2009 mix

this year's mix:

1. koop island blues/ koop feat. ane brun
2. jailbird / m. ward
3. my boys / taken by trees
4. right as rain / adele
5. mimizan / beirut
6. surfer mama / kira willey
7. morning / iron & wine
8. blue lips / regina spector
9. your protector / fleet foxes
10. tonight / lykke li
11. dear God / monsters of folk
12. train song / feist & ben gibbard
13. i have loved you wrong / the swell season
14. half acre / hem


#1 is older, but one that got a lot of play this year. think: summer evening on the porch with a glass of wine. #6 is for mateo, and was found on one of our favorite kid's cds. first line: she runs to the beach, throws her diaper bag down..." #5 & #12 are from the dark was the night compilation which we couldn't get enough of this year. #14 is from a hem album i had on my ipod but hadn't listened to yet. when we were in the hospital (the 1st time) and things were pretty stressful, luke asked what i wanted him to play and randomly that album came to my mind. we listened to it together and really loved it's folk-y mellowness, and we've played it over and over since. it definitely takes us back to that emotional and beautiful time. all the rest are from albums that got a lot of play in 2009. lots of repeat artists from our 2007 & 2008 mixes.
anything new you guys are listening to these days?

as always, let us know if you want a copy.

(see our 2008 mix here.)

what he gave me, and what i gave him

we laughed, and even though it's not exactly like the gift of the magi, he said "i sold my watch!" and i said "i cut my hair!"

home for Christmas

this year we spent our first Christmas in Lansing. our first Christmas in a home of our own. our first with mateo. and one of our firsts with unica, since usually we have to leave her when we travel for the holidays. bill and ann came to celebrate with us for a few days.

our friends and neighbors brought over lots of yummy sweets. i planned to make a pie but we totally didn't need it.

we went to the Christmas eve service at trinity. we ate and snacked and later luke read the Christmas story like my grandpa and dad always did on Christmas eve. mateo opened one gift: some pajamas. and we went to bed.

our Christmas day had one major recurring theme : savor! we slept in late (thank you mateo!), slowly got up and made some coffee cake and coffee and tea, and began opening gifts, one at a time. (super thoughtful and generous gifts i might add)

between each opening, one person would have to get up for something, or we'd eat some more, or just savor and talk about the just-opened present. it was so perfect. and unintentional. and lasted about 5 hours because of our super slow pace.

afterwards, bill and ann hung out with mateo and helped in and out of the kitchen while luke and i made dinner. so great to have time to cook together. and hands free!

we had salmon with a honey-dijon-pecan crusted coating, asparagus with almond sauce, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes (for tradition's sake), and luke whipped up a yummy potato-zucchini-garlic-etc soup. we were planning on making bread but ran out of time.

we decided to savor a bit more, and saved our stockings for the next day. instead, we watched it's a wonderful life together.

so here is our group again the next morning (Christmas part II?) opening stockings in our new Christmas pajamas (thanks d&m!).

we went for a drive, passed nice homes on a frozen river.

and of course, as is our tradition, ended up at lamai's thai kitchen.

we had a happy little Christmas holiday. hope that you did, too.

all stripes, accidentally

bread and butter

about a month ago, i attended a natural parenting meeting. this month's topic was "simplifying your holidays". i had so many goals and ideas (before and) after that meeting, like giving all handmade gifts and choosing to do a few important holiday events or traditions instead of running around like crazy.

well, things didn't exactly go the way we'd hoped. time flew away from me, i haven't uncovered my sewing machine from the attic since we moved in, and we've been running everywhere in every direction. gifts were purchased. lists of gifts purchased were misplaced, and even more gifts were purchased. we mutually decided to give up on the idea of sending out Christmas cards, which was a way for us to simplify last-minute, but a bummer for both of us since that's definitely a tradition we've always kept.


we did manage to realize one of our simple gift-giving goals: we made bread and butter for our friends and neighbors and local family. we made loaves and loaves (a whole day and 1/2 of just baking) of golden honey wheat bread, from this recipe. i watched a youtube video on bread braiding. :)


we bought 4 quarts of heavy whipping cream for the butter. we ran it through the food processor and within 5 minutes the milk transformed into white whipped cream and then turned yellow as the buttermilk separated from the butter. seriously, it was amazing to watch. you should try it.


afterwards we squeezed the remaining buttermilk out of the butter and ran it under cold water to get all of it out. apparently, if you leave buttermilk pockets inside the butter, it won't last as long. the great thing is you can save all of that buttermilk to use later. no waste. after that, we rolled each butter clump into parchment paper and wrapped them up.


the work was so relaxing and took me back to my pottery days. in the middle of all of our holiday commitments and stress and general craziness, we came together and had a lot of quiet time to catch up. we had such a good time working together on something so simple. it doesn't get any simpler than bread and butter i guess, right?


we delivered it all last night, along with some locally made apple butter.

and this morning, we treated ourselves to fresh buttermilk pancakes and homemade butter.

m

i forgot to mention that we won a sew, mama, sew giveaway - a custom letter ornament for our tree. we chose an m, in turquoise and gray, and this is what arrived. so nice, especially for a 1st Christmas, no?

thank you becka!

christmas card photo madness

me: holding a heavy frame by myself with one hand while trying to encourage mateo to look at a camera

luke: balancing the camera on a tripod which was balancing on a crib, pressing the timer, dodging over chairs and under lanterns, picking up an old dog who plants herself on the floor in order to not be picked up, then running behind the frame all under 10 seconds

the results:

my best?

luke's best? (but look at poor unica)

mateo's best?

unica's best?

add in my blinking with every flash and mateo's star grabbing, unica's grunting and luke breaking a sweat from all the running back and forth. it was madness. we couldn't stop laughing, and still can't when we see these.

back by popular demand: thanksgiving

we slipped into december without a thanksgiving recap, but we've been requested by a few family members to share a little. so here it is, in no particular order, the ingredients of our thanksgiving in PA:

a photobooth shoot with cousins and a baby

a set of hardworking and generous and loving sisters

the most delicious smells and sights in the kitchen

which created an incredible 10 foot spread of delicious thanksgiving food

beautiful tables set with heirloom china

a feast for each of us

more pies than i've ever seen (hooray!)

fun with babies

exciting times

and restful times

the hunt for the perfect tree

memories made

and one cozy pup

at seven months mateo

:: has a sharp bit of tooth poking out of his gums (bottom right) ::

:: is definitely on the move, scooting backwards and forwards, twisting and rolling ::
:: can sit up like a pro, but can't get to a lying down position without crashing down head first ::

:: grunts a lot, and babbles da da da da da ::
:: is not so much anxious of strangers, but has been known to give a scared cry when his mama leaves the room ::
:: picks up a toy and holds it in the same hand for hours - while playing with other things, being carried around the house, eating ::

:: can't get enough of our homemade applesauce ::
:: loves to be read to and sung to ::
:: laughs like his mama (so we've been told) ::