Lucia Lately (10 months), Christmas, Anderson Wedding and Wilson Baby Shower

 As I post this picture of our building dusted in snow, it already feels like the distant past since the past few days have been balmy enough to melt everything. We have been quite busy this holiday season. It seems like each day of the month was jam packed with great time with family, wonderful visits from friends and fun holiday gatherings. One of my favorite lines from any Christmas song is "there's a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy, when they're passing out the coffee and the pumpkin pie". Random and maybe corny, I know, but I feel like this line captures what I love about this time of year: truly enjoying the season for all that it means, with a sense of contentment and thankfulness. Here's a little glimpse of that...

 Lucia is 10 months old now. She likes crawling, exploring, using her walker, using other items as a walker (such as stools, empty boxes, vacuum cleaners, etc.), crawling under things, 'reading' and 'talking' to herself, singing games, hide-and-seek, having 'conversations', playing on her own, playing with others, being with her cousins and talking on Skype. She getting less clingy and more snugly...a good combo.

She has two teeth now and loves to eat. She eats anything I put in front of her but her favorites right now seem to be cottage cheese and various veggies like butternut squash and corn. She does like meat a lot too. You can tell that she loves something when she eats it with both hands, alternating little pieces into her mouth as fast as I can supply them. With spoon-fed favorites, she makes her own little yummy noise "minnah, minnah" to let us know she wants more and she wants it now! Because she can be pretty impatient when it comes to eating, we tend to use a rice krispie tactic of giving her a whole bunch of rice krispies while preparing the other food since it takes her so long to pick up each piece (cooked quinoa is great for this too, even smaller and more time consuming than rice krispies). This tactic buys us a bit more time before her little "minnah, minnah" and "mmm, mmm" noises turns into screams and shrieks. I'm enjoying this new food phase of making new things for her to try and being able to take her to restaurants since she can eat off our plate now.

And speaking of noises, she makes a lot of them and it seems she can now connect some noises with their meanings. She says "dada" and "mama" and it actually seems that she is connecting it to us...half of the time at least. Matt seems to have taught her 'ball' because when she sees one she says "ba" and has done so enough times that I am half-way convinced. Some other new things this month: she can stand on her own, clap and can mimic gestures and sounds. It is so fun to see her do and learn new things.

While it seems that we are lucky parents to have a pretty content baby, she is not always this way. She usually hates having her clothes changed (a trait that was noticed by nurses on the day she was born), hates having her coat put on, having her hands and mouth wiped after eating and being put in her car seat. And sometimes when we are changing her diaper it sounds as though we are torturing her (I have found that the music mode on her noise maker or a toy seems to mesmerize her for long enough to get things done). Luckily, any screaming she does is usually short-lived. Now that she has mastered the pincher grasp, she is putting everything in her mouth. But sometimes it seems that she is starting to get that there are some things that you aren't supposed to eat, like dust bunnies (ahem...I guess that's my little reminder that it's time to vacuum). Matt and I find pure joy in watching Lucia grow although it always seems too fast. We find ourselves having more and more moments of laughing at the little new things she does and we look forward to the many more we will have.

Here are some pictures from this past month of Lucia and of our December activities:

 Lucia's first Christmas!

Lucia got to eat by the fireside at my Uncle Scott and Aunt Nancy's on Christmas Eve. And Brandy sat next to her to join her.

 Playing on Christmas morning at my mom and dad's house

 Addison and Caroline

 Lucia loves her new toys

 Enjoying her gift from us, a Radio Flyer wooden rocking horse.

 Practicing standing on her own!

 Some cousin time. Notice how everyone is blurry...a lot of action and chaos when they're all together.

 I love this picture of Naomi!

 

 Lucia sits like this a lot now.

 Or like this, ha!

My cousin Beth got married to Rob Anderson on December 29th. It was a beautiful wedding and fun to be with family to celebrate another cousin's wedding.

 Beth looked gorgeous and I loved her dress!

 Gwen and Sonja had fun watching the wedding ceremony. They both said they're favorite part was the kiss. At the end of the night when they ran out to the limo, Sonja asked me "are they going to live in their own castle now?"

 Roger's speech was awesome!

 Of course golf was involved

 First dance

 Then the real dancing began...grandma always has a fun time

 Gwen and Sonja did too! It was a great night! Congratulations, Beth and Rob! Welcome to the family, Rob! 

Another special event this month was celebrating my dear friend Janine and her baby due in February. Emilie, Corrie, Ingrid and I had fun hosting a baby shower for her at our place.

 Janine looked beautiful!

 Lots of yummy food

 We can't wait to meet you, Baby Wilson!

 One super fun part of the shower was having great friends in town. Ingrid was in town from Alaska, Carolyn and Ashley (with son, Manu) came from MN and Christine was in town from Africa! Janine's surprised reaction to Christine was priceless. Here we all are together like we were last year.

Not pictured is Lucia with Christine which also makes me realize that I didn't take any pics from hanging out with Jaime and Ryan either (I guess when I took a picture of the food, I should have also taken some other pics). Lucia warmed up to Jaime instantly so she obviously already loves her. We were also lucky to spend lots of time with Dave who was in town and stayed with us for a week plus we got to see Eddie as well for a bit.

 

 What we were trying to do above was recreate this picture from last year.

 Then Ashley, Christine, Linnea and I had fun taking the kids downtown to see the tree in Macy's, go to the bean and the christkindlmarket. Skating was nixed once we found out the line was 2 hours long. Hard to wait that long with a 4, 5 and 6 year old. We all had fun nonetheless.

Beef Fried Rice

 My love for beef fried rice is inspired by my love for Ron of Japan. So whenever we go, my sister and I study the ingredients and method since it's one of those cook-in-front-of-you-restaurants. I have tried and failed many times to match the recipe and create a batch that tastes just as good as ROJ's BUT this time, this blessed time, I finally finally think I GOT it! So good and so worth the many trials.

The Recipe:

• 2 cups white rice
• 2 eggs
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 large white onion, minced
• salt and pepper
• vegetable oil (not quite sure how much)
• about 6 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 green onion, chopped, for garnish (optional)

The Method

1. Cook rice and cool in fridge for at least a few hours before using (very important)
2. Combine onion and ground beef, mashing together with hands. Add rice and fully combine. Season with a teaspoon or so of salt and a little pepper.
3. Fry eggs in small saute pan, breaking up the yolk a little as it cooks. Set aside.
4. Add a few tablespoons veggie oil, heat and add 1/3 of rice mix. Season with salt. Cook covered on med-high heat for about 5 minutes, allowing meat to brown. Stir and cook covered again about 5 minutes.
5. Season with salt, a few tablespoons soy sauce, stir and allow to cook for another 5 minutes or until meat is cooked and rice starts to get a bit crispy.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 with the other 2 parts of the rice mix.
7. Add egg and garnish with green onion.

Lucia Lately (9 months)

Whoa, where did the time go? We have known our little Lucia for a while now! According to her stats, she is just above average for weight and about 75th percentile for height. She is a busy and feisty little girl who enjoys "dancing" to music and is getting loud! Her favorite noises to make seem to start with 'B', like 'bah' or 'be' and sometimes something sounding like "Buddha" (more like "buddha, buddha, buddha"). She seems to like talking to herself while she plays or in response to us or others. Sometimes she just looks at you straight in the eye, waits a second til you are really looking back at her, and then pronounces "be!". She also loves to hold her right hand up high for a second then smack it down and yell "Bah!" or "Woulda-woulda". There are lots of other sounds but these seem to be her faves for now. She also has learned to use her voice for whining as well little glimpses of tantrums when she doesn't get something that she wants...just a little foretaste of the next phase I suppose. New to this phase is that she gets really clingy with us when we are around other people until she has a little time to get comfortable.

She is still crawling and standing but not quite letting go yet to free stand. She has gotten better at walking along things. She is exploring new places and finding all of the crevices of our apartment...and has the dirt under her fingernails to prove it! She's starting to get the whole cause and effect thing. If she does something that makes us laugh, she laughs then does it again. When she laughs, she has the cutest little dimple above her left cheek. And she really laughs now, like belly rolling, catch-your-breath kind of laughing. We just can't get enough. It is the best sound. 

She still clutches a little sock while she sleeps, a habit that began when she was about 2 months old. Most often when I go to get her in the mornings, she has long ago thrown her pacifier out of her crib but is still holding onto that sock. She now has her mor mor made 'blankie' so we are trying to work that in as well (mor mor is what the grand kids call my mom). She is still a great sleeper (almost 12 hours most nights plus 2 naps during the day). It seems those nights where she wakes up crying are due to her coming teeth. She only has one so far but that is just enough to chomp and chew on food. Now that we have introduced this concept of finger foods, she does not want to go back. When we don't give her something to feed herself, she just goes ahead and tries to get right out of her chair. I'm just glad that she likes eating. I love the bonding that comes from feeding her but I have to say that it is insanely cute to watch her feed herself. She loves all the new foods she has tried and it's fun that she can eat (almost) all the foods that we eat.

Some pics from the past month or so...

Meeting her friend Chloe

Chloe is so cute, look at that face!

Hanging out with my friend Natalia

Attacking her kitty. She does this with all her animals, should we be worried?

Play group at church

Thanksgiving

Lucia always wants to grab the camera now when I try to take pictures so I have a ton of pictures of her like this: blurry and crying.

Getting into trouble

You know, I thought we were done with the warm weather but then we had another 70 degree day...in early December. (Thanks, global warming?)

We went ahead and set up the Christmas tree even though Lucia is the exactly perfect wrong age for a tree. The bottom row of lights are out from her trying to eat them and the ornaments don't start til a few feet up, but it's up! She tends to forget about it if the lights are off.

Naomi slept over last week and the girls had some fun time playing together once they both woke up (they didn't sleep in the same crib, that would have been a little too much fun)

 

At Caroline and Addison's 3rd birthday party. They still call her "Cia", so cute!

She's just one of the cousins

Trying to get a good pic in the mirror...not so much

Happy Lucia Day! (from our little Lucia)

One of the reasons why the name 'Lucia' is special to me is because I grew up celebrating Saint Lucia day at church. No, it is not a Catholic church but this is the one saint that is celebrated. It comes from the Swedish heritage that our church still honors. Sweden celebrates Sankta Lucia on December 13th. I'm assuming most of you reading this blog know about Lucia but I'll tell the story anyway. 

Lucia was a young Christian girl from Italy who was said to have given all she had to the poor and was known to secretly bring food to the persecuted Christians hiding in the catacombs under the city. It was said that she wore candles on her head to light the way. She was martyred for her faith in 304 AD. Lucia means light in Italian which is a fitting name since she brought light and hope to others in need.

There are many stories of how this tradition came to be celebrated in Sweden. One version is that the monks that converted Sweden to Christianity brought the story of Saint Lucia in an effort to change the pagan 'festival of lights' tradition on December 13th into Saint Lucia day. The celebration continues, still representing bringing light and hope into the darkest time of the year and marks the beginning of the Christmas season.

Here's my attempt at taking a 'Lucia' photo with Lucia...

 It was an effort to get her to be by the light without eating the light. That restriction meant there were a lot of photos like the one above.

 We celebrate at church with a breakfast and program that tells the story of Lucia. Here are Sonja and Gwen at the breakfast. They also played a part in the program and did a very impressive job singing in Swedish.

It always ends with the high school girls singing the Swedish Lucia song, one of them taking on the role of Lucia herself complete with a real (and lit) crown of candles. The copper tray and pot carried each year is the one that I inherited from my grandma (who started the Lucia celebration at church many years ago). The tray was a gift for my great-grandmother when her family went on a trip to Sweden without her since she was too young to go. One of the reasons it is special to me is because her initials 'EMJ' (for Elvira Martha Johnson) that are carved into the tray are the same as mine (Elsa Martha Johnson)!

Happy Lucia Day! May we all represent light in the darkness today.

Pesto Avacado Melt

 BEFORE

 The Recipe 

• 2 slices of bread
• Pesto (homemade or store bought)
• 1/2 of an avocado, in chunks
• 5 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• 5 small slices cheddar cheese
• Salt

 AND AFTER

The oozing cheese holds it all together

The Method

Layer up with pesto, avocado, tomato, salt and cheese and throw under the broiler for a few minutes.

This is a great way to use up extra pesto. I sometimes get bored of just using it with pasta. So yummy and so simple. Enjoy!

Spanish Tortilla

Don't let the name fool you. A Spanish tortilla is like an egg casserole with potatoes and veggies except without the half and half or heavy whipping cream. And a bit different of a method. I used a mash up of a few different recipes this time but I'm going to try my best to remember what I did. This recipe is versatile, use whatever veggies you love. 

I used these ones:

The Recipe:

• 4 Yukon gold or small russet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 4-5 mushrooms, sliced
• 8 eggs
• 6-8 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper

The Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Boil potatoes about 5 minutes, remove from water and lay out on a paper towel lined tray in a single layer
3. Heat 3-4 tablespoons of oil on med-high heat, add veggies and season with salt and pepper. Saute veggies until tender, about 7 minutes, let cool
4. Whisk eggs with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, add cooled potatoes, veggies and let sit about 15 minutes (it releases the starch in the potatoes or something)
5. Add 3-4 tablespoons of oil to a large saute pan, add egg mixture, pushing potatoes to the bottom
6. Cook on med-high heat for a few minutes
7. Transfer pan to oven and cook at 350 for about 20 minutes
8. Allow to cool a few minutes. Invert onto a plate to serve