Quinoa?

I'm sorry that every post this year has involved food. But that is kind of my only creative outlet right now, and it is easy to get excited about. Anyway...

Could I have found the perfect food? I am terrible at planning side-dishes, and Levi hates frozen vegetables, which were always my mom's quick-and-easy sides. So I often find myself standing in the kitchen 20 minutes before mealtime, with two hungry, grumpy kids clinging to my legs and two hungry, tired gentlemen on their way home, with a lovely pan of chicken in the oven, and nothing else. Now, if I had double the chicken, I am pretty sure the hungry gentlemen would not object to an all-meat dinner. But that's expensive. And not very good for us.

Salad? Oops...forgot to get lettuce. Or the lettuce is frozen (my fridge is a little finicky). Better check the cupboards. Hmm, rice? Nope, that takes an hour to cook here, if it ever cooks all the way. Potatoes? Basically the same story.

But there it is, in all of its shelf-stable glory. Quinoa!

It's apparently super-good for you. It's ready in 25 minutes. And the real test? Last night, Levi said, "Man, this quinoa stuff looks really funny, but it's fantastic!"

I'm sold.

Pie

Oh, this mountain weather. I love it. I hate it.

Yesterday, Levi went to see True Grit (a new Western) with some friends. Our little Woodland Park movie theater only shows 2 movies at a time, and that was not one of them, so the guys had to go down to the Springs to see it. It was a glorious day, and if it's 40 degrees here, it's usually 60 down the hill, so we had a big afternoon planned for the kids: a trip to the park in the Springs, maybe go and play around at Garden of the Gods for a few minutes, and then dinner at IHOP (does any kid not like pancakes?) before the guys went to their movie and I brought the kiddos back home for bed.

But then about 10 minutes before our scheduled departure from home, it started snowing. Like crazy. Dumping. This was NOT in the forecast! I decided I didn't want to drive the kids back up the pass by myself in the dark and in the raging snow, so we stayed home (The guys don't care what the weather's like, so they went).

This probably sounds ridiculous, but after a weekend of planning for an evening of glorious fun in town, the prospect of staying home alone with the kids was a bit depressing. To make it worse, we didn't have a shred of junk food in the whole house. Not one bit. Aww, man...

30 minutes later, I went outside to feed the dog, and lo and behold, it wasn't even snow, it was just some hail, it was a freak storm, and the sky was now blue. Sigh. Oh well, too late now.

So we made pumpkin pie.

Heaven on a Bagel

My parents got some smoked salmon from my uncle for Christmas and let us take it home. Bagels and cream cheese have met their perfect companion. It is glorious. That's all.

Ethan Flees from Baby Jesus

The kids at church had their Christmas musical this morning. Very cute. Ethan had his first nativity scene appearance as a reluctant, headless cow. Oh well. We will try again next year. By the way, having tired, teething Emmaline clinging to me the whole morning did not make it easier to get 5 semi-grumpy toddlers into their animal costumes. But we did it! A little creative persuasion was necessary: "Only kids in costumes get to go see the Mommies and Daddies." And "Your Mommy told me it was okay to put your costume on."

If anyone needs interpretation, those pitiful sounds coming from Ethan are "My no like dat!"

After this video, while the other animals stood quietly and respectfully around the manger, Ethan spotted Levi and ran to him. He came back to me after a little while. Then, when the nativity scene was done and we were all going back to the children's department to play, Ethan's desperate screams echoed through the sanctuary. "Daddy! Daddy!"

While Mom's Away...

Our church is doing a drive-through Christmas lights display this year for the community. Last night, I went down to help direct traffic and wave people through the display. It was 3 hours outside in the parking lot (and 16 degrees) so the kids stayed home with Levi. And Joel. And our friend Joel Bannister. No problem, there are 3 adults, only 2 kids, right?

Well...apparently Ethan realized that with mommy gone, slightly less attention would be payed to his whereabouts, and much of the adult attention in the house would be geared toward the basketball game on TV. He seized the opportunity.

Offense 1: Yogurt was swiped from the fridge, fed to the dog, smeared on the dog's head and back, and globbed all over the kitchen floor.
Aftermath: Adults were laughing too hard to dole out appropriate punishment.

Offense 2: Parmesan cheese was swiped from the fridge, carried through the house, and sprinkled liberally in Ethan's bed.
Aftermath: Appropriate discipline was administered. Offender spent the next 30 minutes crying for Mommy. I would not have been sympathetic.

But Emmaline went to sleep for Levi with slightly less screaming than usual, and the Christmas light display was a success! No frostbite, nobody run over in the parking lot (there were some near misses), and about 80 cars came through!

You can still feel the crusty yogurt spots on the dog's back. It may be time for a bath.

Reflections

I caught Emmaline today standing by the shiny oven door, smiling, cooing sweetly, and giving her reflected self slobbery kisses.

She Walks!

It's official! Steps have been taken! If you are thinking, "Aww, I wish I could have seen those precious first teetering steps in person," well, me too! I was doing the dishes and Levi was dishing up some ice cream when Joel called from the living room, "Dude...she's walking."

In other news, we got our first ever Christmas tree on Saturday morning! We packed up the van to bursting (the dog did not fit very comfortably), and headed out to the national forest. Ethan got his picture taken with Smokey the Bear when we stopped to get our permit. When we got to the national forest, Levi and Joel hunted for a tree while Ethan, Emmaline (on my back), and I stomped around in the snow and tried to keep Samson from eating a partially-decayed deer head that some hunters had apparently left behind. Yeah. Gross. Anyway, the tree hunt was a success. It is a little too big for our house (funny how they grow when you get them inside), but it looks nice. Ethan runs straight for it every morning. "Pretty Christmas tree! Mommy turn lights on!"