Christmas 2016

Here is Christmas from 3 months ago! Life has been a little crazy...actually a lot crazy but that's a different post. We were living with friends during December so we celebrated together. I think it's going to be a tradition because they came to our house last year. 

Like always my mom makes the kids matching Christmas pajamas. It's crazy to see how much the kids have grown since this picture.

Christmas was on Sunday so we decided to celebrate on Saturday since Sundays are so busy for us with church. The kids opened stockings first.

We filled them mostly with snacks. Unlike tiny toys once they are consumed they're gone. It makes everyone happy.

Rosalie's first Christmas :)

I made our traditional Christmas wreath bread for breakfast. Along side it I made baked eggs with spinach and tomatoes.

Behold! The Christmas pickle. 

Our friends the Wilhelms have a tradition that who ever finds the pickle on the tree gets to hand out the presents. George was the winner.

Mrs. Christen demonstrating how the new toys work.

Everything is for eating, right?

Trying out the new bike helmet while playing with her doll house. Christen and I stayed up late the two nights prior assembling that doll house. It was crazy but we got it done and she was thrilled with it. 

One Morning In Maine

Nathan had the week after 4th of July off so we did a little exploring close to home. One morning we got up and headed over to Kittery, Maine. We had been told by multiple people to check out Lil's Cafe. Apparently they make a mean cruller, and we decided it was time to give it a try. 

 Oh boy! Did that cruller not disappoint! It was by far the best donut I've ever had. We also tried their biscuits with egg and cheese and also a cappuccino. It was a so very yummy and we will definitely be back.

 After breakfast we walked around a bit. We had never explored Kittery yet so it was a fun to see a bit of a new spot.

Folk is a little shop that sells a lot of local and US made items. They had a beautiful straw hat that I really liked but sadly they didn't have my size.

A view of Portsmouth from across the river.

On our way out before heading to the York Zoo Nathan I split a smoothie from Maine Squeeze. It was the perfect refuel before taking on the zoo.

Sadly by the time we made it to the zoo the kids were getting pretty tired. I was hoping to see an elephant, giraffe and maybe a rhino. There were a lot of monkey's and a zebra, lion, and tiger but that was about as exciting as it got.

 Even being tired the kids really enjoyed it. I thought Edith might fall asleep in the Ergo but she's so crazy about animals she was way too excited for a nap.

It was a great day spending time together as a family. I'll take a fun day anytime!

George's Valentines Breakfast

I love Valentines Day. It can be super simple, cheesy, and cheep but I think that's why it's so fun. I was really excited this year because George is old enough to know what's going on. 

I bought him a few things at the dollar store and made him a pink breakfast. 

Pink heart pancakes, grapefruit, and grapefruit juice. This kid LOVES grapefruit!

He also loves balloons.

His favorite toy was a little stuffed robin bird. It's in a strong tie with his penguin from his uncle Phillip. 

New Years Day 2014

George woke us up early. So we used it as an excuse to go out for breakfast. There is a fun restaurant in Portsmouth called The Friendly Toast. They serve pretty much any breakfast item you could want. Unfortunately they were out of biscuits by 8:00 How does this even happen? It was still good but Nathan was counting on biscuits and gravy. 

Everything in the restaurant is vintage/retro 50's and 60's. It's actually the first place we ate at when we moved here. We asked our realtor and this is the place he said we should go check out. 

We spent the afternoon at our friends the Coles eating chili and watching college football. Not a bad start to 2014.

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day 2013

 We had such a good Christmas this year. George was only 5 months old last year so he wasn't really aware of what was go on. He really, really likes lights so that was super exciting for him. Music is also something he really gets into so we had some sort of Christmas music going almost all the time. 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Nathan gets half of the day off and this is what the afternoon looked like.

Dual phone conversations

Late that afternoon we went to our favorite coffee shop for hot chocolate and a snack. George still won't drink hot chocolate.

Christmas Day

We knew that stockings would be George's favorite since he gets really excited about taking things out of bags.

Nathan went all out on my stocking this year. I was in desperate need of a grapefruit knife and spoons.

 

Carrot pecan pancakes, grapefruit, eggs with Canadian bacon and spinach, coffee and eggnog for breakfast

Then a nap for George while I prepped lunch

Favorites for the day: daddy's pliers and

these large stacking blocks

Christmas dinner! We decided to go Italian this year. 

Cavolfiore alla Fiorentina

(cauliflower with tomatoes and black olives)

Anatra in Porchetta

(duck in the style of porchetta)

Which means duck stuffed with sausage, garlic, sage and rosemary then wrapped in bacon

Funghi Trifolati

(sauteed mushrooms with parsley and garlic)

It was freezing cold and cloudy but we decided to go for a little sledding in the afternoon. 

 

George would sit in his sled for hours if we weren't freezing and tired of pushing him around.