xmas 07

It is hard to believe Christmas has come and gone already. It always seems to creep up on us and then disappear in the blink of an eye! We had a superb Christmas this year. We spent Xmas Eve with my parents and Erich and Tonya. I am happy to report that we did not have a table catastrophe this time around. I was nervous taking a picture of the table before we ate because of what happened on Thanksgiving! If you have not read my blog before, refer to Thanksgiving massacre! We were spoiled by both of our meals on the eve and Xmas day. My mom made Halibut with a buerre blanc sauce, fresh steamed asparagus, and lemon rice. Jeorge decided to do Xmas dinner this year at our Restaurant and we had a FEAST!!My dad thought we hired servers because he saw my sister in law Tammy in her Xmas apron. I have included a pic of my sister in law's in their Xmas aprons. Jeorge mastered his craft as usual, and to our stomach's delight served us Crab stuffed shrimp, clam chowder, garlic mashed potatoes, cole slaw, salad, gourmet mac n cheese with cheddar, Gruyere, Swiss, and feta with baked breadcrumbs, and the main attraction standing Rib roast with Au jus and for extra love horseradish cream sauce! Thank you jeorge!!! After all of that food I was not able to fathom eating dessert but there was a spread waiting for us at my brother and sister in law's house. We had a gourmet chocolate cake, white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, brownies, cookies and anything else you can think of. I was a good girl and only had a very small brownie:) We all had a blast opening presents! We all gathered in the living room and a person was assigned to pass out all the gifts, and then it was a free for all. All you could hear was the wrapping paper crackling, thank you and I love yous and laughter. It is always a fun time and the kids love all the excitement! Thank you for your hospitality Sammy and Jeff!!

On a side note, I am looking forward to this weekend! My team The Beer Goggles has made the Superbowl in Fantasy Football. I could make history in our league if I win. It will be the first time anyone has won twice! Please wish me luck! Have a wonderful New Year!!!

xmas tree fun

We decorated our tree tonight and it was a lot of fun. Jack was very animated and kept saying "Our Christmas Tree is Beautiful"!! We were sad because our angel from last Christmas was lost. Jack told us that we could just reach up in the sky and grab a star. James was mesmerized by the tree and could not keep his eyes off of it! We decided to just put a wreath outside this year to conserve energy. Jeorge is cooking Xmas dinner at the restaurant for our family and it should be delish!!!

Random

Things are good at Chez Swanson. I was treated to a cut and color from my parents this week and decided for a new color. I have had the same color scheme practically my whole life and decided it was time for a change. I went for an auburn and have included a pic of james and I. In other news, the restaurant is doing well. The free press was there taking pictures for our review that comes out next week in the food section. Now for my geek side, I am very happy because my Fantasy Football Team snuck in the playoffs. GO BEER GOGGLES! We hope everyone has a great Holiday season.

Jack's new pajamas

Jack was so excited tonight because his Grandma Cheryl and Papa Bobby got him new pajamas. He is in a phase where he loves super heroes so he wanted to put them on right away. I took a few pics.

Help

I am in a constant battle with jack to eat his veggies. He ate a good amount of veggies when he was younger, and one day decided that he hated them. The only thing I can get him to eat is romaine lettuce ( plain) and that is a chore. We have veggies on his dinner plate every night and he never touches them. We followed the 10 times rule and got no results. I even tried trying the Deceptively Delicious way of putting purees of veggies into foods he likes but he busted me while eating his homemade chicken nuggets.It must have been the panko crust that gave it away! If you read this can you please leave me some advice?

Saturday

Jack had a wonderful day today! He was invited to his friend William's house and they played for an hour. I was happy because my mom came over to watch james and I was able to get things done around the house and able to clean our gutters before the big storm hit us! A few hours later jack was picked up and went to the Holiday extravaganza in Berkley. He enjoyed the petting farm and was really excited when Santa came in on his Sleigh. My mother in law told me that he said "Santa its me Jack, I would like Geotrax for Xmas!" Afterwards, they went to Sweet Lorraine's for dinner and Jack ordered his favorite kid cappuccino. It is just frothed milk and he puts raw sugar on top. I was a little disappointed today because the guy we hired to do our leaves did not show. He was supposed to come yesterday and did not bother to call and told jeorge that he would be by today and again no show. I don't have energy to do them this year, so I hope he will call later on this week. I have included a pic of our yard to show why it is hard to get done with little time. Our restaurant has shown an increase in business the last 2 days since our free press article. We are excited because we are getting reviews in the Jewish News and Eccentric.

Free Press Word of Mouth

SYLVIA RECTOR WORD OF MOUTH
Birmingham's Maple Leaf Cafe keeps it natural
November 29, 2007
BY SYLVIA RECTOR
FREE PRESS RESTAURANT REPORTER
The first reason you'll want to try chef Jeorge Swanson's itty-bitty new Maple Leaf Café in downtown Birmingham is that the food is creative, fresh and hearty.
The second is that he's cooking only with organic and natural ingredients and keeping prices competitive.
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Maple Leaf also is vegan- and vegetarian-friendly, but don't let that scare you off if you love a great burger or two-fisted sandwich.
Swanson, whose resume includes Lily's Seafood in Royal Oak and Sweet Lorraine's, opened in early October in the former location of a Thai restaurant at 297 E. Maple between Woodward and Old Woodward.
He seats just 40, so you may have to wait. But based on my first-taste visit, I think you'll want to stick around.
Breakfast includes items such as sweet potato pancakes with toasted pecan honey butter, Mediterranean scramble and crab cakes-and-eggs.
Lunch ranges from Five-Star Meatloaf and roasted butternut squash fritters to salads, overstuffed sandwiches and half-pound Certified Angus Beef burgers.
Swanson says about 80% of his food is organic, and the rest is naturally produced.
"I have kids, and I would not want to see them eat genetically modified products or things with growth hormones in them," he says. "I'm trying to feed the people the same kind of food I feed my family."
He's open 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.

Thanksgiving Pics

Here are some pics from Turkey Day. I would have had some of james but he slept the whole time. Jeorge is missing because he was at the Lion's game.

Thanksgiving Massacre

Jeorge scored tickets for the Lions game today from my bro as a late bday present. The Lions were torched again by the one and only Favre. It was painful to watch and to top it off Sports Radio was filled with all the peeps who got off the bandwagon. I don't know they must have been fooled by the cornbread. The lions were the least of our worries this Thanksgiving. Later, while we were enjoying our wonderful meal the table collapsed. Everything was spilling, breaking, and flying everywhere. My brother and Jeorge got drenched by water and red wine while trying to hold the table up to prevent everything from just falling all over my mom's rug. I included a pic of how the table looked before we dined and the aftermath of the table catastrophe. We were left without the scrumptious apple pie my mom had baked because my dad kicked us out. We settled for coffee and a cookie from Dunkin Donuts. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Friday

My day started off bright and early today at 3am. James is battling a chest cold and was awoken by his cough. It officially ended our two week streak of him sleeping from 11-8am. I had forgotten how spoiled I had become until I heard his cries from the monitor at 3. While I was feeding him I got hooked on an informercial for a steam mop. It was so convincing that I actually programmed the number to order the product into my cell phone. I have actually ordered one other product from an informercial, The Chop Wizard, and it was a gem. I am still on the fence about this steam mop. Do other people get sucked into these? In other news, Jeorge had a great day at the restaurant. It was his first weekday that he hit over a 1000 in sales and he was thrilled. The weekends are another story, Sundays have become so popular that there is a wait for most of the day. We have an ad coming out in the metro times and the eccentric is planning a write up, so we are moving right along. Jeorge also took time to go to Jack's preschool to do snack time with the kids. He did breakfast banana splits with them, and set up a little bar so the kids could be involved in their snack for the day. Jack was really excited to say the least. Jeorge was laughing because jack's friend joseph turned to him and said "This better be good" and Jack's reply was "oh it will be".

Computer Trouble

Jack was online today and must of had some sort of issue because he was talking to himself. I got my cell phone out because I knew he would come to the family room to tell me about it.

Halloween part 2

Here are pics of Jack's other Halloween costume. He was a tranformer by day and Thomas the Train at night.

Jack's new hobbies

Jack has recently developed interests in photography and the internet. I showed him how to use our digital camera the other day and now he is hooked. The other night before we went to bed he asked to take a few pictures. I have added them to this blog ,as well as a few pics Jeorge took of the 3 of us. Also, Jack learned how to access the internet by himself and go to his favorite website to play memory and the various puzzles it has on it. Things are good with me. I feel like my anxiety is getting less intense and I am doing more things everyday. It has helped that the weather has been so nice because i can get out and go for a walk.

Halloween

Jack had a great Halloween this year. He went trick or treating with his friend William who lives down the road from us. Jeorge and our friend Polly ( william's mom) took the boys and they were running from house to house. They only did our street and then went back to William's to play with trains. I stayed home with the baby and set up a candy station outside. I did not want anyone to wake the baby so I posted a Halloween sign outside with a note stating we had a new baby in the house. Jack was exhausted and slept very well that night. Here are is a pic of his 1st costume, I will send pics of his 2nd one later.

This is my first blog and I am excited about it! We welcomed the newest member to our family James Patrick on Aug 23rd. He weighed in at 10 lbs and was 21 inches long. Since then he has grown to an impressive 15.5 lbs and 23 inches at 10 weeks!! I am finally recovered from my seperated pubic bone and happily sleeping on my stomach again!! I have been dealing with a bout of anxiety because of things that happened after his birth, but would take forever to write about. A friend of ours who is an MD suggested that I try protein enzymes after each meal. He said that curbed his anxiety and helped him avoid the traditional meds. I shall give it a try and see. In other news, we recently opened a new restaurant in Downtown bham. I will have pics on here soon. Our place is called the Mapleleaf Cafe and it is mainly an all natural/organic restaurant. Jeorge( my hubby) does not carry splenda,equal, sweet and low because it is poison to him. He does have in place of it agave syrup, sugar in the raw and honey. We are starting to catch on in town and people are responding very well to the food and the place. We are happy and hope to have a lot more business around the holidays. I will write again soon.