The holidays with children are unlike anything I’ve experienced before. I loved Christmas as a kid (obviously) but seeing it all through the eyes of your toddler is just a whole other tier of fun. There are no words to describe the joy.
Setting new traditions in motion, pacman and I baked cookies together for Santa.
What a cutie pie. He’s a champ of a sous chef.
We used Danielle Walker’s recipe for “real deal chocolate chip cookies”. He calls them “chocolate chippies”. This was actually the first time he’s really had chocolate aside from the few bites of cake he smooshed around on his tray back on his first birthday. I used Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips because they are free of every allergen ever.
That’s him dipping into the measuring cup before pouring it into the mixer. Sampling taste testing is a key thing to learn as a chef, right?
We made the batter on the 23rd and rolled it up to refrigerate over night.
Then on Christmas Eve we got our bake on.
Once dinner was done, we got things ready for Santa and his posse (he wanted to leave carrots for the reindeer and bread with butter for the elves – ??? – but we settled on just the carrots).
This is his I-LOVE-COOKIES face.
“His” tree was essentially the love of his life for 45 straight days.
All the stockings were hung by the chimney with care…
The next morning was low key. It was just the four of us so Kyle and I worked out per usual first thing upon rising and then once P woke up we kinda had to remind him about his stocking. After stockings we enjoyed pumpkin gingerbread waffles (and bacon for the boys).
Kyle’s plate (hence the bacon and butter). The batter was SO GOOD I really wish I’d written it down (I didn’t measure anything or write it down of course). I mixed the batter then night before so it was all ready to pour on the griddle as soon as it heated up, which made for a super easy morning.
After breakfast we opened our presents to each other, which was was quick, and then headed off to my parents’ house. From the second we pulled into their driveway we pretty much hit the ground running. We only had a limited number of hours (minutes really!) before P’s lunch and nap so we busted right into presents. Thomas was the theme of the day, but new books have been MASSIVE wins ever since. If patty cakes had his way we would do nothing but read all day long. We do try, but his baby sister isn’t so into that. She is more into eating pages.
Tissue paper is still a hit for both pequeños.
Ladies with Roscato.
Valley girl.
Family photo and now let’s eat!!
Good spread mom. 🙂
Christmas crackers because the Aussies were in town. [They scared P]
My first plate (I had seconds of root veggies).
Cobbler in the works. I failed in not taking a photo of my dessert plate but that’s probably for the best because I had SIX pieces of chocolate peanut butter fudge and more wine. Tis the season, yo! We played Cards Against Humanity (with Australian cards!!) and it was SO HILARIOUS. My dad and I were in the zone, but that’s no surprise since we function on a similar wavelength for much of the time anyway. Or at least I wish we did. He’s totally the coolest. Eventually we went to bed, but it was a short sleep because the babes don’t sleep very well when away from our house.
My sweet sweet boy.
The next morning we went to breakfast at Chow with my NYC girlies (who were in town because we grew up together and so we were all home with our parents for the holidays).
Hi baby blues.
They are both so obsessed with each other, and they watch each other like a hawk. She looks up to him like nothing I’ve ever seen.
After breakfast, we hit the road back to Davis. We ate late lunches that were more like snacks since our breakfasts were so big, but then we had salmon, rice, and broccoli for dinner which I already showed here.
Santa brought P some of these (which I heard he got from Thrive Market) and they are a big time hit. Must be due to the “fancy molasses”.
Allergy friendly stuff is so easy and convenient to come by thanks to Thrive Market. Yeah, it’s processed and therefore a treat, but isn’t that what the holidays are about? He asks for them every once in a while after dinner but hasn’t seemed to mind when I say no. When I say yes though, he is ALL ABOUT IT. Seriously though, Mi-del, what’s with the fancy molasses??
Speaking of little kid food…we are doing baby lead weaning with V for half her eats, but I make purees for her too because it’s a faster way for her to get some actual calories in. But then Santa got her a few jars of this Beech-Nut organic baby food so that’s fun (because it gives me a night off food prep for one family member). The consistency is pretty thin, though, so I added chia seeds to thicken it all up. Let me tell you, baby girl wants to do everything herself. Fact: spoon feeding is not as fun as shoveling bananas and roasted squash to the face.
This was my evening on the 26th. Can anyone else relate? Putting together crane trucks and trying to figure out which parts are not going end up sending us to the ER from a choking accident requires cookies, natch.
My little puppy! She follows me everywhere.
Between Christmas and New Years we did a lot of playing because Kyle had the time (forced) off. One of our friend’s toy room turned into a market! He got his hands dirty making me some cookies. We did a lot of (real) cookie eating in December too. Like everyone, I succumbed to the seize the day season marketing scheme and indulged a little more than I usually do. Or maybe I didn’t, I don’t know. I am never one to hold back on desserts, whether it is the holidays or not. The main difference between this time of year and the rest of the year, is that I managed to eat out (at restaurants) considerably more than I ordinarily do. Technically, that’s not saying a lot because I make 99% of our meals, and that lingering 1% is made up of “treat meals” like the WF hot bar and Nugget prepared foods (sandwiches). But I’ve gotten out of practice and so I’m therefore not used to the splurge of dining. It feels indulgent, especially when it happens THREE MEALS IN A ROW. Yeah, I went out to a restaurant back to back to back. Let’s talk about it.
We went back to the East Bay for a fake NYE celebration on the 30th because Kyle and I didn’t want to pay $$$$ for a pre fixe meal on the 31st. Also, my parents volunteered to babysit the kiddos so you KNOW we hit that up.
There was also the matter of a girls date (with my mom, sisters, and some friends who I grew up with and basically consider sisters). That was planned for the 30th during P’s lunch so that Kyle could stay with him while I took V on a girl’s adventure.
This is the house made black bean veggie burger from The Cooperage with a spinach salad. I couldn’t decide between the veggie burger and the salad, so I got both. The salad was fantastic – candied pecans, goat cheese, and a vinaigrette that would have made me happy and full on it’s own. The burger was icing on the cake but I was too distracted by V to focus on eating it there so I basically took it home with me and then ate back at my parents’ house. It’s difficult dining with babies while trying to catch up with friends (and eat too).
That evening Kyle and I went on a date to Postino.
Followed by a movie (Star Wars). We got home before midnight but it was definitely the latest I’ve been up in a LONG time and I paid for it dearly the next day. Turns out, I am a disaster without enough sleep. Poor Kyle had to deal with my bad mood all day. Fail.
Here are my two breakfasts from the next morning. We went to Chow as a family to celebrate my dad retiring! He is officially done, although he is still keeping occupied with some other work stuff that’s not with his hospital. Anyway, I wanted something sweet, but the gluten free and dairy free options weren’t super plentiful. I got both the quinoa bowl and the granola and basically combined them. One good thing about Chow is they are dedicated to food sustainability and quality sourcing, so they are all local and organic ingredients.
After dining, we hit the road, once again, back to Davis. So much driving!!!! The kids were such troopers even though they were SO OVER the car at this point. I was too.
Happy dances ensued when I realized I had leftover fries from The Cooperage to eat for lunch. I popped them in the oven on broil and they tasted good as new!! Seriously!
I paired them with (duhhhh) a kale salad.
I just discovered this organic slaw mix from TJs and I have brought it a bunch ever since. It’s the perfect thing to toss with kale to make bulk salads.
For the 31st, I made a “fancy” dinner in. It took a lot of brainstorming to come up with something that was the perfect amount of special without being too over the top difficult (since we were driving home that day and likely to hit a bunch of Tahoe traffic).
Pork tenderloin and a basic green salad were the settled on dishes.
The salad was the easy part and yet, that’s the part I messed up. I made a balsamic dressing that had WAY too much lemon in it. I don’t know what I was thinking – I totally spaced out when I was zesting and juicing. Kyle didn’t mind but I think he was being nice since I was in such a crabby mood already.
I seared the tenderloin on the grill first to brown the sides, before adding the (rosemary honey dijon) marinade and grapes and popping the lid on and throwing it in the (pre-heated) oven.
I loved the way the grapes roasted! We got almond milk ice creme for dessert because we planned on making sundaes but then we both totally forgot!! Guess we will have to add them to the January menu. 🙂
Phew! Now back to home cooked meals in the New Year!!
