Christmas Eve!

I cannot believe it is already time for Christmas! Yay!! We are all very very excited in this house. Jordan finally understands the concept of Santa, so she keeps talking about him bringing presents. Ben has no idea, and that's ok, we're so caught up in Jordan's excitement.

Today will be spent baking on my part, and tomorrow cooking. Here's my menu plan (very non traditional!)

Christmas breakfast of french toast made with homemade bread, eggs, bacon.

Christmas dinner:
Samosas
Garlic naan
Chicken Tikka Masala
Lamb curry
Rice

Dessert:
cake
apple pie

And I have to make peanut butter cookies for Santa with Jordan today. We chose peanut butter because it is in abundance at our house, we have 4 containers of it!

Merry baking/cooking to you all!!

Mocha Latte

My mother in law recently sent us an espresso machine for christmas. We wanted one to try and break our Starbucks habit (spending more money than we should have... evil drive thrus!!). I think I am drinking more lattes than EVER now that my husband has perfected his technique and the recipe he found. He's almost at barista competition level, in my opinion.

Tonight he bought the peppermint syrup from Starbucks... heaven!

I would post more but I'm too hyped up on caffeine.... =)

Baby Mamas (Put a Sling On 'Em)

If you appreciate babywearing, you will like this video!

Grandma Ken

When we still lived in Pittsburgh, Grandpa rocked. He took Jordan outside to rake leaves, play with sticks, kick the soccer ball (which was really a volleyball but who in their right mind is going to correct a toddler??), and played blocks with her. He let her run around with her crayons and watch the movie cars over and over again. He was the COOLEST person in Jordan's mind.

But now Jordan sees Grandma more often. It is far easier for my mom to visit us alone than with my dad, so Jordan plays with Grandma, colors with Grandma, and bakes. I realized when we went back to Pittsburgh that Jordan kept calling my dad Grandma. She just cannot say Grandpa. We tried getting her to say Grandpa Ken, but it just came out as Grandma Ken. My dad suggested she call him Red Beard... only problem with that is his beard has not been red for years. So I asked Jordan to say White Beard... So she went from Grandpa to Grandma to White BEER.

Maybe we should try Papa Ken next?

First Snow of Winter

As you can see, we are now getting snow in Illinois! Very pretty but none of it stuck. Jordan was very upset. She wanted to play in the snow. We even bought snow boots today. Her first pair ever!! I'm sure the typical abundance of Midwest snow will make up for her disappointment over the next few months.