Holidays

A few weekends ago we had a Christmas cocktail party. (Pictures from that didn't turn out so great). Pat's ice bar was a success. He used blue led lights and lined them up behind the bottles of fun. He also scattered fake snow along the bar and printed out recipes for some drinks so that our guests would actually mix drinks instead of only go for the beer. Pat also downloaded a fire video complete with crackling sounds. This turned our t.v. into a cozy fire that Pat could walk up to and poke every so often. We had around 20 friends over and we really enjoyed being with everyone for some grown up time. Sawyer went to bed right before guests arrived and we used an air cleaner in his room, and outside his closed door in the hallway to create tons of white noise. Periodically, I would walk to his door and put my ear up to it. I was so surprised that he didn't wake up through all of that noise from the party. What a relief that I didn't have to spend the evening wondering, "What was I thinking have a party and expecting him to sleep?!" Bright and early the next morning, the 3 of us went to a church somewhat nearby and enjoyed the Christmas cantata. Sawyer really liked the song performed by the younger children and tried very hard to do the hand motions. The graphics on the giant screen onstage included the north star and that made for some loud interruptions..."STAR!!!" He also threw in some "MOON!!!"s since it's in the same category.

That week we had the Embassy Christmas party (picture above). It was an outdoor potluck and the food was fantastic. Santa came and we tried to let him sit on Santa's lap on his own this year. Once you see the look on your kid's face after plopping them down, you realize what a strange tradition it is. WHY are you putting my on this guy's lap? WHY is he so hairy? And WHY are you smiling at me like that? Pat was able to cut out of work and meet Sawyer and I there, which was really nice since he's been working so hard lately and deserved a break.

Christmas Eve was a late, but fun night. We went to our friends' house with some other friends for a traditional Christmas Eve dinner: pizza :) It's so great to sometimes just take the pressure off and ignore traditions. We had a lot of fun just hanging out. Bonnie was thoughtful enough to bake some Christmas sugar cookies and set up icing and sprinkles for the kids so that they could decorate cookies for Santa. On the left is Sawyer's cookie. He wanted to eat all of the m&ms and called them beans. "More geen beans."

Christmas was a lot of fun. The grandparents spoiled Sawyer with presents...something Pat and I anticipated which is why he only got a couple presents from us. Below he's stopped chewing his cereal to pose. I now understand why Christmas morning present opening IS actually fun for adults. As a kid I felt so bad for grown-ups since they didn't get as many gifts as the kids. But helping Sawyer open presents is so much fun that I didn't feel like I was left out. Well, I wasn't really left out anyway since Pat got me a very nice, very sharp, professional chef knife. So far we've only cut an orange with it, but it was pretty scary to feel it glide through like you were cutting cream cheese. Below is Sawyer's workbench from me and Pat. I bought this for a huge discount at the Thai housewares fair in April. It's made in Thailand so, along with other stuff made here, it went to the housewares fair before being exported and sold for twice what you can pay here. It's the only time you can get cheap toys here since toys have a 300% luxury tax. No kidding - 300%.






Christmas dinner was beautiful, and we expected this since it was at Bart and Eva's just like last year. They made spaghetti and meatballs for the kids so that we could do an early kid dinner. After that, Sawyer had the privilege of taking a bath in a giant sunken tub with his friend, Olivia. Then we put the kids to bed and started on our dinner. Several courses, all explained before we ate them. The starter was made by Eva: foi gras, a date with brie, a slice of tomato in a cilantro viniagrete. The next course was a black truffle soup. Then we had a chili sesame noodle dish with raw tuna. Then a sorbet in champaine. Finally, lamb marinated in miso with baby bok choy and white asparagus. Everything tasted amazing and made Pat and I wonder, "Why don't we ever cook fancy stuff at home?" What was more amazing was how smoothly everything came out. Somehow they'd done enough prep work ahead of time to allow them to calmly enjoy all the company and not run around stressing over the food. Once it was time to eat, they just brought all the food out. That's not easy with 10 guests. After dinner we had the dessert which I'd made: gingerbread with spiced whipped cream and a vanilla cheesecake with a kahlua chocolate sauce. We had a gift exchange and one last glass of wine. That's the one that made me feel icky today, I think.

The holidays have flown by so quickly. There are too many people we didn't get to call in the little window where we weren't at someone else's house and when people at home would actually be awake. I really miss everyone and while we've been having fun these last few weeks, I'm still so looking forward to coming home. Pat's mom, dad, brother, and aunt are coming to visit in less than 2 weeks and we are so completely excited about that. Sawyer is more fun than we ever imagined. I'm realizing that people weren't insane when they talked about how much "joy" he would bring us. When he was a few weeks old I was so tired of hearing about the joy, the joy, where the heck is my joy? Okay, I get it now.

So.....Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and see you soon!