Christmas Eve

Since I'm one month away from my due date, we couldn't make our usual trip to DC to see Hansel's family for Christmas. So we had a quiet Christmas in Los Altos, which we're not used to. We even contemplated driving to San Diego to visit some amusement parks, but I kept imagining the baby deciding to make an early entrance.

On Christmas Eve, we went to Rick's Cafe in Los Altos for breakfast. The food's good and reasonably priced, and they have a good kid's menu. We actually got two kids meals versus having the kids share one (already splurging for Christmas).

After breakfast we went to a children's bookstore across the street. It's a great bookstore, but I get a little anxious taking the kids there since the books are new versus used. Funny thing is I'm not that way about Borders.

On our way home, we stopped at a market to get chocolate chips to make cookies for Santa. The kids helped make the dough. They took turns nicely and did not ask to eat the dough. They don't yet know that people like to eat cookie dough.

After their naps, we got ready to go out for our Christmas Eve dinner. I had made reservations at Tarragon in downtown Sunnyvale. They were having a special Christmas Eve prix fixe 3-course meal for $38 per person (kids $12). I thought the price was pretty good for a holiday dinner at a nice restaurant. Hansel had a harder time getting over the price, esp since all four of us normally eat for $38.

Hansel did a test self-timer shot with the kids.

For the first course we all had the butternut squash soup. For the main course Hansel had the shell fish bake, I had the salmon, and the kids shared the chicken. The chicken appeared quite juicy and the seasoning was nice. I feel chicken dishes are a good measure of how good a restaurant's food is because chicken usually comes out dry. For dessert, Hansel had the chocolate sundae, I had the egg nog creme brulee, and the kids had the apple pie. My creme brulee came in a short ramekin, which allowed the perfect ratio of carmelized sugar and custard. It was the kids first prix fixe meal, and probably their first dinner where we didn't order from the kids menu.

After we came home from dinner, we let the kids open one gift. Maile suprisingly picked one of the smaller gifts to open, and I helped Beck pick out his gift. Before bedtime we put out milk and cookies, and Maile wrote a note for Santa.