Family Dinner

Nearly every Friday evening is Family Dinner time in our household. It started out with inviting a close friend of the family over for dinner once a week so he would have a home-cooked meal once in awhile. It slowly evolved to include my brother, his girl, and their three kids ages 3 1/2, 2, and 3 months.

Miss "A" and I are gluten-intolerant. She's a celiac but I'm not. In any case, there is a flurry of label-reading and recipe-tweaking that goes on in our house for everything from spice mixes to bottled sauces and baked goods to desserts. Just when my mom thought she was done making separate meals...ha! Hidden gluten, beware. We will find you out and banish you to the other end of the table!

Mr. "E1" loves bread and hates meat. We're still trying to find a source of protein that tempts him past a few bites and is not breaded then frozen to be reheated. Wish us luck on that one!

Mr. "E2" really could care less what we have to eat because he gets it filtered through Mom anyway. He does get really excited when she eats a lot of meat. He's going to be just like his daddy.

Today was rather interesting because here in West Michigan, we had our first snowfall of the season. There was no real accumulation (yet) but plenty of flakes floating down. This caused my niece utter delight that can only come to a three-year-old: "It's SNOWING, Aunt Banessa!" was the first thing out of her mouth when I ran out to the van to help unload.

Tonight's menu was prepared exclusively by my mom since I was playing nanny to my two nephews this afternoon. The menu was white corn, broccoli, mashed potatoes with flour gravy (neither I nor Miss "A" care much for gravy), crockpot roast with onions, and rice-flour breaded oven-fried chicken thighs. It was good home cooking on a rather cold day.

I also brewed up some Gourmet House Blend by Paramount Coffee purchased in bulk at Horrocks. I drink it caffe con leche style (or cafe au lait, depending on your language of choice) just like I first had it in Venezuela: hot milk and sugar stirred together then topped with the hot caffeinated brew and stirred gently. I did use regular Pioneer Granulated Sugar instead of the Florida Raw Sugar Cane I have in the pantry. Force of habit from our nightly tea ritual, I guess. In any case, the coffee hit the spot and warmed me up! Sarah was quite grateful too, as she is as much of a coffee fan as I am.

After dinner, most of us ended up wandering downstairs. Dad and Chris tinkered with the Wii, installing the latest app for Netflix while I entertained the two older kids in my craft room. Miss "A" had a fun time playing with colorful pony beads mixed in with some of my regular beads leftover from a jewelry project I still had laying out. Soon after, Mr. "E1" joined us and out came copy paper, crayons, colored pencils, and later foamie stickers. Eventually, balls and strands of yarn occupied their attention and I learned the hard way that leaving scissors anywhere in reach of an unsupervised three year old isn't a great idea. I'm just glad the snip was in the last 12 inches of the ball of cotton yarn and not all the way through!

Sarah joined us partway through our adventure and chose fabric for a mommy-tool I'm going to make for her. It's so much fun to sew for someone other than myself.

Anyway, now I'm winding down from a very eventful day full of hugs and snuggles from three of the cutest kids alive. Everyone else has long gone to bed and I'm savoring the calm quiet. The grandfather clock in the entryway is tick-tocking away, my keyboard keys are clicking, my hard drive and processors are quietly humming but everything else is silent and still. I'm about to bundle off to bed. Goodnight!