{Not} Living Vicariously

Cookie Exchange 2012 - Tenth Annual

Everything seems to be happening faster this year. I'm not sure if it is because Thanksgiving was early on the calendar or if being pregnant has thrown off my internal clock. However this year's cookie exchange was on December 1st and I'm only just now finalizing my cookie bookie for the guests and getting around to posting pictures. Oh well. Better late than never!

First the appetizers . . .

Aaron was wonderful. Even though he wasn't going to be at the party due to a conflict (he was off learning how to make tamales!) he totally prepped most of the appetizers the night before since we knew I didn't need to be on my feet. We have tasty goodies here (clockwise from top right) of Creamy Chipotle Black Bean Dip, Basil-Proscuitto cheese Ball, Creamy Crab and Red Pepper Dip (made into a cheese ball) and Party Potatoes with Creamy Aioli. There was also a spicy winter cider (not pictured) and coffee.

As for the cookies, we had a mix of both old favorites and new enjoyments . . .

I made my standby: the cherry dot. Easy enough to do even while seven months along! Others on the table included hamentaschen (yay!), raspberry almond thumbprints, orange coconut balls, $250 deluxe chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter chocolate chip bacon cookies, buttered popcorn cookies, hidden mint cookies, nutella cookies, and oatmeal granola cookies. This made for a tasty variety for everyone to share.

I had so much fun as always and look forward to next year's party!

Traditions and Values

As we get closer to the baby's birth and with all the holiday activities going on, I find myself thinking more and more about traditions and what values we want to instill in our child. While we both have traditions from our childhood with our families, it is the traditions we've created together that mean so much to me.

Recently we held our sixth annual Thanksgiving dinner, collecting "strays" who don't have other places to go and had a wonderful meal with nine adults and two toddlers running around our living room. Some of these friends have been sharing this tradition with us since the beginning (and I can't imagine Thanksgiving without them) while others are brand new in our life (they are just as important). So one value I want our child to have is that of generosity. The house doesn't have to huge (nor does it have to be spotless) in order to share family and food with others.

The first Saturday in December was my tenth annual cookie exchange. (I need to share pictures of this one soon, so some of you can drool all over your keyboards, this one was so very tasty!) This one was a bit more difficult than usual due to my enlarged condition. Luckily Aaron did most of the cooking and cleaning while I enjoyed the company of these friends. Some of them were nervous that I was going to stop this tradition as my life became more complicated. I don't know exactly what next year will bring, however I fully expect there to be an eleventh annual and the girls who come with their moms can play with the baby. Another value I want our child to have is a sense of hospitality.

While we will not be traveling this Christmas to see family, we will be participating in the annual New Year's Day shindig where Aaron's generation has started celebrating with a different ethnicity of food for the big meal. We have done Mexican, Asian, and Middle Eastern foods. There are no picky eaters in this family, although we do make exceptions for food allergies and genetic aversions to cilantro (yes I'm talking to my mother-in-law here who is part of that poor group of people who think cilantro tastes like soap and doesn't get to enjoy it). I definitely want our child to value other cultures and one way we do that is by exploring their foods. I hope we can also bring travel and experience as part of that valuing however that will occur as it can.

While there are other values we hope to instill in Tadpole/Polliwog, these three traditions are ones that Aaron and I have brought together and will be using to help baby Gallagher grow.