Christmas part 3: The Steves of Christmas

This post is about the Steves of Christmas-- Steve Nakano and Steve Pacini (two of Richard's groomsmen).
The first is Steve Nakano. He is Rock-Awesome! HE is probably the closest we will ever get to Bobby Flay as well. Steve has auditioned for "the Next Food Network Star" four years in a row. This year he actually made it to the audition in New York in front of Food Network executives. His audition tape consisted of him BBQ-ing....while on a bicycle...going through traffic! We have told him that this next year, he needs to make Bananas Foster while on a snowboard!
so naturally, Richard and I offered our services as personal coaches. Being the food experts that we are, and having watched a lot of Food Network T.V., we feel that we are VERY qualified to be giving advice. So to help prepare Steve for this next year of training, we offered him a food challenge-- design a meal around a specific genre of movie. He chose action movie, and this is what he offered up to us:
A BBQ noodle bowl. He related it to the poorly dubbed Kung Fu movies he used to watch with his family growing up. It is a westernized version of a popular Japanese dish.

This next Steve is Steve Pacini. Although he is happily in a relationship with a very cool chick, he decided it was his personal goal to make Anna love him. After four days and countless efforts to schmooze and bedazzle her, he finally figured out the magical combination: Elmo and iphone
Anna didn't trust him in the beginning. He is wearing plaid for goodness sakes. You can't trust strange men in plaid shirts.
And

after getting a good tip from a brilliant and trusted friend (you're welcome Steve), he downloaded some Sesame street, and the courtship began.
Steve was patient, as all good suitors are...
he wooed her with Elmo! (although I am not sure the same tactic will work when she is 25 and a graduate student)
by the end of our trip, they were close friends! (Anna doesn't just lay down with anyone!)
Steve is one of her godfathers...not in a Marlon Brando sense, but more in a "you're father and I were like brothers and I will personally shoot in the leg anyone who ever tries to hurt you" sense. Anna was treated like royalty by the whole Pacini family-- like the princess she is.
The happy couple! That look on Anna's face is one of pure bliss and contentment. She has her milk, her graham cracker, and her Steve.

We love you Steves!!

Christmas part 1: the Sweets and the sweets of Christmas

Richard and I call Anna "Sweets!" Not only are her pajamas covered in images of ooey, gooey, sugary goodness, but she also mostly lives up to her nickname.
However, today she bit a child, bullied one into giving up their seat and tried to push around a few others when they tried to play too close to her toys.
Christmas could be summed up in one word: Elmo...or Christmas...but probably Elmo! The Elmo phone she is holding was the standout toy of Christmas. Anna treats her toys like they are real people in her life. That is why we call them her "friends."
Anna loved Christmas. She would get so excited after even just one gift, that we took three days to open all of them.
We played the "whats in the bag" game to help Anna open up her stocking.
this is Anna trying to catch some bubbles. Good luck Anna. You are not the first, and you won't be the last.
At least Anna looked angelic over Christmas. She wore her Christmas dress less than two hours total. She is no dainty lady and is typically very hard on clothes, so we had to catch these photos when we could.


to heck with posed, "angel" photos....give me the raw, unkept, unruly, and totally fantastic Anna.

you get a "two-fer"-- two mouths for the price of one. I am trying to teach Anna to be more wise than her mother has been...in the way of dental care. She looks like she is off to a good start.

Anna got to be outside a lot during our Christmas break. Grand Junction was experiencing quite the wave of warm weather....so much so, that Richard was interviewed for Channel 11 news while we were playing at the park one day. IT was the top story that night-- "heat wave hits Colorado!" They even had a five second shot of Richard walking across the park in his shorts.

A lemon rasberry cream cake I made for my S.I.L Courtney's birthday.
The infamous Oreo truffles. To die for and so easy. One package of oreos, crushed. One package of cream cheese. combine, roll into balls, and dip in white chocolate. Lovely!!
And this was the Oreo cream cake that I made for a friend's birthday-- basically the cake version of the oreo truffle balls. Did I mention I like Oreos????
So that is Christmas part 1.
Tomorrow, Christmas part 2: The Steves of Christmas.