Pumpkin Pasta

1. She didn’t want to take off the socks she slept in last night.
2. She wanted to pick out her own shoes.
3. She then took her shoes off in the car, and put them back on the wrong feet, and I didn’t notice until I was looking at the pictures later, after dropping her off.
4. She was pointing at her friend Malachi walking up.

Today’s lunch time errands were much the same as yesterday – a super fast shopping trip, lunch to-go, and eating at my desk when I got back. Today I went to Goodwill to find a white, collared, button-up shirt, which is what we have to wear on the Singing Christmas Tree. (We wear the same thing every year, but sometimes things go missing and we have to find replacements.) I also found two scents of Burt’s Bee’s wax melts, a Frozen II canvas painting set for a Christmas gift for Emerson (brand new & unopened!), and a little Santa plate for Emmie to eat dinner off of, since we have Christmas plates for the adults, but we didn’t have a small one for her. All of that was only $19!

We had a little holiday dessert party for our entire building today, so we all got to partake in some fun treats this afternoon! (I didn’t actually eat this Grinch cupcake, but my boss Tammy got one to take home for her daughter, and it was just so cute!) I did eat one of those little chocolate-covered cherry mice, and it was so good!

I picked up Emmie-cille after work (just one of many nicknames for Emerson Secille = Emmie-cille), and we headed home for a little girls’ night. Jeff was doing some work for one of his side jobs, so it was just the two of us. I made pumpkin-shaped pasta with autumnal harvest sauce (both from Trader Joe’s), that I knew wouldn’t exactly have appealed to Jeff anyways.

While the pasta was boiling, Emmie moved the ornament for today on the advent calendar, and found Sheppy hanging out in the Christmas decor bins.

I got out the little Santa plate from Goodwill to wash so she could use it tonight, and I was surprised to find it was actually two little plates, stuck together! So I got two Santa plates, for a mere 59 cents. And she loved it! She was holding it up like this and said, “I’m showing the peengins my Santa plate!”

The sauce was actually really yummy, but unfortunately I cooked the pasta a little too al dente. I’ve discovered lately that if the pasta cook-time says “8 – 10 minutes”, I like to cook it for 9. So that’s what I did tonight, but it definitely should have cooked another couple of minutes. It was still edible of course, and Emmie didn’t seem to mind at all, and she ate a ton of hers, dipped in butter!

I saved the sauce for another time, but tossed the rest of the noodles, then Emmie helped me carry it out to the big trash can outside. Oh well.

After bath time, she wanted to wear her yellow nightgown again. We got her the piece of chocolate from her other advent calendar, then we read a couple of her Christmas books together before bedtime prayers and lullabies.

I love this crazy-haired baby girl!

And I love this sweet pink-milk-drinking, comb-over baby girl.

She said she was showing Sheppy her Mickey Mouse ornament.

And then SHE read her caterpillar book to ME. She really does know most of the book, and can say the first three pages. Then she likes to tell me all the food that he ate on Saturday, and repeats “sausage” about five times. But she says it with super-pursed lips, and it’s just so silly and I love it so much.

I have a headache, and I contemplated just not washing the dishes but I acted like a responsible adult and forced myself to do it anyways. And I’m glad I did, because I do always feel better when the sink is empty and the counter & stove-top is clean. Jeff should be getting home soon, but until he does, I’ll be watching another episode of “This Is Us” on Hulu, with a mug of hot tea.