wonderful down-time...

 Well, not TOO down.  Margaret is staying here with her two little boys, and baby Blythe.  Yesterday, we had Achilles, Rhys, and Jamison come for a visit too, then Sam came over with Grant and Wulf.  I made some yummy dinner:  a chuck roast 30 hours in the sous vide, then pan seared, then butter and rosemary...homemade macaroni and cheese, raw carrots and celery.  

Camille and Kathryn and Charlotte Claire in Norway...

Wulf, Grandpa, Tennyson

Yes, that's Wulf...we went to Target and got some Dino claws and a mask...

Movie night!  Darius, Achilles, Tennyson, Sam, and Ruth on the couch, then Rhys, Wulf, and Grant on the ottoman....

Ruth with baby dolly....

Isn't she so adorable?

Tennyson...love him.

Rhys, Wulf, Grant

Baby Jamison, he was so tired...I love rocking him to sleep...when it was only Margaret and I with the six little ones, and she had baby Blythe, I said, "If I rock Jamie to sleep, and you have a sleeping baby too, we're doomed...he Wulf, want to be the boss of the kids for a while?"  He did not.  Darius wasn't gone for too long though.  We survived, and had lots of fun.  He took Tenny and Achilles to the store and got ice cream for movie time, after dinner.  

BJ's today, the robot that checks inventory...they were absolutely fascinated.  I may or may not have told them it was a monster.

Grandpa helping with a lego set...

These five in Norway:  Camille, Jon, Kathryn, Emily, Charlotte Claire...Mariel is there too.

We went to BJ's today, got some pizzas and mozzarella sticks for tomorrow night.  I wanted to order pizza, but it might be too crazy busy on New Year's Eve.  We're going to a gym/trampoline/gymnastics place in the afternoon so all the kids can run around and play, then some are coming back here, hopefully all tired out and ready to vegetate, but ha, I doubt it.  

Right now, I have a homemade chicken pot pie in the oven, and a sugar free pumpkin pie.  The pot pie:  I cut up the chicken breast, about  2 1/2 pounds, browned it up, added a quart of chicken broth, salt and pepper, rosemary...then two peeled chopped potatoes, some chopped celery, a bag of frozen veggies (corn, green beans, carrots, peas)...after all simmered to soft, I added cornstarch and flour stirred up with cold water, to thicken it all up.  A nice big pie pan, with homemade butter crust, most of the mixture fit into it, but there was a baggy leftover for the freezer.  I sprinkle more salt and pepper and rosemary on the top before baking.  The sugar free pumpkin pie is just the recipe on the can, but instead of the 3/4 cup of sugar, I added a small amount of monk-fruit sugar (about 1/6th of a cup), and the same amount of brown sugar stevia, then a heaping tablespoon of honey.  So it's technically not sugar-free, but mostly.  And, the crust is positively sinful, in a way, butter and flour...but mmm.  Sometimes you just have to have something yummy, right?  

Ah well, the house smells astoundingly amazingly delicious, the aroma of baking pot pie AND pumpkin pie, oh dear.  We'll have a cozy hot dinner tonight....just Paul and I, Margaret and her little boys (Blythe doesn't eat these things yet), and Sonja isn't home.  Have a nice evening, and Happy New Year!