Our Lazy Christmas

I'm pregnant.

And tired.

And T has like two weeks off school.

Which means that I'm scrambling to find care for him while I work, get the holidays together, and figure everything out.

Plus, we got home from our vacation when half of December was over, so my usual crafting just didn't happen.

We tried to drive up to Sebastopol to cut down our own tree, see a petting zoo, and drink hot cider.  By the time we got there T was asleep and refused to get out of the car - so we came home treeless.

Ended up at Home Depot.


 This year


Last Year


Two Years Ago

Stopped at Target and picked up some ornaments until I could get my groove on with my spray paint and pinecones.

But it was raining.

And the pinecones were wet.

So I bought some at Walgreens.

Then our tree stand broke and T learned a new word repeated over and over again as the tree almost fell on him.

Then the LED lights we bought so our house didn't fall down were blinding us.

So we unwound them and put on our old lights - housefire be damned.

My project started - spray painting pinecones, and I got about 5 on the tree before I got bored.

And our tree has sat half done for weeks.



But we like it.

Last Year's Tree:


Year Before:


Mellow Christmas Eve at a friend's house with cioppino and way too garlic-y garlic bread.

And a teensy Christmas dinner at our place with Steamed Dungeness crab, garlic bread, artichokes, and a gingerbread pear trifle (yum).

I did it! I made Biscuits!

*Since making this I've made it twice more and updated a few things since originally "published." 

This morning (1/21/13) T woke up and said, "Mama, I want sausage (morningstar patties), egg (scrambled and microwaved for 1 minute), and biscuits." 

I  said, "You mean an english muffin?"

"No, mama, a biscuit - with flour and a bowl." 

So we made them again - and this was our best yet.

Original Post:

My husband is from the south.

His mother makes these yeast rolls that are amazing.  I've tried SEVERAL times to make them and have failed miserably each time.  I've given up at this point.

I kept thinking that making biscuits would be easier.  There's like 4 ingredients, no steps, and all the reviews on all the sites say they are a no brainer.

WRONG.

I've tried Alton Brown's recipes (which rarely fail for me), King Arthur Flour's recipes (they seem like they should be the experts), and countless others.  My husband never criticizes my cooking, but now that he's made fun of my hockey pucks, I know that he actually likes everything I make.

This morning, he's sick and said he was craving bacon (which, um, we never have), but we did have some morningstar sausage patties in the freezer, so I offered to try my hand, once again, at a biscuit, sausage, cheese, and egg breakfast sandwich.

I opened Paula Deen's Food Network page and decided to try once again.  There were only three ingredients and it seemed simple enough.

Problem was, I only had one of the ingredients.

In my normal baking fashion (which is why I fail at baking 99% of the time), I decided to give it a go anyway :)

Long story short, these biscuits were AMAZING - with the sandwiches and with Aunt Pat's Jam (Bubbs' Aunt from Tennessee) and lots of butter.



Here's my adapted recipe:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder (new fresh baking powder, not 4 year old stuff).
• 2 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/4 cups milk/cream/half and half
• 2 tblsp melted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, stir together all the ingredients until the dough forms a ball. Turn the dough out onto a surface dusted with additional flour. Pat the dough down into a rectangle - adding just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to your hands.  Seriously, barely mess with the dough. Gently roll out dough to 1/2-inch thickness.  Fold it over and pat down one more time. Cut the dough into squares with a sharp knife (if you don't have a cookie cutter) or use a biscuit cutter. Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper leaving at least 1-inch between each biscuit. Bake for 8 minutes, or until golden brown.

Melt an additional 2 tblsp butter in microwave.  As soon as they come out of the oven, brush the tops with melted butter.

They were fluffy and delightful.

One possibility was that my baking powder was bad - I used a brand new can here and I think that helped.

Anyway - these are not good for you or hide vegis - but holey moley they were awesome.

Ikea Nasum Boxes - Ugh.

The baskets in this picture?  Nasum baskets from Ikea.

They were amazing.  Sturdy, deep, non-offensive.  The "straw" sometimes came unraveled, but we really liked them.  They held all of T's clothes, cloth diapers, wipes, toys, etc.  When he pulled them out of the slot they were light - so it didn't hurt him like drawers would have.

At $15 a drawer, it was pricy, but so versatile, so when we moved T into the bigger bedroom and the records into the dining room (did we tell you we did that?), we knew we'd use our extra Expedits for the baby's clothes - so we'd have to buy more baskets.

Today, 6 months pregnant, in a rainstorm, I went to ikea to buy a bunch of the baskets - 10 to be exact.  They filled the shopping cart. 

Piled high in my shopping cart, I did the ikea shopping cart crawl back to the car in the pouring rain. You know the crawl - with the basket that wants to chase its tail.  Then rolls away from you in the parking lot and won't stay at your car as you unload.

Drive back across the bay, bring all 10 baskets up two flights of stairs (three trips), put them all together - only to realize that they are now made of cheap crap that falls apart instantly.

%$*%#$

The hinges were once metal.  All 15 of our current ones are made of metal.  Sturdy, screwed into place - awesome.

The current ones?  Plastic "hinges" (really just a piece of plastic folded into a V) and nailed into place - so the bottoms don't fit snugly and the baskets start coming apart moments after you put them together.

I'm pissed.

Now I have to go BACK to ikea.

Not only that, but they don't make the metal hinges anymore.

So, I'll either have to get a different kind of basket, or hunt for metal hinged baskets in ikeas across the land.  I don't want another kind of basket.

End rant about something stupid and insignificant.

Sunnyhouse is ours!

There's no going back now!

We closed yesterday.





We're heading up that way tomorrow to cut down a Christmas Tree and get our keys.  I'm 6 months pregnant - do you think it is wise to start ripping up carpet and tearing down acoustic tiles in my condition?

I'm so looking forward to hot summer nights at the river.

Walking away from our leaking house

As this



And this


(water soaking our garage)

Were happening to our house...

We were here


Completely ignoring it.

Much like the crappy paint job the previous owners put on the inside of the house before they moved, they also did a crappy exterior paint job before we bought it.  The paint all around the house (2 years after we bought it) is cracking and pooling water under it.

We just committed to buying a portion of a falling down river house, have baby coming in four months and an au pair coming from across the world, need to build out our basement to house said au pair, and now we're looking at a full strip, calk and paint job on our house!  Whoop De Doo!  Is it horrible that I'm looking forward to picking out paint colors? 

But...as we're packed and just starting to relax a bit before our 5am flight to paradise, my husband shows me where the rain is actually leaking INTO our house.

Inside the built-ins in the dining room - in a back corner, a giant (like 4in x 4in piece of caulk popped out and behind it a stream of water - and there is more caulk behind that - and the front of the house behind that).  I suppose this is a lesson in not buying a house that used to be a rental.  The owners had no pride in ownership, didn't care about fixing things with long term solutions, etc.

But, we're here in paradise.





It is difficult to get to see my husband's family - they live all over and in difficult places to get to (expensive for three of us and at least two flights and mostly a long ass drive in places where you can't get fresh vegetables, fish, or wine on Sunday).



This is our second "holiday" trip to visit them in a tropical location.

2011 - Sanibel, Florida
2012 - Tulum, Mexico

Bubbs and I honeymooned here and loved every second of it.



And, while we aren't spending quite as much time gazing into each other's eyes, that is actually happening here - with a 2 year old.  This place is magical.

This year we are renting a HUGE house on the beach on Soliman Bay - which is amazing b/c the water is calm and warm and T can safely play at the edge, walk through the water, and be a free-range kid.

He spent the first few days weary of the "waves," the dogs, the new "beach house."

But the dude is ballsy now in a way I've never seen him.

Yesterday, he opened the front door to the house and announced, "I'm leaving for the beach."  He doesn't leave our front door at home!

He's been afraid of dogs his entire life, but is now in love with the dogs that live on the property (though I HATE them since they have woken him up every night with their barking).



He runs back and forth from the water to the sand toys up closer, takes off for "water walks," and has latched onto his auntie, uncle, and grandma, despite only seeing them twice a year at most (plus skype occasionally).




He love "walking his dog."

The place we are staying is fantastic.

Seven days is a long time for vacation, and I honestly wouldn't have loved it if I were not a parent, but I need 7 days to unwind, get into a routine, and really start enjoying myself (by day 3).




The quality time here is something we never get.

Quality time with each other, Tim's family, and our boy.

As we packed for this trip, we kept telling ourselves this was the last one for a long time due to financial obligations.

I'm having a hard time believing that at this point.

More on our trip later - for now my coffee is brewing :)