Holiday Cheer!!

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Pre Holiday Stuff

On the menu this week? Layered salad and chicken cordon bleu. I guess I had a little flare for spring foods.

The kids have been enjoying getting treats from their advent calendars each week - as you can see below. Gabe likes to help Paisley get hers so he can sneak a taste of what she gets. She never notices.

We had a lovely Christmas party and Grandpa Roger's. He and Grandma Candace made a delicious dinner complete with orange cranberry lemonade, cranberry toasted walnut wilted salad, funeral potatoes, homemade rolls and jam, roasted honey glazed ham, brownies, fudge, chocolate pie, creme brulee and hot chocolate.

The kids loved watching grandpa Roger flambe the creme brulee with the torch. Then he read the story of the Christmas orange to all the kids and then passed out oranges. It was so cute. Then we opened presents and played fun games like chicken foot and Snorty. So much fun!

We got a really special card today from Opa. If you look closely you'll see Gabe, Paisley, Nalani and Opa's faces infused into the painting on the card. He is so creative. Thanks Opa!!

Videos from Past 2 Weeks

More Christmas Fun!

This week we made yummy gingerbread cookies and decorated them. They were gone in 2 days. The kids loved them!

Then one day we were listening to the song "We wish you a Merry Christmas" and we were laughing at the line that sings "Oh bring us some figgy pudding.." So I thought it would be fun to learn about what figgy pudding was and make it. Well, I must say it is a very old recipe tradition dating back to 16th century England. Either they didn't have sugar back then or the English have no taste buds, because it was not that great. It looked and smelled pretty but the recipe calls for no sugar just molasses. I couldn't find figs anywhere so I used dates. Well, I had to doctor it up a bit (the
American way) with caramel sauce and ice cream. Then it was much better. So, I thought it would be fun to try out British food. We went to a place in Layton called Little Taste of Britain. Everything was deep fried - twinkies, pineapple, sausage and greasy chips and fries. There were no salads or vegetables of any kind. Sorry, I really wanted to like British food, but this restaurant ruined it. There was a cute little gift shop off to the side with British souvineers and English foods, but the overpowering amonia mopped floors and the the wiered 60's Beetle's movie that was playing was enough for us to decide that this was a one time thing for us.

We met up with my sister Crista on Saturday and went to Christmas Village.
We took the train there and the kids loved it. The line to see Santa was too long so we took pictures of and admired the dancing horse with flashing Christmas lights instead. The kids loved it.

Gabe and Paisley have been loving their advent calendars that Oma sent them. This week they got tatoos and Paisley got a cute ring and bracelet. I love this time of year!!