Ice Skating

Today M tried ice skating for the first time. Let's see. How can I put this delicately? She's not the most adventurous little girl in the world. But today she was awesome. A little hesitant at the beginning which was to be expected but got out there quickly and when she fell she laughed, brushed it off and got back on that pony. I'm so proud of her!

Vin et Fromage

I love my neighbors....my friends! I love that you can step outside to do ordinary things like go to your car, bring groceries in the house, bring in the newspaper or shovel the snow (well, let's be real.....I don't do the shoveling but you get my point), then run into neighbors, have a chat and end up making plans for a little cheese and wine get together. Our friends, the Henrys, are originally from France. They have lived in Oak Park for 10 years now. And, they are such a pleasure to be around. Isabelle makes homemade bread daily (her family in France ran a bakery). Yummy! She has demonstrated for us a few times her bread making techniques but hers is always better. Tonight we were suppose to have an informal ("simple" as Isabelle put it) cheese and wine date with the Henrys and the Pettits. Well, her simple and my simple must not be the same. As she walked in with 6 loaves of bread to bake, muffins, sausage, 6 cheeses and wine!! Needless to say, we had a great time!

And so did the kids as you can see!

The Christmas Cookie Castle

One of my favorite childhood Christmas memories is the Cookie Castle. Each year my mom would put together the castle structure out of poster board paper, then we would decorate and EAT the cookies. Since my parents were joining us this year for Christmas I thought it would be fun to have my mom make a cookie castle with M. My memory of this activity was simply putting the cookies on the castle. I didn't remember the time it takes to make the structure!!! Thanks for the castle and for the memories, Mom!! It's funny.....I remembered the castle being so much larger...like the size of our table!

Christmas Day Dinner

Ooooh, so delicious......

Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb, Parmesan Potato Pancake, Green Bean Casserole, Arugula Salad with Fennel, Pomegranate Seeds, Salami and Panatone Croutons, Olive Rosemary Bread and Lady Fingers with Lemon Mascarpone Cream (and s'mores!)

And to All a Good Night

We have carried on a Ferrigno family Christmas Eve tradition. Each Christmas Eve we make lots of appetizers, have some cocktails and dig in. It's very informal. Just good food, drinks and friends and family. Chris and I have lived in the Chicago area for 10 years. Both of our parents and much of our extended families live in the South. Needless to say, our families are not equipped to deal with the cold and snow. This is why we have always discouraged winter visits opting for the summer visits with weather that they are more accustomed to. Over the years we generally did the traveling. Well, now that we have little kids we want the kids to experience Christmas at home. This year was extra special because my parents were in town. They braved the cold and snow to be with us for Christmas. With weather advisories, flight cancellations, standby lists and many, many flight delays, they managed to get here--believe it or not, with better flight times than their original plans! We had a great visit with them. I'm pretty sure they left in a food comma! Nothing can replace having your family around during the holidays. Thanks, Nanny and Papa. We all had a fabulous time. The Pettits also joined us for Christmas Eve (which is becoming a tradition as well, which I LOVE). Thanks guys!


Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!!


CHRISTMAS EVE

CHRISTMAS DAY

A Snowy Day

Yesterday was the first day of Winter. This is what we awoke to this morning....kind of fitting, huh!

I was walking past a local restaurant this afternoon and noticed this minature snowman. It was too cute....so I had to take a picture.

Christmas Party

Today was M and ARose’s Christmas party at daycare. Each year Big Mike and Miss Alice go all out with Christmas. The room is always festive including a Christmas tree filled with ornaments that the kids make and Christmas music (Alvin and the Chipmunks) playing in the background and lots of food. The kids get to take home the ornaments after the holidays. We have already accumulated quite a collection and I have dedicated our basement tree to these little treasures.

They even get a visit from the big guy himself. The kids range from ARose’s age to M’s age. And this year the kids figured out that Santa wasn't really Santa. As soon as "Santa" walked in M said "That's not Santa. That's Big Mike!" Then everyone else joined her. I had to pull her to the side to let her know that Santa was really busy this year and asked Big Mike for help this year and not to tell the little kids who didn’t know. She bought it and stood a little taller knowing that knew something that the other little ones didn’t. It was so funny!

Thanks Big Mike and Miss Alice for another fun-filled party for the kids. You guys are great!

O Christmas Tree

This year Chris and M picked out the Christmas tree by the time I could take ARose out of the car, put her in a cart and roll her inside. I think it's our best tree yet!

The Last Game...Maybe

Not long after Chris graduated from high school a group of his buddies began an annual tradition of playing football on Thanksgiving Day. It started out rather small with just a few of the guys. Full on tackling. The boys needed to release some pinned up energy I guess. Each year the group has gotten larger; at the same time the group has gotten OLDER. The boys have long since dismissed the full on tackling and even touch football. They now enjoy flag football. And, good thing, since each year someone gets hurt. Last year, our friend Joe broke his hand. This year, Chris had a turf injury and tore a ligament in his finger (I think....it looked really bad). Hmmmm, perhaps they should stick to drinking beer and watching football on TV!!

Allergies and Yelling

M: Mom, I figured out something today.

Me: What?

M: I’m allergic to yelling.

Me: Oh, how do you know this?

M: Because yelling makes my eyes hurt. This morning when ARose was yelling it hurt my eyes.

(ARose has been sick with high fever so she has reached new levels of crying/yelling that M hasn’t heard before!)

The Elf

We started a new Christmas tradition this year--Elf on the Shelf. While visiting some friends over Thanksgiving they introduced us to their elf. It goes like this....Each year usually around Thanksgiving an elf appears. His job is to watch the children's behavior and report who's been naughty or nice to Santa each night. The next morning the elf has returned from the North Pole and is now in a new and different place.


M named her elf Niriana (dunno how she comes up with these names!). She was so excited to have him. Actually "her"as M made her elf a girl. She immediately sat down and wrote her Christmas list for Niriana to take to Santa. She's been writing her list for the last 3 weeks so she's got it down pat by now...she gets the list thing from her DAD:-). Then I heard her whispering secrets in Niriana's ear.

Jingle Bells

Yes, two Santa's in one day. M and I had Breakfast with Santa this morning then off to my work kids' party where we met another Santa, Ronald McDonald, Hamburgular and Grimace. Bought our Christmas tree and started decorating. Man, I'm tired :-))

Uncle Mike, I thought of you when we took this picture with Hamburgular.

Pearly Whites

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I guess ARose decided that enough was enough.....she wants to eat "real" food. She now has 2 teeth!!

Our Nephew, N

One word......ADORABLE!!

ARose's Hip Hop Debut

Thanksgiving 2009

We’re back from our much-needed vacation. This year we spent Thanksgiving with Chris’ family in Atlanta. The weather was great (warm and sunny) and we hung out with family and friends the entire time. That’s what call a nice vacation.

This was ARose's first flight. I have to admit I was a little nervous. You never know how kids are going to react to the cabin pressure, constraints, out of routine, etc. M was an amazing baby on planes. Her first flight was at 4 months as well. Well, ARose followed in her big sister's footsteps. She was awesome even after her dad almost DROPPED HER and M slammed the arm rest on her little head while she was eating. She wasn't happy about either but quickly forgave us.

We met our nephew, N, for the first time (he's the same age as ARose....cool, huh!). Our friends –Joe, Gretchen and their daughter Sina—who we have not seen in 3+ years because they now live in Dubai- were in town so we got to see them. They are having their second child soon!! Chris has managed to stay connected over the years with some of his grade school friends. A few still live in Atlanta. Any time we are in town, we all try to meet for dinner to catch up. This year seemed to work for people so we were able to see most of them on our trip. We were also treated with a surprise trip from my Aunt Sharon and Uncle Gary who stopped in Atlanta on their way back to South Carolina.

We have a blessed life and are certainly thankful for all of our friends and family!