Naturally Optimistic

Ahhhh....in the words of Dahlia "doesn't it feel soooo good to be home?" She immediately began playing with her toys that she missed while we were gone (although Grandma & Grandpa  had PLENTY of toys that kept her busy!). It was a great weekend. Got to see (some of) my family, got to do some sewing, got to relax. Ate WAY too much. Enjoyed listening to my folks talk about their Puerto Rico days last night. It was good. Now back to the routine! (oh and getting ready for Christmas!)

Ahhh, Thanksgiving. Another feast is under my belt. Literally & figuratlively. What a beautiful day to drive to Austin. 60 degrees outside & sunshine. Wonderful driving conditions. Traffic was okay. But the best - seeing the kiddos play with Grandma & Grandpa. Seeing Dahlia put on her "shows" for all of us (Great-Grandma too!). Eating such deliciousness. Drinking a glass of wine. And watching the Zip-ee-dee-doo-dah singalong video. I must say it's pretty darn nice. Happy Thanksgiving all! I hope you are all having a wonderful day filled with many blessings!

Although our little family is only a smidge Irish (well, apparently Steve's Mom is 1/2 Irish so he'd be a quarter? Is that how it works? Dalhia & August would be an 1/8? + whatever is on my side...?) Anyway...we love to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. The menu was corned beef & cabbage (of course), potatoes, carrots & Irish soda bread...the bread was "authentic" alright & a bit tough but it tasted pretty good. Maybe I'll get better at making it next year. Dahlia & I made some decorations & hung up some of her artwork from school. She loved decorating the Shamrocks. We listened to the Celtic Traditional Pandora station & feasted with Steve's Mom Carolyn & Roger. The kids were *mostly* good & it was a fun evening. I even made some green spritz shamrock cookies. Oh and there was Bailey's (or 'Merry's' rather) for dessert. Yum!

After a Thanksgiving feast last night of all the classics, I think I am still full. Egads. We had a great time at my Mother-in-laws - Steve's whole family (minus sister Laura) was there! Dahlia & Anders had a ridiculously good time playing together. I swear those two have the same silly sense of humor. We stayed up WAY too late but Dahlia slept til almost 9am this morning, so that was cool. Today Anders (& his parents) visited & we played & played. First with the toys, then we got out the parachute (and the cackling laughter of 2 2-year-olds began) THEN we suited up & went outside to play in the snow. They had a blast. There were tears when Anders had to leave - from both of them. Tonight we're going to eat (again!) pizza & tour Bentleyville (the amazing lighting display at Bayfront). It is BEYOND COOL. I am a sucker for things like pretty lights and THIS is AMAZING. It's free (for one); they give you FREE hot chocolate & cookies, free popcorn ...

I wanted to have a family picture in front of our house, but we just didn't get to it. We barely made it out the door late in the afternoon!!

Happy Easter!

Being of primarily German & Swedish descent in our household, one might find it strange for us to celebrate St. Patrick's Day - BUT - really, I'm just looking for any kind of excuse to make an ordinary day of the week into something special. I love 'special' days, always have - and I'm excited to do fun special things with & for my family. We had guests, thankfully, help us consume the rather large corned beef brisket I purchased (it was the smallest I could find) & I put my new crockpot to good use. Onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic, cabbage and of course the meat. All making my house smell delicious while I was away at work! I love the crockpot! For dessert the pistachio "Watergate" recipe...Light, fluffy & most importantly, green. Miss Dahlia LOVED being the center of attention & put on quite a show during & after dinner. She was also remarkably well behaved...even though she had a bath & went to bed LATE. Needless to say I *...

The corned beef, cabbage & potatoes have been cooking all day in the crock pot. The beer bread is being mixed up. The pistachio cake is baking & the frosting is setting up. Photos tomorrow! :)

...and Santa's Elves were hard at work last night working on Dahlia's Christmas present. A cute little kitchen set that she can bake lots & lots of "Happy Cakes" in & brew many pots of coffee for her Daddy. This doesn't look too hard... Oh, there's a few more pages. Good thing we started "early." All the pieces lined up & ready to go. Hmmm, what's this? I see a bag of "A," "B," "B," & "C" screws.....seems we're missing the "D's" (incidentally used in 'step #1'). ARGH! Back to Target I go!!

Back in Duluth after the long weekend. It was great - hanging out with family, seeing some friends, eating (as mentioned before) and relaxing. I had a lovely time. Tomorrow it's back to reality. Pooey. I can't believe Thanksgiving is done and we're on to the Christmas season!! Crazy! Where is the time going? Okay - bathtime for Dahlia!

I have been eating solidly for 3 days straight. It's great. I do not seem to get full. Well, and if I DO get full, within 30-45 minutes I'm ready for more! Turkey, mashed potatoes, veggies, sweet potatoes, rolls, pie, leftovers, pizza, popcorn, more leftovers, ham, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, salads, more pie, more leftovers - I'm in heaven! And very thankful for no gestational diabetes (at least not yet!)

when I was growing up it was common practice to do "May Baskets." Small, sometimes dixie cup sized, "baskets" filled with candy & a few treats. Maybe some flowers or something. No big deal, but it was fun. We used to deliver them to friends - ring the doorbell and run away. I don't really know the origins of this tradition - I'm guessing English/German/Scandinavian...but in Austin it was done - do any other Austinites remember this? When I moved to LA people had NO IDEA what I was talking about. Likewise here in Duluth. My husband thinks it just sounds weird...like, duh, Easter Baskets (they are so very different). One year, shortly after the Bogotts moved into their house by us, I found two small Easter baskets (or maybe it was just one, I don't remember) on our back patio. I will never forget how the melted chocolate looked on the goldfish cracker. I always remember that incident and think of Andrew running across the field between our houses to de...

Whew! What a week it was last week... Tuesday - Lasagna Judgement - it actually went really well. Everyone was on their best behavior. The only thing that irked me is that my BIL (who also came) drove up to the backdoor and they entered there. Unfortunately this is exactly where I DIDN'T WANT them to be. All of our coats, bags, purses, etc were stashed there. The front door enters right by the Christmas tree & fireplace. Hmph. Oh well. So much for first impressions. Everything else went fine and like I said - they were on their best behavior and it was actually quite enjoyable. Who knew? Wednesday - Steve took the day off and we spent the day packing, making chex mix, raking the roof and getting ready for the trek to Austin. We pulled outta here around 2:30 - only 30 minutes behind schedule. Pretty good for us. We arrived in Austin to 3 babies having dinner and general chaos! haha! Dahlia jumped in on the dinner action. After getting all the babies fed & to bed, the adults ...

To everyone! Have a wonderful & safe holiday!

I almost forgot to post today! That'd be great. Halloween has come and gone. Photos coming soon. My biggest highlight - having an all night babysitter so Steve & I could stay out as late as we wanted (eek) without having to run off to pick up the pumpkin. The biggest lowlight? No f'ing trick-or-treaters! We live on an incredibly LAME block apparently. Hmph. A block or two up from us there were hoards of them! Dahlia shall find her trick-or-treating in another neighborhood methinks. We are finishing the shoot tonight that we started last weekend. Hopefully the Cadillac will cooperate for the WHOLE time we need it. I'm not really looking forward to being up all night- but I am looking forward to being in the 'driver's seat' on the shoot again. It was fun last week and my actors and crew simply ROCK. Okay - too much to do...too little time.

The long weekend has come and gone. *sigh* I wish we had long weekends EVERY weekend. I promise I would not take them for granted! Thursday night Steve & I (and Dahlia) went out for Mexican and then drove by several houses that we're going to look at this week. They always look so much different (better?) in their photos online. *sigh* Ah well, we will look anyway. Thursday evening we sat in the backyard with a lovely fire until all the damn fireworks in the 'hood got too annoying. Friday we lazed around a bit, went for a hike in Chester - Dahlia's first experience in the backpack carrier - she loved it! Then we came home, made rice krispie bars and had a family "nap." Well, "nap" doesn't quite describe it...we laid in our bed, Dahlia in between us and she was kind of spazzy and kicking and very cute. It wasn't exactly restful but it was nice. That night we dropped off Dahlia at "Grandpa Roger's" house and then parked the truck ...

I put our tree up on Sunday (Monday?) afternoon but we hadn't had time to get the lights on and it decorated yet. Steve is the master of all things LIGHTS in our house (from lamps, to dimmer switches, to different wattages & colors of lightbulbs to Christmas lights) and he didn't want me messing with the lead-filled light cords so I waited (mostly patiently) til he had time to get the lights on so I could decorate. I love his preciseness in this task. He makes sure the tree looks lovely & perfectly lit and that makes me happy. I'm much more "slap-dash" about everything myself so it's nice to sit back once in a while and watch a perfectionist at work. Then I come in and throw the ornaments on....and then we fill in the gaps together. I'm so happy to have it up *early* (for us) this year. I wanted to be able to enjoy it before more craziness sets in. I absolutely love the mellow light it throws off and I think it's about time to pull out the Chri...

It's that time of year and I couldn't be happier. Time for decorating, wrapping, Christmas Carols, cards and all the goodies that go along with the holiday season. I don't get sick of it. I love it. I anticipate it. I like feeling warm-holiday-fuzzies, making gifts, giving, receiving, special meals and fresh snowfalls (hopefully!). This year obviously holds extra anticipation and I'm going to try to enjoy every minute of it. This is my super-anal Christmas card list.....going back to 2002 the send/receive list. I always *think* that I'm going to drop losers from my list who I NEVER EVER EVER EVER HEAR FROM....not even once, one time a year in 5 years...but I don't....because I like making & sending cards too much. Basically my list just keeps growing. The card-making has begun and hopefully will be concluded in due fashion.