Almost Two

Me-(kissing Maia in her car seat) Love you!

Maia-(looking very serious) No "love you".

Count Down...

Alright!

Busy day, as usual for a Saturday. The fun news is that I am getting a haircut which means that I will be dyeing my hair tonight. Purple. I might even post pictures if it comes out as cute as I think it will. :)

From hair chopping to food shopping. We have finalized our Christmas Buffet menu and now cheese must be purchased. It's not a party without cheese.

Wish me luck on my missions of merry.

Some Ideas

Let me toss some ideas around here. It looks like the majority of my family will be here in the late morning...perfect brunch time, although my dad and Susan will have already eaten, it being a family tradition to have cinnamon rolls Christmas morning. (sorry for the long, awkward sentence) With that in mind, I took a peek through my Williams Sonoma Breakfast cookbook. It's a small book with nice brunch ideas and the recipes have always turned out well for me. Some dishes that sound good for our Christmas feast:

Either Chocolate Croissants (purchased frozen then proofed overnight and baked fresh...I don't have time to make my own. Really, I don't.) or a make-ahead Cranberry Chocolate Breakfast Cake. With Streusel!

Cinnamon Rolls. Whole wheat, although with the hard white winter wheat flour, you can hardly tell it's whole wheat. The secret is love.

For eggy-goodness we could have either a wild mushroom quiche with a cheesy pastry crust or a broccoli rabe strata. The small advantage the strata has over the quiche is that it can be layered the night before and left in the fridge over night, as it uses bread cubes as the base as opposed to pastry dough. The quiche pastry and filling could be made ahead and simply assembled and baked the next day, but we have a lot going on in the oven first thing--so maybe the strata would be better, time wise.

Banana bread? I have bananas in the freezer just waiting for the chance to become bread. I could even make it tomorrow and wrap it tight. It keeps up to a week!

And for later in the day food:

Cold cut platter with cheese and sandwich fixings.

Fresh baked rolls for above sandwiches.

Nummy cheese and bread and crackers. Maybe goat cheese fondue? I love me a pot of warm cheese!

Veggie tray and fruit tray. Mostly citrus. And apples and pears. Seasonal fruit. And nuts. This is California, after all, "the land of fruits and nuts". As my Idaho family would say.

Stuffing? Maybe...

All day sweets:

COOKIES! 3-D reindeer cookies. I'm baking some today to see how they work and if I need to tweak them at all for the big day. Plus all the others I'm baking for cookie boxes.

Rocky road candy...at least what ever is left after my gift boxes are made.

Bourbon balls. Ditto on above conditions.

Pretzel sticks? These will be dependent on time constraints. I'd like to get them done for the cookie boxes...but...we'll see how that goes.

Comments? Votes? This is mainly for John, so hon, "Um yeah" doesn't count as a comment. ;) We'll winnow down the list tonight and get a shopping list ready for Saturday morning.

Here we go, ho ho ho!

Quick List

Things Done:

About 10 dozen assorted cookies and coffee and eggnog delivered to John's office today!

Most of my presents secured.

Johns' family presents wrapped and handed off.

Sugar cookies cut and ready to bake. Ditto for gingerbread men.

Rocky Road candy.

Bourbon balls.

Chocolate crinkle cookie dough ready to roll and bake.

Tree trimmed.

House lit.

Things Left to Do:

Yikes. Wrapping. Maia's presents alone will take a good chunk of time.

A menu for Christmas day.

Spritz cookies.

Cookie decorating.

Cookie boxes.

All the other normal day-to-day stuff.

Eegads. I can't wait for New Years with no plans but to relax. And begin house projects...

Wii...

...got one.

And kind of on a whim. Last weekend John and had the chance to play on our friends' console and we became hooked on the Wii. We decided we needed to add one to our household. Now. For Christmas...at least for End of Year Bonus Time. Good enough reason to spend money, right?

Of course, it is only a week to Christmas and we were getting in on the hottest game in town. John spent last week looking for deals and getting to know the delivery schedules of the closest Wii dealers. Target looked good...Costco had a package deal..and there was the game store right around the corner...the breakdown went like this:

Costco gets them in at various times but only puts them out in the morning because of the pandemonium they cause.

Target gets a regular shipment Sunday morning.

Game Stop has a delivery on Friday between 10 AM and 1 PM.

Disadvantages?

Costco bundle is $500 and still has only one controller. Not such a great deal, plus you have to call everyday to see of they might put some out the next morning.

Game Stop wait time is hard on jobs and babies. More on that later.

Target is an early-rise job. And "everyone" knows when they get their shipment. So it can get crazy in line.

Friday I went to Game Stop after John told me they might have gotten their shipment in. I was in the store about 10:30 and a small group had gathered. Numbers were passed around. I was took the #5 spot form a man who was believed to have left the store. The other folks in the store knew what the delivery woman looked like. They had been here before. Apparently this store only gets a handful of units at a time...and they always instantly sell out. I had the Bee with me so I wasn't going to wait past 11 AM. We had a park date to get to. Just as I was getting ready to go, word arrived that the delivery woman was on her way. The store became more and more excited...one woman groaned that she was going to lose her job (she was on a loong lunch) but she couldn't leave--not this close to success. Another woman shared the fact that she had been trying for a Wii since November and still hadn't been able to secure one. She was #1 in line this time and wasn't going anywhere.

The Wii's were counted. Six units. I actually got a bit excited. I was five, after all, and this was our FIRST attempt to get a Wii. John's sussing out of the situation had payed off.

Then, sadness. The original #5 came back into the store. He hadn't really left--he had been pacing in front of the building. I was bumped to #7 and out of the running.

Oh well.

The Costco "deal" wasn't much of one, so John and I decided to skip that madness.

That left Target and Sunday, this, morning. John set the coffee pot last night and the alarm for 5:45 AM. He was up and out and in line by 6:10. He ended up with the #13 spot for a double holiday shipment of Wii's totaling 90! Woo-hoo! Wii-ness had been secured...along with extra controllers and nunchucks and games. Many games. In fact we returned later on in the day and purchased another game.

Check out his experience in line waiting
here.

Live blogging from the iPhone. Aren't we cool? And when I say "we" I mean "John".

So we have a new time sink addiction. And it is fun. But we did manage to get other grown-up things done today as well so we still have balance in our lives. And I might gain more as I learn to use that wii controller...

Oooof

Yikes. I tied one on tonight. Red, red wine. Stay close to me...
I am super chilly cold right now.

I am soooo happy in how John and I are raising Maia.

I am not rally caring about a new TV. But I do want one.

John wants a Wii. And i don't know if I can find one. And I have his presents already.

Friends are good. Kebabs are really good.

Slings for baby dolls are super cute and I am so glad to get one for Miss E.

I would really like to sleep now.

I have used spell-check too many times for this short of a post.

Good night!

Bless You!

Yesterday I was changing Maia and had one of my ever-present sneezing fits. When I finished sneezing I glanced down at Maia who looked up at me and said, "Bless you".

Moments like that make a heart melt.

The End of the Grand Experiment

Hats off to all of you who made it through the grand experiment of NaBloPoMo.

While I will, after this post, have the "required" 30 posts for the month of November...sadly...I did not manage to post every day. I don't think multiple posts count for NaBloPoMo.

I did enjoy the exercise. I miss writing. Even if it's just simple journaling for myself. I also discovered I am much more of a "mommy blogger" than I intended to be. But right now, I am using this space to save everyday stories...and Maia is my everyday story. I will be fun one day to print (perhaps, if we still do that sort of thing) and Bind (how retro) these Maia memories and give them to her. I love to hear stories about myself from back before I can remember. I hope she will too.

I also hope to keep some of this writing momentum going. I realized I don't have to write a novel for each post. I don't even have to have something interesting to say. I just need to be able to find the one point from my day that the rest of my day turned on. The quick distillation of gathered daylight hours. A story to remember a day by.

Because there might be a time when these days are the ones "before I can remember" and I think that would be a great loss.

Keep writing.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (?)

Why is it that the holidays, which in my minds eye is a time to come together and share with loved ones near and far, bring out the worst in families?

Why do I sometimes feel like our budding branch of the family tree is the most rational and reasonable?

Why do some people feel the need to act slighted when they have never stated a desire to be met?

And why do those same people expect those around them to be mind readers?

Please forgive my obtuse rant. I hate family drama...and I may have innocently, accidently, started some.

And this is the kind of stress that makes getting together so hard. The kind of imagined problem that only hurts those we love. The kind that hurts MY nearest and dearest, and for that, I will be upset.

Looks like we're getting the fuzzy end of the candy cane--and it's not even December yet.

But We're Not the Only Ones

I just did a quick *flickr* search for "crying" and "Santa".

Yeah. OK. So I didn't know this picture thing was such a thing.

Now I don't feel like an evil Mom. I just feel like I'm in with the "in" crowd.

And She's Scarred for Life

I took Maia for her Christmas photos with her play group friends today. It was so much fun! The kids did great, all things considered and the photos turned out really cute. I have three that I am going to frame and hang in Maia's room of the kids and a sheet of sweet Maia faces to give to family for Christmas.

We were having such a good time we decided to keep the momentum going by having the kids take pictures with Santa. After all, they were already dressed and looking nice. The mall wasn't crowded. It was early afternoon, after lunch and we planned on bribing them with cookies.

Mommy M and Mommy R were comparing childhood notes about pictures with Santa. I have no notes to compare. I think I might have one from when I was very young, but my parents just didn't do that sort of thing. Mommy N and Mommy R both have a series of bawling-on-Santa's-lap photos which they cherish...of course in the pictures their brothers are the ones crying while they beam...nevertheless they want those same sweet memories for their children.

I am game of course. Pictures of crying babies? Why not. Maia had done so well with the photographs in the studio, and she's a very open and friendly baby. I thought it would be no problem to have a Santa photo.

We arrive and step right up. No waiting. Miss A and Mommy N go first....and Miss A starts to cry even before she hits Santa's lap...lip trembling and tears welling. She starts bawling as soon as her mom lets go and stretches out her arms..."No, no, no..." Mommy R and I are holding back chuckles while Mommy N gets Miss A to aim her wails at the cameras. Click click. All done and the tears dry as soon as she's off the jolly old elf's lap.

Up next...Maia the wonder kid. She manages to say "Hi" but isn't so sure about the whole situation and begins to moan and groan as I get her on the lap. I let go and she loses it...a full face wail of scrunching misery. No arms...but her face says it all. Now Mommy N and Mommy R are looking on and laughing...and I'm trying to cheer Miss Maia up. Nope, not having it. Click. Click. We get one of her with her face up, as scrunched as it is. I pick her up and all is forgiven...at least by Maia. Santa, on the other hand, is beginning to look concerned.

Master D is next and Mommy R assures us we're in for more of the same. But then something happens...Master D remains stoic throughout the entire process. Not a tear. Not a cry. This from the young man who normally hides if you look at him funny. He was simply resigned to his fate...and I think Mommy R was almost disappointed.

Santa was glad for the break. He gave us some funny looks as we chuckled over and purchased our crying baby pictures. He really was a sweet man...I think the three of us are most definitely getting coal in our stockings this year.

The World May Never Know...

The guys/gals at John's office didn't save me a piece! Boo. I'll never know how that chocolate-ginger combination worked.

In other news:

I've just about completed my Christmas Excel spreadsheet. With this powerful tool in hand I will be able to shop until I drop and get 'er done within the next week or so. In case you were wondering how crazy I got with the spreadsheet. Well. Columns with the name of the recipient, followed by gift, where to purchase, if it has been purchased, budget/price. If only I were as organized about everything else.

I'm also planning Christmas treats in the form of baked goods, candy and jelly. Another spreadsheet waiting to be be created.

Tomorrow Maia and I, along with her friends Miss A and Master D, are going for Christmas pictures. We've not had professional pictures of all three kids done, so I'm very excited about the prospect...and nervous to see how Maia takes to it.

As Master D's mom said when I asked about lunch afterward: "Lunch? Yes. We're going to need a drink after this!" Wish us all the best of luck. Especially the photographer.

The Results

This is what I did in my last cake decorating class tonight:



Under that frosting is my Midnight Cake with ginger. For added ginger flair I frosted with a gingered cream cheese frosting. Mmmm...cream cheese. Funny thing about making frosting today. I had to rush this whole cake because we didn't get home until later in the day yesterday. We came home from Maia's music class and I needed to make my frostings. I also needed to put Maia down for a nap. Frosting needs my mixer and my 1,0000 watt motor keeps Maia awake. What to do?

I made frosting on the back porch with my hand held mixer. Not the best job I've ever done, but the location was the most unusual I've ever made cream cheese frosting. It was kind of nice to not have to clean up powdered sugar from every counter surface after the project, though.

I also manged a double batch of stiff decorator icing on the back porch with the hand-held mixer. And look what I did with that icing:



ROSES! And dots. And shells.

A closer look at my very first roses:



Roses are hard. And I was the slowest to catch on to them in our class. Mine are not so pretty...I didn't put the "practice rose" my friend/instructor made for me on my cake because it would have put my attempts to shame. But I know the
basic idea now and maybe with a little more practice I'll have flowers that look more rose-like and less cabbage-rose-like in the future.

I do like my dots. And note the masculine colors. John gets to take this into work tomorrow. And I thought pink would be a bit precious for the engineers.

I just hope they save me a little slice.

Back to Basics

I am a lover of cakes. Not so much eating them, although I do enjoy that, but baking them. I'd rather bake you a fantastic cake for some wonderful reason than just make one for myself. This is why I loved being a pastry grunt. I got to bake fantastic cakes for lots of "you" for many wonderful occasions.

And I didn't have to eat them. Although that part is OK too.

For this cake decorating class I've been looking at all kinds of fun cake recipes because it gives me a chance to do what I love. Today is kind of rushed. I need a cake this evening. One that is frosted and ready to decorate. I didn't bake last night. I still have to buy ingredients to make my frosting. I have a daughter who has her music class later on this morning. I needed to bake a cake fast.

All the "fun" recipes I've been wanting to do take too much time to get done in just under an hour. Some include ingredients I don't have on hand after being away for a week. Feeling frustrated, I looked back into my pastry past and pulled out a great chocolate cake recipe. The batter comes together in just over five minutes--about the time it takes to boil the water for the first step--bakes up in about 25-30 minutes and goes great with anything frosting wise. It also freezes well and can be baked into sheets to be cut for tiny cakes. Simple, versatile, and delicious.

The originator of the recipe is lost to me. I picked it up from my second pastry chef and I have since passed it along to the bakery I worked for. I've used it for all kinds of fun cakes and today I added crystallized ginger chips for an exotic flair. I'll frost with cream cheese and decorate with roses tonight.

And I'm going to share the "home cook" version with you. The ingredients are given in weights, because I had to scale the amounts down from an industrial-sized recipe. So bust out your kitchen scale and get baking next time company calls...

Midnight Cake
Makes two 8" round cakes.

Ingredients

10 1/4 oz. Sugar
2 oz Cocoa Powder (NOT Dutch Process)
1 1/2 cups Boiling Water

1/2 cup Vegetable oil
2 large Eggs

9 1/2 oz. AP Flour
1/4 oz. Baking Soda

Method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter and flour two 8" round cake pans. Begin water boiling while measuring out the rest of the ingredients. Note: I usually prep the oil and eggs together in a measuring cup, and whisk the flour and baking soda together in a small bowl. This makes it really easy to put the batter together.

In a large bowl whisk together the sugar and cocoa powder. Pour hot water over mixture and blend. Whisk in the oil and eggs. Sift the flour and baking soda over the wet mixture, then whisk. Batter will be very wet and look lumpy. That's OK.

Divide batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes until cake is set, puffy and a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn out of pan and let cool completely before filling, frosting, or otherwise finishing off the cake.

Enjoy!

Ah Well, Blew this Month Off

I tried.

I really, really, tried.

But there should be some forgiveness for me because slow Internet is physically painful for me.

The thought of the dial tone. The choppy connection. Typing on a computer that wasn't mine. All of these things lead to very serious barriers to entry when one thinks about blogging. Especially after a long day of cooking, laughing, shopping, eating, reading and playing with the baby.

Mea culpa. I'll do better next year.

But I'll bravely post forward for the few remaining days of NaBloPoMo November.

We're back home safe and sound and well, well, maybe not so well, rested (there are many reasons to NOT sleep in the same room, let alone bed, as your child that I am painfully reminded of whenever we travel with her). Had lovely pizza for dinner with our cat-sitting neighbors. I now need to check up on e-mails and plan Christmas presents.

Let the madness begin!

Posting From the iPhone...

...because I can.

John tells me I need to perfect my finger-slide typing, but I like the hunt and peck method.

Fun day with the family. I got my Thanksgiving shopping done. It has been decided that I will make two desserts plus cranberry sauce as my contrabution to dinner. Yum, I say. If you're wondering what desserts...wonder no more: chocolate pecan pie and chocolate cranberry torte. Too much chocolate? Never. At least not with this crowd.

Tomorrow we head into Boise for some shopping and dining. It's like going to SF only cleaner. And less water. I like Boise so I'm excited.

So maybe I do need to perfect my finger slide, so that's all for now...but man do I love this phone.

And We're Off...At Some Point

Thanksgiving is being spent with John's family this year. We have an every-other winter holiday every-other year schedule going on. This schedule was started before John and I had our own family and it mainly concerns splitting time in the airplane. John's co-owner and he worked out a year to year schedule that covers who gets the plane when. It's almost as elaborate as a custody agreement.

This year is our year to have the plane for Thanksgiving...

I began this post first thing this morning in my living room. I am now at the kitchen counter of my in-laws house in Idaho.

Going by small plane has a special set of restrictions. Most often weather related. Sometimes weight related. But, usually it's the weather. We don't go as high as a commercial flight, so clouds and wind are very real stopping factors for us. Add in the seasonal joys of ice and rain and you have to be flexible with your travel plans. I packed yesterday. I packed for a week. All three of us in our large suitcase. I was planning on being able to go whenever we could. The flight is about 3.5 hours...the drive? 14. We really wanted to be able to take the plane.

Yesterday, John and sister Ari-belle replaced a wonky generator in the airplane. It took about 5 good hours of work. Then and oil change needed to be done. John didn't have a filter...so there was some more work that needed to be completed before we could away. But in checking the weather last night, it looked as though a fairly bad front was on the move over the mountain ranges we would have to cross. It didn't look like we would be able to get going until Tuesday.

We woke up this morning and looked at the weather again. Nope. Didn't look like good flying weather. We were fogged in on our end with rain over here and nice cold, icy, clouds in between.

So we did what any normal kids would do. We talked about driving and then headed to breakfast. As we were finishing up pancakes and omelets at our favorite breakfast joint, John whips out the iPhone (ed. note: I love the iPhone. I want one someday. But for now I am content to bask in the glory of my husband's.) and again checks the weather. And what do you know? A nice six hour window of smooth, albeit windy, flying has opened up for us. We scramble for the house, gather up the last of our things and hit the road to the airport. John finishes up the work on the plane, all looks good and we strap in.

The flight was better than John had expected. Fairly smooth until the last 40 minutes or so. Maia did great, we have a couple of cute pictures of her "flying" the plane that I'll post later on. She played a bit and mostly napped. She hated her headphones so I let her keep them off, but she had her ear plugs in and her headband on, so she was still protected from the engine noise.

All in all: Wheels up to wheels down took us 2 hours and 55 minutes. In the car we would have barely left California in that amount of time.

So we are here and ready to relax. It'll be nice to have a week to spend with John's folks. We don't get up here enough. If we had more flying days like today...we would get out more often. We had a very lucky break, and I for one am very glad for it.

Posts will most likely be kind of slim...surprise surprise...while here. The folks are kind of in the boondocks and only have *gasp* DIAL UP INTERNET. With a wire and everything. I will continue to NaBloPoMo.

And I'll tell you all about my pie. Well, my future Thanksgiving pie, that is.

Left Something Out...

More words I forgot about last night:

Up--pronounced "Up-ie" very cute and very important
All Done--not quite clear, but she does the sign and says the sylabals
Hot!--she holds her hands up like I do when she says this. She also says it about almost every piece of food I put in front of her.
Water--She just started this again. Right now. Holding an empty glass and asking for "Waa waa water" along with the sign for water which she gave up, I thought, after learnng the more generic "drink" sign.

An Open Letter to A.A.

(Not Alcoholics Annoyomus)

Dear Ambrosia,

You recently made you blog private. While I respect your wish to keep your daily life and happenings to your friends, I would kindly ask to be included among them. While I am very lax in the comment department (in a bar situation I am a listener, a watcher, a voyer, if I may) I do check in daily to see how you are doing.

Creepy? Maybe. But your life has become a part of mine. And this is the magical power of blogging on the open plain of the Internet.

I rejoiced in you marriage. I love your tales of Bawb and the cats and the dog. I was thrilled to hear about the house. I like the recaps of the weekends with your friends and family. Even if I have never met you. And I probably never will.

There are pieces of you that remind me of myself. There are pieces of you that remind me of my sister and pieces that remind me of my friends here. Mostly, I kind of like the idea of knowing someone from their writings and personal musings.

Of course, I would understand if this humble request is denied. We don't know each other...and perhaps somethings are to personal to share with a wide audience. You will always be welcomed here. Just drop me a line to let me know how you are.

It's funny. How one can miss someone they have yet to meet. But I do.

I'll post my e-mail in the comments if you are willing to grant my request.

Most respectfully yours,

~valerie

aka: domestic_valerie

Maia's New Word--Or, The Beginning of the End

John was amazed by how vocal Maia has become in the past week. In a way, it's kind of good to not see her...then you realize how fast she changes. But, when you're gone you don't get to see the changes happening...so it's a catch 22 kind of situation.

Maia's greatest discovery this week? She now knows "no". She knows how to use it, and she really knows what it meas when I say it--as it pertains to me not letting her do what she wants. As evidenced by her screaming fits.

She'll tell me "no" and mean it. It began innocently enough. She was eating cereal. Like this:



(Do you like my new camera? Early birthday present from the BEST HUSBAND EVER.)

She was getting frustrated as she neared the end of the bowl and couldn't scoop the nice clumps of granola out. I tried to help her by pushing the cereal onto her spoon with my own. She looks at me. Opens her mouth and out comes, "No" in the sweetest little voice. I tried again, thinking it was a fluke. This time it's "Mama, NO". OK. I get it, little one. You have discovered the power of "No".

So all week it's been "no" this and "no" that. Every question is met by "no" first off. Then she might reconsider your offer. Or I have to override her authority. I'm hoping she tires of the novelty soon, but somehow, I fear we're in for a lot more of the word.

That little lesson in toddler speak got me to wondering how many words she does know well enough to use. Feel free to skip the list, this is really more for myself than anyone else.

Maia's words:

Mama
Dada
Cheese--pronounced "chee"
Please--pronounced kind of like "peas"
Hi!
Bye!
Night-Night--pronounced "ni ni"
Kitty
Cat
Maia--Daddy taught her this
Miles--Because they play together and it's so close to her name. She won't say Ava or David just yet...we're working on it.
Auntie--Sometimes with a name, Nat for Natalie or Ariee for Arielle
Balloon--pronounced "bpoon" This is an all-purpose word. She uses it for any round object in the air. She uses it for "Moon" and she used it this afternoon while pointing at the oranges hanging form our tree.
Cracker
Eat
No--of course, although she has no word for "Yes". Which kind of disturbs me. We're working on it.
Go
Shoes
Baby--who she pushes in her stroller. Or points to on my shirt today.

My favorite word? That would be broccoli. She pronounces it "braw-coo". She can pick broccoli out of a mixed vegetable dish. She points and says "Brawcoo! Brawcoo!" Then she eats the tops off the stalks and smiles.

I'm sure there are more words. Like tonight she said "Cow" for the first time while making the sign for cow. But the list are words she is now using on a regular basis and really knows what they mean.

I also know that she understands much more than she can speak back right now. This morning I was getting dressed and had my shirt drawer open. Maia was there and I jokingly asked her "What should Mama wear today?" the joke was on me, I picked a shirt out and began to put it on when she looked at me, said "No" and handed me another shirt to put on. The shirt she wanted me to wear. So I changed shirts. I have to learn to not ask for help if I don't really want it. ;)