Our Celebrations

The festivities began on Christmas Eve with a wonderful meal with some of our dear friends, Daniel and Adriel. The ladies passed planning and cooking responsibilities into the very capable hands of our hubbies. We were glad we did!

Our meal started with potato pancakes with creme fraiche and smoked salmon:The main course was rack of lamb with wild mushroom risotto and apple/apricot chutney, beet roesti, and mint peas:
For dessert, we had baked apples stuffed with dried cherries and crushed pine nuts:
We all agreed that it was one of the best meals we've had in Scotland! We finished out the evening by snacking on chocolates and playing cards.

Christmas morning found all 3 of us fighing a bit of a cold, so it was a slow morning. We all enjoyed opening our gifts. Isaiah was thrilled to open his gifts, and we could tell he was shocked to discover that he'd been so close to so many fun new (wrapped) toys for weeks! A few of his favorite items -
"Like Real" Frog -
Soccer ball -
Snow globe with a doggie inside -
Monster truck!
Our family pic before going to the large group Christmas meal -

I helped to coordinate food for our Christmas Meal. We had over 50 people in attendance, and I am pleased to report that we didn't run out of anything. My biggest concern was a dressing shortage, and I think that had the most leftovers.
The only disaster of the festivities happened this morning. Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, and most of the shops are closed. It is a really nice post-Christmas family day. I decided to make cinnamon rolls. If you've made homemade cinnamon rolls, you know they are a bit of a process. These had orange zest, crushed walnuts, and a fresh squeezed orange juice icing. As you can see, the only thing that went wrong was the baking. Once we got past the crusty burnt exterior, the inside was pretty tasty. We took the remnants out to the creek to feed the ducks. I hope their little bodies are handling it ok.