It’s December 25, so Merry Christmas to all who celebrate the holiday. We had our annual holiday dinner party over the weekend, so we’ll be spending today watching movies and ordering in Chinese. In other words, it’s what my husband calls “Jewish Christmas.”

So what’s “fake Chinese?” Ummm, it’s North American-ized stuff. You know, chicken balls and chop suey? Except we aren’t getting chop suey. We’ll have egg rolls though (rather than SPRING ROLLS). I’m sure I’ve written about this before. It’s something we’ve been doing years – probably since we married and I like it!

So how was our annual dinner? It was GREAT! Our menu was a little different this year. No latkes, since Hanukkah was early (we always have our meal catered from Pusateri’s), but it DID include turkey breasts and beef. The truffle mac and cheese I served last year (NOT from their “official” holiday menu) was difficult to get. I had to call the store several times just to get it and confirm that it was there. Since you can’t order it online, I wasn’t able to have any sort of official confirmation. I ordered it again since it went really well with the guests last year.

This year is Jr. Mintz’s first Christmas. He isn’t old enough to understand presents, Santa or decorations yet, but he seems to LOVE the tree. He likes lights in general, preferring to look out the window than play with the dangly toys on his play mat. He did receive toys for the holiday, including a stuffed dog by Cuddle+Kind and a doll by Birds Love Bees (we aren’t trying to limit his exposure to big brands, but we DO love to help smaller/indie companies). I really hope he’ll appreciate them eventually.

What else did we do? I made my annual baked French Toast (or more accurately, bread pudding). I made both savoury and sweet again this year, using both challah (savoury) and croissant (sweet). The savoury one was soaked in an egg (two egg whites, one whole egg) custard mixed with both regular dairy and almond milks (the almond milk was from Greenhouse Juicery. They FINALLY have an unsweetened version!!!) mixed with some garlic powder, black pepper and a spice mixture I made. I also added quark to the custard. The casserole was topped with grape tomatoes and bocconcini. The sweet one, with croissant, was first topped with a spread called Rawtella (think Nutella without the nasty stuff) and dipped in an egg (again, two egg whites, one whole), dairy, almond milk and quark mixture with cinnamon, as well as vanilla and cacao powders. Yum!

Tomorrow’s Boxing Day. I’m NOT going to make the same mistake I did last year – purchase a useless printer (I thought I had a good deal by paying $60, but it looked like the printer I had in 2011. Ummm, NO. And I STILL haven’t replaced it. I don’t print much, so I guess it isn’t that big of a deal. It’s been working, and that’s the important part, right?). I’m really going to focus on things we need for Jr. Mintz. He doesn’t need any more toys – more like a better baby monitor (the one we have is supposed to be good, but it seems to go offline at least once a day). Yeah, I know, #firstworldproblems.

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Baby Mintz is two weeks old and is slowly learning how to be a baby (technically, he’s 37 weeks gestation, don’t forget – his actual due date is November 18).  He was having a lot of trouble with the bottle for several days and the hospital wouldn’t let him go home until he could be on full time for 48 hours.  It took him until Wednesday to start grasping the idea of taking a bottle for food (rather than a feeding tube) and we were able to go home on Friday.  Thank goodness!  I just can’t deal with hospitals anymore.  At least we didn’t stopped having to commute to St. Catharines after the third day AND the Toronto hospital was subway accessible (though not our first choice).  We are, however, very glad to have him home and look forward to spending much more time with him.  Meanwhile, there’s MUCH MORE TO DO (e.g. making doctor’s appointments, looking for parent/baby programs – especially ones WELCOMING to parents who were never pregnant).  I’ve also contacted two preschools (yes, I’m thinking that far in advance).

We’re glad we can spend much, much more time with him and caring for him in an environment which we find much more comfortable.  My parents have been in daily to visit their grandson (and still getting used to being known as Poh Poh (my mom) and Gung Gung (my dad)).  Adam’s parents will be coming in a few weeks.  We’re going to be at this for the rest of our lives!

My husband and I would like to thank the staff at both St. Catharines General and Toronto East Hospital for their kindness and effort in caring for Baby Mintz and for showing us what to do!  We were completely clueless (okay, maybe not CLUELESS – I’ve cared for children before – just not newborns) at the beginning and we’re slowly getting the hang of it now.

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