Christmas Part 1

Merry Christmas everyone!

The temperature outside continues in single digits, but it's sunny, as so often happens in Minneapolis.  It's a beautiful morning.

Looks like Santa visited while we slept.

Soon Uma will be awake.  She doesn't know what's in store for her.

Eventually she is awake and after a short while is told to go check out the stockings.  She's not sure what to make of this.  "Santa has come?"

Cathy takes Uma to the mudroom where she can look outside and see for herself that the reindeer food she left last night has disappeared.  It's starting to get exciting.

It's back into the living room to start to open the gifts stuffed into the stockings.  That pesky tape slows things down.

  Dad helps with gift opening pointers.

Chris does a fine job opening his stocking gifts in comfort.

Dan compares notes with Chris on who got what.  Unfortunately, Nancy is not feeling well this morning and remains in bed.  We'll keep her stocking for her till later when she's feeling better.

Uma's doing good with her gift opening and it looks like Santa brought her a wrist watch which her mom just put on her wrist for her.

"What time is it Uma?"  "It's 10 o'clock Nanima."  Not that Uma can actually tell the time - yet - but it's always 10 o'clock for Uma.

Meanwhile Ani doesn't have to open any gifts today.  She just watches and enjoys.  Next year I'm sure Uma will be helping Ani open her gifts.

The stockings are all opened and now it's time for breakfast.  Traditional Christmas breakfast is sweet rolls and fruit salad.  The coffee's ready, lets eat.  Then it's on to opening more gifts.

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Christmas Part 2

Breakfast is done and everyone reassembles in the front living room to continue opening presents.

Attention is now directed to the Christmas tree and Uma starts everything off.

She's forgotten some of the fine points of gift opening, so mom shows her what to do.

A purse!  With a dog in it!  The dog came out quickly to see what else is in there.  This is a gift from Ralph, who remains down in the mud room by her choice.  There is a wonderfully warm radiator that she likes to lie next to plus she has decided that she does not like the hard wood floors.  Uma likes the purse, however.

   Ani gets a quilt.  Cathy made this for Ani and even though it will be a couple of years before Ani recognizes all the objects on the quilt, it has a lifetime of love sewn into it for her to enjoy.

The next gift for Uma is too big to wrap so an "entrance" is planned.

It's an art easel!  "Thanks Nanima, I love it!"  This is the easel that Cathy assembled the other day.

Uma is testing the markers to see how they work.

A masterpiece in the making.

Meanwhile Ani, happy and content, plays with the blowfish and waits the next feeding.

Shortly it's surprise time again for Uma.  "Close your eyes Uma."  She's got the basic concept down but there may be a little peeking going on there.

Mom helps with the surprise.  Everyone's eyes are closed... what's next?

Dad rolls in a Jet Tricycle.  Uma moves up from her 4 wheel mini cooper from last year to 3 wheels this year!

Uma gives the trike a test spin.  Her legs are not quiet long enough to reach both pedals at the same time but she has lots of fun. Soon, however, she'll be in top form.

Christmas Part 3

Most of us have taken naps to recover from the excitement of opening Christmas presents into the early afternoon.  Santa was very good to everyone.  As evening approaches we start to get ready for another fine culinary experience.

  Drinks are offered and Sach makes an excellent rendition of a Black & Tan for himself and me.

Chris has been busy at the stove cooking for awhile.  He is making Frico Friulano.  He's been slicing and dicing for awhile.  His appetizer contains shredded cheese and cooked Arborio rice that is sauteed to form a crust and then layered with boiled, sliced potato and onions.   After a golden crust forms on one side the Frico is flipped to cook/sear on another rice layer. It is then accompanied by a simple tossing of Arugula, lemon juice, EVOO and salt & pepper.

Pictures coming soon when he is done.

Meanwhile Dan and Sach bring out Uma's last gift of the day - the Retro Kitchen that we spent hours assembling.

Uma is excited and checks out the sink first.  It's non-working but still fun to swivel the spout and turn the handles. 

It comes with an apron which her daddy helps tie on.

There is a little toy phone that she can talk to Nanima on.

  Pots and pans and all kinds of fun.

Nancy is feeling well enough to come down and open her stocking items.  The stocking is new this year, made especially for her by Cathy.

Chris continues working in the kitchen in the background.

Joy manages both girls at the same time.

Beef tenderloin is on the menu this evening.  Chris worked hard at trimming it up and getting it ready.  He seems to end up with this job each year.  As part of the process he makes Beef Tartare .   It's yummy!

Chris continues working on his Frico Friulano.

It's done cooking and turned out onto a cutting board.

Arranged atop the dressed arugula this is ready to be enjoyed.  And enjoyable it was!

It's Sach's turn at the grill tonight cooking the beef tenderloin - and not even a jacket!

 

The tenderloin is sliced and ready to serve.

It's been a wonderful Christmas and very enjoyable spending it all together.

I hope yours was a good as ours. 

 

Merry Christmas!

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Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve and we've had a busy day of running errands, grocery shopping and getting ready for the traditional Christmas Eve grazing with family and friends.  Harley and Elyse, friends of Joy and Sach are coming over with their daughter Daffney.

Earlier in the day it was time to start making Sweet Rolls, part of our traditional Christmas morning breakfast.  This year Uma got to help.

For several years Chris helped Cathy, but this year Uma stepped in to learn the tradition.

She learned about adding lots of raisins.

  And that it's important to dig to the bottom of the container.

Uma works at critical placement for maximum flavor enhancement!  Once the right amount of raisins have been added, the sweet rolls are "rolled up" and stored in the garage, where it is cool but not freezing, till morning.

There are already a few presents around the Christmas tree in the front living room.

A nice fire is blazing in the fireplace.

It's time to start cooking the beef satays, one of many delightful things to eat this evening.  It's my job to cook them and yes the temperature is in single digits.  But you can't let that stop you from cooking on the grill!  With the grill lid down during most of the cooking, they turn out great.

The dining room table it starting to get full.  There are fine cheeses, mussels and pommes frites that Chris made, the beef satays I grilled, chilled shrimp, baked brie, chestnuts wrapped in bacon, latkes, smoked salmon and home made humus.  I'm sure I'm forgetting something   Everything was delicious.

Uma and Sach head outside briefly.  When they picked out their Christmas tree, Uma got to put together a bag of Reindeer Food to leave outside for Rudolph and the other reindeer to munch on while Santa was leaving presents inside.

Uma found a good spot and dumped out the contents.

Now Rudolph and the other reindeer will have a nice snack.

  The reindeer all taken care of, Uma learns about leaving milk and cookies for Santa.  One of the cookies left for Santa was one she decorated herself.

There are questions about how Santa will get down the chimney with the fire going, but once reassured, Uma is ready to head upstairs to bed.

It's exciting to watch Uma.  She is so delightful.

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Uma - The Human Bridge

Uma and I spent some time reading today.  Uma would pick out a book and bring it to me and I would read it to her.  After a while she showed me how she makes a "bridge".

She then challenged me to crawl under her!  Needless to say I didn't make it but it was fun trying.

I'm reminded of this blog post on UmaNation where she was learning push-ups at a young age!  Check it out.

Tonight we are all heading to Manny's Steak House for dinner.  I understand they have steaks as big as your head and lots of other scrumptious items to eat.  Check them out here and be sure to view the "Meat Cart" under About Manny's!

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Christmas Is Getting Close

Yesterday Chris arrived in the evening and Cathy and I picked him up from the airport.  Dan and Nancy drove in and completed the trip in a few hours less than we did.  They live a couple hours closer so that helps and they didn't have the heavy snow at times like we did, but they still had some icy conditions.

It's bright and sunny today but still right around zero outside.  Lucky for us we don't have anywhere to go.

Uma and Ani are up and Chris is getting some time with both of them.  They were asleep last night when he got in so this is their first visit.

Uma is dressed and checking out the stockings.

The next picture shows all the stockings better.  There are too many to hang by the fireplace so this spot works well.  Above, Uma's stocking is on the left with the snowman.

You can see Uma's stocking better in this photo and just to the left is Ani's new stocking.  One of the stockings (mine) will play the Frosty the Snowman tune if you squeeze the toe.  Uma is having fun showing her mom.

Dan and Nancy brought a retro kitchen for Uma and it has about 400 little pieces to put together.  It's a good thing we are getting a head start on assembly.

That's Dan and I working on it while Uma takes her afternoon nap.  We still have a long way to go!

Meanwhile in the other room, Cathy is busy pondering the assembly of our gift, an art easel.

Cathy reads the directions while Joy is making a shopping list on her iPhone.

Uma is awake from her nap and Nancy spends some reading time with her.

After awhile Ani joins them and Nancy reads to both of them.  Nancy was a good story reader and Uma brought her several books to read.