Red Wine Vinegar

I have to admit that I drink my fair share of wine.  Often I just feel like a glass or two with dinner and since I'm the only one in the house that drinks, I end up with leftover wine that sits on the counter for days on end!  I am always looking for great recipes with wine as an ingredient to use up the leftovers.

My friend Christina told me about the best recipe ever the other day for using up leftover red wine.  It is her family's secret recipe for homemade red wine vinegar and from what she tells me it is delicious!  It is so easy to make but literally has to sit for about six months or so in the fridge until it's ready to use.  This morning I whipped up a batch using some of the wine that I had gotten from the wine bottling party I recently went to.

I cleaned out an empty milk jug to store the vinegar in and, as I don't have room in my fridge to store it for the full six months, Christina has graciously offered to let me store it it the spare fridge in her garage.  I can't wait for six months down the line, I'm going to buy some pretty containers and bottle it up and give it away to friends, it will be a great homemade gift!

Here's the recipe if you want to give it a try yourself:

Red Wine Vinegar

For every two cups of red wine add a cup of white vinegar.  (If you like a very strong vinegar, use three cups of vinegar to two cups of red wine)
Add three or four tablespoons of salt to the wine and vinegar mixture and mix well until dissolved.  Store in a covered container and refrigerate for about six months.

Mom and Baby Christmas Lunch

Today Sydney and I headed to our friend Sarah and Emma's house for a Mom and baby Christmas luncheon.  Sarah is an amazing hostess, she does the best job of throwing parties and today was no exception.  Her home looked amazing, the food was fantastic and the kids had a great time playing together.  Sarah makes the most incredible homemade hummus, I ate a boatload of it along with a couple of glasses of sparkling wine....heavenly!

I made a fun little appetizer to share with everyone, it's basically a Caprese salad on a toothpick, one cherry tomato, one basil leaf and one mini-mini bocconcinni cheese ball with a side of olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dip them in.  Delicious and healthy!

One of the Moms made the most delicious homemade cookies, iced sugar cookies (just like my Grandma used to make!) and dark chocolate chip cookies.  They were delightful, Sydney ate enough for both of us!!

 Sarah had each child bring a gift for an exchange and as everyone was leaving they got to choose a different gift to take home with them.  Sydney chose this one, a Melissa and Doug chunky zoo puzzle:

We also got a lovely little parting gift bag from Emma, a personalized stamp with "Handmade by Sydney" on it so that we can use it for the back of cards and all of her artistic creations.  I love it!  What a lovely personal gift!

It was a very festive morning of visiting with our Mom friends and enjoying some Christmas spirit.  Thank you Sarah for a lovely day!

Shopping's All Done!

In years gone by, I always had a goal of having all of my Christmas shopping finished by November 30th so that I could just sit back and enjoy the busy month of December with all of it's festivities.  That goal is getting progressively harder and harder to meet with each year as my little girl gets more and more active and errands get harder and harder to run!

I am happy to say that as of today, December 6th, I am officially done my shopping, I will not need to set foot in a shopping mall now until the new year!  No prizes for creativity with the gifts this year, but I am done...Hooray!  I finished up all the little bits on my list today, got a beautiful Pointsettia for my friend Sarah who is hosting a Mom and baby Christmas lunch tomorrow:

And picked up a few small gifts for the adults in Syd's life that we see at her regular activities, her preschool teachers, gymnastics coaches etc.  It was fun to run through the stores picking up little things that I know Sydney will be giving everyone, it will be very cute to see her distribute the gifts this year!

I feel a very big sense of relief now as everything is bought, now it just needs to be wrapped, mailed, delivered which will all happen in a mad fury between now and the end of next week!  Never a dull moment around here!

In other news, Sydney got her first two year old molar yesterday.  She's been a bit crabby and whiny the past few days and I was wondering what was going on for her and then last night when I was brushing her teeth I saw that the giant molar had popped through the gums!  It looked like it would have hurt coming through, poor baby!  Three more to go and our teething woes are over for good!

That's what's new in my world, hope all is well in yours.

Shopping Day

 
This morning my Mother's Helper Eryn came over and she and Syd and I headed out for a few hours of Christmas shopping.  It felt very good to get a bunch of things crossed off my list after feeling so behind losing a few days to being sick last week!

I needed to get a bunch of gift bags, tissue etc. and was looking for a great dollar store.  My friend Lori suggested I try Dollarama in the Arbutus Shopping Centre so we headed there first thing.  Now, it's been a while since I've been to a dollar store, but this one is absolutely amazing!  Aisle after aisle of great, practical items all for a buck!  I gleefully wheeled my cart around the store piling things in with wild abandon while Eryn entertained Syd playing with various things on the shelves.  I got everything on my list and then some, it was well worth the trip!

We headed to the liquor store to get a few bottles for gifts as well and then onto Safeway to grab some groceries.  We rounded our morning off with a trip to Toys R Us to get all the toys for the kids on our list.  They were having the most amazing sale at Toys R Us, I had to exercise great restraint to not buy a million things for Syd.  I did end up picking her up one thing though, this Ken doll:

Sydney is so into her babies right now which includes all of her stuffed toys and Barbies as well as regular dolls.  I had been mentioning to Paul that all of her dolls were girls, funny isn't it?  He suggested that I get her a boy doll, so when I saw Mr. Nicholas with his dashing pink tie and pouty lips on sale for 70% off today I leapt at the chance to buy it for her!  It will make a great addition to her ever-growing collection of Barbie dolls in her dollhouse!

This afternoon while Sydney was napping, I took some time to assemble the gift bags that I am putting together for some of my Mom friends.  I printed an enlarged photo of each child at Sydney's birthday party and framed it for each Mom, they turned out so well:

Everyone will get a Christmas tin full of homemade baking as well:

And we had to throw in a little something for the kids as well, found these great Sesame Street pop-up Christmas books:

The bags are coming together nicely.  Am looking forward to having a morning of baking next week to get all the treats made and the tins together and then Sydney and I will spend a fun afternoon delivering them all!

Am hoping to finish the last of my shopping tomorrow morning at Oakridge while Sydney's at preschool, can't wait!!

Happy Hannukah Sydney!

This morning we went out to do a little shopping and got Sydney a bit of an early Hannukah present, her very own ipad!  I know, it seems like an extravagant gift for a two year old, but if you saw this girl expertly navigate my iphone on a daily basis you would wonder why we hadn't bought one for her sooner.

I am a huge Apple fan, the more products I buy, the more I fall in love with the brand.  I had thought that maybe we could get Syd a less expensive tablet of her own of another brand name but just couldn't find one that worked with as much ease as this beautiful new ipad.

I have to admit that most of the reason for buying her this today was purely selfish.  The thought of a six hour flight to Hawaii coming up, having to keep her in her seat, was giving me heartburn, so  I shamelessly thought that maybe if we had an ipad for her to use on the flight it would make it a little less painful for everyone, including me.  At least I'm honest enough to admit it!  We'll see if it was worth the investment once we're on the flight, it may or may not capture her interest with so many more interesting things to see on the plane!

Now the fun begins, loading up a zillion photos for her to scroll through, downloading all her favourite apps and some new ones just for the thrill of something new to capture her attention when we need to the most!  I have the feeling by the time this kid's in Kindergarten she's going to be a technical whiz compared to her poor old Mom and Dad who still hand write most everything!  

This Week...

It has been a hard, hard week.   It started off with Sydney getting sick last Sunday, promptly followed by me being down with the flu for three days.  Then, the bad news started rolling in, my Uncle John had passed away, my friend Janice, who is expecting a baby in March, was in a bad car accident after being hit by a drunk driver, my friend Charlotte's boyfriend dropped dead of a massive heart attack last night at his staff Christmas party....it has been one tragedy after another.

My heart feels heavy tonight and yet it is times like this that always make me stop, slow down, be grateful for oh so many things.  Like my little girl, who is becoming more and more like a big girl every day.  All the things I used to fret about a few months ago are sorting themselves out, she's talking up a storm, sleeping longer stretches, eating more than ever and is just so much fun to be around.  And Paul, he is steadfast and loyal, hardworking and always there for us.  We are okay, my little family, even when it seems that the world is coming unglued around us!

I was grateful for all the little things this week that lifted my spirits, every cheery Christmas card that arrived in the mail, every text message from a friend checking in, an E-vite to a holiday party, finding a brand new shirt in my closet with the tags still on it that I forgot I had!  Nothing like having a week like mine that makes you appreciate all of the small wonderful things that happen every day.

December is such a fun month, there are so many things to look forward to coming up over the next few weeks, I am sure that the festivities will work their magic on my heart and I'll be feeling my festive, cheery self in no time.  

Looking forward to seeing the clouds part.

Uncle John

I just received news that my Dad's brother, my Uncle John, passed away yesterday after suffering a stroke a few days ago.  My Uncle John was a very special man.  He was one of the oldest siblings in my Dad's family of 13 children, and even though he and my Dad are many years apart, they remained quite close over the years due to the fact that they lived closer together than any of their other brothers or sisters.

My Uncle John and his wife lived in a suburb of Los Angeles for many years.  When my sister graduated from high school, my parents decided to take our whole family on a trip to California and we stayed with my Uncle John and his family for almost a month!  What a great month that was for three small town kids, we saw Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Sea World, Universal Studios....things that we could only dream about seeing growing up in our little town in Northern BC!  It is one memory I will never forget!

My Uncle John was only too gracious in having us stay with his family and tirelessly worked to cook and feed us all while we were there.  I will never forget seeing him out in his garden every day watering plants and picking fresh fruit for us to eat, or getting up at 5:00 in the morning to start cooking breakfast for everyone.  He would no sooner have cleaned up the breakfast dishes when he would start preparing both lunch and dinner.  He was an amazing host and sincerely enjoyed having us there with him even though it meant so much more work for him.

My Uncle John, much like my beloved Grandma, had a very deep faith, and every night, without fail, would have a family devotion time which ended by singing the hymn "Abide With Me."  For as long as I live, every time I hear that song, I will think of my sweet Uncle John and remember how he thanklessly gave his life for his family in so many ways.  He will be greatly missed by his five daughters, my cousins, their children and my Dad.  He lived a wonderful life of serving others and I am very grateful to have had that time with him many years ago to get to know him better.  May he rest in peace.