Christmas Baking

I was able to fit in a little Christmas baking this week after AM went to bed. Thankfully she goes to bed at 7:30.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday
Happy Christmas!

Annmarie's Funky Dance

to James Brown Christmas.

Oh Christmas Tree

For the last few years we have gotten our Christmas Tree at the Delancey Street lot at Pier 32. We have found them very helpful and convenient. We got the tree last week on the 12th and it had been sitting undecorated for the past week, but we got it all spruced up this last weekend.

This year we used the pictures we took at the lot for our Christmas card.

And here are some of the other pictures we took.

We let AM run around the pier.
Saturday morning we decorated the tree. I suckered Jamie in stringing the lights, while I supervised and ensured that AM didn't destroy any of the ornaments. AM was actually very delicate with the ornaments and picked out her favorites. One is this green ball that opens and is like a music box and her baby's first Christmas ornament, that has a little baby sleeping in a bassinet. She asks to see them at least a hundred times a day.

All done!
Some of my favorite ornaments are the ones Jamie and I got back in Germany, this coo-coo clock is one of them. I mean, the Germans did invent Christmas. I kid, bad inside joke. At night.
Kissing the baby.

Can I take your picture with the Santa hat?

No!
Please.

No!
Come on.

Noooooooooo!
Grrrrrr.

Feeding the Ducks

A couple of weeks ago we took Annmarie to Golden Gate Park to feed the ducks.

It was a beautiful clear evening.

She wasn't into feeding the ducks.....
All AM wanted to do was run.
And run.
And run.
Jamie thinks she is ready for her first 100m.

Santa

I thought for sure she would freak out. But as you can see Annmarie was pretty indifferent to Santa. We gave her a candy cane and she was all, whatever.

Jamie's company had a holiday party for the kiddos. They brought in Santa, had a balloon maker, face painting, a cookie decorating station, and a table of sugar and sweets that would make any kid's head spin.

This is the Polaroid that they gave us that I scanned in. It was an actual Polaroid camera. I thought they stopped making those? I like the vintage look of the picture. And poor girl still has a runny nose and breaths out of her mouth.

I tried taking some pics too.
Santa trying to get AM to look at me. :)
And here is the cookie AM and I made. AM added the sprinkles and strategically placed the M&M's on the cookie. And then she kept taking the M&M's off and on until she realized she could eat them.

Dinner Party - Holiday Vegan Style

Saturday night we headed over to the Hoopers' house for some holiday vegan cheer with great friends.

Here's the cute couple. Lauren out did herself with a four course spread. Gotta love that girl! And Cole, well, he makes us laugh, so we love you too.

Now it's time to get my Vegan on.

We started out with a lentil soup and corn muffins. And I'm lovin her dinnerware.A spinach salad with a delightful orange infused dressing.
Then for our main course we had these beautiful acorn squashes stuffed with vegan sausage, kale, currents and pine nuts. Super delish and very filling.
During dinner we discussed very important world topics, such as Tiger, fantasy football (bleh), Twilight and the snow fall in Tahoe.
And for dessert, we had this amazing goodness. A pumpkin puree with saltine cracker toffee. Yum!

NOTE: This Saltine Cracker Toffee is so good and so easy to make. Make it for the holidays. People will love you. Go here for the recipe.

Also, Bonnie bought us all ornaments, aren't they pretty? Thanks Bonnie.
And a big thanks to Lauren and Cole for a wonderful dinner and fun night!

Annmarie's 2nd Birthday!

by Annmarie

I turned two on Friday and it was pretty awesome. Mom stayed home from work and spent the day with me and my runny nose. Mom made these cupcakes for me, but I had to wait all day to have one.

We hung out and played.
And when Dad got home from work we opened some presents.

Grandma and Papa got me this neat number puzzle and a santa hat.
Dad got me this bus. Man do I love buses. We never really ride them, but I see them all the time driving around the city and like to point them out.
My buddy Colin got me this cool cat.
I received some other nice things from family and friends. Thanks guys! Mom is helping me with the thank you notes, but she's pretty busy, I'll try to remind her to get those done.

Finally after dinner I was able to have my cupcake and ice cream. But Mom did something so crazy and almost ruined my cupcake.

Seriously, why would you add fire to my cupcake.

I mean all I wanted was my cupcake and ice cream. That's it. I'd been waiting all day for this moment.

Once the fire was out, I was fine.

I love ice cream. But really, who doesn't?
That's pretty much it for Friday, but I'm not done yet.

On Saturday I woke up and there was more fun to be had.

I got to wear my new t-shirt that Mom got for me. I really like the number two, so thought the shirt was pretty cool. And you really can't tell from this picture, but I'm modeling some new brown boots that Mom got for me.

I played with my bus. And I still had a pretty good runny nose.
And then Nana, Uncle Jon and Andrea came over for brunch.
Mom made a strata, pototoes and berries.
I wanted all my new bus buddies at the table.
I got to open more presents. And I gotta tell you opening presents is pretty darn fun.
Uncle Jon got me some Play-doh. Way cool.
Fun. Fun. Fun.
Cute shirt. I like the colors.
Then I got this very cool frog hat, but I had Andrea try it on first.
Ok, what do you think? Is it me?
Then I got to open this big box from Nana.
A doll house! My two favorite things about his house by far are the potty and the door bell. And who knew Uncle Jon was so good at playing doll house.
Mom told me I could have another cupcake and ice cream. But she tried to ruin it, AGAIN! Why? Why would she do this to me?

Fire and cupcakes are not a good thing.

Ok, it's out and I'm feeling a little better.
Now just let me enjoy my cupcake.
Hmmmmmmmmm.
It's all good now.
So, that's what we did for my birthday. I liked it. No big party this year and I was ok with that. I got so many nice things and Mom and Dad let me have ice cream and cake two days in a row!