Leo Robert Gomer is here!! (4/19/2012)

Adrienne and Justin had their adorable baby, and I got to see him just a few hours after he arrived. I had to share a picture of this cutie pie!

Happy New Year!!

I know I’m kind of behind on the holiday posting! It’s already 2012. Whoops.  I felt so disconnected from the holidays this year, because of how much pain I was in, how tired I was, blah blah blah. Anyway, Marco had a wonderful holiday, which is the most important thing! It felt good to be able to bring such smiles to his face.

The Friday before Christmas, my amazing best friend Micaela came up to stay the night and keep me sane. We sipped a little bubbly (delicious Lucien Albrecht Cremant d’Alsace Brut Rose – YUM) and discussed life in general, exchanged gifts (I’ve held onto her gift for several months, I was DYING for her to finally open it! I found this beautiful vintage locket in the shape of a book; the cover had a cameo on it. It was part of an estate sale that ended up in a shop near my house; the clerk estimated 1950s). Micaela gave me a beautiful raspberry colored scarf/shawl, and an awesome crafting book full of neat ideas that I feel like I can actually do! It’s like Pinterest, in book form

After the fun present part, Micaela helped me chop pistachios and candy canes so I could make chocolate bark:

Dark chocolate with pure orange oil and pistachios

Milk chocolate with almonds (my grandma’s favorite, I made it especially for her)

Dark chocolate, white chocolate and smashed bits of candy canes (micaela took a meat tenderizer to the super-size candy cane)

I also baked some cookies, molasses and ginger snaps, and dark chocolate and mint cookies:

The next morning, Christmas Eve, we enjoyed coffee and conversation, and Marco engaged Micaela in a few rounds of tag and hide-n-seek.

Tim, Marco and I headed to the Gomers for our usual Christmas Eve lunch (2009 & 2010). Marco was really excited to visit and open his gifts:

Woo hoo! Marco loves racing cars around the house, and this one is his new favorite.

Marco and Belle decided to take their mid-day siestas, so the grown ups lounged around. We exchanged our gifts (I’m excited to start reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami ! Timmy got a Wii golf game – at least he doesn’t have to wear the weird plaid to play lol!), and I tried to feel less tired.

When Marco woke up, we made the trek to San Jose for my family’s dinner at my uncle’s house. It was good to see everyone, and I was happy to see my grandmother in good spirits. She’s been so frail for so long, it was a relief to see her smiling and laughing again. Marco was free with hugs, and my cousin Tony made an appearance (I haven’t seen him in several years). Overall, a good night. We couldn’t stay very late, because we had to drive back up to Napa. The drive home was difficult for me; I couldn’t get comfortable and the Motrin wasn’t doing anything for the pain.Poor Timmy was exhausted too, so we were relieved to finally make it home.

Christmas morning and day to come in the next post!

I love Christmas. But, it has to be said that I can’t get merry until it’s actually the Christmas season…in other words, stop trying to force it down my throat the week PRIOR to Thanksgiving! I was not ready for Jingle Bells yet! Don’t despair that I’ve turned into a Grinch – I LOVE it – I am just not ready for it so early!

Anyway, now that I AM ready for decking my halls with boughs of holly (and glitter), I have to share some photos from our adventures at the Christmas Tree farm! Marco was so excited and happy, and we found a lovely tree.  We went to the farm with our neighbors, their daughter, and their new baby son (soo tiny!!), and the Gomers. It was great to share the fun with other families.

He’s such a big boy. Look how tiny he was last year at the farm (click link)

Belle was too busy to take pictures

My hubby

He should be a model.

Our tree!!

it was very windy that afternoon, hence my bad hair.

All gussied up

One of my favorite ornaments

 butterflies

wine grapes, of course!

The owl ornament Marco picked out himself

I can’t wait to put presents under the tree! I’ve been plotting my baking and crafts (yep, I think I’m getting a little crafty this year), and have purchased some presents that need to be wrapped. Our cards are ready to be addressed and mailed, and nail polish has been selected for the fun times ahead…

OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Aire

So, I might have bought some most of the OPI nail polishes from the Muppets collection… Tim, Marco and I saw the Muppets movie the day after Thanksgiving, and we LOVED it! We’re huge Muppets fans, and it was so awesome to share it with Marco. He laughed, giggled, and danced in his seat the whole time.

Our tree is decorated, and it is officially the holiday season (and Santa Claus has got a toy for every good girl and good little boy…)

Bring on the peppermint mochas peppermint schnapps.

For Thanksgiving, we spent the day and evening with Micaela and her family.  I racked my brain (and perused Pinterest) to find some good ideas for appetizers. I decided that cheese is always good. So, I made some goat cheese ‘truffles’, inspired by an appetizer i’d tried at 1313 Main, a wonderful wine bar in Downtown Napa. It’s  very simple, and so tasty!

Note: all pics were snapped with my iPhone. I should’ve used my regular camera, but I hate to get food hands on it! LOL

Ingredients: Holiday grapes, Chevre cheese, pistachios (I bought pistachios, and used the tenderizer to smash ‘em good) I spread out a piece of wax paper to keep the cleanup to a minimum.

It’s time consuming, but you have to cover the grapes with the Chevre cheese.  I used a spoon to apply the initial bit, then rolled them around to make them even.

Then, roll around the ‘truffles’ in the crushed pistachios.

epic, tasty win.

For my 2nd appetizer, I found a pretty treat on Pinterest.

Ingredients: Water crackers,  brie, cranberries, sugar, maple syrup (I used Grade A amber), and honey (mint was used for garnish, I forgot it whoops) Follow the recipe as given HERE, but I used honey instead of chutney

stirring the fresh cranberries with the warmed maple syrup

After sitting overnight in the fridge, I sugared them, and let them dry for an hour.

so tasty on their own, BTW.

Assembled as follows: cracker, brie, drizzle of honey, 3-4 cranberries.

Finito, and I might have eaten like 5 of these. Whuuut.

What delectables made it to your Thanksgiving table? Any treats you want to make for the December holidays?

Last week, I read a post over at Hello Miss Chelsea that featured a tasty treat!

Pretzels and chocolate are one of life’s perfect couplings – salty, crunchy, sweet…

I pretty much HAD to make them. So, I snagged the Snyder’s Snaps (regular, not the Butter) and Hershey’s Hugs and followed the super-simple steps:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees
• Line up the snaps on a cookie sheet, and place the unwrapped Hugs on them.
• Place in oven for 2 minutes – don’t go over this time! You don’t want them to melt completely
• Take ‘em out, and place the remaining Snaps over them to create choco-prezt sandwiches.

After the success, I felt a little cocky. So I decided to mix it up a bit

This time, I used the Nestle Chocolate & Mint chips, and mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

SO FLIPPING DELICIOUS! Thank you a million times for bringing this to my attention, Miss Chelsea!

What other combinations would work?

You guys have until midnight tonight to snag coupon codes for 25 FREE HOLIDAY CARDS from SHUTTERFLY! All you have to do is leave me a comment and follow me on Google Friend Finder!

View the blogpost HERE

I’ve got 3 codes to give away!

I’ve been ordering my cards from Shutterfly for a few years now. I’ve used them for Christmas cards two years running, and also used them for Marco’s birth announcements and 1st birthday invitations. I love the designs and the quality, so I was even more excited to be invited to take part in their Holiday Card blogging deals!

This was our card design last year:

Here’s a few of the Holiday card designs that are catching my eye for 2011:

 I love the chevron stripes, and I want a sweater in these colors!

 Cute and simple design

This design is elegant. It can be customized as a flat or folded card, with different colors. I like that there’s room for plenty of photos.

Such a cute idea for an update on the year! The back has room for another picture and some more text.

So here’s the awesome part:

I am so thrilled to be able to offer three readers an online code, each good for 25 FREE CARDS! The savings! The adorable cards – all yours!

To win, you must be a follower through Google Friend Connect, and you must leave a comment letting me know which designs you like. Be sure to include a way to contact you with the code! Winners will be contacted Tuesday, November 1st.

Disclosure: I was compensated for this post with a code for free cards from Shutterfly. 

It isn’t the official start of fall until the trip to the Stanly Lane pumpkin patch occurs!! (Here’s last year’s post 2010) Marco and Belle had a lot of fun picking pumpkins and running around the hay.

I took some family pictures for the Gomers during our visit, and am quite pleased with the results! Of course, I snapped a few of my gorgeous boy…can you blame me?? The camera loves him. <3

I can’t wait to carve our pumpkins!!

I know I’ve been SO behind on posts! I apologize!

Last week, the three of us took a ‘stay-cation’, and tried to relax. Marco’s daycare was closed for ‘teacher in-service’ and I was forced to use my vacation days to stay home…so we figured we’d make the best of it! We took a day trip to Bodega Bay (THE BIRDS!!!) on Thursday. My wonderful friend Micaela came up to chill with us, and we had a lot of fun at the beach – getting sunburns (Marco escaped our fate – he was covered in baby sunscreen!), eating salt-water taffy, and playing with Marco.

That night, we feasted on tacos from our favorite taqueria La Taquiza, caught up on The Daily Show, and watched “The Princess Bride” outside (details to be posted later).

Friday, after a leisurely walk to Starbucks (slowly, because our legs were sunburned), the four of us decided to head to Healdsburg for the afternoon. It’s a quaint town, but coming from the Napa Valley made it less interesting, I think.  It was kind of a cross between Saint Helena and Calistoga. There was a great antique store, where I found a 1930′s typewriter in good condition, but I couldn’t bring myself to spend money on something I’d probably never actually use. It would’ve been cool, though, on my desk in the library! Micaela had to mosey home after the trip, but she left us with hugs and Snickerdoodle cookies…so we were ok for a bit.

Saturday, unfortunately, my wallet was lost/stolen while Tim, Marco, and I were at Whole Foods. Needless to say, the day grew sour quite quickly. Luckily, I had my cards cancelled before you could sing ‘The Mariner’s Revenge’ twice over.

We spent Sunday indoors with the air conditioning on, only venturing out for coffee and a swim in our kiddie pool.

Marco LOVES splashing around in the water…and he looks so cute in his swim diaper.

On the 4th, we ended up in Berkeley to see the fireworks with the Gomers. We made a wonderful meal of ribs (none for me, thanks), grilled veggie mix (mushrooms, red and yellow bell peppers, red onions), grilled corn, and salad.  After our delicious dinner, the six of us went to the Berkeley Marina for the show. Marco thought the fireworks were soo cool! He watched the entire show with his mouth open, cuddled in a blanket on our laps.  Even though it was late, he was quite the trooper. There was a 10 minute period of fussiness, but once the show started he was mesmerized.

Wow…after reliving the weekend, I’m exhausted again.

Loving the new Death Cab for Cutie album, ‘Codes and Keys’. Have you given it a whirl yet?! Because you need to. Really. I’ll wait…just do it fast.

My regular readers know that when I get a good album in my hands, I will listen to it over and over and over until I’ve pulled it inside out and worn it as a hat. The last album in my CD player was Mumford & Sons’  ‘Sigh No More’ – and it was there for almost 2 months.  :-)

It’s so lovely to listen to – perfect ambient sounds to back Ben Gibbard’s wonderfully tremulous voice.  Fans of Death Cab will enjoy this offering, and those of you that are fans of The Postal Service will likely be pleased with the fare. Basically…just get it already. I first got into Death Cab in the spring of my Senior year of high school. I listened to ‘A Movie Script Ending’ so many times on my Winamp (OH YES! I HAD IT JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE THAT WAS COOL), I drove my family members a little nuts.

Anyway…back to the new stuff.  I was pleased by the album, especially since I was not exactly thrilled by ‘Narrow Stairs’; I kind of felt that album was pretentious (sorry).  But the guys made up for it!!

Track Listing (bold titles are especially good):

1. Home is a Fire
2. Codes and Keys
3.  Some Boys
4. Doors Unlocked and Open
5. You Are a Tourist
6. Unobstructed Views
7. Monday Morning
8. Portable Television
9. Underneath the Sycamore
10. St Peter’s Cathedral
11. Stay Young, Go Dancing

I can’t decide if this is my favorite song off of the album, or if it’s this one:

Anyone else SO SURE that ‘Monday Morning’ is TOTES about Zooey (Ben’s adorable wifey)????

P.S. I wrote a guest blog for one of my loves, Adrienne (AOG Daily) – all about workplace fashion! Check it out HERE.