Christmas recap

We had a very nice Christmas Eve last night, despite the light snow. It was very cold, icy on the roads. This is unusual; we very rarely see a white Christmas. After a candlelight church service, we went to a friends' house for dinner. The rum cake was better than I remembered. Oh, yum, I am making another one for us for New Year's. It was sooooo good!


Dan and Christine shared with us their favorite Christmas song, and I was thrilled to find a copy on the internet. All I can say is YOU GOTTA LISTEN TO THIS! There are no words to describe this rendition of O Holy Night. I don't think I can stop listening. (Some of the page content might be objectionable to some, but it wasn't so bad that Holly couldn't see it.) Mom . . . Dad . . . Lori . . . really, you have to listen.

Holly and Trevor ended up going to bed rather late (for them) last night, which meant they slept in a little longer this morning. So did Robert and I. The kids were up at 7:00, and they had to wait for us to get a few things ready before we would let them come all the way downstairs.


They woke up a little once they started opening presents. Trevor is always glad to smile again for the camera.


Holly's a little more reserved.

You can guess how excited Robert is. I thought I'd bought him the perfect gift that he didn't ask for (along with the one he did). It's a 1,000,000 candlelight flashlight that can be seen up to 3 miles away. It was cheap too, under $20, so I thought he'd like it even more. Like I said . . . excited. (ha)

Aw, too bad no one snapped a picture of me looking excited! Actually, my gifts were very nice and included a number of Calphalon pans and fabulous new perfume. (It's Noa, I think Noa Perle.)

Santa brought the kids a Play Station. I took about a dozen pictures of them playing, but none of them came through on my camera! After the presents were opened, the kids played. An hour later, the kids were still playing. Trevor took a break to talk to Grandpa on the phone.

I finally made them get dressed, and they came back and played some more. I took turns playing with them. We nibbled a quick lunch, and then the kids played. Trevor took another break to talk to Gramma, Aunt Barb and Uncle Dave.


The kids played in the afternoon.


There was a brief break for dinner. The dinner menu and my review:

Roast Beef Perfection. Was perfect, as usual! Served with a sour cream/horseradish mix alongside.

Manchego Potatoes. Rachael Ray used manchego cheese. I didn't want to pay $5-8 for cheese to put in potatoes. I'd read you could substitute either parmesan or Monterey jack cheese. That seemed like a weird choice, since I find the two so different. We had Muenster Potatoes. Everyone else liked them a lot, but I thought the cheese was just too much.

Asparagus with Gremolata. This is another Rachael Ray recipe. Not a keeper. Robert took one taste (barely) and brave Trevor spit his out. I couldn't eat the asparagus, but I mixed some of the gremolata with my potatoes and liked it!

Sauteed Crimini Mushrooms. Another Rachael Ray recipe, and this was awesome. After adding the red wine, I was dubious, but it quickly evaporated down and thickened into a nice flavoring, not leaving any "wine" taste.

Robert's Famous Cranberry Nut Bread, that I made yesterday.

Pretzel Jello Salad. A traditional holiday dish at our house.

We were so stuffed that we never ate dessert. We'll have pumpkin pie tomorrow, along with the salad I never made for dinner, and the brie cheese with kahlua sauce that I never made for lunch. This is what happens when I eat too many chocolate covered marshmallow santas . . .

After dinner, guess what the kids did?


They finally got off, just in time for Holly and me to watch two episodes of her Brady Bunch Season 2 DVDs that she got today. I'm glad I have someone else to watch Brady Bunch with!

We had a wonderful, relaxing day. I'm looking so forward to Robert's being off tomorrow too.

:)