christmas eve, we made our traditional dinner of shrimp and grits with bacon and sherry, as well as some carmelized brussel sprouts. since oliver is but a babe, he had fish sticks instead (they were organic, so does that count for something?). he did help me finish my grits, though; a true southern gentleman. 
after dinner, we opened one present each. bryan, eager as always, likes opening a gift on christmas eve. i prefer to do them all on christmas day. i buy the family new pjs every year, so our compromise is to open those on christmas eve. i sent hannah hers in the mail, so we could all wear our new pjs on chritmas eve. oliver wasn't entirely clear on what to do with the gift, so we helped him open it. we all got changed into our new cozy pjs, and cuddled up to read some bedtime stories.
after oliver went down, bryan and i set up all the presents (just a few, you know). then we crawled into bed to wait for santa.
christmas morning, oliver woke up around 6 as usual, and took a little time to wake up fully. i had bought him a stuffed blue from blues clues, his most favorite show, and he was throwing a hissy fit sitting about a foot and a half from it. he finally saw it, stopped crying, got a big grin on his face, walked up to blue, squeezed her, and said "boooooooooo." CUTEST. THING. EVER. that pretty much made christmas morning. then he walked around the house for awhile, dragging blue, and saying "boo, boo, boo!" we got him interested in opening presents, and by the 3rd gift, he had it down pat (and once he made it through his presents, he proceeded to help us with ours, then go after hannah's).
after we got through all our presents, we sat down to breakfast - pork pie and sour cream twists, courtesy of mom. this is the traditional christmas breakfast from my childhood. true to form, oliver gobbled up the pork pie. i'm pretty sure he has a genetic predisposition to love pork.
we spent the day playing with oliver's new toys. he received an adorable chef's outfit, and wandered around the house in the full getup for awhile, which was pretty much ridiculously cute. at some point, he lost the hat, mits, and apron, converted the spoon to a sword, and picked up the lid to our hamper and used it much like a shield - it was sir oliver in action! he even chased the dogs around for awhile. i couldn't tell if they were his trusty steeds, or the dragons.
after oliver's afternoon nap, we loaded everyone up in the car (including the dogs) and headed to mom and dad's house for christmas dinner and even more presents.
christmas dinner was perfect. mom made glazed ham and her rolls, and we helped shannon with roasted asparagus and roasted green beans. shannon made mashed potatoes and butterflied fresh polish sausage sauteed in butter with onions (yes, it's as good as it sounds). bryan and i agreed it was the perfect amount of food - usually for holidays, there are so many options, you eat but a tablespoon of 
everything. this was the perfect amount of variety, resulting in a true meal. for dessert, shannon made a flourless chocolate cake with pomegranate gelato and a warm chocolate sauce, topped with fresh pomegranate seeds. it was positively divine, and so we all found room to have a hearty helping.
after dinner, there were more presents with dad's family, playing with toys, drinking wine, and chatting. oliver was fascinated with my cousin's son, ryan, who is 2 weeks older than him. although oliver has 6 young children to play with at day care, they are older than him, so i think kids his size are an exciting thing. at one point oliver was petting ryan and giggling wildly. cute kids!
the next morning, hannah arrived! while she was prepared for how much oliver has grown since she last saw him in august, we were not prepared for how much she had grown in the same amount of time! the girl had a serious growth spurt. she's going to be a tall lady. i can't believe she'll be double digits in august. we came straight home to open presents.
that night, we had mom, dad, and shannon over for dinner. at hannah's request, i made her favorite macaroni pie, a baked pasta dish with ham, peas, and plenty of cheese. i even made a dairy free version of a cream sauce for dad, using lactaid milk and a cornstarch slurry. it was a big hit with everyone. after dinner, hannah got her presents from mom and dad. 
we spent the weekend hanging out. shannon had us over for dinner that saturday night, to make pizza (another request from hannah). shannon makes a macaroni and cheese pizza, which sounds like carb overkill, but it's really just very scrumptious. shannon, ftw.
sunday was mom's family christmas party. hannah had a blast running around with all the cousins (they spent a lot of time outside even though it was about 10 degrees), and oliver had a blast cruising around the party, trying to make friends with the older boys (and their toys) and generally charming everyone. some of the aunties even slipped him some chocolate treats, much to my chagrin. i had a lot of fun chatting with my cousins.
i had taken the week off of work, but monday bryan took oliver to day care since i
had to get a few things done for work, including a 2 hour afternoon conference call. first, though, hannah and i made our own homemade marshmallows. they are very easy to make, and infinitely better than store bought ones. where store bought marshmallows are dry and spongy, 
these are rich and creamy. i'm pretty sure that i will never again buy marshmallows. the toughest part was cutting them into cubes ones they had set, as they are very, very, very sticky. a quick roll in confectioner's sugar helps deal with that for storing. i finally got around to trying some with hot chocolate just yesterday, and they puff up and melt into a delicious goo all across the top of the drink. jen, ftw.
monday evening, hannah got sick. my cousin jamie was also sick so we think they picked something up at the party on sunday. poor girl was up most of the night. luckily, it was a 24 hour thing, and passed relatively quickly.
the following day, tuesday, mom came to babysit oliver while bryan, hannah, and i went downtown to the history museum to check out the titanic exhibit. while some of the things they had were pretty neat to see, and we read some interesting facts, i was very glad that as members we paid a discounted admission price to the exhibit, because if we had paid the $60 or so it would have cost us full price, i would have been very disappointed. hannah got to touch a large piece of ice simulating a glacier, though, so she was thrilled.
after the museum, we headed to glorioso bros. italian deli. this is the kind of store bryan and i love. meats, cheese, wines, dry goods - all sorts of things to get excited about. it's the kind of place where we have to constantly remind ourselves not to get too carried away in. we bought some aged provolone, coppa, calabrese, dry salami, prosciutto, olives, octopus salad, and a red table wine for our new year's eve meal.
i also went to the greek deli around the corner, and picked up some freshly baked pita bread, feta, grape leaves (which bryan stuffed with rice), tzatski, and kasseri cheese and ouzo, for bryan to make a saganaki with.
for dinner that night, we had homemade chicken fingers with homemade honey mustard, homemade thick cut french fries (i'm noticing a pattern here), and spaghetti squash, another of hannah's favorites. turns out oliver is a fan, too. and yes, i eat my fries with mayo.hannah helped give oliver a bath after dinner, and he finally got the mohawk bryan's been begging me to let him have:
the following day was new year's eve. mom, dad, shannon, and her boyfriend david joined us for dinner. in addition to the aforementioned goodies, we had some dried fruits and nuts, an italian pickled vegetable salad, roasted red 
peppers, and hummus. mom made rosemary foccacia and ciabatta breads. everyone stuffed themselves. for dessert, mom brought a gluten free berry pie, to celebrate dad's birthday. we gave him a frame with pictures of me and oliver, and poems about being a dad and grandfather. no one made it until midnight. hannah crashed around 9:30, and i think we were in bed, asleep, by 10:30. what can i say, we're boring.
the next morning, we celebrated by having french toast casserole for breakfast, at hannah's request, along with sparkling grape juice and bacon. i made a blackberry sauce (instead of raspberry, as called for in the recipe). we all liked it, but i think i can make it better. i have the distinct feeling that bryan won't mind me practicing. once again, oliver delighted in his bacon. really, who in their right mind doesn't delight in their bacon??
for dinner, we had our traditional new year's day meal, to bring luck: corned beef (homemade), greens (mustard this year), black eyed peas, and sauerkraut (also homemade). shannon and david joined us, and brought the makings for blackbery mojitos. they can come over whenever they like.
friday, we headed back to the museum, this time with oliver in tow, to check out the normal exhibits. we got to check out the hebior mammoth, a pretty cool local find with some serious historical significance. we let oliver out of his stroller to run free for awhile, and run free he did. he had a blast running up to each display case to peer in for about 3/4 of a second, then run off to the next one. bryan likes to take his time in museums, and thinks i'm fast. oliver put me to shame. we also went into the butterfly room again, where one landed on hannah and two landed on oliver (presumably they didn't know he is a 14 month old boy with a penchant for exploring things in detail). he had a LOT of fun running around the room trying to catch them all - again, very, very cute!
as it was shannon, david, and hannah's last night in town, we went to mom and dad's for dinner, where shannon made her most awesome pesto lasagna, using some of bryan's pesto (made with basil from our garden). cheesy goodness, that's about all i can say. so good. oliver scarfed down a whole piece himself. he had fun chasing the cats around both before and after dinner (in his super cool new rock star pjs).
hannah's flight left early the next morning without a hitch. as always, we were sad to see her go - she is fun to have around, and such a BIG help with oliver!
that night for dinner, i made a taco soup. i had gotten the idea from a crockpot recipe, originally intending it for an easy weeknight meal, but since i was making it on a weekend, i changed it some. i did the entire thing on the stovetop, and instead of using ground beef i used a chuck roast, which was cubed and coated in a seasoned flour before browning (the better to thicken the soup with, my dear). i also added a can of beer. i omitted the kidney beans called for in the recipe, since that seems more like a chili ingredient to me. the pinto beans broke down and helped thicken the soup as well. so it turned out close to a chili anyways. the chiles lent a good kick to it, but some sour cream, cheese, and lime-y tortilla chips helped with that.yesteday, our friend dirk drove in from madison and gave us both massages. i really can't think of a better way to spend a sunday afternoon. i have a feeling that we may need to hire him on full time.
many more pictures in the december and january galleries, of course.
well that took me roughly FOREVER to post. i need to do this more often i guess. someone make an extra day in the week for me to do that, k?
i'll leave you, as usual, with some cute baby pictures. happy new year, everyone!
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