Friday's Bisque

The Bisque was a success!  So was Wills' bedtime routine! 

We can't take any credit for the recipe.  This is one of my dad's recipes that he tweaked from a friend at Land's End. 

And, honestly, I can't take any credit for the outcome.  This was all William.  I poured a glass of wine, kept him company, and took a few pictures. 

We gathered the ingredients. 

William poured a little lemon juice on the crab meat.

He sauteed the onions and celery in butter.  Then, added the crab meat.

After heating for a few minutes, we added the cream, milk, hot sauce, Worcestershire, and cream of celery.  You use equal amounts of half and half and milk. 

He heated that, and added the Ritz crackers, to thicken it up, and the mushrooms. 

The final touch is a dollop of Sherry on top!

The Wise Men approve!

I wish I had a better picture.  It was hard to capture the real beauty of the bisque.  But trust me; it was delicious! 

Bisque for Two

It’s Friday! Woo hoo! I made it through my second week of work!

And…guess who slept 9 hours last night? 9 whole hours?

Of course, sweet Finnster did.

But Wills did, too! Yay!  I can’t believe it! We are keeping our fingers crossed for another great night, tonight.

Before I forget...at Wills’ two month appointment he weighed 13.4 pounds and was 24 inches long. Our sweet boy did great with his shots and didn’t cry too much.

 

Now…back to Friday night. I don’t know of anything better than warm, creamy crab bisque, red wine, Christmas lights, and a fire, after a long week of work. William and I LOVE to cook something special on Friday nights. We haven’t lately, because we’ve been a little busy figuring out our evening routines with Wills. But, since he did so well last night and has pretty much established a bedtime of 8:30, later tonight is for us and our kitchen! Crab bisque is our Christmas Eve tradition, so we are practicing. :)

It’s really easy…that is, after you pick the crabs.

And, since I’m breastfeeding, and supposedly burning 500 extra calories a day, I can justify all of the cream, right? Ha! I better be careful. But, not tonight. :)

I will let you drool over a picture of its deliciousness, tomorrow. Off to enjoy Wills until 8:30 and my husband afterwards.

The Stockings Were Hung...

Look whose stocking came in the mail?

The tree is finally decorated…after three days of hanging out naked in the stand. What can we say? We like au natural.

I love my eclectic tree of ornaments and lights. I know it’s not Southern Living or Cudos worthy with beautiful bows, white lights, and designer matching ornaments. But it’s mine. And it is full of love and memories. It is perfect for our home and nowhere else. It belongs here, and that means something to me.

For as long as I can remember, my mom has given us an ornament each year for Christmas. When I moved to Athens, she boxed up all of the ornaments she had given over the years, and gave them to me to put on my Christmas tree. It was so nice to already have meaningful ornaments for my very first Christmas tree. And lucky for us, the tradition continues…William gets an ornament every year, and now, hopefully Wills will get one too.

My new favorite ornament.

Wills loves the lights!

Off to curl up on the couch with my three boys and watch Love Actually, for the 3rd time in a month.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE Christmas? :)

All in a Cup

Wills, like his Mommy, is all smiles in the morning. His Daddy on the other hand...not much of a morning person. But, since Wills’ breakfast is happening closer to 7am these days, Daddy has taken over the morning feeding, and he’s doing a great job being chipper…or faking it. :)

These smiles make me giddy in the morning and make it oh so hard to walk out of the door.

But, if I have to leave my smiling, wide awake, bundle of joy, I should be able to treat myself to a cup of joy…right? Not to be mistaken, at $4 each, this is just an OCCASIONAL treat – at least until I open my Christmas stocking and find a gift card, or two. Santa knows what I like, and if I’m lucky, since he’s made an appearance and all, he reads my blog.

As cliché as it sounds, a Skinny Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks really is Christmas in a cup.

Instead of dreaming of sugarplum fairies, it makes me dream of a stroll through New York City, bundled up in boots and a cute scarf, stopping to watch the ice skaters outside of Rockefeller center, holding my husband’s hand, my coffee in the other hand, spending a weekend shopping at FAO Shwarz for my boy.

For now, instead of dwelling on the fact that I had to leave my boys, I will drink my coffee, dream about Christmas traditions, and look forward to 3 o’clock.

Finding Time

The days seem to be running together. The hours seem to fly. Except when I’m at work. Yes, last week was my first week back since my sweet baby boy was born, and I must admit, I counted the minutes, waiting to get home to him. Some say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. I don’t know if this heart can grow any fonder, and the absence thing, let’s just say it was hard. His short stint in the hospital, right before I was to return to work, didn’t help matters. But, I’m optimistic. And I’m hoping that it will get easier to be away. He is in great hands with all of our family helping out to care for him. This Mommy just needs to relax and try to enjoy her other 100 children who also need her attention. :)

Wills was two months old last week! Where has the time gone? He is so much more alert and active! We are enjoying every minute of parenthood – even the middle of the night feedings. Really, we are. We talk daily about Christmas, showing Wills the manger scene and telling him about Baby Jesus. We sing to him all the time. Daddy sings “You’ll always be my baby” to him, and he loves it. His baby Einstein gym is, by far, his favorite activity – the octopus being his object of admiration. He’s a great eater, sleeper, and pooper. Ha! What more could we ask for?

Before I went back to work, Wills and I spent a beautiful day at the park.

. 

He met some of his Mommy's favorite people in the world.

After being sick, we decided to keep the little peanut home on Thanksgiving. 

And because things aren't always perfect, and sometimes it feels good to cry.  :)

On another note, back to the blog title: finding time. We are 10 weeks in, with this little peanut, and I feel like there is no other role that suits me as much as the role of Mommy. I feel like I was meant for this job. However, although Mommy defines me these days, I would like to and need to find time for the other things that make me happy. Is it possible to be Mommy and Writer? Or Mommy and Yogi (not that I’m anywhere close, but I would love to be)? And the most important one: Mommy and Wife? Here’s to spending as much time as possible with my little boy and, somehow, finding little moments to blog, read a book, work on my novel, love on my husband, try a new recipe (first I have to find a way to get to the grocery store), exercise, and call a girlfriend. I know that finding the balance will, ultimately, make me a better mom.

Hopefully, there are Christmas cookies in this blog's future!