Hannah

Painting my toes

The finished product

Making everyone some coffee

Yep, she's all girl!  Decked out in her dancing dress, dancing shoes, and new feather boa and gloves.  Hey Karen, recognize that stuffed animal?

Our First Gingerbread House

I've never made a gingerbread house, neither has Hannah.  Amy and Tom brought one down for us to put together, over the holidays.  I took pictures.  Hannah snacked on the candy and decorated.  David took charge.  Amy and Tom stood back, smiling and laughing.  We all know David, we know how David gets when he thinks something should be done his way, and only his way.  Well that applied to the gingerbread house.  I did not realize when I married David that I married a gingerbread house expert, but apparently I did!  After he had it assembled, he decided that he didn't like the plastic holder that came with the house, he wanted it on a pretty plate instead.  Everyone said "no, don't move it" but what did David do........he moved it.  He set it carefully down on a plate and let go, and then it crumbled.  And Hannah cried.  Then David scrambled while comforting Hannah with these words "it's okay, I can fix it."  It was so funny.  He did a pretty good job putting it back together, with the exception of the roof that looked like it was caving in.

Sadly, no photo's

David and I have always done non traditional Christmas meals. It's started in Italy, where we spent our very first Christmas without any family. That Christmas we had steamed shrimp and lobster and Seprino, Italian white wine, in our beautiful Italian flutes. We had lobster again, when Karen joined us for Christmas. We like lobster, and it's a splurge we don't do often! The past Christmas Eve, I wanted to do something different. Festa dei sette pesce came to mind, feast of the seven fishes. It is a traditional Christmas Eve celebration in Italy. It's pretty easy, seven courses that all involve some seafood. Most everything we had was a new venture in cooking for me. I was nervous, and excited. I planned it out so that the food would be ready at different times throughout the day. I tried to keep the meals versatile. I ended up with shrimp cocktail, crab soup, smoked oysters, herrings in white sauce, mussels in a red sauce, Sicilian salsa verde with sautéed cabbage, and for the main event, spaghetti misto mare (mixed seafood pasta) with tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil. My crab soup started out as crab bisque, I ended up missing a key "bisque" ingredient so I tweaked my recipe to be broth based, used with white wine, low sodium chicken broth and water. I was especially proud of my soup, it was so good, and light and simple. The Sicilian salsa verde was made with anchovies, and many other things, turned out excellent as well. It was my first taste of anchovies. I wish I had taken photo's. The end result was 9 adults feed and 2 kids, not one complaint and lots of compliments. It was such a success, I think I'll make this my routine for Christmas Eve. Next year, I'm going to do something completely different. I really wanted fried calamari, but couldn't find it before my meal. That will definitely be there next year!