Christmas Recap

Christmas Day was spent at my parents' house with them, my husband, and my sister. Mom put up just a small tree, but it was festive and cute with the addition of the bears displayed next to them in the chest. The pile of presents was small, but it was clearly evident that a lot of thought was put into what was selected- and that's what matters most. Gone are the days where we overspend to show how we care about each other during the holidays. What's important is the time we spend together.

Besides, we make up for spending every other time of the year...

To start, mom made a feast of appetizers suitable for an army. No joke.

Savory Side...with homemade potato chips!

Dessert Side

Meatballs, Teriyaki Chicken Kebabs, & Filet Mignon Kebabs

Savory Palmiers & Steak Bruschetta

Not my ashtray...gross!

Seriously, there were only 5 of us! To start, I grabbed a bit of (almost) everything. My favorites were the eggroll, savory palmier, and the meatballs. Actually, everything was really good except for the stuffed grape leaves. Not enough flavor for me- I like them sour/tart and these were bland. Sorry mom!

Then there was this cocktail creation of hers that had blood orange in it, simple syrup, some sort of fruit juice, and some tequila. I mentioned it was too sweet, so dad added more tequila...which turned out to not be a good idea because I didn't feel well later on and passed out when I got home, LOL. Between multiple drinks and all the coffee I consumed, I wasted valuable stomach space for all the delicious food!

As for desserts, there were all those cookies I made, plus mom had carrot cake (yum!), mini pumpkin pie tarts (two of which are in my freezer now), and some Kahlua cheesecake. Normally I am not a fan of cheesecake, but there's something about the ones my mom makes that I actually like! I wish there'd been a photo opportunity of the original cake; she makes them bundt-style with a crunchy chocolate outer coating and a creamy sweet inside.

Now for the gifts! Like I mentioned before, I went pretty low-key this year and made an effort to buy locally made items.

• For mom: Green & Black's chocolate, tea from Tea Forte, a jar of vanilla salt from The Greener Grocer, and a gift set from The Olive Orchard that contains: two bottles of (awesome) olive oil, herbs for dipping, and two dipping bowls (the set courtesy of Persephone's Kitchen where I won them- I'm trying to be frugal!)
• For dad: a bottle of Syrah from Kinkead Ridge purchased at The Bottle and Barrel plus a bag of My Dadz Nutz (a joke, but these are really good)
• For Jar: a makeup pouch handmade in a cute elephant print (she loves them) purchased during the North Market Holiday Open House and a gift card to Jeni's

I think all my gifts were a hit. They're practical and will be used and enjoyed. As for what J and I received, let's just say we were impressed, thrilled, and extremely grateful for all of it. J's gift was the best, hands-down, because of the thought that went into it. It's a framed photo of the grave site of one of his ancestors that served in WWI, died in the war, and was buried in France. The smaller inset photo is the grave marker and the larger image is of the cemetery. My husband enjoys genealogy research (spending LOADS of time doing meticulous work), so this was the perfect gift for him. And totally unexpected. My dad I think tracked this down for him and made it happen. J said this is the best gift they've ever given him.

As for me, I got some cool kitchen stuff, like this Darth Vader spatula. Yes, I shall use the Dark Side of the Force to flip my egg whites. Mwahahaha...

And then, the pièce de résistance:

Holy crap! I've been wanting a Le Creuset pot FOREVER. Who doesn't want one of these? Before mom left her previous employer, I kinda hinted I wanted one of these while she still had her discount, but I wasn't ready to shell out the money myself because it was still pretty pricey. I never suspected I would get it as a gift! And it's ORANGE. It matches the tea kettle I already own, my only other Le Creuset piece because the price was reasonable.

Overall it was a great holiday. Low-key and no drama. And the week of vacation since has been great so far. Doing NOTHING has been pretty awesome, but I have to keep reminding myself not to stress out about the fact that I haven't made some of the new things I want to try or that I haven't cracked open the HTML book.

I hope all of you had a fantastic holiday. Did anyone get anything cool/unexpected as a gift?