Christmas break with Grandpa, Grandma and Noi

On Friday December 18th Valerie's school had their Christmas party and the kids sang and danced for all the parents. Well... some of them did. Valerie had missed the week of school leading up to the party and a lot of the rehearsal time, and she froze in front of all the parents and didn't really participate in the show. She stood and looked at us for a few minutes, and then she turned and faced her back to us for the rest of it. She did better than some of the other kids, who ran to their parents crying and refused to even stand up with their classmates, and some who laid on the floor.

On the bright side, she totally rocked her gold party pants.

The 2- and 3-year-olds were kind of a hot mess, but the 4- and 5-year-olds were extremely cute to watch. Then they gave out crowns and presents to the 5 kids having birthdays over the winter break, including Valerie, so that was really sweet too. I found out her best friend at school, Caiya, is actually only 2 days younger than her - their birthdays are December 30th and January 1st. Who knew?

That was the last day of school before they closed for 2 weeks, the same 2 weeks Rich had off from Stanford, and Grandpa arrived that afternoon, much to our delight. We all walked together to pick up Valerie from school and then to Papa Murphy's to get pizza for dinner. I'm fairly obsessed with their gourmet vegetarian. It has artichokes, onions, mushrooms, tomato, spinach and zucchini... soooo delicious.

Our Christmas cards also finally arrived that day from Snapfish. They had forgotten my order and had me stressing until they discovered it, sent me an email to say they were sorry they delayed my order and were express-shipping them to me. I was surprised that I was able to address, stuff and stamp all of them in just about 2 hours and had them ready to mail on Saturday the 19th. Nothing like a little last minute xmas card stress!!

It was an all-around last-minute kind of Christmas this year. I ordered Valerie and her cousins' presents from Amazon the week of Christmas so they would arrive just in time, and I bought wrapping paper from walgreens on Christmas eve and wrapped the candy canes, fruit snacks and M&Ms from Santa that night. The presents from Santa were in gold paper and I got Sofia the First, Disney Princesses and Minnie Mouse paper for all the family gifts. Valerie's favorite part of presents is the wrapping paper. She gets the most excited for the ones wrapped in her favorite characters, so I definitely came through there.

enjoying a few sprinkles

the tree at Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf

We packed the last few days before Christmas with social visits and holiday fun - Saturday morning we got Happy Donuts on our way back from the gym, and then we met Rich's old friend Heather in San Francisco and they took Valerie to the Exploratorium while my dad and I walked around the Fisherman's Wharf area. Sunday was our date night for Rich's birthday, and Monday we went on the Holiday Lights train in Santa Cruz with Anjuli, James and Kalinda, and then to Saturn Cafe, a vegetarian restaurant for dinner. Oh how much I love the vegetarian restaurants here in California!!!! I will miss that scene so much. We got nachos served over sweet potato fries instead of chips (YUM!) and I got a barbecue "chicken" salad... SO much food. I just get so excited at these places, where I can order anything off the menu, that I go overboard. I'm used to having two, maybe three options on the menu at most places. Although I have to admit, that does help make the decision-making process easier.

Valerie and Kalinda had a blast on the train

Santa even stopped by for a picture

Tuesday we went to dinner at some new friends' house in Mountain View and met their son Rush who is about a year younger than Valerie and an adorable cherub with fine blond curls. I brought cookies and champagne, and they made a delicious dinner of sauteed artichokes, salmon, mashed potatoes and green beans. We had a great time with them so I'm sure we'll have them over for dinner soon. They are expecting another little boy in March.

Wednesday we met Angela and Tushar at the Fogarty Winery for a wine tasting, which was enjoyable if extremely chilly. It was too cold to stand outside and enjoy the gorgeous view but always fun catching up with them.

The most hilarious moment was after Rich took Valerie to the bathroom, and she emerged into the wine tasting room full of people and shouted, "I PEED ON THE POTTY, MOM!!!!"  Just keeping it classy at the winery, it's what we do.

Rich's mom and stepdad arrived that night and we got to see them briefly before everyone turned in for the night. Valerie was in her element, with Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa, Grandma and Noi to play with her. It poured rain on the 24th but we sneaked out for a quick walk at the Dish during a break in the rain, which we timed perfectly.

Grandma Julie cooked a fancy dinner on Christmas eve of cheesy scalloped potatoes and ratatouille and Rich made salmon, and then I (with a bit of "help" from Valerie) made the chocolate chip cookies for Santa. I used oat flour, which is my new signature flour I always bake with, and both white and dark chocolate chips. They came out sweet, chewy and super delicious. Here's the recipe I used, which I will definitely use again. I omitted the coffee, and I used only brown sugar and 2 cups of oat flour, and omitted the granulated sugar and flour it called for. Santa gave them 2 thumbs up.

Valerie dictated the note to Santa:

and we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and called it a night.

There isn't much better than Christmas morning with a 3-year-old. Valerie was SO excited to open every present and she wanted to immediately open and play with each one, so it took close to 3 hours for her to open everything. I think her favorite thing was the baby doll from Nana, which she named Caiya. She also got a baby stroller, Cinderella dress-up dress and shoes, sweater dress, train tracks, princess Barbies and ballet slippers which were big hits. It was so much fun just watching and helping her open everything. The grown-ups drank ho-ho-ho-sas (which is what I call champagne with a splash of cranberry or pomegranate juice) and opened one or two presents each. It was lovely.

We went for a walk at Foothills Park that afternoon since it was much drier. It was a bit chilly but sunny and really beautiful. Then we came back and had Grandma's vegetarian chili with bread for Christmas dinner. A successful California Christmas!

Grandpa's birthday, Redwoods at Big Basin, children's museum

We were very excited the first week of November to plan a last minute visit from my dad, whose birthday we got to celebrate on the 10th. It was his first time coming out to see us in the bay and we unfortunately disappointed him with unseasonably chilly weather.

After a scorching hot August and September and a gorgeous October, we saw highs in the low and mid 60s in early November and I finally caved and let Rich turn on the heat in the house.

We also saw some strange, foreign liquid fall from the sky several times, which we had hardly seen since we arrived. The first two Mondays in November were washed out and I drove Rich to Stanford and Valerie to school (normally he rides his bike and Valerie and I walk). The first two times it rained I had to dry off the convertible interior with a towel. Schwoopsies! I got so spoiled by the total lack of rain I wasn't prepared. I am now aware though that on occasion it does rain here and I check the forecast and make sure to put the top up ahead of time.

We keep hearing that a crazy El Nino is coming and we should expect lots of rain this winter but I am sticking my fingers in my ears, singing "La La La" and hoping it doesn't happen. I know, I know, this poor state is in dire need of water, but I just got here from Cincinnati, cut me a break!  I so enjoyed the bone dry late summer. I think I am secretly a lizard and I belong in the desert. That climate does so appeal to me.

On November first we turned the clocks back (for real this time) and Valerie amazingly slept in until 8 am (which felt like 9 am), instead of her usual daylight savings wakeup around 7-8 am. I woke up early as always but greatly enjoyed laying in bed undisturbed until 8 in what can best be described as mom nirvana. I know I have done nothing to deserve the greatest sleeping toddler in the world but I will joyfully bask in my good fortune as long as it lasts.

A few days later Dad booked his flights and he arrived Friday night the 6th. We always love having him stay. He plays with Valerie and is ever so helpful in every way, with cooking, dishes, trash, cleanup, vacuuming, shopping.... if only all parents were so lucky to have a Grandpa this awesome around! We could never thank him enough for all he does and know we really are as lucky as can be.

We drove down to Big Basin to see the redwoods and do some light hiking on Saturday. It was too chilly for me with all the shade from the trees, and walking at Valerie's pace did not allow us to warm up at all. When we found sunny spots I would stop and bask in them; it was SO much warmer in the sun!

The trees were pretty awesome though. I would love to do a longer hike there in the spring when it gets warm again, although the winding, twisty drive there had us all slightly nauseous. On the way home, Valerie complained that her tummy hurt, and that she had "ten babies in her belly." Whenever she gets a stomachache she tells us she has ten babies in there. I have no idea where she got that from but it cracks me up every time.

We went out to Fiesta Vallarta, our favorite Mexican spot in downtown Los Altos, for dinner that night and enjoyed a pitcher of margaritas and excellent food on the patio.

Sunday it rained and we took Valerie to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose since I had bought some groupons for discounted admission. This was not the best idea because everyone else with a toddler in the bay area had the same idea. They were having a Diwali celebration that day, and I have never seen such a crowded children's museum. I don't typically get claustrophobic but this was a horrible experience, waiting for every exhibit and feeling scrunched by all the people in my personal space. Once or twice Rich and I made eye contact: "kill me now." This kind of place on this kind of day will deter anyone from ever having a child.

I would never go back there again if I could avoid it, but I will admit it didn't seem to bother Valerie; she had a great time. I am just glad we had the discounted tickets because I would have been pissed if we had paid full price for that experience. She enjoyed herself, which is what matters. Rich, my dad and I could not wait to get the heck out of there.

It rained again Monday and we eagerly awaited some sun on Tuesday, Dad's birthday. He said he would like salmon and salad for dinner - two things he and I can always agree on - and I found a recipe I thought he would like, for a salmon BLT salad. It came out really good. Salmon with a rub of brown sugar, salt, pepper and paprika, with avocado, bacon, tomato, ranch dressing and walnuts. DELISH. No bacon on mine, of course. We just gave Valerie some salmon and bacon and she was happy. No lettuce gets past her lips yet.

She "helped" me make the chocolate cake from scratch with ground oats for flour, and I also made chocolate buttercream frosting, with half coconut oil since I ran out of butter. I found a great recipe which I will definitely use again  - no boiling water, no coffee, no creaming butter and sugar - the easiest cake-from-scratch recipe I could find. And it came out so good!

We sang happy birthday, Valerie got to help Grandpa blow out his candles and the birthday was a success! We are so glad we got to celebrate with Grandpa.

Festive Fall Dinner Party

We had such a fun weekend last weekend! It got off to a great start on Friday night with our newly married friends Angela and Tushar, who came over for dinner. Rich went to grad school at MIT with Angela and we have loved living close by her this year! They have had a busy few months getting married, moving in together and traveling to Seattle and Taipei so we look forward to seeing more of them when their travel schedule lightens.
I planned a festive fall themed menu for our dinner and it came out quite delicious if I say so myself! I made drunken pumpkin chili, pumpkin cornbread with honey pecan butter, salad with apple, pecans and blue cheese, and honeycrisp apple sangria, and we had mini cupcakes from Sprinkles Cupcakes for dessert.

I was going to have shredded cheese and cut-up avocado as sides for the chili, but that day I discovered the cheese was moldy and the avocado wasn't ripe yet, so no dice on those. We did have sour cream on the side at least.

I made the chili on Thursday so it had a whole day for the flavors to meld in the fridge and I thought it came out quite good. I threw in all kinds of ingredients; I'm not sure if I can remember everything that went into it!  Chili is always a smorgasbord of all the fresh vegetables, grains and legumes I have handy. I chopped an onion, a bell pepper, a tomato, three carrots, and half a large sweet potato, and started sauteing those. I added two cans of chickpeas, two cans of black beans, the remainder of a bag of quinoa, some oat bran, a can of pumpkin puree, an Oktoberfest beer, a jar of tomato sauce, some Tofurky kielbasa, and some water for the quinoa and oat bran to soak up. For spices I added chili powder, cumin, coriander, oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I'm sure there were more ingredients but that's all I remember now! After a few hours simmering on the stove it smelled warm and inviting.

I failed to take a picture of the chili - this one is from Sweet Pea's Kitchen. It looked kind of like this.

While the chili simmered I also made the honey pecan butter (which is just honey, butter, and pecans blended together in a blender or food processor) and the salad dressing, which was inspired by the best salad I shared a while back.

¼ cup vinegar (any type) - I used apple cider vinegar
½ cup chopped parsley  - I used half parsley and half basil
¼ cup red onion/shallot, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup sugar - I used some agave nectar, less than 1/3 cup
½ cup oil
½ tsp. oregano
Salt & pepper to taste

It's also just all thrown in the blender. My blender got a workout on Thursday. 

On Friday, I made the pumpkin cornbread. I don't bake very often and I hate the mess of flour, so I decided to try grinding oats in the blender to make oat flour instead of using all-purpose flour for a healthier twist. It was a success!  I can't wait to try making all kinds of whole grain flours this way. It was super easy, and I didn't have to buy flour! I used this recipe from sweet pea's kitchen and I would definitely make it again. It was easy to throw together, pretty healthy and TASTY with the honey pecan butter. Although, to be totally honest, that honey pecan butter makes EVERYTHING you put it on taste amazing. My friend Lindsey introduced me to that idea a few years ago and I have been keeping it in my back pocket ever since. 

honey pecan butter

pumpkin cornbread - picture by Sweet Pea's Kitchen

I also made the sangria, and rimmed the glasses with cinnamon and sugar. My favorite party trick! Rimming glasses is so easy and really takes the fancy factor up a notch. I used this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction and of course modified it to match what I had since I did not have brandy. Instead I added some triple sec and cranberry vodka. 

We had a blast catching up with Angela and Tushar, and hearing stories about boarding school days and learning Chinese growing up. Always a great time! 

We had the red velvet and caramel apple mini cupcakes... mmmm