SEVENTH ANNUAL

Last Sunday we celebrated Easter with our seventh annual seafood Easter dinner.

Our Easter began a little later than normal (read: K was up at 6:40ish; not her usual 6:05am). We got ready and rushed off to church for brunch. I stress the rushed part of the morning. We did get out of bed later than usual on Sunday. Top that off with me not having any clothes that fit - maternity clothes are too big; regular clothes too small. I hate the awkward stage of pregnancy. I ended up wearing a too small black skirt that nearly bruised my expanding belly. K, on the other hand, had a beautiful and perfectly fitting little Easter dress to wear. Unfortunately, the sleeves hurt her armpits. She cried from the moment we put the dress on until we took it off and dressed her in another dress. The real bummer is D took the tags off the dress before we realized K wouldn't wear it. Maybe our second baby will also be a girl and she'll like the dress...

We arrived at church half an hour late for the brunch. On the flip-side, we were 45 minutes early for church. All in all it was a successful morning.

After church K napped and D and I scrambled to get ready for our dinner.

K woke up and opened her Easter basket from United States Grandma and Grandpa. The sunglasses and stickers inside were a big hit; as were the cashews.

Our guests - all NINE of them (not including the three of us) - arrived around 4:30. We snacked on deviled eggs and more cashews. Around 5:30 we sat down to a feast that included:


1. baked salmon wrapped in puffed pastry and spinach;
2. baked shrimp encrusted with cornmeal - this was by far K's favorite dish of the night;
3. sauteed brussel sprouts with carmalized onions;
4. spinach salad with black beans and blue cheese;
5. homemade bread; and
6. ice-cream cones and bunny cookies for dessert.

I took very few pictures during the day. My major fail was not getting a picture of K in either one of her Easter dresses. I did successful take pictures of our appetizer, the cookies and K's casual afternoon outfit.

TIS THE SEASON

For cookies...

THE CHRISTMAS CARD

I love Christmas cards.

My parents made us take a picture each Christmas every year. There were times when I hated posing for the annual shot. There are some Christmas card pictures that I love and others (especially those during my awkward middle school days) that I'd like to forget. But I love the tradition. I love that I have a little photo album of just Christmas card photos from my childhood. I love looking back and seeing how my brother and I grew and changed from year to year. I love reflecting on what we were doing in the pictures --- there was the soccer year where we wore our soccer uniforms, the year with our dog Bandit, the years of swimming where we wore our Hampton Dolphins uniforms, and the unfortunate years where we tried to pose in our Sunday best. Our family Christmas cards tell the story of us as a family. And I love them.

So it is important to me that each year we take the time to design and send out Christmas cards to friends and family.

This year getting a family Christmas card together was a little bit harder than it has been in the past for several reasons. First, getting a quality family picture with a two year old is challenging - to say the least. And second, my camera was stolen when our house was robbed last month and we did lose some pictures from the computer that was stolen.

I have been feeling a little stressed about getting our card designed and the cards printed in time for the holidays.

Plus there are so many choices when it comes to designing and printing your Christmas cards. This year I decided to use Shutterfly for our Christmas cards. We've been using Shutterfly for several years now as our online photo album and I've always liked their services and products. Their Christmas card designs this year were fantastic (we spent considerable time deciding which one we liked best out of five or six choices) and I really like that the cards can be printed on cardstock. Shutterfly's prices were also reasonable and their holiday savings coupons and deals were unbeatable.

We have coupons for a free photo calendar if we spend $50 or more AND I am also participating in a promotion where you post a blog entry about your shutterfly card and you get 50 cards for free.

SWEET!!

Shutterfly is also offering 30 percent off all cards ordered before December 1st. And free shipping.

We hope to have our cards ordered in the next 24 hours and mailed to friends and family before December 20th. This also poses a huge challenge because my dissertation defense is scheduled for December 20th. We also need to bake and deliver more than 15 plates of Christmas cookies to neighbors and friends. And do some Christmas shopping.

Here's to getting into the Christmas spirit, checking everything off of my to-do list, and celebrating the creation of a wonderful Christmas card...

EASTER DINNER

Tomorrow we will be hosting our 5th Annual Seafood Easter Dinner.

Our first Easter dinner was celebrated in my Capitol Hill apartment in the spring of 2005. D and I had been dating for about three months and we thought it would be fun to celebrate the Resurrection with our friends and over good food. It was a good time, but looking back I see that we've come a L-O-N-G way.

For our first Easter dinner, we served all the food buffet style and in one course. We ate on couches with plates in our laps. D made enough food to feed three or four-times the number of people we invited. I think I ate pasta with mussels for a week afterward. Our second Easter dinner was held in our first apartment. Again, we ate on the couches or tile floor (we didn't have enough seating for everyone). That year, we did the get the proportions right. Our third Easter dinner was in our new house. We sat down at our wonderful dining room table. Everyone had a seat! We had a four course meal and enjoyed the company of all of our guests. We also announced my pregnancy that day. Last year, we again had enough seating for everyone, including two little ones. We ate a wonderful meal and enjoyed the company of all of our guests.

Tomorrow we'll have a full house - eight adults and two kids. Everyone will have a seat at the table. We also plan to break out Bunny Bowling - a wonderful little game D picked up at some over-crowded furniture store for $1.

For dinner we will be having a five course meal:

1. cheese and crackers

2. carrot-cashew soup with ginger

3. salad - romaine, heart of palm, artichoke hearts and blue cheese with a vinegarette dressing

4. salmon baked in puff pastry with a vegan curry-cheese sauce and spinach. Served with broccoli and roasted mini-red potatoes with fresh rosemary.

5. pound cake with fresh strawberries and blueberries.