Christmas!

Our twine trees and presents sitting on the beautiful christmas table 

Getting ready for Christmas

Somehow in my present state getting ready for things takes almost as much time as doing the thing itself.  We got ready for Christmas by making a few twine christmas trees and bows and admiring all our neighbours for getting out in the rain, braving the terrible mix of water and electricity and putting up Christmas lights.

We really have no excuse, since we don't traditionally buy presents for each other and we opted out of a tree this year, our house should have looked like Rockefellar square. Instead it's the lonely one on the corner with the slightly dead looking trees. Hence our motto.....maybe next year.

Nat and I spent a day of crafting Christmas table decorations including  a bauble for each person at Gill and Simon's family Christmas...including the dogs. We used glue pens and fine glitter and were quite happy for our first attempt. We then packed them into Chrissy themed Chinese food cartons. We also made extra twine trees for the center of the table. It was a long day of crafting and I still suspect there's some glitter hanging about the kitchen table.

Personalised baubles for all the Christmas guests

Christmas cooking

Presents

I wanted to give our new found friends a little something for Christmas. Since I do enjoy a dabble in the kitchen, a box of baked goodies sounded like the best idea. I made vanilla marshmallows (pink and green in the absense of red and green), lemon melting moments (I prefer passionfruit but I had one tin and it had to be put to another use) and some macarons. The macarons were a bit sad. I wanted to make them pink and green and added a toothpick worth of food colouring, it went all pear-shaped. I'm still not 100% with the oven and it's various elements so will have to keep working at that one. At least they tasted okay even if they looked meh.

Desserts

Nat and I got assigned desserts again for Christmas after successfully filling everyone with sugar at Thanksgiving. We made

• cake pops
• sticky date pudding (in place of traditional pudding)
• a meringue log with berries, white chocolate and passionfruit
• apple pie and apple berry crumble with vanilla bean custard
• chocolate friands and
• pumpkin cheesecakes....again

I borrowed Ryan and Rose's cake pop pan to make the pops and they kindly send over the specially recommended grease spray. I sprayed it, baked the pops and popped them in the freezer so I could return the pan.  While wandering around the kitchen two days before Christmas I suddenly had a brainwave....the pam spray that I had used had been specially recommended because it contained flour. Non-gluten free flour....the cake-pops we'd made with gluten free cake, were ready to coat with gluten free candy mix and sprinkles were covered with non-gluten free flour.....gah! At least I remembered before I fed them to our poor gluten intolerant friends!

The doomed cake pops 

We had another epic day of baking, including an experimental meringue log which was quite successful. We ended up with 9 egg yolks after baking meringue and friands and we discovered that it's very hard to cut decorative shapes out of gluten free pastry.  Nuwan had the toughest day of all, he just had to keep testing....and testing and testing the food. At one point, realising that there was 3 less people coming to lunch we each decided that we should try a sticky date pudding after lunch.

By the end of the day I was quite pooped! I imagine the ovens were too, they were running at full tilt for most of the day.  I had an early night, to make sure we could make the most of the planned FEAST and boy was it a feast.

Christmas day

 We were kind of hoping for snow on Christmas but woke up to rain instead...lots of it! But we're getting properly acclimatised now and we take no heed of the rain.

Nat, myself and Rose

Myself, Nataliya, Gill, Rose

The boys; Nuwan, Evgeny, Simon and Ryan

Lovely Gill with her mum and sister

Mitch looking uber-cool in his birthday present

We arrived at Gill and Simon's on Christmas morning lugging everything but the kitchen sink....and 2 gallons of milks (more on that later). We had desserts, we had presents and we had serving dishes to boot. We set up our desserts and watched Simon and his BIL Mike do magic in the kitchen. Simon and Gill each had their sisters and families staying. Gill's mum was there too.
Since the fridge was packed to the brim with food, Simon and Nuwan determined that the milk was actually better off outside where it was just above freezing. Definitely colder than in the fridge.

The beautiful Christmas table

What's Christmas without baubles everywhere

We sat down to an amazing meal of turkey and ham, accompanied by roasted pumpkin, potato baked, stuffing, brussel sprouts and carrots. There was gravy, mustard, chutney, vinegar and even cranberry sauce. We didn't even bother heating up the desserts while lunch was cooking.....that's how much time we expected to spend eating. Everything was delicious and I must say, thanks to Simon....I'm a proper fan of turkey now.

Our delicious lunch

We bought out dessert quite a while later and Gill and Rose washed and wiped the lunch plates....judging the small side plates to be insufficient for our eating needs.  We ate dessert almost for as long as we ate lunch....and still there was more left.

Meringue log

Mini pumpkin cheesecake

Apple crumble pie

Sticky-date pudding

Friands

Thanks once again to Gill and Simon for sharing their home and family with us!

An Update

The weather
There's this line in Sleepless in Seattle where Tom Hanks' character tells a colleague he's moving to Seattle. The colleague then says: "Do you know that it rains practically all the time in Seattle."
When we decided to move here, everyone kept reminding us of that.  We were lucky to have an amazing summer, almost 6 weeks without rain. 25 degree days and clear blue skies.
Now winter has well and truly hit. Most days are rainy, if there's not rain there's cloud and cold. If it gets to above 45 degrees fahrenheit we're cheering.
The other day while at school the sun peeked out of the clouds and one by one the kids marched up to the window and stared out at the sun.
 Our attitude has been we're going out and doing things...rain be damned. I've bought some snow boots and a couple of down jackets which keep me very warm and very dry.





We've been making use of the fireplace and recently bought and re-upholstered some ottomans to sit in front of the fire with.












We also had our first snow, a light cold drizzle. Still, we woke up to a white, cold wonderland. We also finally unpacked the snowchains we bought and tried to have a go at putting them on. If the snow stays away, hopefully we won't need them.

The baby
There's less than 6 weeks to go till Baby Ginige comes. He's healthy and happy and doing exactly what he should be doing inside. He's become a bit of a kicking machine lately, probably telling us that he's ready to get out.

All his clothes, blankets, wraps and things....clean and ready to go.

We've been finishing off the nursery and this weekend we went to Target and bought nappies, soap and all those tiny little things that make it kind of real. We also washed all his clothes and blankets and everything he owned fit into a single load of washing.

The nursery! 

Toys

The stroller and carseat have arrived and are awaiting installation into the car. The bouncer came and we're just waiting on the tub.

Over the last few weeks we've also been going to ante-natal classes, the ones where they teach you how to breathe and show you those scary videos about where babies come from. Nuwan gets a glazed look over his face whenever they discuss all the gory bits but otherwise they're going well. This week we get to tour the hospital, a real glimpse into what happens on this side of the world!

I also found a rocking horse at the goodwill store a few weeks back. I'm not under any illusions about how useful it will be, it will probably be unused for at least a couple of years. The Stepford wife in me couldn't resist the project.

Before

During

And after 

I've also found a second home at the Bellevue Goodwill store and on one particularly great trip I picked up some amazing pictures books...all for 79c each.

My particular favourite, the original Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister :)

For those who are yet to experience the magic of this amazing book here it is:

and hear the story...

The Rainbow Fish

BTW did I mention that I am constantly getting stopped and asked about the baby, random strangers offering me advice, talking about their experiences and congratulating me. It's becoming a great way to meet people!

Friends and family

They're getting ready to come here. Which is exciting! Pabs flies in on January 11th and then the influx starts!

Birthday

My last birthday without kids is coming up. I bought myself a sewing machine! 

I'm not much of a sewer but always did enjoy it. The machine is a Brother, computerised one with over 80 stitches and the best part...automatic button holes. Boy do I love automatic button holes! I've been having a lot of fun playing with it...fun cushions for the baby's room and some for our new bench seat and fireplace chairs. 

Here's another little present I bought for myself....can't wait to try it out! 

Christmas party :)

The 007 themed dessert table

Rose and I

So off we went to the Microsoft Christmas party of sorts! It was held in the office building and went from 4-9....usually not a good sign. It was Casino Royale themed and the first thing I saw when we walked in was the awesome DESSERT table full of themes cakes, cupcakes, cookies and cake pops. There was a full buffet of entrees and of course they were serving vodka martinis, shaken not stirred. 

We chatted to a lot of Nuwan's workmates and I met his boss and his bosses boss and discovered how much time he spends at work discussing food.  There was a photo booth of sorts that produced flip books, there was even a caricature artist and an entire floor decked out like a casino! As is normal for us we spent a great deal of time discussing food with Nuwan's contemporaries and got another endorsement for an Indian restaurant; Naan n Curry. We tried it a few nights later and apart from a weirdly overzealous waiter who tried to serve a Chath curry and made fun of my accent, we had some delicious Indian food!

We met a colleague of Nuwan's who also happens to be a Austen fan who's named her daughter Austen. I put in another push to call baby Ginige Darcy.... to no avail...:(.

Queen of hearts....yum!

Christmas

Christmas is fast approaching and we're spending it with our lovely friends again. We're thoroughly looking forward to it! It's strange being in a country where Christmas is finally cold. We have no snow but the prospect of a hot turkey, hot chocolate, warm apple cider all sound tempting.....not nauseating. 

We've decided not to get a tree... Nuwan wants to wait for BG so we can decorate it together....I thought it was a pretty good idea. 

Instead we made a few little decorations to brighten up the place! 

Cars

My life is strangely getting busier, between school, friends and shopping I usually need the car most days. It also helps get me out of the house even in this depressing weather. Nuwan and I finally decided to bite the bullet and get a second car.

We're on the hunt. It's a strange experience trying to understand how things work here. Do we got to a dealer? Are private sales the way to go? How do we get a diagnostic done on a second hand car? Who can we trust? What car do we get?

In the end we stuck with what we knew. We have become a Mazda family after all. On the right is Nuwan's new/old blue Mazda 3. We're a two car family for the first time. A strange but so far successful experience.

My projects

I've been working on a few projects around the place, you've probably seen them on Facebook. They've kept me busy and are also helping to full up the spaces in our house. Finally starting to look like a home.

San Francisco

San Fran was a fabulous change as Seattle got colder and wetter.  We watched the forecast daily and as Seattle temperatures kept dropping past 5 degrees Celsius  the SF weather forecast predicted warm weather, sun and blue skies.

Our primary reason for going, touristing aside, was to visit Nuwan’s school friend Sat who’s completing a semester of her MBA in town. San Francisco is known for its foodie attractions, I read somewhere that it had more restaurants per capita than any other American city.  Sat is an established foodie, which made the trip even more exciting.

Her day plans for us were around food, e.g. on your way to this amazing Mexican restaurant be sure to check-out Chinatown.

Day 1

Our first day we started with a walk to the trendy Filmore area of SF. Sat met us at our apartment and we walked up and down the hills of SF to a chain of French Patisseries called Le Boulange. Le Boulange has great pastries, tea and coffee and chai that comes in a bowl.

Filmore has a great hill that you can walk to the top of and get a great vista of the bay. It was a beautiful day for a walk and Nuwan and I headed up to the top. Nuwan took photos and I stared at the steep descent nervously. It had steps on the footpath, to help you walk down. It was that steep. Needless to say, we walked back the way we came.

From the top of Filmore

Union Square

The Bay Bridge

We took a bus to union square and walked around while we waited for lunch time.  While waiting by the water for Sat to finish class we photographed the Bay Bridge and dear Facebook mistakenly tagged it as the Golden Gate. Whoops!

We headed to the Ferry Building for lunch, a must do for any foodie. It was clam chowder but a truly unique version. Light, with clam shells you could see and served by the water.  

After a wander back through town we ended up at Peruvian Restaurant for dinner.  Here I tried my first empanada and Nuwan and Sat tried some proper ceviche. Yumm!

Day 2

We started day 2 with a trip to the famous SF painted ladies, of Full House fame. The houses are directly opposite the Alamo Park and even on this particular day is full of tourists taking photos of the famous painted ladies.

The painted ladies...from Full House!

We headed to Chinatown from there, up another almighty hill or 5. Chinatown is full of intriguing shops and bazaars. There’s food everywhere and plenty of tea-houses.  We walked around for quite a few hours, taking in the sights and heading to a restaurant that I will refer to as the MSG duck palace.

Beautiful lanterns in Chinatown

Love is apparently around the corner. Maybe the fortune cookie knows something we don't?

 It’s famous for it’s crispy skinned Peking duck that is served with plum sauce and steamed buns.  It was delicious and after enjoying it I headed to the ladies room. The ladies room door was adjacent to the kitchen and always on the prowl for a cooking secret I peered inside. There was a chef slicing frozen chicken using a ham slicer but I was more intrigued by the 20kg bag of something dumped on the floor. I peered in further and saw the following words emblazoned on the bag.

Mono-Sodium Glutamate….MSG.

No wonder the duck was so delicious!

Getting ready for MSG duck. 

All around Chinatown they advertise for tea tastings and we decided to join the tea tasting brigade. We went to Tea Ren and learned about tea pots, tea funnels and tea needles. We also walked out with some Ginseng brew for Nuwan and caffeine free white tea for moi!

Nuwan and I spent the afternoon at a vantage point for the actual Golden Gate Bridge. It was lovely and sunny and in full of little children playing soccer.  I waited and people-watched while Nuwan wondered up and down along the water with his camera.

Dinner was at Nopalitas, an amazing organic Mexican restaurant that is always packed. The highlights being the delicious fish tacos Nuwan and I had developed a taste for and the amazing bitter dark chocolate popsicle I had at the end.

Day 3

During Niki’s visit to Seattle some months ago he regaled us with tales of a fabulous mens amenities shop called Nancy Boy. Nancy Boy is full of bath products, shaving products, creams and lotions for the man who is so inclined. Nuwan and I made a special plan to go there, just to check it out. I walked out with some bath salts only to get home and discover that our bath plug has gone walk about.

Nuwan did considerably more shopping than I. 

We went to Foreign Cinema for lunch that day, apparently a SF institution. We walked through the Mission District  and would have missed the place entirely were it not for Sat. A tiny entrance, a long hallway with a huge, beautiful restaurant at the end. It was all open air and perfect for the warm sunny day. We ate oysters (well Sat and Nuwan did) and drank delicious cocktails and mocktails. Nuwan had a Persian omelette and Sat and I both had braised pork with poached eggs. Delicious! And then there’s their famous caramelized bacon….wow!

Amazing oysters at Foreign Cinema. 

My lemon tart....mmmm yum!

At Dolores Park.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walked and eventually made our way to the Tartine bakery. It reminds me of Bourke St Bakery, with it’s ridiculous line outside. The line moves quickly though and we went inside and I got a lemon tart. Nuwan had their famous tres leches cake, a coconut chiffon layered cake. We walked up to the famous Dolores park and found a spot under the tree to people watch and eat our sweet treats.  The park was beautiful and packed. Sat and Nuwan ventured to the top and claimed that the higher you go the higher you got.  Intriguing sentiment.

We went to the famous Burma Superstar for dinner. Highly rated everywhere, it’s a tiny restaurant and we spent the night in there when the SF Giants won the play-offs. Unfortunately we were all full from a day of eating and we hardly had appetite and didn’t do the Burma Superstar justice. I must comment on the amazing rainbow salad which has something like ingredients and their world famous coconut rice. Though I must say Ammi’s kiribath is better.

Though we’d woken up to sunny days and blue skies every day since arrive in SF our fourth and last day was met with fog and clouds. Quite appropriate for our venture onto Alcatraz.

Since our holidays recounts are primarily around food I can’t help but recount the story of our delayed  arrival at Alcatraz. Nuwan had all the buses planned you see, we took the first one with little drama. We arrived at the bus-stop and watched as bus after bus passed us by. You see none of the timetables were for Mondays it seemed, so we ran up and down the road, tried unsuccessfully to call a taxi and finally ended up arriving with only 20 minutes till our boat left. This meant that the only place to grab some breakfast was the Alcatraz café. Perhaps the first sign of things to come were when I asked for English breakfast tea and the “barista” asked me to just grab the “Chinese Breakfast”  Errr….no thanks.

Alcatraz was, as you would expect. Dreary, depressing and full of conspiracy.  The fog made for a fabulous atmosphere and Nuwan and I walked through with our trusty headphones. There were speakers, much like the Yeoman Warders at the tower of London who you followed around as they talked of the 4 four men who escaped Alcatraz and were never seen again. You see they still don’t know how they got out.

Alcatraz Island 

Poor Nuwan :(

We headed back on the boat and wandered along Fisherman’s Wharf. We stopped at Pier 23 for a spot of crab….just one big grab to share between Nuwan and I. We made it all the way to the Ghirardelli Square for a dessert of Ice cream with milk and dark chocolate fudge. Admittedly I think they were both dark chocolate, but what do we know? We took the trolley back up the hill.... Nuwan decided to scare his poor pregnant wife by hanging out the window. 

Hanging off the edge

Tell me that isn't scary :S

We finished up our trip with a trip to DOSA, a chain of Indian fusion restaurants famous for their…you guessed it….DOSA.  We had the paper dosa, crispy and delicious with the duck vindaloo and rice. Yum! Definitely digging the fusion thing.

What a fabulous introduction to SF… thanks SAT!