Haircut, Ice Skating, and Creamy Vegetable Soup With Langoustines

On the plate:  Creamy vegetable soup with langoustines

Soundtrack to cook to:  Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits

Ahhhh, home sweet home!  I swear, I always need a vacation from our vacations.  Alexander's schedule is always out of whack, which means his sleep is off schedule, which means our sleep is off schedule.  Plus, there's so many things to do and people to see that we're always going, going, going.  It's lovely to see family and friends, but it's really nice to be back home and back to cooking in my own kitchen.
However, before cooking, it's time to take care of some business (i.e. Alexander's hair is looking a little scruffy, so we had to get it cut), and start a new tradition of our own.

Alexander was playing around and insisted that he
wear his Thomas hat.   

Alexander at Snip-Its after his haircut.  What a handsome
little guy, huh?

After a long day of getting stuff done on the "To Do" list,
Alexander insisted on wearing his sunglasses while he was
taking his bath and on the changing table.  He's just cool like that,
 and plus, he put up QUITE a fuss when I tried to take them.

During this time of year, my family has a lot of traditions that we've been doing since I can remember.  With all of these traditions, Joseph decided that he wanted our own family to start our own tradition.  I thought this was a great idea!  Since the weather lends itself to his proposed tradition, he decided that we could go ice skating as a family around Christmas/Hanukkah time (I know it's a little late, but we had to pack and were busy, so it just didn't happen at the right time), have hot chocolate, and then finish the perfect evening at one of our favorite restaurants EVOO.

Joseph and Alexander all bundled up and in skates.
We were actually pretty terrified about putting these
skates on Alexander, as he was kicking quite a bit
and neither of us wanted to get impaled by his skates.
Thankfully, we were able to stabilize his feet enough
that we both remained unscathed.

One happy little family, ready to start our own holiday tradition.

Joseph and Alexander on the ice.  It was absolutely
HILARIOUS trying to get Alexander to skate.  We
basically had him in between the two of us and were
dragging him along the ice.  He absolutely loved it and
started to get the hang of it - but I use that term very loosely.
Needless to say, we only made it around the rink three
times, took a break for hot chocolate, then went around once more
before the little guy had had enough.

Alexander skating with mommy.

Alexander and mommy - little man is enjoying
his first cup of hot chocolate.

Joseph is helping the little guy take some healthy sips of
hot chocolate.

The next day, I was itching to take advantage of the langoustines (itty bitty lobsters) that we had gotten at Costco the previous day.  I envisioned myself throwing these little bad guys into my vegetable chowder. Here's how it went down:

All the pretty veggies all in a row...  Throw these into a dutch oven
with two tbsp of butter or butter substitute.  Let them cook for about
5-8 minutes.  Then sprinkle in two tbsp of flour and stir it all around.

Potatoes and beautiful langoustines - aren't they cute?  After the
flour has cooked down for about 2 minutes, pour in 4 cups of milk (I use skim)
and toss in the potatoes and langoustines.  Then let these delicious
goodies cook for ~30-40 minutes along with 2 chicken bouillon cubes
and pepper to taste.  There's no need to add salt because of the
bouillon cubes.

A beautiful, creamy, delicious bowl of vegetables and langoustines.
We like to top it with parmesan cheese...mmmm, so good.  The leftovers
are even better.

We had so much fun starting our own family tradition and spending the last few days of Joseph's vacation together.  It was the perfect end to our Holiday Tour 2011 - I can't wait to see what 2012 brings our family!  

Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki