We got Nora all dressed up to visit Santa, and then she was a complete pill about actually sitting in his lap. Hmph. Wouldn’t you know she was in a great mood as soon as we got home?
She looked so cute in that fancy dress that I couldn’t resist doing an impromptu photo shoot right there in our family room (despite the fact that it was well past naptime).
My little ornament thief (don’t worry, they’re cheap plastic ones) was quite the ham…
…see? If that smile doesn’t say “cheese,” I don’t know what does.
As soon as I started snapping, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop, because *SWOON* the light was so terrific in there at that moment. (Note to self: Make it a point to take pics in our family room–in the late morning light–much more often.)
After procrastinating too long, I got Nora’s Christmas dress really late this year. It was semi-difficult to find one that actually had sleeves on it (why so many sleeveless dresses for Christmas?). So wanting sleeves + the traditional holiday colors + waiting until the second week of December + needing a 12-month size = slim pickings. When we saw this one at Kohl’s, we snagged it, as it was the last one in her size. And although it seems pretty ridiculous to spend money on a dress that she only wears maybe twice, I like the tradition of having small children dress up for visiting Santa and Christmas Eve Mass (and Easter, but that’s obviously separate and requires a whole ‘nother dress!).
Anyway, although it wasn’t my first choice dress, it has grown on me and I think she looks pretty stinkin’ adorable in it (yeah, yeah… bias). And look at her playing with her Little People Nativity Set again. Love it!
My girl is getting to be so grown up. *sniffle*
Did you get dressed up for Christmas when you were growing up? My mom always bought us dressy clothes; I still remember some of the dresses. Moms: Do you dress up your kids for the holidays? Are you like me, trying to find every excuse for them to wear it more than once? This won’t be the last time you all see Nora in it, I assure you. :)
Only five days left until Christmas! We still have some shopping to finish up… AHHHH!
We predicted well in advance of our visit to Santa that Nora would be less than thrilled about the whole thing. Still, we decided that for the sake of tradition, we would trek to the mall to give it a whirl.
We set out to arrive at the mall right at 10:00, when Santa begins seeing little ones on the weekends. Imagine our surprise when we got there to find an enormous line had already formed. I guess everyone had the same strategy as we did–ugh. But we were there, Nora was dressed up, we figured it wasn’t going to get any better between now and Christmas, and Nora was being pretty patient, so we stuck it out.
Thirty minutes later, it was our turn, and… it was over in the blink of an eye.
Nora was not impressed. In fact, she tried to dive right off of the big man’s lap. This would be her reaction to being sat in the lap of any stranger (or anyone who is not Mommy or Daddy, really), so it actually went exactly as we had anticipated. We definitely weren’t going to try to force the poor kid to sit there, so we did the only thing we could do–especially after waiting half an hour in line.
Michael posed in the picture with her. HAHAHAHA. (Notice she still looks miserable.)
Thankfully, Santa said that Nora was still on his nice list, so at least she won’t get coal in her stocking. And we have our fingers crossed that things will go a little more smoothly next year. Stranger danger, be gone!
(Check out our girl meeting Santa for the first time last year. It was decidedly less dramatic.)
Did you like going to see Santa as a kid? I’ll admit that I completely understand the aversion to him–he is a little scary, if you think about it from a kid’s point of view. If you have children, have you taken them to see Santa Claus? How have they reacted?
It has been several weeks since I’ve made pancakes on the weekend, so I was due. But instead of going with one of our standby favorites (like pumpkin or cinnamon), I thought I’d channel the Christmas spirit and make gingerbread pancakes. Sadly, though, I didn’t have a recipe saved from any of my favorite resources, so I had to seek out one on my own. After a quick Google search, I ended up choosing a well-reviewed recipe from allrecipes.com.
The first thing I noticed was that the batter was thinner compared to other pancake recipes I’ve made. I could’ve thickened it up by adding a bit more flour, but I decided to stay the course and follow the recipe as is. Although they fluffed up a little bit, they are not the big, thick, hearty pancakes that you get with some other recipes. But overall, they were good, with a nice gingerbread flavor. When I first tasted one, I wasn’t sure if Nora would like it because of that tell-tale gingerbread “spice” to them, but I should’ve given her more credit. Girlfriend eats pancakes like her job, and we’re learning that she does not discriminate–ALL pancakes are welcome in her world.
Because I am partial to thick, fluffy pancakes, I might try a different recipe next time, but I would most certainly come back to this one in the future. If you’re looking for a basic gingerbread pancake recipe, give this one a try.
Gingerbread Pancakes
(Source: Adapted from allrecipes.com)
Ingredients:
– 3 cups all-purpose flour
– 6 tsp. baking powder
– 3 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
– 1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
– 3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
– 3/4 tsp. ground cloves
– 6 tbsp. ground hazelnuts (optional, I omitted)
– 3 cups milk
– 3 whole eggs (or 6 egg whites)
– 6 tbsp. dark molasses
Directions:
1. In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, cocoa, ginger, cinnamon and cloves; stir in hazelnuts. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together milk, eggs and molasses.
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour wet ingredients into it. Stir just enough to moisten; batter will be lumpy.
4. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.
If you originally found my blog and stayed here because of recipes… well, I hope you haven’t left me. But truthfully, I would understand if you had, because I’ve posted maybe two recipes in the last six months. Ouch.
Unfortunately, my reality right now is that we’re lucky to even get dinner on the table each night. Between work, Nora, house projects, and regular errands/chores, we are just BUSY. We don’t have much time to experiment with new recipes, and I rarely EVER have time to bake anymore. And when I do make a new recipe, half the time I forget to take photos of it as I’m throwing food on the tray of a high chair with a very hungry and impatient toddler sitting in it.
Earlier this fall, as we tried to beef up the list of foods that Nora would eat, I set out to make her some macaroni and cheese. But I wasn’t going to make her the blue box variety; oh, no, that would’ve been too easy (and just so… processed). Instead, I sought out a homemade recipe that would not only make a great toddler dinner, but a grown-up dinner as well. We tried a few recipes, and they were good, but I made so many alterations to them that they were hard to replicate. (For the record, Nora loves macaroni and cheese. She’s not picky about it, except that funny enough, she will not touch the blue box stuff. I’ve created a macaroni and cheese snob. Whoops.)
Then, a few weeks ago, we were looking for something to make for a potluck gathering at my in-laws’ house. We agreed that macaroni and cheese would be great, but wanted a recipe we could make a few hours ahead of time and then bake at my in-laws’. Enter this recipe from our favorite grocery store, Wegmans.
This is comfort food at its finest. And it’s a tremendously simple macaroni and cheese–using just sharp cheddar, with a little parmesan sprinkled on top. Of course, this can be easily adapted by changing up the types of cheese if you so choose. It starts off with a simple roux, add whole milk, and then… well, by then, you’re through the difficult part. So, snuggle up in front of a fire with a bowl of this cheesy goodness and let it help you get through the winter. You won’t regret it.
Macaroni and Cheese
(Source: Wegmans)
Ingredients:
– 1 lb. elbow pasta
– 1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
– 1/4 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
– 5 tbsp. butter
– 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
– 3 1/2 cups whole milk
– 1 lb. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
– 2 tsp. salt
– 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
Directions:
1. Start heating water for pasta. Mix bread crumbs and parmigiano-reggiano cheese together in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Heat butter in large sauce pan over medium heat until melted. Add flour; stir until smooth. Cook 3-4 minutes until light golden brown.
3. Add milk to butter mixture, one cup at a time, whisking continuously until very smooth; bring to boil. Cook 10 minutes on medium, whisking continuously.
4. Add cheddar cheese; stir until melted completely. Season with salt and nutmeg; set aside. Stir in cooked pasta.
5. Spray bottom and sides of baking dish with nonstick cooking spray; add pasta/cheese mixture. Top with bread crumb mixture.
6. Bake on center rack 15-20 minutes, or until topping is golden brown and bubbling around edges.
I saw this “40 Things That Will Make You Feel Old” list circulating around on Facebook and elsewhere on the web today.
First, I feel the need to add a disclaimer that I don’t actually think I’m old. So, all of you out there who happen to be older than me, do not take offense. :) But when we all sit back and reminisce about how much things have changed, and how fast time has passed, we’re all bound to feel “old” sometimes, right?
There are a few things off the top of my head that have made me feel old recently. One was finding out that Adele (the singer/songwriter) was born in 1988. NINETEEN-EIGHTY-EIGHT, y’all. W…T…F. I never paid much attention to her album titles of “19” and “21,” so I just never really knew how old she was. And well, to know she’s only 23–that’s just crazy.
Getting together with my friends from college this fall, and realizing that we had all known each other for 11 years? OLD. Because it REALLY doesn’t feel like freshman year was that long ago. Or that I graduated from college 7.5 years ago. I mean, really?
I always feel old at Christmastime when we pull out our classic movies. Christmas Vacation was made in 1989, and Home Alone–which I actually saw in the theater–was made in 1990. These movies are 20+ years old. How is that even possible?
As for the “40 Things That Will Make You Feel Old” list, I wasn’t all that surprised about any of the ages of the 90s childhood stars/music groups. Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, Boy Meets World, Full House, Clarissa? They’re all around the ages that I expected them to be. I did find the whole “Kurt Cobain has been dead for 17 years thing” to be a bit shocking.
It was hysterical to be reminded of what the America Online interface looked like back in the day. I remember having a monthly plan that had LIMITED MINUTES. We used to keep a post-it note by the computer that you had to record your minutes on when you signed off. It would say, “You were online for 19 minutes” or whatever, and we’d write “19” down so that we could add it to our running total to make sure we weren’t going over. Can you even imagine that now?
And the save button (#1 on the list)? It took me a minute to even comprehend what that was talking about. Then it hit me. That’s a floppy disk. Today’s kids have probably never even seen one. Sheesh. I also laughed at the “Be Kind, Please Rewind” sticker. We used to have to REWIND rental movies before we returned them? I hadn’t thought about that in a while. Wow.
What do you think of the list? What are the things that make you feel old (on or off the list)?
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
