Navigating

The great thing about being married to a pilot is the fact that they can navigate anywhere and have a knack at finding fabulous places to visit. So this year once again  we have taken our Texas tradition bluebonnet trip. Every year since our little guy has turned one we have gone to the rolling hills of Texas during spring to take some pictures with the state flower in the background. This year was no different. Continued in Relationships

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve celebration. Our pilot was home and we had a house full of family with his parents visiting and brother flying in on Christmas Eve. As you have seen Grandma, our son and I were busy baking cookies in the few days before Christmas Eve . On Christmas Eve I cooked a semi traditional Polish meal and on Christmas day we had a tradition American diner.

On Christmas Eve I served a Polish Ginger bread soup called Mocka. It is made on Vegetable base with gingerbread, puréed carrots, parsnip, raisins and almonds. It is an acquired taste so it was mostly for me. We also had a wonderful Minestrone soup, battered and fried flounder filets, filet minions, mashed potatoes sour croute with mushrooms and peas and broccoli. The meal was served with eggnog . After we all enjoyed a wonderful diner I prepared a cookie platter with the cookies we baked and dressed it up with some Christmas Candy and oranges. We sat around and chatted, watched a movie and enjoyed some wonderful family time. Right before bed Grandma brought down a present for our son. It was a lovely bathrobe which he wore on Christmas morning. It is a tradition that she had with her sons and I loved to see it passed down another generation.

Christmas was a mad house as there were so many wonderful presents under the tree for everyone especially the youngest member of the family. When we came downstairs, daddy had the fire going and he was beyond himself when he saw what Santa brought. We opened presents and opened presents and opened presents (as my son described his Christmas morning at breakfast. Breakfast consisted of pork roll (also known as Taylor Ham and my husband’s absolute favorite) and scrambled eggs of course served with toast.

After breakfast we played and chatted and watched the Polar Express movie while the turkey roasted in the oven. For Christmas day diner mom served a turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, broccoli, sour croute, cranberry souse, gravy, fresh baked crescent rolls followed by a wonderful apple pie and more cookies.

We shared gifts, laughter and most importantly most of our immediate family was here to share this wonderful holiday and all of its traditions with us. That is what makes the holidays really special.