Isa does a little dance ...it's Christmas time!
This year has been kinda of taxing for all of us. Alot of driving and trips here and there. Lots of parties to prepare for. Visitors and visiting. I was looking forward to a quiet evening with my small family here in Orlando. I was pretty adamant about staying home and accepting no more reservations for the rest of the year at Hotel Pineda.
Christmas Eve was spent with an early day at work to prepare a little bit of food for my crew in On-Air Graphics to kick it off. Prior to that we had a department party with gift exchange. I even scored a cologne set of Antonio Banderas from my secret Santa - ahem. Gift packs from vendors came in all week from Harry and David and such. Al even took us all out to Fun Spot for a couple of rounds at the go-carts on the company dime. Very cool.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
It was good way to kick of the new upcoming new year. The company even relocated us in the building to a new renovated office area fully customized. I got a brand new custom desk which kinda of made me feel better about coming into this position and making me feel like I finally got my own space. A run to Ikea gave me a chance to customize my corner area more for me. I even swiped my own 13" tv. Sweet!
Anyways, on the Eve El and I prepared homemade lasagna, greek salad and banana pudding for the crew. It was a short day so basically I showed up with hot food, ate lunch with the guys, chatted and broke the hell out to be with the family. El took the opportunity to see Anna and Chris Wortel and give them their gift. I had some last minute details to take care of and took a powernap while I had some time alone.
The evening went pretty uneventful (which was good), although I sensed some disappointment from El after a run of Warcraft - a guilty pleasure I admit. As soon as soon as midnight hit it seemed Isa knew and woke up from her nap to kickstart the festivities. Our traditional Midnight Mass took a backseat to allow the little girl some time to see what Santa had left her and mommy. Then, of course, it was a chance to open a couple of presents. We played with some of her new toys and took plenty of pictures. Around 2:30am it was time to put her back to bed so we could power up for the next day.
Anyways, on the Eve El and I prepared homemade lasagna, greek salad and banana pudding for the crew. It was a short day so basically I showed up with hot food, ate lunch with the guys, chatted and broke the hell out to be with the family. El took the opportunity to see Anna and Chris Wortel and give them their gift. I had some last minute details to take care of and took a powernap while I had some time alone.
The evening went pretty uneventful (which was good), although I sensed some disappointment from El after a run of Warcraft - a guilty pleasure I admit. As soon as soon as midnight hit it seemed Isa knew and woke up from her nap to kickstart the festivities. Our traditional Midnight Mass took a backseat to allow the little girl some time to see what Santa had left her and mommy. Then, of course, it was a chance to open a couple of presents. We played with some of her new toys and took plenty of pictures. Around 2:30am it was time to put her back to bed so we could power up for the next day.
Christmas morning we got dressed for Christmas Mass where we ran into Joe and Jenny Lamy who had just finished with the morning's choir. The mass went well and I thought it might keep the mod going by taking them to the Ritz-Carlton for lunch (which was booked solid), but next door at Marriott at Citron was open where we had a fantastic lunch buffet.
All the dishes were well presented and delicious. Carved turkey, spiraled ham, oysters on the half shell, stone crab claws, snow crab, chilled shrimp. warm duck salad, ceviche, sushi and nigiri, beef tenderloin, various grilled vegetables, artisnal cheeses and a wide array of desserts amongst others were served. There was a kid's setup and mimosas and sangria were served and they even gave the children a Christmas bag of goodies and the parent's a huge coffee cup of gourmet coffees. It was a nice to be go somewhere dressed up and eat well. It definitely put Ellen in better spirits (no pun intended).
All the dishes were well presented and delicious. Carved turkey, spiraled ham, oysters on the half shell, stone crab claws, snow crab, chilled shrimp. warm duck salad, ceviche, sushi and nigiri, beef tenderloin, various grilled vegetables, artisnal cheeses and a wide array of desserts amongst others were served. There was a kid's setup and mimosas and sangria were served and they even gave the children a Christmas bag of goodies and the parent's a huge coffee cup of gourmet coffees. It was a nice to be go somewhere dressed up and eat well. It definitely put Ellen in better spirits (no pun intended).
As soon as we got home Isa took a long nap (til 7 pm) and, surprisingly, we passed out for a couple of hours, too. It did us well. I guess we were more tired than we thought. By the time we got up El set to cleaning up yet again and I set to preparing dinner. I had shopped out earlier to make a simple, but nice, dinner for us.
The night's menu included Frenched & Marinated Grill Lamb Chops with a Cranberry Chutney, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Asparagus Sauteed in White Wine. For dessert was a simple Wild Berry Cheesecake with a Warm Chocolate Sauce. I even broke out a bottle of champagne to compliment dinner. After dinner we took some time to relax and play with Isa and open the rest of her gifts from friends and family.
Quiet evening, but exactly what I'd been wanting, I guess next year we're back to travelling to SC and stressing over the holidays. No worries, though. Tomorrow we leave for our secret vacation to destinations unknown (for now) for some R&R and celebrate El's birthday and New Year's Eve away from the tourist riff raff. Woo hoo!
Disney's Very Merry Christmas Party 2007
Over the years El and I have had our share of visitors to Florida and the consensus for stopovers has always been Disney in some aspect. Needless to say we've gotten completely burned out of the whole experience. We even had annual passes one year that we put quite a few miles on cos of the amount of money we'd drop per visit to hangout with family and friends.
With Isa Disney has renewed interest for us. I guess it's a little different experiencing it thru the eyes of a child. In particular we've made more of an effort for the special events they put on and this time of year we were wanting to take her to Disney's Very Merry Christmas Party, an event in which they close the park to only ticket holders of the party.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
The Christmas Cards Are In The Mail!
Geez what a holiday season. Talk about brutal. So much to do and not enough time or energy. Coastal Residential finally got all the repairs completed, but the work is still not done. We had to spend a solid week to unpack boxes and move furniture, clean the house and decorate for Christmas (in 10 days no less!). It's like moving into another house basically. We're both sick of all of it. Tired of seeing our house in disarray, concrete floors, no clean laundry, no ability to move around our home or relax. El has been a trooper. I see it in her eyes. She's tired and frustrated with dealing with the home issues. It's not easier knowing that Christmas has been looming over our heads and we've been powerless/unmotivated to do anything festive We both love Christmas, but what's the point?
Now that I literally made contractors work through the weekend to get a Monday deadline in place I see the finish line finally. El started to get ina better mood and is pushing herself to get the house in order. She even worked through the night to set up our new Christmas tree. I bought all new decor for the holidays to make it easier on us to set up and take down and hopefully get her (us) into the holiday spirit. I think it's working. I put up new Christmas lights outside. The house is clean and decorated and the Christmas cards are in the mail!
I decided to not go home this year so we could take a break from entertaining. I just want to spend time with my wife and little girl quietly. No exchanging of gifts (we're broke after it's been all said and done), except for the kids. Rachel has been kind enough to drive them over to SC for us when she goes home this weekend.
I decided to not go home this year so we could take a break from entertaining. I just want to spend time with my wife and little girl quietly. No exchanging of gifts (we're broke after it's been all said and done), except for the kids. Rachel has been kind enough to drive them over to SC for us when she goes home this weekend.
Tonight I got some last minute tickets to Disney's Christmas Party to really kick the mood into high gear. I've been coming in to work early now that live shows are done for the year so I can get home earlier. Taking full advantage of anytime I can to be with the girls. Then for El's birthday I lined up a a few days stay out of state at a resort for El's birthday come New Year's Eve. She deserves it. You'll see pics and find out where we're going soon enough!
Sorry to family and friends that we won't see you this season, but I'm gonna have to be a little selfish and be a family guy. Next time na lang. Now about all that freelance work...
Sorry to family and friends that we won't see you this season, but I'm gonna have to be a little selfish and be a family guy. Next time na lang. Now about all that freelance work...
Weekend Fun.
The weather has been cooling down a little and to decompress after Thanksgiving and to get away from our totally destroyed home I took the family out Saturday to a Filipino Holiday shindig at Lake Eola downtown. It was a good time to relax a little, eat some (terrible) filipino food and watch their "Talent Show". Some of it was ok, some of it was not.
Thanksgiving on the Fly.
Geez! I didn't realize that I haven't had much time to update this thing in so long! Between work at Golf Channel, a deluge of freelance clients needing things, a house in disarray from the previously mentioned leaky pipe damage, the holiday season and the course of daily of life it's no wonder. I'm just trying to remember things at this point and looking at the photos I posted on Flickr certainly helps me. So I'll be brief.
Thanksgiving I opted to work at Golf Channel to take advantage of the double time and a half for working holidays. Plus, El's mother wasn't given time off like she thought she would to come to Orlando and live with us to help watch Isabella (she was concerned about us putting her in daycare). So we have to ad lib some to compensate for yet another complication. After all the trips back and forth to SC recently I've been looking forward to down time for the holidays. Since our house hasn't been completed yet (THREE STINKIN' MONTHS. Thanks Coastal Residential for doing such a bang up job) we had to change our plans AGAIN to have Thanksgiving dinner at Rachel's for the first time. Plus her boyfriend, Clarence, was coming to town so I had to pack all my cooking gear and groceries and bring it to her apartment.
All the preparing and then rushing home from work to start cooking really wore me out. Still the dinner, although simplified from what I typically do, turned out pretty good. No Whole turkey this year, but a turkey breast. I didn't want a lot of leftovers to have to worry about. I did manage to do my crowd-pleasing homemade garlic mashed potatoes. Also squeezed out some sauteed vegetable dishes. El did one of her tasty sweet potato pies a la mode and Rachel churned out a delicious corn casserole which I'll have to remember next year.
Dinner was great, but the cook is DEAD TIRED. One holiday, two more to go.
Dinner was great, but the cook is DEAD TIRED. One holiday, two more to go.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Propaganda
It all started as a joke for Isa's first birthday. I wanted to give something to her mom as a "job well done" gift so I designed and made a tee-shirt and it seems a few people wanted to get one. So here is...available thru CafePress...Isa Version 1.0...
...Get yours while they last!
Legal Disclaimer
Please note that the sizes seems to run smaller than they say.
...Get yours while they last!
Legal Disclaimer
Please note that the sizes seems to run smaller than they say.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Isa's First Birthday!
For weeks I had been planning out our little girl's first birthday to be held in Charleston. To spare everyone the stress and work of preparing for the birthday I decided way ahead of time to have it catered (by Sticky Fingers Barbecue - an old design client from my SAS-E Ink days). Her birthday cake I had Cher order it from Publix (called Birthday Surprise) and tried to get the details of a surprise party for Isa's Uncle Ricky together.
They almost share a birthday together only 3 days apart - Ricky on November 8th and Isa on the 11th. I knew Ricky wouldn't want his birthday to be a big deal so I never even acknowledged it until the day of the party so as to not "let the cat out of the bag" too soon. I dragged him out with me to "run errands, pick up food" while the rest of the family and friends assembled at Kevin and Cher's to attend to last minute details. Of course, all that planning went out the window last minute when all we could hear outside of Len's house was people saying "ssshhhh...they're here". Geezus. I'm sure he was surprised at that moment at what was unfolding before his entrance.
Either way we kept the party fairly small with only family and our closest friends who were available to share the day with us. A couple of months back we took Isa and Gabriel to Chuck E. Cheese for the day, which the kids seemed to really enjoy. I wanted evoke that seem mood by loading the house with balloons, a colorful cake, good food, and party favors - all compliments of the grandparents.
Eleanor had the great idea to also have gifts for the small kids. I guess it made sense since at a birthday party you would want to stifle any feelings of jealousy. i mean come on...the mere sight of a mountain and presents and not be able to have any would drive any child to the point of madness. She liked the idea of buying vintage reproductions of classic toys for each of them.
"Hello? We'll need a bigger car for all these toys. Thanks."
"Hello? We'll need a bigger car for all these toys. Thanks."
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