End of year, end of blog!

 I have moved my blog and will no longer be updating here at this address. My new blog address is  www.serafinscene.com
(The new blog is still a work in progress, but I was having some trouble with blogger and decided to bag it and move on.)

Happy New Year!

Christmas Lima Bean Soup

Sometimes I just want to give  Heidi Swanson a big ole' hug. She comes up with some very unique and delicious recipes. To say I have been uninspired in the culinary department this month is an understatement! One thing I always seem to make more of when I'm stumped is soup. I think I made some variation of coconut curry soup at least six times in December. The kids love it, but I started to worry that they might change their minds with the frequency! We've also had potato soup, chicken noodle, tortilla, butternut squash, and roasted tomato this month. Anyway, I stumbled on this Christmas Lima Bean Recipe and the combination of ingredients looked intriguing. I didn't have Christmas Limas but I had  regular limas. My Dad made lima beans and rice in Kauai and I forgot how much I loved lima beans! One of the first things I did when I got home is go buy some lima beans!

I wanted to share this recipe because I thought it was delicious. You don't have to garnish with olives. I never met an olive I didn't love so I really liked the combination. My soup looks different than the picture on 101cookbooks because I nearly pureed the tomatoes, and of course the beans are a different color. I didn't measure ingredients and just kind of used the recipe as a guide, but I didn't skip any ingredients either. The kids don't like tomato chunks in soup so I just gave the tomatoes a quick whirl in the food processor before adding them to the soup. I used fire roasted tomatoes as well. We served the soup over rice and I have to say, it is one of my new favorites! 

Buy it now

I have this almost compulsive desire to get this blog current before the new year! Like the kids, I had a pretty nice Christmas, thanks to myself. Just kidding! I kept telling Zig no gifts this year, because as most of the women out there know, when we're shopping for others, well, we often take care of ourselves! I sure hope I'm not the only one. It's usually worse for me when I'm hitting the brick and mortar stores, but I did some damage online this year. I can partially blame my sister, Erin, for turning me onto a dangerous clothing website! But I also made a completely impulsive rug purchase online for a rug to go in the casual seating area in our kitchen. I thought about the purchase for maybe 4 minutes after first viewing  the rug. As much as I love nice rugs, this rug couldn't be too precious because it's in a kitchen with four messy kids and all their friends. I wasn't even looking for a rug when I stumbled upon it. Once I clicked "buy" I felt instant buyer's remorse. Mainly because you really have to see rugs before buying. I knew it was good quality but I stressed all week about the colors being wrong or misrepresented. I did not what to deal with shipping it back! When the rug showed up, I even waited several hours before opening it. Anyway, it turned out to be a great fit. The background blue color had a little more of a gray tint that I would have liked, but overall, it works. Merry Christmas, self :)

Nina is officially 8!

This is Nina's year for a family party, but boy has this girl been enjoying lots of celebrating! We celebrated with family and friends in Kauai, but that was several weeks ago so we geared up for the big day again. Zig's Mom wanted to take Nina to the American Girl Doll store and she was like a kid in a candy shop. Oh that place was mayhem, but so fun to see all the excited girls with their new dolls. Nina got Kanani's ears pierced and found her some luggage, outfits, and bathing suits. Babcia loves dolls so she and Nina definitely share this in common! For a minute, I thought she might come our with her own American Girl Doll!

Last night we went to dinner and Nina brought one of her best little buddies, Kate, with her. She had both lemonade and dessert along with her meal, so that was a good night for Nina! Wednesday morning, Nina finally really and truly turned 8, so we took her to Hillcrest Bakery for a healthy breakfast in which she chowed on a chocolate eclair. I didn't want to be a joykill, but I reminded the kids that this endulgence was the last stop on the sugar train that has been full speed ahead this holiday season!


Happy Birthday to me!

Looks like I'm getting a nice ole' fishy kiss. There is no end toRollin's silliness! Nina and Zig's Mom Nina and Kate

We love our Nina had so much fun celebrating the little fireball that she is!

And now I can  relax with this busy birthday and holiday season pretty much wrapped up. Today I've been cleaning out and throwing stuff away like crazy today. It feels SO, SO good! Better than retail therapy, actually.

Christmas Day

Christmas was wonderful. Zig and I stayed up too late on Christmas Eve, along with many other parents I'm sure! The girls brought Spotty and Oreo in for the night and set out their little stockings feeling very confident that Santa would not forget the animals! The kids woke up early, but thankfully, not too early. We had Pan Au Chocolats, eggs and smoothies for breakfast after the kids opened their gifts. We had the ipads skyping with Texas and Poland at the same time, trying to include as many relatives as possible. We didn't take too many photos, but took video this year instead.

The kids most favorite gifts were:
Nina: Kanani American Girl Doll
Sela: Singing Equipment
Rollin: LEGOS and Pogo Stick
Evan: Springy Vintage Rocking Horse.

They loved other things they received, but these were the special gifts they had been wishing for! We went to church after breakfast. Zig's mom watched Evan which was a special treat for us. We were actually able to stay seated for the entire meeting. After we got home, I finished cooking some dishes for Christmas Dinner and headed to the Sharps to help Lisa get ready for dinner. We had fun in the kitchen. Chopping veggies is much more fun with friends! Several of Dave's siblings and their spouses came over which was really fun. Everyone pitched in. Dinner was wonderful. Lots of kids always makes for an energetic and festive evening. Sela led the kids who were willing in a talent show which was such a sweet and entertaining way to end the evening. I regret that I didn't get any pictures of the adults, but I did manage to snap some of the kids.

Rollin wanted to sing the chorus for "Angels we Have Heard on High," so Sela stepped in and tried to sing the rest even though she didn't know it well. It was pretty cute watching Rollin belt it out. Merry Christmas!

Sledding in Alpental

Lisa and I took the kids to the Bean's Cabin in Alpental for sledding last week. We had a lot to do,  but it was so worth it to put aside Christmas preparations for several hours and get outside. The kids had fun, it was great to see the snow and enjoy the fresh air!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve came so quickly!! We took Zig's Mom to St. Mark's in Seattle for a Christmas Eve Service. Standing room only was not so great for the kids, but they endured. Our Christmas Eve dinner was sort of a bust. We tried a new restaurant recommended to us by the chef at Barking Frog. It was supposed to local, organic northwest fare which we usually love. Somehow they lost our reservation so we sat for an hour waiting. Then they started bringing our food to the lobby. So here we were at this nice restaurant being served our food in the lobby. It was all kinds of wrong. And sadly, the food was average. The kids were wiggly and antsy to get home so once we were moved to a table, we ate quickly and headed home.
Waiting, waiting, waiting. Once we got home, the kids were eager to go to bed to make sure Santa would come. Then the real fun began for Zig and I! We wrapped things up around 2am and our dear little Evan greeted us at 6am with his typical "I'm hungry!" chant.

Ahhh, off to bed.