December Daily – December 16

I don't know why, because I got plenty of sleep last night, but I woke up tired today. For me, an unexplained tiredness usually means a virus is lurking. I pray that's not the case this time for a number of reasons, but especially because there's cooking and cleaning to do before Christmas Eve.

To make matters worse, when Jonah arrived this morning it was clear he also was tired. Jonah loves to stay up late and sleep in, and he never takes naps at home and rarely sleeps at grandma's anymore. The only time Jonah catches up on sleep is at school where he still takes good naps.

Accessing the situation, I decided Jonah and I needed to get out of the house or he was going to drive me to exhaustion. A sleep-deprived Jonah is a hyper Jonah!

So off we went and I actually ended up getting a lot done. First stop was the new neighborhood food store, GFS Marketplace. I was lured in by the Christmas tree-shaped butter spot-lighted in their ad. It will look so cute on my holiday table and cost me nothing after coupons.

For the most part, however, GFS offers bulk items, such as huge boxes of Chez-Its and large cuts of meat. But I did get Christmas Eve dessert, a box of 10 frozen apples with cinnamon and butter wrapped in pastry. I'll bake them for 50-60 minutes while we open presents and our house will smell amazing.

After lunch at Burger King, Jonah and I hit Trader Joe's. I love Trader Joe's. It's a small store packed with treasures. I especially like their international items offered at reasonable prices.

My goal today was to purchase their frozen Parisian carrots for the chicken stew I'm making for Christmas Eve lunch. (Yes, I'll be making Ina Garten's recipe again this year.) Parisian carrots are round and the size of large grapes. They're perfect for stews. 

I also got the Trader Joe's candied pecans and a package of frozen savory puff-pastry bites. I plan to serve a variety of finger foods Christmas Eve evening.

Yes, today's outing was very successful, especially since it wore Jonah out. He's now been sleeping two hours! It's a holiday miracle!