The Holidays

Yet again, December was another whirlwind of a month. It was fleeting - my sis visited from Scotland, it was my birthday, and Christmas and all that entails. Our Charlie Brown tree turned out gorgeous - 500 string lights and a box of  ornaments later. This was our baby girl's first Christmas - technically its the second but last year she was only a couple months old and we flew out to NC to visit her grandparents. So it was special, to start our own traditions. The past month was also the beginning of this winter's deep freeze - the coldest one we've had yet - making it nearly impossible and mostly unbearable to be outside. As the new year approaches, I'm looking forward to making steps toward our goals of moving to Europe and of course, to blogging more!


While decorating the tree, my sis and I made homemade hot chocolate - chunks of chocolate slow cooked in milk, with dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg. She introduced me to cayenne spiced hot chocolate - it was a delicious surprise! For my birthday, I hinted at hubz that I wanted to try something new (like caviar), so he delivered with a wonderfully relaxing day together sipping fantastic Champagne and savoring my first caviar. My sweet little sis threw in my first vintage champagne coupes to boot.

My sis proposed a brilliant Christmas menu of an 8 course meal for Christmas dinner:

Fennel and endive citrus salad

Truffle deviled eggs

Shrimp ceviche

Salmon cucumber bites

Lobster

Crab cakes

Bacon-wrapped scallops

Ginger molasses cookies

Unfortunately, this involved three trips to the grocery store and two full days of cooking - including Christmas Eve and Christmas day. The day was ruined it a little for me, as I wanted to really relax after my grueling day of cooking on Thanksgiving - which left me having dinner frazzled, tired, in a tattered t-shirt. After all was said and done, the Christmas dinner was absolutely fabulous. Next year though  - we're having cheese and crackers and getting it catered. Cookies for Santa though, will still be homemade.