Thanksgiving Recap

Thanksgiving for us was a day full of feasting and celebrating and laughter.


I overheard Alexi giving Cal an anatomy lesson about the chambers of the heart while preparing the turkey.


Preparing the salad:




Ina Garten's Smashed Sweet Potatoes with Apples (from Barefoot Contessa's Parties - thank you Sherri for the suggestion!):


Remember these?


Followed by Battleship and chess and puzzles:


Games and puzzles with Grandma and a cousin:


Who knew all that cooking and feasting could be so tiring?

Enjoy your weekend, friends!

Advent Calendar Ideas

One of our family's favorite holiday traditions is our advent calendar (purchased from Garnet Hill a couple of years ago and no longer available - here is what they have now). If you are looking for a quick, easy way to create a beautiful advent calendar, I saw this neat idea on Design Sponge last week. Here are some ideas to get you thinking about what little treats with which you can fill an advent calendar:

Creative:
Poem/limerick/haiku
Instructions for a magic trick
A joke
A small joke book

Crafty:
Glue sticks, markers, crayons, (colored) chalk
Beads to string
Materials to make an ornament
Small tablets/journals
Origami
Disposable camera
Stickers
Fun erasers/pencils

Nature:
Shells
sea glass
seeds
Pine cones
acorns
A beautiful rock

Activities:
Holiday cookie cutter, with the promise to make cookies
Coupons for special activities such as getting the tree, watching a movie, a tea party

Small toys:
Finger puppets
Harmonicas/kazoos/whistles
Marbles
Miniature cars/tops/toys
Small flip books

Ornament for the tree

This picture shows the numbered flaps. Cal is eager to get the calendar filled and hung!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope your day is filled with love and laughter, and a chance to count your many blessings!

Self-Calming Cards

We have found these Self-Calming Cards to be useful in coaching Cal and Abbott, and ourselves, how to recover from emotional upset more quickly.

Click to enlarge:


The back side of the above cards. These describe ways to teach the strategies (click to enlarge)


These are just a few of the dozens of self-calming techniques explained in this card deck. Each of the cards describes how one can self soothe with a different method—physical, auditory/verbal, visual, creative, self-nurturing and humor. The materials also discuss how adults can model the use of such self-soothing techniques as taking a warm bath, making a joke to defuse a situation or singing a silly song. Each method includes suggested activities for a range of ages, from toddler to adult.

These helpful cards are available for purchase here. The author, Elizabeth Crary, is a parent educator and author based in Seattle. We loved her talk at our local cooperative preschool, and highly recommend her as a speaker.

Dining Out: Tutta Bella

When we're in the mood for pizza, Tutta Bella is our restaurant of choice. Tutta Bella has three Seattle locations that serve Neopolitan-style pizzas made with organic local and imported ingredients. The pizzas and salads are both excellent. The dining rooms at both the Westlake and Stone Way locations - we haven't visited Columbia City - have more of a café vibe than that of a typical pizza house. Tutta Bella is very family friendly, but as the evening progresses you'll see plenty of couples and groups of friends sipping wine and beer as they enjoy their pies.

Watching the action:


Kids are given dough of their own:



We had the Giovanni (Extra virgin olive oil, fresh mozzarella, cherry tomato halves, prosciutto di Parma, fresh arugula, shaved parmigiano reggiano, Grana Padano)


The kids had cheese:


Gelato for dessert:

What I Am Doing Today

Here is what I am doing today:

grocery shopping:


getting ready to host my mother in law:


baking with the boys:


Have a happy, happy week!

to my husband on his birthday

Alexi age 9

Dear Alexi,

Happy 38th birthday! Thank you for your warm companionship. Thank you for two gorgeous children who make my heart content every day; thank you for your devoted fathering of them. I hope that we can make you feel special, and cherished, and celebrated, today and every day. May all your dreams come true in the coming year.

All my love,
Lecia

play time

I hope you find time to get out and explore this weekend! It has been unseasonably mild in Seattle this November, and we've been taking advantage of it at every opportunity.

A few things that caught my eye this week:
HandMadeNation
Thanksgiving place markers and Thanksgiving traditions
Deconstructing the Art Wall
The cutest onesie ever
Driftwood art

I hope to have a little time to read my book this weekend.

I really need some new music - what are you listening to these days?


Happy Friday!

Seasonal Selection: Santori

This recipe is outstanding, and ridiculously easy to make. Everything gets mixed in one bowl and baked. Cooking time varies every time I make this - be prepared for it to take up to 2 hours to bake. We like it with Dulce de Leche ice cream.

Santori

from Pasta & Co Encore by Marcella Rosene

"Laura Throssel volunteered this family recipe years ago...it is the best thing we bake...as appropriate for a summer picnic as a winter feast. If you want to dress it up, serve it in a pool of caramel sauce with the proverbial dollop of whipped cream on top."

This cake is very moist and stores well for at least a week, refrigerated.

Ingredients:
3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 cups (approximately 4 apples) peeled, cored, and sliced tart cooking apples such as Granny Smith
1 1/2 cups very coarsely chopped walnuts
3 cups flour

1. Preheat oven to 325F if using a metal pan, 300F if using a glass one. Lightly butter a 9 inch by 13 inch shallow baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, oil, eggs and vanilla. Mix well and stir in apples and walnuts until they are coated with batter. Stir in flour. Batter will be quite firm. Spoon into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes if using a metal pan, 1 hour and 30 minutes if using a glass pan. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick. If batter clings to the toothpick, bake for up to another 20 minutes, checking every 10 minutes. When done, remove from oven and let cool on a rack before cutting into squares.

Other apple treats:

My boys are big fans of muffins. We recently made and enjoyed these.

This weekend I plan to try these.

Happy eating!

The beach in November

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." Rachel Carson, as cited in Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv

We had a busy weekend. Alexi had to work, and it was late Sunday afternoon before we got to spend time together as a family. Abbott was cranky and tearful from being tired and scraped up from falling off his bike. Cal was recovering from being sick. I was sick. Alexi was exhausted from a weekend of call. Yet after 30 minutes at the beach, we walked home new people; happy and relaxed and energized.

The Garage

What could be better than a Parents' Night Out held at a venue that is actually fun? This year the Parents' Night Out for Abbott's school took place at The Garage, a local bowling alley and pool hall. Alexi and I love this place; we even had a few dates here as far back as a decade ago.


We were amused by the oscillating billboard behind the sign:


This one says "Left 4 Dead":



Inside:



Here I go:

What God Looks Like

Last week at Sunday School, Abbott was given the assignment to draw how he pictured God. Here is what he came up with. Note the cape.

by Abbott 11/9/08, age 6 yrs 3 months

No Comment part II

I was walking to Vivace for my morning latte this week when I spotted this in the window of Tottini - the follow up to this.

For What I'm Thankful Right Now

1. Cal is finally feeling a little better after three sleepless nights and three feverish and anorexic days.

2. Spectacular clouds and sky seen yesterday (taken from our deck).


3. Color everywhere (photo taken at the Washington Park Arboretum).


4. Creative children. Abbott made this for fun, all by himself, one day after school.


5. A husband who still enjoys bringing me flowers after all these years.


6. Writing post #148.

Life is good!

For what are you thankful right now?