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So, many things.
There was Christmas. There was a wedding. There was a lot of food. I think I may have actually gained 3 pounds in a week, which may result in the OB having words with me on Friday, we'll see.
This is totally turning into a food porn post, by the way.
My in-laws came over for brunch the weekend before Christmas. Chuckro had come up with a high-concept brunch idea that I think worked pretty well--Christmas dinner for breakfast. Fried ham, sweet potato pancakes (not sweet potato latkes, but pancake versions of sweet potato bread), cranberry sauce. I did an awesome winter fruit salad I was really happy with--Anjou pears, Asian pears, and pomegranate seeds with a little bit of lemon juice, vanilla, and crystallized ginger. Wintery and gorgeous, with all that white fruit sparkling with little red jewels and tiny sugar-encrusted ginger bits. Plus mulled cider and Christmas cookies. I hope they liked it--it was perhaps a little fussy for them, but it was such a pretty brunch.
My own parents came up for Christmas itself. Chuckro was starting to come down with a cold the night before, so we did a super-low key Christmas Eve. (Which was all I really wanted, anyway--I just wanted some cocoa with a candy cane in it and some cookies and to curl up on the couch.) Fortunately, the fact I made him sleep for most of the early evening paid off, and he was a lot more chipper the next day.
We did the traditional family homemade waffles for breakfast, plus orange and maraschino cherry salad and apple champagne chicken sausage. (And cookies. The cookies play a heavy part in this narrative.)
We didn't do the official wine tasting dinner this year, since it was a small party, I can't drink, and Chuckro didn't want to risk drinking much given that he wasn't sure if he was getting sick. (Plus he managed to stand up into the handle of our new fridge and possibly give himself a very minor concussion, which he fretted about for the next day or so. He had a very pretty lump.) Instead, we did a riff on the kids' menu--really sophisticated takes on pizza, mac and cheese, hamburgers, and cookies and milk. We did three flatbreads--mozzarella/fig/honey, mozzarella/pumpkin/nutmeg/sage, and smoked mozzarella/beef bacon/green apple. Then a baked mac and cheese souffle kind of thing with caramelized onions and more of the bacon, using very sharp cheddar and smoked gouda. Then beef sliders seasoned with truffle salt and topped with mushrooms in a truffle oil/port reduction and turkey sliders glazed in honey mustard and topped with avocado, plus creme de menthe/creme de cacao milkshakes with peppermint whipped cream. (I had plain vanilla.) Finally, chocolate chip cookie dough cream pie--Oreo crust, raw eggless cookie dough, brown sugar custard, whipped cream, topped with little bitty mini cookies.
The next day, my parents helped put together a bunch of the nursery furniture, by which I mean they put it together and I occasionally held things in place and tried not to pass out too much. (I'm sleeping really badly at this point, and spent the better part of that day spaced out and dizzy.) My mom even managed to figure out how to take down the truly disgusting Venetian blinds that had been totalled by water damage from the leaky roof months back and washed them and rehung them because she's the best mom ever. I'm no longer worried about Smidge getting sick off the stupid blinds, or people staring at me judgmentally when they see exactly how filthy the blinds in the nursery were. So happy. We didn't finish--unfortunately, some of the pieces of the changing table arrived broken and we have to wait for the manufacturer to send new ones. But the crib and the glider are together and Chuckro rearranged the room into a new configuration that makes a lot more sense for our current needs, because he's smart like that.
Then we all trooped up to Boston for my uncle's wedding. (This particular uncle happens to be gay. He also is an incredibly awesome guy all around, and has been particularly kind to me and my brother throughout our lives. And his last relationship ended in a really ugly fashion for reasons that were not his fault. His now-husband is about the sweetest guy in the world, so we were all particularly thrilled to be able to celebrate this with him. It just really felt like he got the happy ending he deserved.)
There was the usual bouts of minor family drama--my nuclear family is generally relatively low drama, some of the extended family less so. Nothing worse than eye-roll inducing, though. Half the family was sick at one point or another, which could have gone better, but nearly everyone managed to rally for the wedding itself. And I'm proud of us as a clan--we closed down that dance floor, even after the snow outside made the world outside the windows completely disappear. (Total whiteout.) I did quite a lot of dancing for an eight-and-a-half month pregnant lady, and I'm rather pleased with myself.
And there was brunch, of course, which involved a ridiculous amount of ridiculously good food, because my uncle and his husband are complete foodies. (One of the many things I love about them.) So much food.
I think at this point, I'm kinda glad that the holidays are almost over. There's been perhaps a little too much food every day and not enough exercise. The deeply problematic sleep is not helping. (I suspect the overeating has been making the heartburn worse, so if I can get back on a more normal food schedule, maybe I won't spend quite so much time feeling like my throat's on fire.) We've managed to see an awful lot of people, both family and friends, in the last month, and I got All The Things (cards, crafts, decorations, tree, presents, wrapping, baking) done. Now there's just New Year's. And my birthday. And Smidge's birthday. Gulp.
I kind of suspect Valentine's Day is getting skipped entirely this year. Maybe we'll have heart-shaped pancakes or something. I can't imagine we'll be able to handle much more than that.
There was Christmas. There was a wedding. There was a lot of food. I think I may have actually gained 3 pounds in a week, which may result in the OB having words with me on Friday, we'll see.
This is totally turning into a food porn post, by the way.
My in-laws came over for brunch the weekend before Christmas. Chuckro had come up with a high-concept brunch idea that I think worked pretty well--Christmas dinner for breakfast. Fried ham, sweet potato pancakes (not sweet potato latkes, but pancake versions of sweet potato bread), cranberry sauce. I did an awesome winter fruit salad I was really happy with--Anjou pears, Asian pears, and pomegranate seeds with a little bit of lemon juice, vanilla, and crystallized ginger. Wintery and gorgeous, with all that white fruit sparkling with little red jewels and tiny sugar-encrusted ginger bits. Plus mulled cider and Christmas cookies. I hope they liked it--it was perhaps a little fussy for them, but it was such a pretty brunch.
My own parents came up for Christmas itself. Chuckro was starting to come down with a cold the night before, so we did a super-low key Christmas Eve. (Which was all I really wanted, anyway--I just wanted some cocoa with a candy cane in it and some cookies and to curl up on the couch.) Fortunately, the fact I made him sleep for most of the early evening paid off, and he was a lot more chipper the next day.
We did the traditional family homemade waffles for breakfast, plus orange and maraschino cherry salad and apple champagne chicken sausage. (And cookies. The cookies play a heavy part in this narrative.)
We didn't do the official wine tasting dinner this year, since it was a small party, I can't drink, and Chuckro didn't want to risk drinking much given that he wasn't sure if he was getting sick. (Plus he managed to stand up into the handle of our new fridge and possibly give himself a very minor concussion, which he fretted about for the next day or so. He had a very pretty lump.) Instead, we did a riff on the kids' menu--really sophisticated takes on pizza, mac and cheese, hamburgers, and cookies and milk. We did three flatbreads--mozzarella/fig/honey, mozzarella/pumpkin/nutmeg/sage, and smoked mozzarella/beef bacon/green apple. Then a baked mac and cheese souffle kind of thing with caramelized onions and more of the bacon, using very sharp cheddar and smoked gouda. Then beef sliders seasoned with truffle salt and topped with mushrooms in a truffle oil/port reduction and turkey sliders glazed in honey mustard and topped with avocado, plus creme de menthe/creme de cacao milkshakes with peppermint whipped cream. (I had plain vanilla.) Finally, chocolate chip cookie dough cream pie--Oreo crust, raw eggless cookie dough, brown sugar custard, whipped cream, topped with little bitty mini cookies.
The next day, my parents helped put together a bunch of the nursery furniture, by which I mean they put it together and I occasionally held things in place and tried not to pass out too much. (I'm sleeping really badly at this point, and spent the better part of that day spaced out and dizzy.) My mom even managed to figure out how to take down the truly disgusting Venetian blinds that had been totalled by water damage from the leaky roof months back and washed them and rehung them because she's the best mom ever. I'm no longer worried about Smidge getting sick off the stupid blinds, or people staring at me judgmentally when they see exactly how filthy the blinds in the nursery were. So happy. We didn't finish--unfortunately, some of the pieces of the changing table arrived broken and we have to wait for the manufacturer to send new ones. But the crib and the glider are together and Chuckro rearranged the room into a new configuration that makes a lot more sense for our current needs, because he's smart like that.
Then we all trooped up to Boston for my uncle's wedding. (This particular uncle happens to be gay. He also is an incredibly awesome guy all around, and has been particularly kind to me and my brother throughout our lives. And his last relationship ended in a really ugly fashion for reasons that were not his fault. His now-husband is about the sweetest guy in the world, so we were all particularly thrilled to be able to celebrate this with him. It just really felt like he got the happy ending he deserved.)
There was the usual bouts of minor family drama--my nuclear family is generally relatively low drama, some of the extended family less so. Nothing worse than eye-roll inducing, though. Half the family was sick at one point or another, which could have gone better, but nearly everyone managed to rally for the wedding itself. And I'm proud of us as a clan--we closed down that dance floor, even after the snow outside made the world outside the windows completely disappear. (Total whiteout.) I did quite a lot of dancing for an eight-and-a-half month pregnant lady, and I'm rather pleased with myself.
And there was brunch, of course, which involved a ridiculous amount of ridiculously good food, because my uncle and his husband are complete foodies. (One of the many things I love about them.) So much food.
I think at this point, I'm kinda glad that the holidays are almost over. There's been perhaps a little too much food every day and not enough exercise. The deeply problematic sleep is not helping. (I suspect the overeating has been making the heartburn worse, so if I can get back on a more normal food schedule, maybe I won't spend quite so much time feeling like my throat's on fire.) We've managed to see an awful lot of people, both family and friends, in the last month, and I got All The Things (cards, crafts, decorations, tree, presents, wrapping, baking) done. Now there's just New Year's. And my birthday. And Smidge's birthday. Gulp.
I kind of suspect Valentine's Day is getting skipped entirely this year. Maybe we'll have heart-shaped pancakes or something. I can't imagine we'll be able to handle much more than that.
