The Making of the Gingerbread House

Pizza with friends

Nothing like bringing friends over for some pizza making fun.

We each made our own pizza....yum.

Eating Daddy's homemade pizza

The Feast of the Seven? Fishes

This year, the feast started with lobster sliders....then garlic shrimp...

Seared sesame tuna over piquillo sauce...

Mussels (recipe from Bar Pinotxo in Barcelona)

Arroz negro (with cuddlefish and scallops)

After all that food, no one really wanted the Branzino, so those that were really committed to SEVEN fishes had a small piece of smoked salmon.

Real Hot Chocolate

Last weekend, Daddy was reading me the Dora book "Chilly Day".  The story is about finding their way to the chocolate tree so Dora's Abuela could make her a special chilly day surprise -- hot chocolate. After we were done with the book, Daddy made me hot chocolate.  Yum!

The Box and the Park (by Mama)

We had a wonderful weekend. Both this morning and yesterday morning, we had yummy challah french toast. We bought the challah (or "calah" as Gigi pronounces it) at the Friday Farmer's Market. Gigi's was made into a Mickey mold...even Jordan had some and loved it!


This morning, the french toast was made AFTER decorating the box we painted yesterday....yes, we started decorating at 5:38 am (would have been 5:30 if I didn't need coffee). This box is very special....it arrived a little less than 6 months ago from a local family Mama knows from a special place on the internet. They sent the box for Gigi to decorate, together with a gift for Jordan, after Eliza died. We haven't had the right time to spend together to decorate it, but it was a perfect project for this weekend. We laid low. Yesterday, we painted the box...

while Jordan looked on and played with Camille.

....and today, at a VERY early hour, Gigi remembered less than 20 seconds after waking up that the box was waiting for her to decorate. This was the perfect weekend for us to decorate the box...we had the time and Gigi was asking about her sister, so Eliza was definitely on Gigi's mind. Yesterday, she asked if I could put Eliza back in my tummy and today, before going to sleep, for the first time in months, she asked where Eliza was....she said she misses her....so do I. Maybe she can sense my recent sadness about Eliza. Of course, the sadness hasn't stopped but the mask was on pretty tight and only recently, did the sadness surface more than it had since right after Eliza died.

Abby suggested that if we wanted Gigi could use this as a memory box for Eliza. I don't want to suggest what she should use it for....I am waiting to see what she puts in it.

After the creative juices were flowing, it was time to get some energy out. We headed back to the new park and with great luck, the M and m family were available and joined us. It was quite wet after an overnight rain, but we still had so much fun.

Have you ever seen a more joyful family?

The park even has a way for Mom and Dad to get a workout

Melese was so sweet holding Jordan's hand. They are going to be good buddies. Though 18 months seems like a big difference in age, it is the same difference between Gigi and Zoe who play beautifully together.

And, the best part of the park for Gigi? Shamu is there!

The Feast of the Seven Fishes

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner, pretending we were Italian once again and indulging in the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Our friends, Bryon and Safia and Zoe and family, joined for the feast. We started in the late afternoon.....although I like fish, I was in a steak mood and had Daddy cook me up a yummy steak. I guess I didn't pretend to be Italian!