We had a really wonderful Christmas Eve and day, at home. Rob was able to make it home from work in time for our Christmas Eve dinner (Between his hours and commute, Harper and I have often eaten and gone to bed before he gets home) I made pizza, my favorite way, with my own crust recipe, topped with a little red sauce, fresh mozzarella and basil. On the side we had chopped romaine dressed with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a little fresh ground black pepper. We wanted to do some family read aloud after dinner, but Harper was so hyped up, Rob and I just had a little wine and listened to Christmas music while he played before bed. I was so excited, anticipating his reaction on Christmas morning, I had trouble sleeping. I think that is one of the great gifts that becoming a parent has brought to my life, a renewal of my excitement for all the holidays and seasonal pleasures. But, what I did not expect was for Harper to get up before the crack of dawn, I thought we might have one more year before that started, he must have felt the excitement in the air though because he got us up really early. As soon as we all went out to the livingroom, he ran right over to the tree where we had set up the gifts and filled the stockings. It was so nice to spend the day together, the three of us enjoying each other's company (we celebrated with some family before the actual day and made plans with others for after. We also opted not to attend a Church service, though I was a little bummed not to go to a candlelit Christmas Eve service, we had a feeling the disruption of Harper's sleep schedule could ruin both that night and the next day). For breakfast we had croissants, hot tea, home fries with spinach, mushrooms, onions and cheese and grapefruit spritzers (grapefruit juice and sparkling water). Harper ate most of it, I intentionally made things he likes as well as Rob and I. Harper's big gift this year was an anywhere chair from Pottery Barn Kids. We choose the "my first" size, though most people recommend sizing up, because he is so petite. We were on the fence about the size until we took him into the store one day, to test them out. We choose the grey faux fur fur. I must be having a moment with faux fur, because the new stockings I choose for us this year are as well. I am in I love with them. Anyway, he ran over to his chair as soon as he saw it and began sitting in it and stroking the fur. Perhaps I will go into more about his gifts in another, later post, for those who are interested. But now, on with our day, we basically lounged away our afternoon. Then, for dinner we had ham with pineapple glaze, jasmine rice and broccoli. The little guy was not quite as jazzed about those things, to my surprise, he also rejected the tiramisu I had made us for dessert. I, on the other hand, thought it turned out lovely. We finished up our night snuggling in bed , watching "A Christmas Story", which is essential holiday viewing in our family. Harper's other big gift from us was a new winter coat and a great reason to wear it, a trip to the Indianapolis Zoo, a few days later, for "Christmas at the Zoo". We just about froze our tails off but it was worth it to see the zoo all done up in lights as well as the animals who were still on display. I imagine my favorites, the giraffes were probably huddled inside somewhere on a giant heating pad or something, but Harper loved the animals we could see. He was especially a fan of the penguins and sea lions. We saw more of the walruses than anticipated, as apparently it is their mating season. This was our second family visit to the zoo, and I think Harper loved it even more this time than the first, when he was he was around 8 months old and his animal obsession haven't reached nearly the heights it is at these days. I was very pleased that they had reindeer brought in as a special exhibit, as seeing live reindeer was one of my holiday goals this year.
