The House of Michaels

Ahhhh, here it is. The moment we have all been waiting for… Christmas Morning… I’m probably repeating myself here but just want to say that it was a lovely time we had in New York during the holidays this year. We don’t normally see family during the holidays because of the travel required, but this year we made a special trip out to see Michael’s family in upstate NY. It was the right time, the right year to do it and we are happy to have been able to share such good memories with family. Here is a shot of the princess in her new dress and boots from Omi, which she wore for Christmas morning. So adorable. I couldn’t have dressed her better myself! And just like her Chochie Queen of the universe, (Jennifer Ann Bilyk) she knows how to pose for the camera. Don’t you know we all felt special in her presence that morning as she was spoiled beyond belief with gift after gift. Much love, much fun, and great memories.

I’m in a fowl mood today so I decided to look through some recent photos and post something from there, which I do often, but today it is a necessity!
And here it is, one of two dresses that I bought for Calliope for the holiday season that will likely be handed down to Nechesa or Camille and that Calliope only wore once. But isn’t it just the cutest in the world and doesn’t she look so grown up?!

Obviously, you can’t quite see the full dress here, but I don’t have a great picture of her smiling and the full length / beauty of the dress, so you will have to settle for two pictures! You can’t even see her face in this one, but look at that hair 🙂 And all that sparkle!

I specifically asked Omi (german I believe for grandma) to get Calliope a more grown up tea set for Christmas this year and this is the set that she got, which I love dearly. She also got cute little hats for everyone to wear. I left out the picture of me wearing the hat and sipping tea because that seems even to gay for me… even though you know I was down there wearing the hat and sipping the tea…

I recently started cooking with more authority, that is to say, I recently started cooking with more confidence and more regularly. It has a lot to do with me staying home to take care of the child. She needs me a bit less these days and can stay in her room for minutes at a time without yelling for daddy. And when she is in the room, it doesn’t entail a constant stream of “don’t do that” or “stop” or just plain “NO”s. She has come a long way, and yes, so have I. But that doesn’t mean I have tons more time, just a little. Enough to make family dinner better, more involved, beautiful, tasty and all the things family dinner should be (at least once a week anyway!).
This week, we had the Makokha’s over for an afternoon bar-b-que and I made pasta salad, broccoli and chicken. I wanted it to be easy because I would much rather visit when we have visitors as opposed to cook while we have visitors. Don’t get me wrong, I love the new kitchen and the fact that someone can sit at the counter, or even several someones, while I cook away. That is a lot of fun. But that doesn’t happen a lot when you have twin one year olds as guests. Everyone is always on the lookout for items entering the mouths of babes. Especially when you have a philosophy like ours which includes little to no baby proofing! As mentioned above, I like the word NO. Its great. But not everyone agrees with it and it doesn’t agree with everyone. And while no one has ever made a big stink over it, I try to do my part to keep an eye on the little ones since I (we) were the ones who chose not to babyproof…
And there you have it, a long introduction to my excuse for having a picture of items clumped together as a recipe for the chicken marinade I came up with for this little shindig. The hilarious thing is that I am in love with this marinade despite the fact that it didn’t come out that well. I mean, it was great until my husband decided to blowtorch it on the bbq. I wasn’t even sure it was chicken he was bringing to the table. It looked like coals left over from a piece of wood out of the fireplace that didn’t burn down all the way. Completely black. Bless his heart, he wasn’t feeling well that day, at all. But I have to say something because its so rare that he blunders, especially this bad! Anyway, despite the charring of said chicken, it was pretty decent. And if you got to the center, it was quite juicy and tasty. The only think I would add is a little fresh squeezed lemon. If you are interested at all, below are the ingredients I used for the marinade. I have no idea of quantities, just go with your gut. And don’t let your husband do the actual cooking!

Oh and I just want to thank the Newells as it is from their recipe that this marinade derives.

Well, the holidays are officially over for me, in my head of heads anyway. The gifts are all opened and the visits to various arms of the family tree are all done. Our last visit was yesterday to visit the birth family on New Years Day first at Great Grandparents Alice & Jack’s house, then to the Willson house for games and dinner. It was a full day leaving here at 9 in the morning and returning at 9pm and Calliope, once again, was the winner all around. Love from all sides and corners, places both dark and light, was showered upon her in ways you wouldn’t believe if you saw it with your own eyes. I can’t paint the picture clearly enough, but I might give a small glimpse into the world where Calliope has been brought to by this uncommon family via two gifts that we received. Not that presents are everything, but it is an easy way to convey some of what I feel today.
When we got home last night, Calliope was up way past her bedtime, so we (Michael) immediately put her to bed. She had a long day and didn’t fight it too much and before I could unload the burden of pack-n-plays, gifts and general kid travel gear from the car, she was well on her way to dream heaven. Michael has been under the weather and I had an asthma attack yesterday (boy do i feel old typing this sentence) so we were both exhausted. But we couldn’t go straight to bed and decided to flip through our new photo album we received from the Willsons. Well, its not really a photo album so much as a scrapbook and it basically covers Calliope (and us, and all our friends and family that have been around alot) through the last year. Its truly amazing, every page crafted with love and thoughtfulness. And it hits me like a ton of bricks emotionally to see everything we have already been through as a family summed up in this one book. And this is only the last year. There is yet another one that covers the first year and a half and frankly I thought this one would be less inspirational or at least yank less of my emotional cords. But no, I cry if I think about it for longer than two seconds. Its beautiful and I can’t believe we are so lucky… It was a nice way to end the day and we were able to go to bed rested and feeling good about the new year to come. Here’s a sample page of the scrapbook…

This morning was a different story. Still very positive, and moving too, but via humor. One of the gifts that was given specifically to Michael and Calliope was a book. Calculus for infants! The Willsons are a math family. Grandma Dianne is a Math Teacher and all the kids are fluent in math speak. While math was always my best subject in grade school, I barely started trig before I left high school in TX for a GED in San Francisco. And that was my last bit of training in the field of math… I don’t remember any of it. It was a perfect gift for Michael and Calliope though. They will have years of fun that will be between the two of them, being geek father and geek daughter. I picked up the book this morning and read it and by the 7th page was baffled and laughing hysterically all at the same time. The truth is she won’t get much of this stuff about derivatives and being absolute and/or boundless for years to come, but I would bet a million dollars it will be years before the average bloke. If you speak the language to them, they will learn. Its the same as our thoughts on adoption. It will not be a question to her because it is her existence. Its not hidden knowledge that is lurking behind the next corner waiting to be learned. Obviously, we can’t teach her the language of all things, but you can bet that math, self confidence (fashion) and adoption will be three of the ones at the top!

This is what is left of some home-made toffee that Queen of the universe made for us. As most of my friends know, I don’t eat a lot of sweets, but after disregarding it for four days, now I can’t stop putting it in my mouth! It reminds me of salted caramel ice cream, which is to say, a bit salty and lovely…

This was our card this year, although we only sent it to about 60 people because that’s all we ordered! They were more expensive than we had planned and at the last minute dropped the order quantity by 20% much to the dismay of several of our close friends…. lesson learned I suppose. In any case, I love the silliness of it and the fact that we have a real fireplace in the background and my yearly poinsettia that I have yet to kill added an extra touch of warmth in the background. Oh, and don’t miss the pic of Logan and Alicia in the background! It was our way of including them in our holiday family picture which I thought was rather clever…

It’s a dad and daughter kinda day.