It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like

I know it's not even December yet, but the Christmas TV shows are already on and Jake's getting excited. "Mommy I saw Rudolph!!" Rudolph was his favorite from last year and we must have watched that show about 765 times. Here's Jake helping decorate the house:

And here's The List, as dictated to Ali:

My turn

The other day I took some time off work to stay home with the kids so Ali could make her monthly work appearance at her other job (Sunrise). I don't have both kids by myself that often so I was looking forward to it, and a little nervous at the same time. It turned out to be a great afternoon. We played Ready Set Go (see video), went outside and played basketball (with Sadie in the wagon), and went on a marathon bike ride around the neighborhood (also with Sadie in the wagon, although asleep by now).



It's funny how all the sleepless nights and temper tantrums can be so quickly forgotten with one big smile or laugh from those tiny faces.

Thanksgiving Menu

We had a few requests for our Thanksgiving menu this year:

We started off with some raw oysters on the halfshell, and some that had been cooked a little in a champagne beurre blanc. We served those with a carrot soup with chestnut cream.

For the main event, we used a Trader Joe's all-natural 13lb turkey, rubbed with diced pancetta, butter and herbs. The juices were reduced down with some mushrooms to make a nice brown gravy. On the side we had ciabatta chestnut stuffing, sauteed broccoli rabe with garlic, and good old mashed potatoes and parsnips. For dessert we had homemade pumpkin, apple and sweet potato pies. Yum!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! We finished off the last of the leftover turkey today, so it's probably pizza for dinner tonight. Jake had fun helping stuff the turkey, and loved all the company and fun times. He loved it so much he didn't nap for three days.

On Friday we saw the Reston Town Center parade, and got our first glimpse of Santa Claus. Here's Jake with his favorite Aunt and Uncle as Santa approaches. That night we went to Alexandria to see the tree lighting ceremony. On our way there we stopped at the Majestic to grab a bite and so Deni and Patrick could see how their Irish-run Majestic compared to this one. The food was great, the kids were well-behaved and we had a great time. Deni and Patrick met the owners and compared notes and swapped secret Irish handshakes.

At the tree-lighting, we saw that Santa was making an appearance and taking requests, so we waited in line. And waited. And about an hour later we finally got to the front of the line and Jake got his first glimpse of Santa. "It's a fireman!" he exclaimed. He tentatively walked up the stairs and stood a safe three-foot distance from Santa.

"What would you like for Christmas?"
"Two presents."
"Well, what kind of presents?"
"Trucks."

After a few more pleasantries, Santa said goodnight and gave Jake a candy cane. All he talked about that night was that candy cane. Santa who?

Click here for more photos of the Thanskgiving weekend.

A Boy and His Salad Nicoise

Ok, this one's for Cara, one of our most loyal Tripdub readers. Here's Jake thoroughly enjoying his Salad Nicoise from his new Ratatouille cookbook. Capers, tuna, boiled eggs, green beans, cherry tomatoes, this kid was in heaven. Ok, he didn't touch the lettuce, but he'll get there....

Bath time

Ali and I have enjoyed almost two weeks of through-the-night sleeping. Ok, we both probably woke up once or twice expecting to hear a "wah" but were able to go back to sleep when we only heard crickets. It makes such a difference. I think the Army should develop Military Babies to keep enemy soldiers awake at night so they can't shoot straight the next morning. I'm sure it'd be much more effective that WMD. We've been enjoying our nights, but have almost been afraid to talk about them; afraid to jinx things. Well, I've been afraid to talk about it, anyway. I can't tell you how many times I've had a good nights' sleep and have said something about it to Ali the next morning only to hear that I slept through two separate 45 minute screaming fits from Sadie.

We've been working on making the bedtime routine consistent: bath, PJs, snack, TV, storytime, BED. Here's bathtime:

Here's Jake in his cowboy PJs. How can you resist his cuteness? You can't.

Another nice weekend for a hike

We hiked the Difficult Run trail again this weekend, and brought along the Jackson boys this time. Jake was so excited, he kept running back and forth between them and showing them his 'tricks' like pulling his hat over his face and saying "I'm a pirate!" Here are some more pics from that day. By the way, if you're local and you haven't checked out Difficult Run over in Great Falls, you really should. It's much closer than Shenandoah and the views are comparable to a lot of hikes we've done there. It's short, so a good hike for kids.