A short list of things of all sizes that I am thankful for right now:

1. Pie and yoga pants. Those count as one thing.

2. Podcasts. I would never clean anything in my house if it weren’t for podcasts. They are extremely distracting. A short list of my favorites: This American Life, How To Do Everything, Pop Culture Happy Hour, RadioLab, Stuff You Should Know, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me and Planet Money. They make me feel smart.

3. A dishwasher. Doing all those Thanksgiving dishes by hand would have taken forever.

4. My children, who told me today they were most thankful for Mommy.

5. The moment when Evan told me he really believed in Santa…and then when he hugged me because I started crying. CHILDHOOD IS MAGIC.

6. Everyone who has supported me in any way as I started my photography business. It’s been (is) terrifying but I cannot wait to see how much it will grow in 2014.

7. Facebook. I am never lonely or bored or without validation when I have an internet connection.

8. Amazon Prime. Absolutely, totally, without question worth the subscription. The amount I save on shipping is crazy, although I’d probably buy a lot less stuff if I couldn’t get it in 2 days without having to go get my credit card from my wallet.

9. My husband, and the fact that he still goes to work every day to support us instead of running off the Mexico where the military will never find him. I almost wouldn’t blame him at this point.

10. Now it’s Christmas! SANTA. I KNOW HIM.

There are approximately 2 bazillionteen more things I am thankful for, but right now I’m thankful for warm coats and Starbucks since I promised the kids the aquarium, Santa, and the town tree lighting tonight.

Here are some not very good pictures of our boring, non-Pinterest, at-home Thanksgiving that I didn’t really edit and you probably don’t care about unless you are a relative very concerned we might not have had a proper meal on real plates at the table. Happy Thanksgiving!

I bought a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey and just sort of…winged it. Considering I was taking stuff in and out of the oven above and below the bird I’m shocked it came out delicious, with enough leftovers for sandwiches.

Potatoes with cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, bacon and chives > boring mashed potatoes

Wish bone! They failed.

CHEERS!

Don’t worry, it’s cranberry-apple sparkling cider, not “Mommy juice”.

MORE CHEERS!

Leftover begging face. It worked, obvs.

Time for pie!

The correct pie-eating method.

I made a test loaf of cranberry orange bread and ate 75% of it before I remembered I needed to take a picture if I wanted to post the recipe. My second try was even more delicious AND I managed to wait until it was cool to take it out of the pan so I had a nice loaf for photos. It’s definitely a dessert bread, but who says you can’t have dessert in the morning with a cup of coffee, dessert at noon with a little butter and two slices of dessert after dinner? Cranberry orange bread, as well as artisan bread, reminds me of the holidays, although I can’t quite remember why. It’s also a good way to include cranberries with Thanksgiving in case you’re one of those crazy people who don’t like real cranberry sauce and for those who already have too much on their plate, consider getting some fresh bread from your local bakery for some delicious options.

Cranberry Orange Bread

12 oz cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange juice

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt

1 egg
1/2 cup orange juice
1 1/2 Tablespoons orange zest (about 1 medium orange)
3/4 cup plain yogurt (I used Greek yogurt)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Combine the cranberries, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup orange juice in a bowl. Stir well and let the berries soak while you mix the batter. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Combine the wet ingredients in a medium bowl and stir well, making sure to fully beat the egg. Add the wet ingredients and the berry mixture to the dry ingredients and stir. Use a spatula to scrape the bowl and make sure it’s fully combined. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan (approximately 9x5x3) and bake at 350 for one hour or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Use the tester or a toothpick to poke holes in the top of the loaf.

Mix 1 Tablespoon water and 1 cup powdered sugar in a small bowl. Add a splash or two of orange juice until you get a good drizzling consistency. When the loaf has cooled a little, run a sharp knife around the edge and flip the pan over to release the bread. Put the cranberry orange bread right-side up on a plate and drizzle with the glaze. Eat and enjoy.

Yum yum yum yum. I will say, 12 oz of cranberries is a lot of cranberries, as you can see from the sliced shots. You can adjust the amount of cranberries down (or add more orange zest if you want it to be EXTRA orange-y) without affecting the recipe or cook time.

Is it ironic that we’ve been so busy doing totally bloggable stuff that I haven’t actually blogged any of it? I need to get better about posting things sooner, since right now it looks like I’m going to put the kids Halloween photos up some time around Thanksgiving.  Although at this point I’m mostly still updating the blog because it’s the only baby book I have, not because anyone is reading. When you almost never post it turns out all your readers get bored and wander away.

Maybe I’m also blogging because sometimes it still leads to super cool stuff, like an invitation to see the new Disney movie Frozen in NYC on Monday from Samsung and The Moms. I’m getting to be an expert at taking the kids into the city alone and they had Veterans Day off of school so of course I jumped at the chance.

We took the Metro-North into the city and got lucky with one of the fancy new trains. I plugged in my phone in our own private outlet and the kids played games on the tablet the whole way in.

I got a little bit lost on my walk from Grand Central to the theater, but it was a pretty nice day and the kids were happy to ride in the stroller. My arms are KILLING me from pushing that much weight around for an hour. I convinced them to get out and walk in the park, but then had to hustle them back into the stroller every time they saw a playground. And then we got held up when a construction foreman with an amazing Irish accent who wanted to chat with me and the gingers about Santa and how blessed I am to have redheads. It was actually not at all creepy or weird, and is exactly the sort of thing that always seems to happen to us and I love it.

We made it to the Samsung/Frozen event just in time to get some popcorn and give the kids a chance to try out the new Galaxy Tab 3 Kids Tablet. Caroline would have stayed out there playing all day if I hadn’t convinced her there was candy in my purse to eat during the movie. On our way in she practiced her step-and-repeat pose, for when she is famous some day.

She’s a paparazzi pro already

3D glasses in 2013 are way cooler than the blue/red ones I remember growing up.

This was the first movie I’ve seen in 3D where I actually wore my glasses the whole time. Even the kids liked it, and they usually take off their glasses within 30 seconds at the mini-theater at the aquarium. It made the already deep-looking (do you know what I mean by deep-looking?) animation pop right off the screen (and there wasn’t a ton of things flying out of the screen at my face, which is why I generally don’t like 3D). I was surprised Frozen was sort of a princess movie, since I hadn’t seen much marketing for it with that spin, but it was definitely the kid of princess movie even the anti-princess crowd can get on board with. It was easy to tell it was made by the same people as Tangled, but the snow and ice made it feel original. The music is sort of opera-like, with lots of talking-turns-into-singing and songs that really tell part of the story. I really, really liked it. I might take the kids to see it again when it’s released, especially because they both keep begging me to see the cute little Mickey Mouse mini-movie they played before the main feature again. Of course I like it a little extra because one of the two main characters is a ginger, but even if she wasn’t a ginger the story would be fresh, fun, and beautifully animated.

After the movie we stayed for the Q&A with Idina Menzel, where I couldn’t think of a single Q because I was too starstruck that she was in the same room. It was ok though, because there were plenty of NYC stage kids there who were THRILLED to ask her adorable questions about being on Broadway. And then she sang for us and I almost died. She’s so pretty.

After our event we met my friend Sara (Aunt Sara to the kids) to go to a giant candy store/restaurant but it was closed so we went to one of the many Greek diners where the menu is 40 pages long. Caroline ate a giant cheeseburger and Evan attempted to eat this giant doughnut but failed.

By then the kids were absolutely insane, hopped up on soda and sugar from their movie treats and exhausted from a busy day, so Sara walked us to Grand Central and we caught an old train home, which meant no charger for my dead phone. Luckily the people who made room for us to sit down were super nice and their 5 year old played with Evan and Caroline the whole time. We made it ALMOST all the way back to our house before Caroline fell asleep (Evan never did) so they slept like rocks and I lay on the couch and moaned about how old I am and how exhausting it is going to NYC alone with 2 kids. That’s not going to stop me from taking them back for Christmas stuff though – we still haven’t done FAO or the big Toys R Us or seen the tree or the Macy’s Santa. Having kids makes things like movies and Christmas way more fun.

Big thanks to Samsung, The Moms and Disney for the invite! We will happily come back for more movies any time! This is not a sponsored post, we just had a really good time.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! We made it through the busiest weeks of the year unscathed (well, besides Caroline’s pneumonia and double ear infection, which she has recovered from quite nicely) and now we’re doing as little as possible. It’s easy today, since as I type this a snowstorm is blowing in, making a lazy movie day on the couch practically mandatory.

Sunday:

8 am, still in bed. I LOVE YOU DISNEY JUNIOR.

Lunch at Harp & Dragon with Grandpa and Grandma

They rarely allow anyone besides Mommy to read them books, but Grandpa is just so good at it!

Monday:

New million dollar idea: Keurig for toddlers!

Hot cocoa is complicated when you’re 3

Walking to Christmas Eve service

Tuesday (our “Christmas Eve”):

Hide & seek is their favorite game, even though this is their ONLY hiding spot

Cookie decorating

We took Daddy his cookies at work – exhausting!

Wednesday:

I don’t know what this game is, but Evan LOVES it

White(ish) Christmas(ish)!!!

My beautiful whirlpool tub is 100% toddlerfied.

Thursday:

Puzzles that make sounds! The perfect way to make a nice quiet activity LOUDER.

Christmas-recovery nap

Christmas-recovery couch sitting and sweats

Friday:

The last of the cookies for breakfast

Real life financial stuff is hard to get done with a toddler in your lap

Still recovering

Saturday:

Cheeeeeeeese.

The last time we went here for lunch, he stood by the door and screamed he HATED sandwiches. This time he ate all of his and part of Caroline’s happily.

Post-cupcake smiles

E actually gets a few more days off (it’s a MIRACLE) before he starts back up with his crazy schedule again, so we’re doing…not much. Lots of cross-it-off-the-list type stuff. Although we haven’t taken down a single Christmas decoration yet and I’m sort of dreading it. Without all the twinkle lights and glitter to hide the dust and holes in the walls I’ll have a lot of spring-cleaning to do – and spring isn’t for a long, long, loooong time.

Did you take iPhone photos of your week? Link up with one or several below! Please consider joining, even if you haven’t done it before – it’s really fun!

Christmas Eve:

Christmas Morning:

Christmas Day:

We had an amazing holiday, full of food and family and fun. The kids were – and are – insanely spoiled, both with STUFF and attention.

I made Bacon and Hash Brown Egg Bake and Blueberry French Toast Casserole on Christmas Eve to put in the oven in the morning and both were delicious. My plans for an actual Christmas meal were thwarted by total laziness (and maybe my “holiday style” hot cocoa starting at 11 am) and we just turned the ham into sandwiches instead. They were FANTASTIC.

My sister is here to visit for a few days and the kids are already madly in love with her. She brought champagne and chocolate and volunteered to babysit on New Year’s Eve so she can stay forever if she wants. I mean, I know her plan WAS to go to Hawaii for a couple weeks and then move to Paris, but I’m offering a very nice guest room, free food and the chance to hang out with two crazy ginger toddlers as much as she wants so we’ll see. It might be an offer she can’t refuse.

I hope you and your families had a wonderful and relaxing holiday. I’ll be on my couch finishing off this bag of candy Santa “forgot” to put in our stockings and Googling “miracle 48-hour juice fast lose 30 pounds today”.