First, Christmas! For those of you who don't know, I'm a pretty big fan of Christmas. I hate most over the top commercialized displays (not that I begrudge those of your who chose to live your life that way), but I revel in the music, the lights, the feeling of service, the reds and greens, the smells of gingerbread and wassail and traditional Bowden family carrot pudding. Neal's mom was kind enough to loan us a Christmas tree this year. Although Neal and I both yearn from live trees, the expense just wasn't something we wanted yet in life. So the supposed 6 foot tree went up. I don't know how they measure trees, but it's not vertically. After some height adjustment, our delightful little tree was ready to decorate. Both Neal and I have collected ornaments for years, so we had no shortage of interesting decorations.
Our tree corner. I feel it important that trees can be seen from the window. It adds such a touch of home.
The tree is cozy enough for birds to perch.
My favorite ornament, the glowing angel was somewhat diminished when Neal suggested it may be a Weeping Angel (Dr. Who reference).
Our first jointly purchased ornament! This merry Dalek is just dying to exterminate any humbugs this season.
The view from the bottom of the tree. It's, ugh, better in person. Believe me.
So, with tree up and decorations filling the house we took to celebrating! Because Neal and I both have grown-up families, the parties are usually not on the holiday itself, but surround it. So, we had a fantastic dinner out with Neal's dad, a scrumptious dinner and games in with Neal's mom, and a dinner we helped prepare with my family! Sorry, I realize there is more to celebrating than just food. I just use food as a marker for good times. :)
My storytelling is pretty much falling apart right now, so maybe I'll just tell a picture story for a minute:
I bought my first real set of wrapping paper (instead of just stealing some from my mom like I usually do). Turns out wrapping paper is kind of a waste of money, isn't it?
Neal said my presents had a theme. Can you guess what that theme is? I'm actually most excited that he got the cello and piano duets. Now we both have to practice, but then we'll be totally awesome like the piano guys. Well, maybe not quite as great as them...and I have way more hair than John Schmidt.
My dad got us this lovely old fashioned game. It involves bluffing so I think I'll lose.
My mostest favoretest gift I gave this year. These little beauties are from the tv series Firefly. It was my first adventure in cross stitching. It was not as difficult as I'd imagined.
My favorite completed character. Wash is playing with his dinosaurs! If you don't laugh, you should go look up the scene. Excuse Wash's language at the end: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znxFrgql5dc
The doctor's quote. This one I think is funny even without context. Mostly because it should be a family theme I think.
Neal likes difficult reading. This will probably take us about a lifetime to really get through, but heck, we'll be amazing at Biblical studies by the end!
Most delicious chocolates from Neal's mom (thanks Mom). They are the best.
Our stash of new games, hooray! We have played lots of games this break. If you are interested in a game night, call me. Although I feel I should give a fair warning that I'm way more competitive at Blokus than I should be. It's sort of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation.
Now we don't have to put our dutch oven on the ground and battle dirt in our food! I want to use it now. In fact, I may just put a dutch oven dish on the menu now.
This is a huge stock pot. We love it. We are big stock pot kind of people.
Christmas dinner beginnings!
Look how steamy the sweet potatoes are for Christmas dinner! They really are a super food.
This steak is approximately the size of my head. Also, it was super delicious.
This here is our new big stock pot with a bit of brine in it. For my family party, we made the turkey. Using Alton Brown's expert advice, we also brined it before. Yah, I think all turkeys should be brined.
My adorable niece Maylee who insisted I take her picture multiple times while we prepared for the family party. Isn't she adorable?
I know, it's a picture of raw meat. But look how cute this guy is, all ready to be roasted for several hours until he's just falling off the bone.
Cooking potatoes for over thirty people means cooking a lot of potatoes. We did not peel them (peels are delicious), but I felt a little bad when Neal told me how Maylee followed him around for a while pleading, "Could you please take off the skins?" We're so mean.
My cute husband. Also, I take pictures with people in them, see?!
And after the dinner we made the most amazing stock ever.
Relative size of our old stock pot to our new. It's kind of crazy how much we upgraded.
Here is how Neal and I play games. Tables are for wimps, so we sit on cushions and watch Voyager while eating crackers. Also, this game (Through the Ages) is lots of fun. You should try it!
This is the bottled stock from Christmas dinner. It looks as dark as apricot nectar, though it's not as sweet!
Neal got me shovel spoons to add to my collection! To break them in we made pudding dirt cups. I can't really describe to you how satisfying it is to literally dig into a cup of pudding. Also, the spoons are shaped so you get the most pudding out of the cup. Zero waste in this house!
Neal likes Thai food a lot. So since we're both such foodies, I decided to order a mini Thai garden. The main ingredient is Kaffir lime leaves. I couldn't find them anywhere but from Thailand itself. So here are truly authentic Thai herb seeds!
This is not a bunch of sticks. This is the final part of Thai garden, lemongrass. You plant it from cuttings and not seeds, so we went to our favorite Asian market (Ocean Market) in SLC and got some fresh. Hope it roots soon!
There you go, the most ridiculous set of pictures. After Christmas Neal and I just kept celebrating. In truth, the tree is still up. It's coming down tonight, don't worry. We just didn't want to let go of the break yet. Last week we were staying up watching some of the hit show Community. I had been pretty emotional that day. No really, weeping and laughing simultaneously, so we needed to really laugh. As the last episode of the previous season finished, a commercial break via hulu aired. Neal and I are definitely not commercial people, but that night the shcpeal from Wendy's Chipotle really got to us. Although it was 10:30, we paused the show, ran to the car and drove to the local joint. Fortunately, the drive thru was open. Unfortunately, our front windows don't roll down if it's colder than 70 degrees. We forgot until we were nearly there. Lickity split I jumped into the back seat, sat by the bucket of rock salt and we chauffeur style from our 1997 Buick Park Avenue. I'll hand it to them, they didn't bat an eye, but I'm sure we looked spectacular in our PJs and mismatched coats, paying with cash from a child safe back window.
Alright folks, that's all I'm going to talk your ear off today. It's the first day of my last semester of school. No joking this time. I woke up with Neal and even went to the gym (yay New Year's goals) at 6 am! I had a green smoothie and even did my hair. So far, I've accomplished more this morning than I did all break. Maybe I'll even blog more regularly, but don't count on it.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from me!
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