I looked over and he was asleep where he sat - leaning back against our headboard.

See, we Vanderpol males have this innate ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat, in any setting. It can be at a party, in the middle of a movie or even (if we’re really, really tired) at the table. If I lay in bed and it takes me more than ten minutes to fall asleep, it feels like it’s taking forever. (This used to annoy my wonderful wife, but she’s grown resigned accustomed to it.)

I’m glad you’re a part of our family, Gregory, and you’re keeping the torch alive (even if just in your dreams).

“Oh, are you hungry?”

Big smile remains. He’s very proud of what he’s done.

“Ok, let me get a little cup to put some cereal in.”

I go and get him an empty yogurt cup and proceed to put some cereal in it. “Now, Gregory, there’s not much cereal left so you have to be careful with it and eat it.”

Off he goes back to the cupboard and gets down the box of Joe’s Ohs (like Cheerios). This one is fuller (and heavier) so he drops it a couple times but picks it back up each time. He brings it over to me with another big smile on his face.

“Oh, you want to supplement with some additional cereal. Ok.” I pour some Ohs in on top of the Puffins, shake the cup to mix them a bit and hand it to him. “Here you go.”

Off he toddles, quite happily eating his cereal.

Yesterday afternoon, I asked Amber if she’d rather do more of a finger-food, casual kind of dinner. She agreed and here’s the result with an ecstatic Emma overseeing the documentation.

The bread (lower right) is a Garlic Parmesan with some basil and sun-dried tomato bruschetta thrown in. We bake it in a cast-iron pot wit lid to get the shape and a really nice crust.

The triangles (above and right of bread) are phyllo dough triangles with a spinach and feta filling. We made a bunch of them for dinner on Christmas Eve and froze half. This is half of the half.

To the left of the triangles is some pear, and beyond that is cheese that Emma cut up on the cheese board. Just above the pears is some carrots and broccoli for dipping in the hummus.

The hummus (above the carrots and broccoli, with the 2 spoons in it) is the basic recipe from “Feeding the Whole Family” but I’ve added some of the sun-dried tomato bruschetta to give it some color and additional flavor.

The crackers (to the right of the carrots and broccoli) are Chickpea Crackers which we made in the afternoon. They were really good with hummus or cheese and had a very nice kick to them. We also mixed up the dough for Wine Biscuits and we’ll bake those today.

The wine in the back is our next-to-last bottle of wine that we started in October of 2005.

The purple/blue/pinkish flowers floating in the bowl next to the wine were picked and arranged by Emma to decorate our table.

So, there you have it - homemade bread, homemade crackers (we ground the chickpea flour in our mill), homemade hummus (with chickpeas that Amber cooked before and we had frozen and juice from lemons from our lemon tree), homemade wine, homemade phyllo dough triangles and homegrown flowers for decoration. The only thing that came out of a box was the phyllo dough.

We’re going to work on having homegrown fruits and veggies next time.

Last night I was flipping through our cookbooks trying to figure out what to make. I knew that I wanted to make something that had to be started that night for breakfast the next day because I like to take advantage of that level of preparation when I think of it. I considered yeasted pancakes or cinnamon rolls, but I wasn’t really in the mood for them. Then my eye lit upon the crepes recipe.

I first had crepes in college. There was this great crepe restaurant in town that served both savory and sweet crepes. I remember being amazed at how good they were. Amber and I have made them at home before but it’s been a number of years. The recipe we have for them says that they need to rest for 2 hours or overnight for the batter to be perfect - exactly the sort of thing I was looking for.

I mixed up the batter last night and cooked them up this morning. They were a hit with everyone! Emma really liked being able to spread jam on them, roll them up and eat them with her fingers.

All-in-all a great meal.