Alexandra's Birthday/Name day...

Our fairy princess...the princess of all things sweet and all things girlish...is three years old today.

She was born on August 30th, which is also why we named her Alexandra, she was born on the day in which Greeks celebrate the name Alexander, Alexandra etc...which made choosing her name easy.

We threw her party yesterday, on the 29th, since it usually works out better for most guests to attend a party on a Saturday. She was thrilled. She's been excited for a while but she has been extremely anxious since last week, when I took her to the bakery to pick out her own cake. I sat her on the counter and we browsed through the pages of cakes available for order. She liked all of them that had princesses, but it didn't take her long to come to a final decision.

Here's a picture of her with her princess cake...

What else did we eat? Of course, I made arroz con gandules...it's a staple at any of my family occasions. Yia Yia made cheese pies (τυρόπιτες) and coconut cookies. I made chocolate chip cookies for the kids and then we had chips and other munchies since we weren't having dinner, our guests were invited for cake & ice cream. The cake was out of this world! Alexandra chose the chocolate/creme (σοκολάτα με κρέμα) combination and it was incredibly fresh. There wasn't a piece left at the end of the night.

Consumed by the song & sparklers...

Making a wish...

Pleased that the princesses are now hers to play with...

Yes, we're very proud of our fairy princess!

Since we celebrated a day early, we spent a quiet Sunday at home. Our day was so quiet that we enjoyed a nap on our balcony during mesi meri. That doesn't happen very often, especially on name days. So, we thoroughly enjoyed Alexandra's birthday/name day. She had a blast too!

A few photos from the last three years...

Four months old...

About 2 weeks old...

Her first birthday shown above,

& her second birthday below...

Just a few weeks ago...we're so happy together.

Gigi's Christmas

We enjoyed our Christmas celebration and Gigi did also. She's adapted well to spending a few days in an apartment. Why wouldn't she? She's just as spoiled as the children! I don't have much to say as I believe that pictures tell her Christmas day story.

Yeah, baby! She scored some turkey from the table!! ( We never feed her from the table...Merry Christmas Gigi!)


Yia-Yia made her a sweater and Thia outfitted her with a shiny bow.

Here's what she thought of the bow.

I'll be back soon.

Wishing you all peace & love this holiday season!

Saturday

Earlier this week we were lucky enough to be invited to a friend's for a party. Her father was here visiting from New York and was leaving the following morning- so what better reason to whip out the delicacies from the sea? The sea urchins (aheenee) were the being prepared as we arrived. Although I'm adventurous I decided to pass this time because it seems that I've developed allergies to a few different things as I've grown older. For example, I used to love eating mussels in a dish called medea saganaki , but as time went on my body didn't love the dish. It took 2 days to get back to normal after my last serving of medea and that was 12 years ago...oh how I miss it. So, I wasn't willing to have any surprises and I passed on the opportunity to try something new. They did look good and apparently they were, my husband loved them!

Fresh crab was also served. It looked delicious, however, I didn't get any. By the time I finished wrangling the kids to their table and made sure that they had enough food to eat all of the crab had been eaten. Wah!!! I love crab. That's one thing that I know I can eat. And the bottle with the red Gerbera daisy on it contains tsipouro, I doubt that there are any gatherings in Greece like this without it. And yes, I had some. I love it on ice.

Now, under the crab in the foil wrapped pans is another surprise. I didn't take any pictures but I should have because the three pans contained fabulous foods that I've missed from home. Two of the pans contained lasagna and one contained chicken cordon bleu with mushrooms and a creamy sauce . My friend's father worked in an Italian restaurant for several years and mastered a few recipes. Let me just say that both were absolutely delicious! I've had lasagna twice since he's been here. (lucky me!) Now, I have to get around to making it as I've been sticking to the same dishes lately due to what's growing in the garden and what the kids will actually eat. I'm ashamed to admit that they've almost forgotten that they once loved lasagna.

Also served was fabulous grilled fish, salad and loukaniko (greek sausage). And for dessert we enjoyed the mini ice cream bars that we brought with us. They're called pagotinia (something like this) ...and they're always fabulous. We all ate very well, had a little to drink and enjoyed the company that we were in. In other words, we had a great time!