Afternoon Sunlight & Copy Cat Zuppa

Jeff got up to do the early shift with Emmie this morning, and I slept till about 7:45 or so. When I came in the living room, things were an absolute mess with presents and stuff all over the place.

And in typical fashion, in the midst of a million new things, Emmie was playing in the empty carboard box. She had a blanket and pillow and baby and books in there, and she was pretending she was camping. She told me, “You have to go to a different campsite. I’m at the campsite called Tallahassee. But you have to go to a different campsite called Zabodebo’s.”

She did eventually start breaking out some new presents and toys, including this new tiny camera from Grammy & Papa, and she was obsessed with it! She took over 100 pictures with it today. We’ll have to download them to the computer, so we can share some of her “work.” 😉

Then she was a combo vet/doctor, and was taking care of all of us.

Then I couldn’t stand it anymore, and we got busy cleaning up the house. We spent about two hours putting away, throwing away, dusting, vacuuming, dish-washing, laundering, fluffing, folding, hanging, and whatever else needed to be done, until things finally started looking decent. Emmie had a PB&J and milk, and then we got her down for nap time.

She had her uncrustable sammich for lunch, and then ate the crusts for her nap time snack.

She slept for about two hours, while Jeff and I ate lunch and watched YouTube and folded another load of laundry, and then just rested a bit. She finally got dressed out of her jammies when she woke up, and we decided to spend some time hanging outside enjoying the bright sunshine and fresh, brisk, chilly air. The new hair bow I got her matched perfectly with the new shirt from Grammy, and even her pink camera coordinated well. She looked so stinking adorable!!

 

 

And the day after Christmas, it finally looks like fall in Florida! haha

I love the afternoon sun in the winter. So pretty!

We went inside to warm up, and read one Blippi book she got for Christmas, and then our afternoon guests arrived! Jeff left late this afternoon to go to his brother’s house in middle Georgia, to go on to meet up with the boys’ mom tomorrow morning. So Grammy & Grandmommie came over to our house for a girls’ night. We started with afternoon tea, and had lots of books and playtime, and busted out more of her Christmas presents.

I made Instant Pot copy-cat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana soup (wow, that was a mouthful), and it turned out so good! This was my first time cooking with kale, and my first time making this soup. The recipe blog says it’s basically fool-proof, and I would have to agree with that. I peeled my potatoes first, and put the kale in to pressure cook with everything else, but other than that, I followed the recipe. And it was a hit! We all ate our fill (even Emmie loved it, and I tricked her into eating some of the kale), and I sent home a bowl for Papa, who texted me later to say he liked it too.

We ate early, and Mom washed up all my dishes, so by 6:30pm, we were done eating, the kitchen was clean, and then we had plenty of time to play more together!

Emmie picked out a few books for bedtime, and we read them in the living room together, before Grammy & Grandmommie had to head home.

But of course she needed a bedtime snack, and requested the “dinner bread.” I told her I had more but it wasn’t toasted, but you know she insisted that I toast it, so that’s what I did. And she did in fact eat the whole piece!

She was crossing her arms and legs and saying, “this makes a cross?!”

I’ve made myself another cup of hot tea, and I’m wearing my super thick warm robe, my cozy moccasin slippers, and I’m posted up on the couch with Netflix for the night.

Today was a great day, spent entirely at home, with my sweet family and my girl!