Happy December! - December 2012

Happy first birthday, Scout!

She certainly does love her tongue!

We’ve been hearing about McKool Smith’s holiday party since Mario was a summer associate. The firm flies everyone (EVERYONE - associates, secretaries, important clients) from all of their offices to Dallas and puts everyone up in a hotel overnight. The party is at a large mansion in downtown Dallas. It’s a pretty big deal. So there was no way we were going to miss it. We flew my mom out for the weekend to watch the kids while we were gone overnight.
Fortunately we got to bring her in a day before so she could celebrate Scout’s first birthday with us. The poor little munchkin was sick again (again, still, who knows. She’s been constantly sick since we got here.), so she wasn’t very interested in her birthday breakfast donut, her birthday lunch corndog, or her chocolate cake. We got her some assorted balls for her birthday - since she started walking one of her favorite things to do is carry balls around. Actually, she likes to carry everything around, and the bigger the better. She’s our little weightlifter. And it’s remarkable what she can lift.
 

She picked up that box.

The next day Mario and I headed out for our night away. We flew in a few hours early to have some time together. It was lovely to just hang out and walk around a little. I had been dieting hard for months with this party in mind. I had been putting my outfit together for weeks, and I spent part of that morning at a waxing salon and three hours in our hotel room curling my hair and whatnot. Mario threw one of his suits on five minutes before we walked out the door. And he probably looked better than I did. I’m sure he was infinitely more comfortable - I’m not accustomed to walking or standing for three hours in 5-inch heels. The food was a huge letdown (especially since I had been dieting for so long), but we spent the evening gambling with fake money, enjoying endless (albeit mediocre) food, good company, and the best DJs ever. They played everything from Metallica to Frank Sinatra. They even had party-starters - a dance troupe was there so there wouldn’t only be more-than-slightly-tipsy legal assistants on the dance floor.
In short, it was the best party this girl has been to! And kind of the only party . . . but whatever, it was great! We came home to find a very tired Yaya who had been given a run for her money the night before by a certain little one-year-old. 

We spent the rest of our hot December (yes, it was hot, and not just compared to the rest of the normal northern world. Our air conditioning kicked on while we were decorating our tree. We went for a walk Christmas morning in shorts and t-shirts - but that comes later. HOT.) trying to get into the Christmas spirit. We splurged and got a real tree, and I’m so glad we did. There is nothing like the smell of a happy little Christmas tree, and we know something about the smell of happy trees being from Oregon and all. In fact, my dad moonlighted as a lumberjack during his PhD and MD school years (I know, he is one amazing guy. Doctor, lumberjack, mechanic, bread baker, awesome. Just ask me. I’ll tell you how amazing he is.). I am more than familiar with the lovely smell of lovely trees. And ours is a very happy little Christmas tree. 
 
One of the things we love about Austin is how many different activities there are. At Christmas time they have something called the Trail of Lights. It's a huge lights display (for free!) in one of the city parks and it was awesome. The kids especially loved the light sticks we bought for them on our way in.









Josh got really, really excited about Christmas this year. He was totally obsessed with “Jingle Bells.” He wanted me to sing Jingle Bells all day long. At first it was just Jingle Bells. Then he wanted me to sing Jingle Bells like a lion, then a hippo, then the entire cast of animals from Polar Bear Polar Bear, his current favorite book. He also was stoked about the whole Santa thing - flying reindeer, Ho Ho Ho (and yes, I did have to sing Jingle Bells as Santa and his reindeer also), and presents. 

Decorating our gingerbread train (thanks, YaYa!)

The last day of school they were having a pajama party, so Josh got to wear whatever pjs he wanted. He chose his Halloween skeleton ones. And when he got home from school he asked me to make him a reindeer hat. And then he wanted Scout to wear one too.

 











My mom got to join us for Christmas, and we absolutely loved having her visit twice in such quick succession. We got to do a lot of fun stuff - we made sugar cookies, visited McKinney Falls again, and generally had a great time.

I see you!

 
 








We had a fun Christmas morning. The kids got some great toys and so did we!

It's a hit!

I love Thanksgiving for the food and the idea of a holiday devoted just to being grateful. But Christmas is fun because we don’t have a “traditional” Christmas dinner - we just pick something we think will be spectacular. Our first Christmas on our own in Boston we made prime rib and sushi.

My pork roulade.

This year, I invented a pork roulade. And it was pretty darn amazing. I took a butterflied pork loin and stuffed it with a mixture of dried cherries, caramelized onions, mushrooms, toasted pine nuts, celery, parmesan, and shallots. Mario whipped up a lovely pan sauce using the meat drippings, red wine, and cherry brandy. We served it with au gratin potatoes, brussels sprouts, and sweet fennel chips.

Christmas dinner.

For dessert, I finally made my first buche de noel. I’ve wanted to make one for years, and it didn’t disappoint! I made a flourless chocolate roll cake and filled it with vanilla bean-steeped whipped cream folded into homemade creme fraiche and cream cheese. I frosted it with whipped bittersweet ganache and served it with a raspberry sauce. I think we found a winner, folks!

Buche de Noel. Can't wait to do another one next year!

We spent a few more great days with Yaya before she had to go home again and spent our New Year in classic Apreotesi fashion - in bed by 10:30! 

And here's a few fun pics of the kids. The leaves do in fact fall here, but not until December.


 
 
 

Hot Turkey! - November 2012

Playing at the water park in November.

November was decidedly odd. It was very hot, hot enough we would take walks down to the fountain park on the waterfront. In November. Did I mention it was November?

Josh and Mirabel at the zoo.

Anyway, November was hot and fun. We had Groupon tickets to go to the zoo with the Ancers, but Scout was running a fever of 104, so I suggested Mario and Josh have a playdate with Jose and Mirabel. As Josh is currently wild about lions and assorted safari animals, he was over the moon about seeing a real lion.

Josh seeing his first real lion (that he can remember, at least)

We had a very quiet Thanksgiving. We had plans to have dinner with the Ancers, but Josh came home from school with a bad cold and Scout was sick again, so we exchanged food with them (as we were each cooking half the meal) and ended up enjoying Thanksgiving separately.

We took advantage of two partial days off for Mario (he often (read: almost always) works a few hours from home on holidays while the kids are sleeping) to visit two more local state parks.

Pedernales Falls State Park

 










The first was Pedernales Falls State Park. We went in November, so there weren’t many “falls,” and it was crawling with people, but it was quite beautiful. It was a series of large pools linked by small streams of water, with evidence of some pretty strong currents in the past. 

Son of a!

 

 

McKinney Falls State Park

The next day we visited McKinney Falls State Park, which is only 20 minutes from our house. I’ll admit I was pretty shocked that a place like this is only 15 minutes from downtown Austin. The pools were beautiful and very intriguing. 










Scout started walking the first week of November. She had taken lots of isolated steps before then, but she put all the pieces together and was off like a rocket! I guess it helped that she had someone to chase!