Merry Christmas! Dallas

On December 22 we left to spend almost two weeks in Dallas and Austin with Dev's family. We had eleven adults and four kids this year: Mamo, Naresh, Suzan, Mina, James, me and Dev, Julie, David, Maureen, Paul, Rosemary, Beatrice, Louis, and Arthur. Plus several visits from Travis.

The whole group first met up in Dallas - where every single one of us immediately fell sick with a host of illnesses including colds, flus, ear infections, allergies, and even scabies. It made for a rough start to the holiday, but despite it all we still had a wonderful Christmas. Mostly due to Arthur's bow tie.

Arthur is a born model.

Beatrice uses her new doctor kit to examine a stuffed dinosaur.

And her cousin Louis.

Dev helps Louis unpack his Craftsman tool set, one of the highlights of Louis's year

We all received some beautiful presents but the best part of my Christmas Day was when I took Beatrice aside to eat some breakfast during the marathon gift unwrapping session and just she and I sat together in the kitchen while she mimed wrapping and giving me imaginary packages. "What's this?" "A triangle!" And so on. It also delighted me to see Beatrice open her stocking in Los Angeles, pull out a set of bangle bracelets and a plastic giraffe (both from the dollar section of Target) and exclaim, "Bracelets and a giraffe, I have so many things!" I only hope we have at least one more year of such innocence ahead of us.

The kids' table at Christmas dinner

Merry Christmas! Los Angeles

We had so many hundreds of Christmas photos this year that I think our only hope is to divide it up into Christmas in Los Angeles and Christmas in Dallas. So without further ado, Christmas in L.A.!*

And it's not over yet. My parents are arriving on Saturday to do more celebrating - Christmas, Part Three!

Christmas Gifts: Bread Jars

Best idea ever, from Sunset magazine:

We gave these to Beatrice's teachers this year - each jar is filled with all the dry ingredients to make Chocolate Chip & Oatmeal Quick Bread.

It's pretty much the easiest gift ever - you don't even bake anything - just buy glass jars, fill them, and package them with the accompanying recipe. I am definitely doing this every year.

Cauliflower Kale Soup

I just made the most wonderful soup, from the January 2012 edition of Martha Stewart Living. It's fast, cheap, easy, and healthy - perfect for my current post-holiday-excess-New-Year's-Resolution-fueled vegetable binge.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, chopped (I used more like 6 cloves)

Sea salt

1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into one-inch pieces

1/4 cup chopped fresh dill (I omitted this because I didn't have any)

5 large kale or collard leaves, roughly chopped (I used kale, maybe more like 6 leaves)

(Very slightly edited) Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat; cook onion until soft, 4 to 5 minutes. Add garlic and salt, and cook for 3 minutes more. Add cauliflower, and pour in water until it just covers the cauliflower.

2. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until cauliflower is just tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in greens and simmer about 3 more minutes. (I also added more salt here.)

3. Puree soup in a blender until smooth.

And that's it! 5 ingredients and 3 steps.

I was pretty skeptical about using only water instead of stock and/or cream but the soup is incredibly rich and flavorful, you would never know it's vegan. And it doesn't have any of the bitterness sometimes associated with kale, it's very creamy and slightly sweet. Even Dev liked it.

Arm rest

On the airplane coming home from Texas* on New Year's Day:

Beatrice: What's this?

Summer: An arm rest.

Beatrice sets her arm down on the arm rest and holds it there very still for at least a minute.

Beatrice: I'm resting my arm.

Another minute passes. Beatrice lifts her arm.

Beatrice: Now my arm is awake!

*About which a long entry is coming tomorrow.

Arthur, Month Seven

Arthur is turning seven months old just in time for Christmas!

He had a couple of "firsts" this month, including his first crackers, his first playground swing, and his first shoes, but the big news is that he can almost walk - not bad for a seven-month-old! Arthur pulls himself up to standing and "cruises" by walking while holding on to furniture. He can also climb up stairs, though his face-first method of climbing down stairs leaves something to be desired.

In addition to perennial favorites like power cords, tablecloths, and "The Daily Show," Arthur's favorite things this month include Baby Mum-Mum rice crackers and our toy train set from IKEA (which we bought for Beatrice but she's never shown any interest in it). He also graduated to real baths (that is, in the tub instead of in the sink) and he loves bath toys and taking baths with his sister.

Unfortunately Arthur is still very small - sub-1st percentile in weight and yet to double his birth weight, he is only 14 lbs. (which, for those of you without babies, is really tiny). We're trying to fatten him up with yogurt, cottage cheese, avocados, you name it, but in the meantime he's still active, happy, and healthy.

Watching Beatrice watch "Charlie Brown"

#15: Make a Gingerbread House

Yes, we cheated and used a pre-made gingerbread house kit to do all the hard work, but Beatrice loved decorating the house and then showing it off to all our subsequent visitors.