Merry Christmas, 2013

Our teeny little table-top tree.

The much more impressive tree at my parents' home, where we open gifts.

From left to right, Rosie, Dash, me, Granddaddy Jim, Monkeyrotica

Dash's favorite Christmas gift!

Rosie's favorite Christmas gift!

Dash's 2nd favorite gift, still pretty excellent.

Rosie checks out a book from Santa.

A board game? Well, maybe Dash will enjoy it later.

Nobody's touching Rosie's precious LPS toys. Look away NOW!

I hope everyone I know had a fantabulously tremendous Christmas (or whichever Holiday you celebrate) and I wish you an excellent 2014. Happy New Year!!

Holiday Whirlwind!

Here are the results of our holiday whirlwind, with photos and video!

Thursday, December 12th, 5:15 pm. Visitors' Day, Tap Class.

Rosie's Advanced Tap Class had a "Visitor's Day." The class pretty much went on as it typically does, only parents are not allowed to observe; this is the only day of the year we get to sit in and see their progress in class.

Rosie and her class got to show off her excellent tap skills while performing to music, such as "King of New York" from the musical, "Newsies."




Same Day, 6:30 pm. Holiday Concert at School.

Immediately after tap, we ran home  to get Rosie in her outfit for the Winter Concert: white top, black bottoms, black shoes. We were late. Thankfully, she left her cello at school because we probably would have forgotten it. Somehow, I managed to still get a seat in the second row of the audience (thanks to a friend). Here, Rosie's intermediate strings class (5th grade) plays "Jingle Bells."



I was surprised to see Rosie join the chorus group to sing during the choral program. She didn't sign up for chorus, and her name wasn't in the program for chorus! What she explained to me later is that her entire class signed up for chorus and if she didn't go, she would be alone in the classroom. So she just went, and enjoyed herself!



After the concert was over, I left immediately for my dance class — it was our last practice together before (foreshadowing...) our Holiday Performance on Sunday. 

Saturday, December 14, 10:30 am. Tae Kwon Do Belt Test.

We were invited to the Tae Kwon Do studio's Holiday Party on Friday afternoon, but were already feeling harried after all the driving around on Thursday. We took Friday off from all the hectic festivities, but were back on for Saturday.

At 10 am, I drove Rosie to the dojang to practice before she started her belt test at 10:30. I was excited for her especially because this would be her first time breaking boards at a test. She was testing for her Blue-Stripe belt (between green and blue).

There were some rough points for her test, and a bit of stress and handwringing on my part, but she did pass. Her best parts were her forms, which she performed beautifully, and the boardbreaking, shown in this video.


After the belt test and lunch (the test was over two hours!), the kids packed their suitcases for an overnight at Auntie M's. Always a fun time. It's an hour and a half drive, round trip, so by the time Monkeyrotica and I arrived home, there was just enough time for us to get showered, primped, and coiffed for...

Same day, 6 pm. Company Holiday Party.

 Monkeyrotica and I had RSVP'd yes to my new company's holiday party. I have been working there a few days shy of exactly one year, so I missed the prior year's fête by a slim margin. Attire was "cocktail" and the venue a suave tony nightclub in DC, so we dressed to the nines. In our own way. Monkey's idea of cocktail, or at least party attire is his black leather blazer and pants, black turtleneck, and motorcycle boots. We looked pretty good, anyway. I loved the colored glass chandelier!

I had fun with my favorite coworkers in the photo booth!

I was the designated driver, since I needed to be sharp for the dance performance the next day...

So very thankful...

I'm thankful that I slept in today, but was woken up gently by a 6-year-old bouncing on the mattress near my feet.

I'm thankful that Monkeyrotica brought me delicious coffee in bed and made the four of us a lovely breakfast.

I'm thankful that my family helped me to maintain order in the house this week so that it wasn't too difficult to prepare for our dinner guests.

I'm incredibly thankful for a quick-thinking husband who, when given an obstacle like, say, A POWER OUTAGE ON THANKSGIVING right after the turkey went into the oven, has a plan B ready to go and put the turkey in the smoker without missing a beat. He was planning to cook the beans and peas on the camp stove, but thankfully (!) the power came back on.

I'm thankful that my sister and parents live so close to us and can visit regularly without hardship. I'm incredibly thankful that they let my children know that they love them in so many ways, all the time.

I'm thankful that we were able to have such plenty on our table this Thanksgiving, all healthy food made from scratch with love.

Monkeyrotica cooked the turkey using a Julia Child recipe that reduces the cook-time by deboning and stuffing the turkey thighs.

My plate: slices of turkey meat, stuffing, sauteed green beans, Brussels sprout slaw, roasted red potato, and a little homemade gravy.

Dash: always moving, always playful and so sweet. He's the most imaginative little guy; I'm never sure what is going to come out of his mouth next. He's so very much his own wonderful six-year-old boy and I'm glad he's my son.

Rosie: adorable, affectionate, and inquisitive. She's becoming such a wonderful person, caring deeply about her friends, helping around the house, doing her schoolwork without too much prodding. She does the "I'm-the-cutest-kitten-in-the-world-with-sad-eyes-how-could-you-deny-me" look so well! I'm so thankful for her hugs and her love. I feel lucky every day to have a daughter like Rosie.

I'm thankful for all my friends, who are out there having their own Thanksgivings. I send you love, warmth, and hope, and a wish to see you all soon. I have thanks and an embrace to give you in person.

XOXOX, Nylonthread

Dash's 6th birthday, Party people

Along with yesterday's photos of the food, here are some fabulously well-framed and lit photos taken by our friend Mark Zimin at Dash's birthday party back in July. Someone ought to hire him to photograph and/or DJ their wedding. He's that good.

Gina, her son Brian, and me in the kitchen

Monkeyrotica, Dash (Let me tell you something...), and Finn in the backyard

Janna, ready to conquer any comers

Brent found Dash's raygun!

Me, adding candles to Dash's birthday donut tower

Singing "Happy Birthday," a lesson in delayed gratification

Finally, the donuts!

Andrei and other children in the foreground, Ken, Kelly & I in the middle ground

Elizabeth and Weegee make friends.

Seeing our guests on their way, party's over! Bye, Geoff, see you soon.

Summer Party: The calm before the BBQ storm

Monkeyrotica really enjoys barbecuing for friends and when he sets his mind to cooking for a group, he does it right and full out. These images are from right before we called "soup's on" to our guests, a wonderful, unsullied spread of summer barbecue deliciousness.

Monkey smoked ribs and pulled pork shoulder; in front of Dash is a tray of vinegar slaw and to his right are a couple of Ledo pizzas for the kids (or adults) who didn't want smoked meats.

I sliced a watermelon to use as a bowl for fruit salad (notice the monkey-shaped salad tongs!).

Red beans and rice were a vegetarian side for friends who weren't eating meat altogether.

Mmmm, pulled pork. Bags of Martin's potato rolls were waiting to be filled with this lovely stuff.

And, not to be forgotten, the brisket. Man, that party was wonderful! All the kids had fun splashing with sprinklers in the backyard, and all the adults ate till we were uncomfortable and washed it down with a selection of beverages, all cool and refreshing. What was for dessert? Krispy Kreme doughnuts, of course!

Dash blowing out birthday candles. Photo courtesy Mark Zimin

It was Dash's choice for his birthday after all! Dash turned six back in June and I didn't post any of the photos from his party back then. I'll post more of them tomorrow. My photographer friend, Mark Zimin, took the pics and they all turned out beautifully!

Rosie's Rainbow Birthday Cake (part 2 of 2)

Rosie told me that she wanted a "rainbow cake" for her birthday months ago, and I had it all planned out, I did my research and was ready. But really, you can only know what you got yourself into once you've done it yourself. The ultimate result was a lovely (if a bit fragile) cake that looked almost exactly like I thought it would. See, the birthday girl was happy with the results and that's all that matters.

Happy birthday, Rosie!

To make the cake, it required two boxes of mix, oil, egg whites and water as directed. I bought special "food paste" at Williams and Sonoma to get the vibrant colors. Keep in mind if you use these to color your food: a little red goes a looooong way. My red and orange look pretty similar, but that's not for lack of yellow in the orange!

There was about 1.5 cups of mix per layer. The indigo/violet looked a lot more violet in real life instead of the gray it looks on camera.

A few of the layers stuck to the pans after cooling and I was a little inaccurate getting the layers to line up as you can see in the photo of unfrosted cake above, but after two entire tubs of frosting were applied, it all smoothed out!

The happy birthday song was sung, the candles blown out... (oh, hey, there was bowling, too)

and we cut open the cake! 

Much fun was had by all.

Baking a rainbow cake, part 1 of 2

Rosie's bowling party is tomorrow (as is Dash's karate promotion test) so I needed to get the cake started tonight. It's closing in on midnight and I just got the layers in the fridge a few minutes ago! The red, orange, and yellow layers are looking nice!

Green and blue layers turned out great, but indigo's looking pretty gray. The red food coloring must have had some orange in it... Oh well, it'll be on the bottom and nobody will pay it much attention. Wish me luck with the icing tomorrow! Rosie wants sky-blue icing with clouds drawn in.

The Vices that Made Virginia, Celebrating

Monkeyrotica and I went to the second annual The Vices That Made Virginia, a sold-out annual event supporting sustainable food and agriculture for our second year. We had really enjoyed last year's experience, with great food, amazing wine and spirits, and fantastic people, so when we found out they were repeating the event, signed up immediately. The cherry on top to the soirée was the event's date: Monkey's birthday. We headed out, ready to enjoy ourselves. Taking a lesson learned from last year's cold and muddy experience at Woodlawn Plantation, I layered up my clothes, sported my galoshes, and managed to be perfectly, appropriately dressed.

An Arcadia t-shirt for sale at VTMV

When we arrived, we were a little early and the main tent hadn't opened yet, but the space was already thronging with people. What was the deal? I overheard someone talking about getting their tickets through Living Social, an online site for crowdsourced discounts, and understood immediately how and why the overall scene was much different from last year. Last year's group of people were primarily associated with the food industry, or the sustainable ag community, or just really into the restaurants/wineries/distilleries that were being featured. The overall effect for the previous event was a group of afficionados who felt privileged to be at an "Event Celebrating the Cause." This year, it was more like being at a tourist attraction. The Living Social ticket included an early arrival with a pre-event, cut-the-line bus pass for an additional fee. That explained that.

We got in line for drinks, then walked over to check out the handrolled-cigar area with my cranberry champagne in hand to catch a glimpse of the artisans at work. I think Monkey was able to see what was going on, but there were too many people blocking the low table, and I couldn't see a darned thing, so I hung in back until he showed up with his treasured new cigar in hand. We tried to head back outside, but were stuck. There were a clump of morons who were standing around, lighting their cigars right in front of THE FREAKING DOORWAY, oblivious to all the people on either side of them who were either trying to enter or leave the building. We pushed through, but I couldn't help ranting to Monkey about what idiots they were, and how despite getting shoved, they were all still in the same clump, being idiots, and I started feeling a lot better. Maybe it was the champagne or just that I let off some steam, but this is when I started to have a good time.

Portrait of Nylonthread and Monkeyrotica at Woodlawn Plantation

We skulked over to the main tent as the clock was closing in on 4 p.m., when the event was scheduled to open. Monkey knew (and the Living Social crowd likely did not) that the most scrumptiously delicious, large, and fresh (local, sustainable) oysters would be waiting at the back of the tent. We made a beeline for it. I scarfed down about a half dozen of the lovely oysters while he put away close to three dozen of the plump and briny delicacies. Nearby, there was a table set with Oysters Bienville, a salad of julienned brussels sprouts with maple-roasted pecans, and a selection of roasted root vegetables, all of which I sampled. All were wonderful and I couldn't help but think how lucky I was to be surrounded my so many fabulously prepared foods. The tent was filling with people as I squeezed my way past tables of food: pork shoulder, cheese ravioli, thinly sliced cured hams, and stopped at the shrimp and grits. The cook from Tallula was wonderful to watch — an artist with his presentations and adorably smiley and sweet to boot. As soon as he brought out a tray of small bowls each with shrimp lovingly arranged on a grit cake, cream sauce, then dressed it with basil oil and micro-greens, all the bowls were gone within 15 seconds. Monkey and I were squeezed next to his table and became entranced by this, so we timed it.
 

Tallula Eat Bar's shrimp and grits, just plated

I love this photo. I was waiting for just the right moment, after the cook finished plating all the dishes and before they were gone and almost missed it! See the grabbing fingers?

Sipping butternut squash bisque

We left the crowded tent to catch some air (read: Monkey got his cigar on) and the remaining shafts of sunlight for the day. We estimated the crowd count totals: 800? 1,000 people? A waiter handed me a small cup of butternut squash bisque and I savored every creamy drop. There was a photo booth, stocked with period costumes and wigs for silly people have record of themselves being silly. The staff were putting out space heaters around the tables where every third guest was smoking a cigar. Replenished, we headed back in to brave the longest line: pulled pork with apple-herbed coleslaw. People were queued up from the front of the tent to the back. We were feeling patient, so found the tail-end and stood. After finally making our way to the table, we enjoyed our servings. The pork was nice, but lacking in smoke flavor (however, there were smoked pig heads adjacently displayed — bait and switch?). Perhaps because of the large crowd, they weren't able to prepare for the large quantities with a smoker the way they did last year and went for oven roasting instead. Still tasty, and the slaw was a perfect accompaniment.

As we made our way to the front of the tent, we introduced ourselves to and joined a trio of friends at a small table and began making small talk with them when someone nearby yelped, "pies!" A swarm of diners advanced on the dessert table, and like a seething mass, dove in and out with multiple pie slices. The adventurous types at our table (not me! I watched and laughed from the sidelines) arrived with arms full of doubles of each selection for the group: chocolate-bourbon pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and key lime pie. I had one slice each of the key lime and pumpkin. Those sweet and creamy desserts called an end to our outing. We said our goodbyes and headed off to get the kids.

Happy birthday, Monkeyrotica, I hope you enjoyed our evening out! I wouldn't have missed any of its flavors, sour or sweet. Much love to you.