Happy New Year

We celebrated New Year's east coast style, and we were home by 9, which was perfect. We got some excellent pizza from a new pizza place in town, Dove Vivi, and brought it over to Kama & Joes. After dinner, Craig and Joe were demonstrating (according to Kama) why Joe doesn't need speakers that big in the basement, while Chloe, Max and Ella had some fun with playdoh.

Fun in the snow

Hanukkah

I decided to make Hanukkah dinner this year. We finally bought a Menorah and decided since Chloe was getting older, we wanted to start some traditions around the holidays for her. So I planned a delicious meal of:
Appetizer:
White bean spread with walnuts
Main menu:
Brisket
Brussel Sprout and Cauliflower Gratin
Spinach Salad
Dessert:
Black Bottom Cupcakes
We had originally planned to have our friends Liza and Mark, and Liza's mom over, but due to the snow, they couldn't get out of their house and Liza's mom didn't end up flying in. Instead we invited our dear friends Mark and Carol, who own a large truck with studded tires and we knew they would be up for venturing out.

It was a lovely evening and my brisket turned out awesome. My Aunt Arlene had told me her secrets for preparing, and I cooked it in the slow cooker overnight, let it cool the next day so it was easy to slice, then reheated it while the Gratin cooked. Next year I'll find a different dessert. The black bottom cupcakes were not as good as the ones my mom used to make! The gratin was sinfully good, and we had leftovers for days. Chloe even liked the brisket.

Snow? In Portland?

The week before Christmas Portland got hit by a huge snowstorm. They kept predicting it, and I kept not believing it. But, once it started snowing it seemingly didn't stop for days. Everything was closed. Chains were required everywhere in Portland. And most roads remained unplowed entirely, until the snow melted. It created a really white Christmas, which was lovely. And also quite a few homebound days in a row, which was, well, not as lovely. Portland State was closed for the better part of 3 weeks, from the snow days to the holidays so I had a lot of time off. Craig was on snow shifts at Trimet, so he was working odd hours. All in all, though, it was fun.
Here is the start of the snow, on the day we decided to take our annual Christmas photos.


And many inches later:

A snow day

what to do? Daddy bought me a new Dora sticker book. Yeah!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with our dear friends Kama, Joe, Ella and Max at Joe's mom's house. It was a really fun dinner and I got to hear all about the donut business from Kama's friend who owns Voodoo Donuts in town. Fun facts: gimmicks work in donuts, such as the $5 donut. Who knew? And vegan donuts are a big part of their business. So Portland.

Chloe loved the turkey (as we all did, really yummy recipe) but had the most fun with the toy box.


I brought a great spinach salad with cranberries and candied walnuts, and Patty made many delicious pies for dessert. A perfect Thanksgiving!

Hawaii

We were so fortunate to spend a week in Hawaii right before Thanksgiving. We went with our good friends Maya, Rich and their daughter Bea, and Liza, Mark and their children Franny and baby August. We stayed in Maya's parents condo in Mauna Lani. It was so beautiful there and we quickly settled into a routine of going to some beautiful beach in the morning, coming home for lunch and nap, heading to the pool in the afternoon, giving the girls dinner and then going to see the hula dancers before putting the girls to bed.
Chloe and Franny showed off their down dogs in the sand on our last day. We found sand in her hair for DAYS after we got home :-)





The girls also loved going to the pool, and by the last day decided the showers were maybe even more fun that the pool!




And by the last day, Chloe was finally ready to venture into the ocean. The water there was just beautiful.

But, by far, the biggest hit for Chloe was the hula dancers. She loved going to see them, though she felt a little shy when we tried to get a picture with them.
Here are the 3 girls watching the show:



We also each got a date night and Craig and I had an amazing dinner at the Canoe House at the Mauna Lani hotel. The restaurant was right on the beach and we had an amazing meal.

While in Hawaii, Franny introduced Chloe to the fine art of accessorizing and Chloe took every chance she could to wear all of Franny's jewelry.


When we got home from Hawaii, we gave Chloe one of her birthday presents that she Liza and Franny had gotten her, given her newfound love of jewelry!