Christmas without Snow

It's Christmas Day and for the first time ever there is just the four of us for Christmas lunch.  We feel like we are missing a wheel as we usually have Paul's parents with us.  We will be joining some friends for dessert and more drinks later on though.  

We were anticipating Snow would be with us but her Grandfather is sick so she had to go back to China during the Christmas break.  The day brfore she left on her trip we gave her our Christmas presents, which was pajamas, cozy socks, a Coach purse, mint chocolate covered graham crackers and a Terry's chocolate orange.

Santa brought us all some wonderful presents from the Apple store, Lululemon, Athleta, North Face,  Hollister, American Eagle, Banana Republic, Coach, Nordstrom and of course the liquor store....so I guess we must have all been on the 'nice' list this year.

For lunch we had roast beef, Yorkshire pudding (a British side dish which is similar to American popovers), gravy, Brussel sprouts, carrots and roast potatoes.  I have to thank my wonderful husband for taking them helm on the cooking today.  The food tastes much better when you don't cook it.  Dessert will be Christmas pudding, Christmas cake, profiteroles and chocolate sauce, mince pies and cheese and biscuits.

From us and ours, to you and yours....we hope you had a great Christmas and have a happy and healthy New Year.

Thanksgiving

Well, the holiday season is upon us and the frenzy of eating, drinking and shopping has begun. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays mainly because there is no pressure to decorate the house, send cards and buy presents for everyone including the mail man, plus Paul and I get 2 days off work.  Molly and Snow had 3 days off school, so with the weekend that was 5 straight days of not running them to school at 7am - yay!

On Thanksgiving Day we spent the day with our friends, The Wards - Lee, Mandy, Charlotte and Alex. Snow actually is in the same home room as Alex.  A couple of years ago we tried deep fried turkey and now that has become the tradition on this day.  The meat is so moist (probably with all the oil) and the whole bird cooks in 40 minutes....so tasty!  I did spinning at the gym that morning so I could eat without feeling guilty about it.  This as close to a British Christmas dinner as it gets, including the Brussel sprouts.

  

Another reason to love Thanksgiving is Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thankgiving) and any other sale that entices us to spend money we wouldn't otherwise spend.  I hate crowds so I chose to shop on-line on Black Friday and I actually went to the mall on Saturday.  My shopping is still far from being finished, but next weekend is the ladies' weekend away in Maine doing outlet shopping in Kittery and we may just have fun in a bar somewhere in Kennebunkport - just maybe!

Asian food night

On Saturday Snow invited 2 friends, CiCi and Lilly, over to the house.  Now Snow doesn't cook, but CiCi and Lilly do, so they decided to make us pork and Chinese dumplings.  Here is a similar recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pork-dumplings/

The three of them worked solidly for three hours creating one hundred of these artful little packets of pork, egg and Chinese (napa) cabbage.

   Snow and CiCi working hard

          Lily

Here is the finished product, served with a Chinese hot sauce containing salty soy beans - yum!!

Snow hid pistacho nuts inside several of the dumplings, giving luck to the person finding them.  Apparantly I am not very lucky, even though I kept trying my luck 'just one more time' before giving up with a full belly.

I also made shrimp Tom Yum soup which is a spicy Thai style soup.

11/11 - Veteran's Day and Singles Day

Today is Veteran's Day and the kids are off school.  The greatest thing about no school is that I don't need to drive the Molly and Snow to school at 7am so I got to sleep late - well 7.30am is sleeping late to me.  This is one of the rare secular holidays that is also celebrated in the UK, called Remembrance, Armistice or Poppy Day.  In China 11/11 is another celebration altogether known as Singles Day because of the four single digits.  The holiday is known in Chinese as "Guanggun Jie,"  which refers to "bare sticks" — slang for bachelors.  It is celebrated by hanging out with your single friends and gift-giving.  It has recently become the biggest shopping days of the year where retailers offer on-line discounts similar to those offered on the first Monday after Thanksgiving, known as Cyber Monday.

I am just about to head off to Spinning at the gym (the current time is 8am) but I don't expect to see the kids up until late morning.  It took the five of us three hours to clear all the grass and tree areas of leaves so I expect they will be tired.  I love working outside in the fall feeling exhilarated by the fresh air and hard work.  Here is a before and after shot of the front yard.

The kids working hard....

Gun talk

Growing up in England we have not bought into the gun culture and cannot understand the mindset of wanting to keep guns in the house.  It seems like it is every few months that we hear of another tragic shooting and yesterday's shooting at a school in Nevada claimed another innocent life.  I don't care what the constitution says, there needs to be federal laws to restrict high capacity guns and make people responsible for keeping them out of the wrong hands.

As the details of yesterday's shooting was unfolding on the news, Snow was caught up in my ranting as she just happened to be grabbing a snack from the kitchen.  I made it clear that we didn't keep guns and that she should ask whether her host family have guns in the house and if so, how they are kept.  I hope I didn't scare her, but these shootings (and terrorist attacks) seem a little too close to home sometimes.

Homecoming

This past weekend was Columbus Day weekend and also 'Homecoming', which meant for a very busy weekend.  Homecoming is an annual tradition here where people, towns, high schools and colleges come together to welcome back alumni and former residents.  On Friday night the CCHS football team had a home game where there was a celebration for alumni of the school.  This was a perfect time to attend my first football game since both Molly and Snow had arranged to meet their friends there and needed a ride.  Despite not knowing much about the rules I enjoyed the game very much, plus CCHS won which always helps.  Paul was en route back from Holland but next time we'll all attend and I'll  have him explain some of the rules.

On Saturday night the school had their Homecoming Dance, which is a big event as the entire school of 1300 kids are invited.  Although it is a formal event, thankfully it is nowhere near as costly or as time consuming as the prom, which comes towards the end of the school year.  The girls both met up with friends to do their hair and make-up and get hyped up for the evening.

Molly and Snow looking elegant in their dresses

The following day we had arranged to meet up with family at Canobie Lake Park for Screamfest.  We started out with a big breakfast at The Irish Cottage which was a great choice for food at any time of the day.  The breakfast at The Shawsheen Diner is still our favorite, mainly because it was our first American breakfast venue, but this comes a close second and does a wonderful traditional Irish breakfast complete with black and white pudding (if you like that kind of thing!).  Black pudding is blood sausage for anyone that doesn't know.

Molly and Snow having pancakes

Pass the wine!

Today started out very well.  Erin had an impromptu sleepover last night with the neighbor as today was a half-day for her and the high schoolers had a late start (8.40am as opposed to 7.40am), so I ended up sleeping until 6.45am - a full hour later than usual!  Molly and Snow had a ride to school so I didn't even need to made that dreaded school run.  It should only take 10 minutes but it is so congested around the school and the locals drive like lunatics.  Yesterday I was almost mowed down by someone passing a line of stationary traffic on my side of the road.  Idiot!

Up until about 4pm the day was very relaxed - gym, a little work, baked banana bread and prepared vegetables for dinner (more on this later).  Then came my typical running around dropping and picked up kids.  I now have 3 kids, so the after school schedule is very busy, particularly this week as Paul is in Holland so all the running around in on me.  After picking up Molly and Snow from school at 4pm I then dropped Erin at soccer practice at 4.30pm.  Forty minutes later I took Molly to her Youth conditioning class at the gym and returned home briefly to put the vegetable curry and rice on.  I then picked up Erin at 6pm then Molly at 6.30pm.  On the way back home we were caught up behind 2 car accidents that meant we didn't return home until 7.10pm.  Now, on normal day the kids would complain about being hungry and I would have headed straight for McDonald's drive-thru for chicken nuggets and fries.  Since dinner was still 1/2 hr away from being ready I was very tempted, believe me, but my alter ego reminded me how bad processed food is, something that is re-inforced by posts from Wellness Mama and Perfectly Nourished on Facebook every day.

I do like to cook, but sometimes I do myself no favors, today is no exemption, by planning 2 separate meals.  I had been meaning to make toad-in-the-hole for Snow for a while now, and since I had some left-over sausages that is what I had planned for the girls.  I, on the other hand, fancied a vegetarian curry since I enjoy vegetarian food, particularly when Paul is away.  After the first Yorkshire pudding batter failed I had to start over, so eventually we ate dinner at almost 8pm.  I tydied up and made lunches for us all for the following day while the girls finished their homework.  Tomorrow I have the usual school run at 7am followed by work, then after that the craziness begins again.  Despite all the complaining I do, I still feel blessed to have my life and to have my 3 wonderful girls....and not forgetting Paul of course.  Pass the wine!