Startin' Early On the New Year's Diet and Already Failing

See this:

Beautiful, oh so beautiful.  Photo Cred

Oh, and this too:

Heartbreakingly yummy.  Photo Cred.

Despite our undying love for such products, we are officially going gluten and dairy free.  Aaron and I both have some symptoms that might possibly be related to either dairy or gluten intolerance or perhaps they might be something entirely different.  We shall see, we shall see.   

We started our gluten free (gf in blog speak) and dairy free (df in blog speak) diet yesterday.  Well we tried...We were supposed to have a yummy beef stir fry.  Halfway into making dinner, I realized that soy sauce contains copious amounts of wheat.  In fact, it is the second product on the content list after soy.  Oh, dear.  We haven't even made it one meal.  Then to top it off, Aaron forgot about our "diet" and had at least 2 fig newtons.  Dear, oh dear. 

Instead of focusing on all the things we can't have, here is a list of some of the yummy meals in our immediate future: Asian Salmon over wild rice pilaf, P.F. Chang's lettuce wraps, salad with homemade poppy seed dressing, and some coconut curry lentil stew.  Since we are having more Asian food I had to look up a soy sauce substitute.  Apparently you can make some kind of sauce out of beef broth and flavorings.  Gross, but we can't live without our Asian food so we will summon up our courage and go for it.  

Right now the hardest thing to deal with is breakfast.  I can't even have oats.  I've heard that most people who have a gluten intolerance can handle oats but they say that you should give it up during the trial period.  So that means no banana pancakes, no oatmeal or granola, no waffles, no yogurt.  What to do?  We're going to try a brown rice pudding made with non-dairy milk and lots of fruit, tons of eggs, and some hash made with either sweet potatoes or maybe just regular potatoes.  

If you have any suggestions, feel free to submit some recipes/links in the comments section.

Post Christmas Round-up

Santa's workshop is officially closed.  I always feel like one of the elves around Christmas.  This year I made 8 stockings, 2 doll outfits, designed 1 photo book on the computer, 4 tile coasters, and 1 "52 Things..." book.  Not too terribly much considering...
Anywho, here are some pictures.  I got an amazing new camera!  I really needed it as my old camera always took blurry, dim photos and was 6 years old (ancient in camera years).  Here are some samplings from my new camera.

One of my first pictures

Kira's owl hat courtesy of Sara 

My favorite candid moment

The fountain my amazing husband made me.  

Photo credit: Sara

Our Very First Christmas Tradition

Lately, Aaron and I have been talking about what sort of traditions we want to have with our children.  It is very much a work in progress since Baby Girl is only 4 1/2 months old.  I think we'll just have to be patient and see what works for us as time marches on.
All that said, we did accidentally start one tradition.  Saturday (the 22nd)  was a big day for us.  We spent a good part of the day with Aaron's sister and brother-in-law from out of town and then finished up presents, made food, etc. Towards the end of the day, I decided that I wanted to have a simple, but scrumptious dinner of waffles and an egg hash.  As I was eating dinner, I realized that last year on Friday (Dec. 23), we had also had waffles amid working on presents and hanging out with Aaron's family.  Thus a tradition is born.  We'll see if we keep it up.
The reason we did waffles last year was because meat made me feel sick and I was so tired out and we had no food in the house.  I remember that eating made me feel so tired that I could barely lift the fork to my mouth to take my next bite of waffle.  P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C.  I used to say that I was wimp.  Aaron's quip back was that I was a wimp: A Woman In the Midst of Pregnancy.

Matthew and Aaron were having a contest to see who could do the worst/strangest wrapping job.

Look, I'm pregnant.  I didn't put on any makeup.  I didn't even get out of  my PJ's that day.  Oh, and there is a chance I might have even puked. 

Bah Humbug!

It doesn't feel like Christmas.  Maybe because I can hear an ice cream truck going up and down the street or maybe it is because I heard thunder earlier today.  Either way, it doesn't feel like Christmas and it hasn't felt like Christmas.
I'm working on it though.  I recently started trying to say Merry Christmas to anybody and everybody I see in the store.  It caught me by surprise that no one has wished me a merry Christmas or even Happy Holidays unless I initiate.  I guess I'm not the only one missing out on the Christmas joy.  I also made some ornaments today while listening to Christmas music.  And earlier this week, Aaron and I wrapped most of the Christmas presents (we're still working on finishing up a couple).
Even though it is too late, here is my basic Christmas list:

• Strange foods - cheese, coconut oil, a large portion of a grass fed cow, etc.  You get the picture
• A new camera
• A Napada bag.  A large organizer bag, a hobo bag, a wallet, a book bag, or The Curve.   I wish it would let me post a picture.  
• Plane tickets to travel out west. 
• A subscription to a magazine (perhaps a cooking one).  I have a love/hate relationship with magazines.  I hate how they always seem to junk up your house and get pages torn out of them but I like the idea of something new and exciting arriving at your house every week/month. 

Ok, just to leave you with one more quick tidbit to put you in the Christmas mood: 

A Good Lookin' Couple

My in-laws gave me a CD the other day filled with Baby Girl pictures. This one is my very favorite!

One thing that makes this picture so special is their eyes.  You see, Baby girl has beautiful, big eyes.  Baby girl got these beautiful, big eyes from her daddy.  Her daddy has beautiful, big eyes.  Her daddy got those beautiful, big eyes from his daddy.  And so, Baby Girl and Granddaddy have the same beautiful, big eyes.  

Granddaddy and Grandma love Baby Girl so much!  It is their first grandchild and they love having her around! I know Kira is going to love them bunches when she gets older!  She'll probably be really sad whenever she has to come home from Grandma and Granddaddy's house.