melted smoosh

when we were packing up the house to move to Rome, i came across an old notebook of mine from the navel-gazing teenage years, in which i had solemnly penned the following epigram: "If you spend your entire life writing, you won't have anything to write about." dangling prepositions aside, i'm in the opposite situation this year. too much living, not enough time to write! and so i find myself on the penultimate day of February, just now getting around to writing about Christmas. (side note: penultimate has got to be one of the most useful words in the English language, right up there with avuncular and petrichor. well, avuncular isn't actually that useful, i guess, but it's still a good word.) for the first time ever in our married lives, Nick had an actual Christmas break this year. no masses to play for on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. no extra choir rehearsals to squeeze in. and as much as i appreciate all the hard work that goes into creating the magi

i'm sure it comes of having an older sister, but Cecilia talks even more than Greta did at the ripe old age of twenty-seven months (that's two years and change for those who don't like baby-age math). and she makes us laugh every single day with her shenanigans. here are a few gems from the last few weeks that i don't want to forget. "but Mom! i weally want  to poke Gweta with my fork!" on a sunny day: "Mom! can you turn off the bright?" while chasing us around the room: "i'm a hot dog monster!" "no thank you to my nap, Mom! no thanks!" (and then when i proceeded to put her down for a nap anyway: "NO NAPS! NO NAPS! NO NAPS!") whenever she gets to play with her friends here, she talks about it for days afterwards. "i yike to see Sophia and Edwa'd and Weopold [Leopold] and baby Penapee [Penelope] and Wizabeth [Elizabeth] and Sebastian! ALL MY FWENDS! they are bery nice!" at mass when the b

everybody talks about how delicious the food is in Italy. and it is! the creamy egg-washed carbonara with crispy guanciale. the Neapolitan pizza diavolo with its perfectly crispy crust immediately giving way to a chewy interior, topped with spicy sausage. the gelato. the wine! but after a while, the flavor profile of carbohydrate + tomato + mozzarella + basil gets a little stale. and honestly, for the eight years we've been married, we've never gone out to an Italian restaurant on date night. we love German and Thai and Polish and Chinese and Mexican and classic American food. so while i cook some traditional Italian dishes at home, i'm often looking for a little variety to round things out. (you may recall the gloriousness of the first enchiladas i made in Rome .) here are some of our recent favourites! i made these beef and cheese crunch wraps  for the first time a few weeks ago, and they were so delicious! of course Greta only wanted to eat the tortilla, but Nick