'Twas the Days After Christmas

'Twas the days after Christmas
And though we tried our best
There are still toys everywhere
Oh what a mess!!!

Nikki was so sick
With a fever and cough
We took her to the doctor.
Cleaning and playing were off. :(

The infection they say
Is still in her ear.
They gave her some medicine
To get better by the New Year.

Today she is playing
And coughing much less.
Now if only I could get her
To help out with this mess!!!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Tonight we celebrated Christmas with the Moronitis and the Gallottis. My brother in law Nick is a stickler for tradition and made a 5 course, 7 fish Italian feast. Nicolina and I made our own ravioli.

I love Christmastime! Being with family, celebrating, relaxing, eating, giving gifts... I wish everyday were Christmas!

Nicolina was very spoiled tonight by her Zio Nico, Nonna, Grandpa, Christine and "Tich" aka Rich. She got a Radio Flyer wagon, a train set, clothes, books, a ball pit, a bike, a Big Wheels and more!! And she still has two gift sessions to go lol. We BARELY fit everything in the car and I'm thinking we will need a new house to put it all in when Christmas is over!

But that is what it is all about, after all. Seeing the joy on her face and the magic sparkling in her eyes. I would give anything for that.

Bringing back the blog!

My dear friends,

I have just learned of a blogger app which I can use to blog from my phone. Which means in the car, in the bathtub, in bed... A.N.Y.W.H.E.R.E. I do believe this may become my next obsession!

It is currently 4 days before Christmas and 2 days before my sister's 30th birthday. I am very excited for both holidays. I adore giving gifts and like to think I'm pretty good at it. A lot of thought goes into my gifts. I must admit, I also adore receiving gifts. Wrapping paper
and cheesy holiday songs make me giddy!

I've also been feeling extremely blessed lately. That multiplies the joy of giving gifts by a lot.

I cannot wait to see Nicolina on Christmas morning. I love that girl more than life itself!! She is absolutely obsessed with Santa. She has visited four times now and we cannot even drive by the mall without her begging us for a visit. Going to be tricky when he's not there anymore...

She sings whole songs now: Jingle Bells, Hush Little Baby, Oh Christmas Tree. She counts to 3 and knows many of her colors. She is getting way too big and it both excites and saddens me. I wish I could keep her little forever.

I'm happy to be blogging again. I hope you are happy about it too!

Halloween Party

Last night, Beer Man escorted a cowgirl and a wiggle worm out for a night of fun.  Sound like a joke? Nope, just Halloween 2010 in our house!

We went to my co-worker David's home for a COSTUMES MANDATORY party. It's great to see what people come up with when they are forced to wear a costume. Most of them were pretty original too, not the typical stuff you find at Walmart or Target (or Halloween City for that matter). It probably helped that most of the guests were from other countries.  You see, David's wife is doing a fellowship (I think?) in a lab at Yale and people come from all over the world to work in a research lab there. Funny how we always take for granted how prestigious of a school we have here...

I digress. My favorite costume of the night was from another coworker. He and his wife wore white button down shirts, red ties, and hats with hot dogs on them. Their daughter who is 6 days older than Nikki was a hot dog. The stroller? The hot dog cart. Super cute!!

What? Are you expecting a picture? I forgot my camera.... oh well.

Here is a picture of my sister and brother in law though. They didn't come to the party but they came over to take pictures anyway.

Happy Halloween everyone!!!

Failed Recipe?

I'm not sure. If the success of a recipe is measured (no pun) by the ability to follow the directions then I have failed many. You see, I always think I can make it better (there is that narcissism again!) so I usually stray pretty heavily from the directions.

I saw this on The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Burgers http://www.thefarmcafe.com/2010/06/how-to-make-the-farmhouse-veggie-burger/. Why I thought I could make something better that a professional chef called THE BEST is beyond me. I had to make several substitutions based on necessity since I still cannot have milk or anything that contains it, so that nixed the cheese. I had assumed the cheese was used as a binding agent so I had planned to use an egg or two instead.

So I cubed and fried the eggplant, added some salt and pepper, and granulated garlic while it was frying. Once it was soft, I moved it to a mixing bowl and added a can of white corn, some chipotle peppers, bread crumbs, and a can of black beans. This was a sticky mixture so I nixed the egg that I was going to use in place of the nixed cheese....

Formed patties... sort of... and put in the fridge to settle. An hour later, I heated the oil, added the patties and eventually decided we were having sloppy joes for dinner instead.... Yeah, the patties wouldn't stick together, the mixture looked like puke and I was a little leary of it at this point...

But... lo and behold, it was delicious? Failure?

Working from home...

It's tough. Real tough. Some days, like yesterday, I am ripping my hair out and nearly in tears by 1:00.

Still, I wouldn't trade the opportunity for the world. I would rather have no job and be poor than miss the time I get to spend with Nikki and Patch. It probably wouldn't be so difficult if she wasn't such a cuddler.

Or so darn adorable.

How am I supposed to get any work done around here?

Break over... back to work I go.

First Blog. EVER.

I know, right? I must live under a rock. BUT...

Everyone else is doing it so why not me? I have lots of happy stories and many beautiful baby pictures that I love to show off.  So why not expose myself to a bigger audience?

So here we are. My first blog, which so far has been about nothing.  Kinda like the journal I keep for Nikki. It's a pretty sparkly silver blank notebook with stickers that spell out NICOLINA down the binding. My aunt gave it to us as a gift and Dean and I love to write notes to our little girl and ask others who love her to do the same. I can't wait to someday give it to her, though most of the stories are much like this one. About nothing.

I'm a lucky lady. And I love Frank Sinatra. I know the song is about personifying the phenomena as a promiscuous girl, but not to me. You see, I'm narcissistic sometimes (don't judge- you are too) and I like to think the song is about me. Not the promiscuity, but the name. I'm lucky- I have an incredible (totally incredible) husband and a baby girl that stops traffic with her adorableness. See?

< So, I am Lady Luck. Narcissistic? Perhaps. Do I care? Nope.