Category: Food Talk

Christmas 2020

LaurenLeave a comment

I hope you all had the best Christmas 2020 could offer and that you were able to safely celebrate with loved ones in one way or another. For us, it was a lot of FaceTiming with family members and was otherwise just a quiet celebration with the four (Andi included!) of us. Growing up, it was always just the four of us — all our extended family were in other states — so this year definitely reminded me of my childhood Christmases and I sort of loved it! I certainly missed all our adult traditions and physically being with our families but it sure was nice to not have to leave our house. It’s the last week of the year and the last week of my maternity leave, so I’m feeling all the emotions but I’ll distract myself by posting our Christmas weekend 🙂

P.S. Please hang in there through Christmas Eve and Christmas Day pictures. There will be a SEVERE decrease for Saturday and Sunday!

What a good Christmas Eve! Lori got us two sets of matching pajamas, so set #1 was worn that morning and yes, we’re now the kind of parents who insist upon a family photo in said matching pajamas. The best! I made a cranberry simple syrup in preparation for Christmas cocktails and Joey wrapped up his work day around noon, so we could enjoy the rest of the day together. It was 55 degrees (!!) so we took a nice long walk. Dempsey does NOT enjoy having the sun in his eyes, but he didn’t like wearing Joey’s sunglasses much better! My parents came over around 2 so we could swap presents and they could hold their grandson. Check out the RGB collar earrings I got my mom! We got tons of stocking goodies and a burr grinder, so our coffee snobbery continues!

After my parents left, we chilled for a bit then got going on our Christmas Eve activities. First Joey put Dempsey in this too small Santa outfit and proceeded to make him take pictures in it, even though he clearly HATED it. I rescued him but taking that thing off over his head gave me a panic attack. Thought I was going to suffocate him! Never again, Joseph! Made Christmas Eve fettuccine a la The Holiday for dinner and watched… uh The Holiday. Dempsey passed OUT at the table and Andi tried his hardest to snag a twirl of pasta as I ate it. Little man got to hear his dad’s attempt at a Cajun accent while he read us Cajun Night Before Christmas and I could not for the life of me tell you the plot of this story because I was too busy laughing at Joey’s pronunciation 😂

Merry Christmas! Joey got up early with the baby and when I came down, we did coffee, stockings and breakfast. Joey and I’s big gift to each other this year was a treadmill (romantic, right??) so we just got each other little stocking stuffers and Santa left a few things for Dempsey, including a SnapBack that he hated almost as much as the Santa onesie. He got me a MAMA sweatshirt that I basically haven’t taken off since and the cutest mug ❤️❤️❤️ I prepped a French toast bake for breakfast and it was amazing!!!

The rest of the day was so so chill. We watched White Christmas — I truly live for the dance performances in that movie! — FaceTimed with my sister and Wayne, Lori and Joey’s dad’s side of the family, opened and assembled some more presents and took another long walk. We cooked our first ever prime rib for dinner! Plus Duchess Baked Mashed Potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts and cranberry gin fizzes! It all turned out really good. Man do I love prime rib. My mom bought us that meat, plus one for herself and for my sister and Wayne, so we got to see how everyone’s turned out. I think my sis won! I really wanted to watch Wonder Woman 1984 but Joey wanted to fit in one last Christmas movie, so It’s a Wonderful Life it was! I’ve seen bits and pieces of that movie a million times but I think was the first time I’d ever sat down and watched it start to finish and… I don’t love it. I can’t believe Clarence doesn’t actually show up and show George the world without him until the last ten minutes of the movie?? Talk about too much exposition. I think I would have felt more sympathy for him if he hadn’t been acting like a total jerk right beforehand. Oh and did I mention Dempsey was fighting sleep ALL DAY?? It’s his new favorite thing to do and he was being SO fussy all day. Poor little guy. Luckily, he’s still been a really good sleeper at night. Nevertheless, the best Christmas because it was with him!

Saturday! That little babes fell asleep at 7:30 the night before — I really tried to wake him up to feed him one last time before I went to bed but he was OUT — and slept until 3 AM! So when he woke up at his usual 6 AM time, I felt plenty rested and let Joey sleep in. He’s a fun little coffee-making companion it turns out! Lori and Adam came over later on so we could give Lori her Christmas present and they could both visit with Dempsey but I honestly don’t think we did a ton else. It was Wayne’s 30th birthday and we couldn’t even get together to celebrate ☹️ We grabbed tacos from Dos Santos and cheersed margaritas in his honor. And then we watched WW84! Seems like the first one was pretty well liked but I thought it was just okay. David Thewlis all muscled up was so ridiculous to me, so the entire ending just felt like a joke. Anyway, I thought the second one was somewhere between fine and whatever. Definitely didn’t hate it but definitely didn’t love it either. Just can’t get over how gorgeous Gal Gadot is though!

We’d had enough take out for one weekend so we opted for a homemade Sunday breakfast with apple cider pancakes that at first seemed too thin so I added some more flour and then we ended up liking the thin ones better anyway, go figure! My parents came over for their usual Sunday visit and I didn’t even argue that they’d already been over once that week 😋 Who knows what else we did that day but I think I remember feeling exhausted by the time dinner rolled around. We ate Christmas dinner leftovers and started Better Call Saul! I like it already.

I literally cannot believe it is New Year’s Eve tomorrow!! Wasn’t it just summer??? Not even going to mention what kind of year it’s been for us personally because I know it’s been such a shit year for so many others, so here’s to better times for ALL of us in 2021!

Weekend Things

Lauren2 Comments

I’m not exactly sure how to talk about this weekend because it was sort of an emotional roller coaster on my end. Too much caffeine, interrupted sleep, hormones and alcohol (too much being like three-quarters of a beer, ha)?? Don’t answer that 🙂 Don’t wanna sound dramatic because most of the time I’ve been doing really well and just LOVING every baby-filled second but you know me, I like to be honest here and I’ve definitely cried a handful of times too. I think COVID exhaustion is finally finally hitting me. I know I’m lucky to have made it this far and maybe it’s because there’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel (anyone else watching the first Americans get the vaccine today??), but man, I just want to go to the movie theater, watch a baseball game, eat in a restaurant and mainly, share this little babe with our families and HUG MY MOM AND SISTER. All that being said, let’s hit some weekend highlights.

Thursday night lights. I keep telling Joey we didn’t even go look at Christmas lights last year and he won’t believe me, but it’s the truth, so I know we were well overdue. No, Dempsey can’t really understand and definitely won’t remember that time we took him to The Gingerbread House, but I will! It was so cool. We picked up hot chocolate on our way and I sort of forgot how good hot chocolate is!

Woke up to a blanket of snow on Friday. How festive! When I was done having a small meltdown about how stressful breastfeeding is (have I mentioned how hard breastfeeding is??), I made myself a bacon, egg and cheese. I felt a lot better after that and hey, I think Dempsey and I turned a corner on breastfeeding this weekend. It’s only taken almost two months, oy! We briefly contemplated making soup for dinner but… take out. Anyone else just ordering a lot of take out and telling themselves it’s to help restaurants when it’s really just to help yourself?? 😛 Cart-Driver remains the best! We watched The Santa Clause afterward and boy, do I love watching a movie you’ve seen a billion times and laughing like it’s the first time.

Joey got up early Saturday morning with Dempsey, so when I woke up a little bit later, I made us gingerbread waffles and coffee as a thank you. So good! Much naps afterward and then… I ran on our new treadmill! Merry Christmas to Joey and I! Trying not to worry we made a mistake in buying one when the entire house is shaking because it is SO NICE to work out in your own home. I ran/walked a couple of miles and it felt so good to break a sweat! Afterward, when I was upstairs showering, I managed to knock one of our succulents off the windowsill and made a huge mess. Cut to me having an identity crisis because even though I think of myself as a perfectionist, am I actually sloppy and clumsy instead?? Joey made us broccoli cheddar soup with cheesy croutons for dinner and even though the loaf of bread I bought for this meal was a moldy mess, we subbed regular white bread slices and it was all okay. More than! We also watched About Time, which is LOVELY and I can’t believe no one told me about it before! We made it through the entirety of SNL and I’ve been singing “Tiny Horse” to myself ever since. I really love Timothee Chalamet, okay?

Baby in the bed! I ordered us breakfast from bed and Joey went to pick it up while I fed Dempsey and why do I always forget how much I love Sassafras?? The beignets, fried green tomato Benedict, latte and bite of Joey’s shrimp and grits were amazing! I’m definitely loving this Sunday take out breakfast routine we’ve got going. A little bit later, my parents stopped by for a visit. They got to see Dempsey hanging out on his activity mat and were amazed by how much more alert he is these days. He majorly spit up on my mom, then fell asleep in her arms. What a guy! Doesn’t my mom look so natural holding a baby? She was born to be a grandma 🙂 Joey gave Dempsey a bath, then dressed him as a little elf. Joey loves all things Christmas! I made us a Katie Lee butternut squash, kale and farro salad for dinner and then we watched a couple episodes of Breaking Bad and I have been having such a different emotional reaction to this show the second time around. Mainly, I really really really hate Walt and all the stuff I thought was cool the first time around, just feels kinda sad. Still such an amazing and well done show though! Please tell me how your weekend was.

P.S. Please know I had to listen to two very lengthy recaps of both Christmas Chronicles and Christmas Chronicles 2 this weekend… did I mention Joey loves Christmas?? 😛