Christmas Fun

Christmas turned out so great this year!  It started out spending Christmas Eve with all my extended family up in Salt Lake.  There were about 50 people altogether.  Yeah, I have a large family and I love it.  We first had dinner at one of my uncle's house and had a great time talking to everyone.  Dessert and activities were then done at my Grandma Omer's house.  Scott and I accidentally left our white elephant gifts at home, so we quickly went to the store and bought some things.  We were able to wrap them using extra wrapping paper from my mom.  Scott decided to use the paper bag they put our items in and called it a "brown bag special".  Way to use your resources, Scott. :)

Activities at grandma's included reading the story of Christ's birth in the scriptures with the kids dressed up, songs sung by two of my cousins whose voices are just so impressive, a white elephant gift exchange with some hilarious gifts (a giant flask, two nose hair trimmers and a cereal bowl that separates your milk from your cereal were a few of the gifts) and ending the night with the tradition of singing the song "Six White Boomers".  It is an Australian Christmas Song and we sing it every Christmas Eve.  Note to self: Get a copy of the music from Grandma, so I can continue tradition.

Here, take a listen:

After the song, Scott and I grabbed a few desserts and left since Scott had to work early the next morning.  I was a little worried I would be lonely and bored until Scott came home, but it actually wasn't that bad.  I got up with Scott at 6:00am and we opened stockings together and then I went back to sleep while Scott left for work.  My ward had church at 10:30am, so I got up and got ready for church, which lasted about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Poor Scott got a little bored at work, so I was able to bring a movie and have lunch with him.  I went home and only had 45 minutes until Scott came home, so I watched the classic movie "A Christmas Story."  Once Scott got home, we opened presents!  It was great spending time with just Scott before we headed over to my brother's to spend time with family and open presents with them.

Cupcake ornament!

Scott not liking his picture being taken.

Zelda wii game!

We added to our movie collection.

I got new running shoes and socks! Now, where's my motivation?

Let's get baking!

New computer! Yeah!

Scott getting my computer fixed up.

Cute pj pants from Scott!

After opening presents with one another, we headed over to my brother's to open more presents and play games.

Mom and Aaron

Dog pile on Rebecca!

The next BYU football star?

Presents! Presents!

She can make donuts any time she wants now.

New scarf!

Doormat I got for Andrew and Rebecca.

Apples to Apples!

All in all, it was a great Christmas and it went by so quickly that Scott and I have to do a double take and say yeah, Christmas really did happen.  I'm grateful I was able to spend it with family here, but we did miss seeing Scott's family out in California and my dad and Roberta in Missouri.  I hope next year's Christmas is just as great as this one was.

Christmas Goodies Part 3

Last Christmas goodie is a cherry pie roll that I have grown up with.  In my family, we had a Christmas breakfast tradition of scrambled eggs, sausage, hot chocolate and this cherry pie roll.  I loved having a special breakfast Christmas day.  We would even eat on this Christmas decorated china, so it felt extra special.  I wasn't able to have this breakfast this year since Scott worked so early in the morning, but it's a tradition I'd like to continue once we start a family of our own.  Here's the recipe:

Cherry Pie Roll

In a saucepan, combine:

½ cup sugar

½ cup milk

½ cup butter

½ tsp. salt

Warm until the butter melts—do not boil.  Pour the mixture into another large mixing bowl.  Let it cool completely.

Combine two .25 oz. packages of yeast with ½ cup warm water and a teaspoon of sugar.  Do not stir the yeast in the water.  Just let it sit on top.  It will look funny and the yeast will not completely dissolve all the way. 

Once the butter mixture is cooled, add the yeast to the mixture.  Add in 3 ½ cups of flour.  Mix and combine with Kitchen Aid type mixer.

Let the dough raise for about 1 hour in a cool temperature.  The garage could work or somewhere by a window or door.  You don’t want the dough in a super warm room.

 I forgot to take pictures of the making the dough process, but here is what the dough should look like when done!

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. 

Filling: 8 oz. softened cream cheese

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 can cherry pie filling

Beat together the cream cheese, milk and vanilla.  It will have little clumps throughout.  You won’t be able to get rid of the clumps no matter how hard you try.  Just get the clumps as small as you can.

Split the dough in half and lay half of the dough down on a lightly floured surface.  You want to roll the dough into an oval shape.  Before putting on the filling, lay the dough onto your cookie sheet.  Trust me, if you put the filling on before you transfer it, you won’t be able move it without it falling apart.  Once your dough is on your cookie sheet, make a skinny layer of the cream cheese filling down the middle of the dough.  Then put a layer of the cherry pie filling on top of the cream cheese.  Make sure that the filling doesn’t come too close to the edges or you won’t be able to braid it very well.

Next, you will make slits down the side.  Once you’ve made the slits, you will then start braiding the bread.  Make sure that you are sealing the filling inside while you are braiding the dough.  You don’t want all of the delicious filling to ooze out!  Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.  Add glaze to the top while still warm and serve!

The glaze is just a basic powdered sugar and milk glaze.  I didn't add glaze to my cherry roll, but it does add a little sweetness.  You could even add a few red sprinkles for fun as well. 

It's actually taken me a couple of tries to make it look this nice.  For me, it's not a Christmas without a cherry roll, so this is a Christmas goodie that will continue to be made year after year.

24 Days of Christmas for Scott

Whilst looking through another one of my favorite blogs (The Dating Diva's), I found this great idea of something I can do for Scott.  The basic idea is that Scott gets a card each day with either something I love about him, an activity we are doing that night or a service I will do for him that day.  It was actually a lot of fun to do and it made the Christmas season much more fun since I centered the activities around Christmas-themed activities.

My cards are no where near as pretty as the ones from the Dating Diva's blog, but I did the best I could.  I also didn't have a place to hang the cards up in the apartment, so I would set the card out the night before in a place that I knew Scott would find it the next morning.  It worked well.  I also planned what each card would say per week instead of the whole month all at once.  Since Scott has a changing work schedule, I would have to wait to find out when he was working to figure out when to do certain activities or services for him.

Also, it was Scott's idea to put the cards on the tree and it was definitely a conversation starter when we would have people over.

It took a lot of time and planning to do this, but it was definitely worth it and I'm glad I did it a year that I knew I would have time to do it.  It was a nice way to continue strengthening our relationship with one another.

Technologically Savvy

What a Christmas of amazing gifts this was!!  I don't think I've had a Christmas where I've gotten so many things technology related.  Usually, it was a computer one year and a camera the next year.  Well, this year, my husband spoiled me lots and got me:

1. A Nikon L120 Coolpix Camera!!

oops...thumbprints on it already!

It is a little better than a normal point and shoot, but doesn't have all the features of a DSLR.  I love it and am excited to use it.  I think I will make a new year's resolution to take more pictures, especially of Scott and I together.  Somehow, I forget to take a picture of us and take pictures of everyone else and the scenery.  You can't have too many pictures of you and your husband right?

2. A new HP laptop!!

Yes, it is super "girly" with the flowers on it, but I LOVE it.  Scott totally surprised me with it and it will be nice for Scott to have his computer to use for school whenever he needs it and for me to have mine to store all my pictures on.  What a great Christmas surprise.

3. A new smart phone!

I got this phone on Black Friday.  We were shopping at the mall and we had talked about getting me a new phone since I used Scott's all the time.  I wasn't due for an upgrade, but my mom was, so I talked to her and she let me use her upgrade and I got this phone!  It was only $30 with a $50 mail-in rebate.  I love it and I'm sure Scott loves that I don't use his anymore.

So, I ended with a camera, laptop and phone along with many other things I received from Scott and family.  I know Christmas shouldn't be all about the gifts, but when you get gifts like these, it's hard not to brag. :)

Just Because

Husband comes home Wednesday night carrying these. 
"Why?" I ask. 
"Just because, I love you." He says.
My goodness, he makes me smile.  I sure love him back.

Christmas Goodies Part 2

Alright, so this next Christmas goodie is something that I've had a little battle the couple times I've made it.  A little background first:  Me and brownies have never really gotten along.  Yes, even the easy out of a box brownies, I struggle with.  It's not the batter I have trouble with, it's cooking them the perfect amount of time.  For me, I have found that there are three ways brownies can turn out: First the "super gooey and have to be eaten with a spoon because they're too undercooked to even be cut into pieces" ; Second the "watch out, you might break a tooth on this too hard, overcooked brownie" and Third the "perfectly cooked to where it's not too gooey to where you can cut it into perfect squares and not too hard to where you would break a tooth eating it".  I don't think I have ever made brownies to where they've turned out the third way.  That is why making these candy cane kiss brownie bites  took more than one try.

Like I said, it is not the batter part of the brownie that I mess up, it is the cooking time.  See, look how pretty this looks:

Totally looks like it should, right?  Well, then comes time to put them in the oven.  The original recipe calls to bake them for 20-30 minutes.  Wow, is that way off from my oven.  So, the first batch turns out to be the second type of brownie (you could have seriously broken a tooth).  I had extra batter, so I was able to try again.  I decided to subtract 5 minutes from the time.  Second batch: the bottom of the brownie was a little too hard for my taste, but Scott really liked it, so I guess it turned out okay, but I still wasn't satisfied.

I first made these for a get together we had with some friends at our house.  I threw a graduation lunch party for Scott a week later and decided to try making them again, determined to get the cooking time down perfect.  I'm not going to lie, I don't think I'll ever get the timing down right for any kind of brownie recipe.  This last batch turned out better, but I was still unsatisfied.  I tried cooking the first batch for 13 minutes and the second batch for 10 minutes.  The 13 minute batch still seemed to hard for my taste and the 10 minute batch was a little too gooey, so apparently it's either 11 or 12 minutes that's the magic number.  I think I am done making these for right now.  Maybe I'll try it again next year.  Scott still tried to convince me that they turned out great, but I guess I am picky when it comes to how I want my brownies to taste.  I am satisfied though, with how they turned out in the way they look. Pretty and festive.

 

Christmas Goodies Part 1

Last week was a busy, yet productive week of Christmas gift shopping, wrapping presents and baking lots of goodies.  I just have a few more last minute stocking stuffers to get and that is it, which is good since Christmas is in 7 days!!  Crazy how quickly it came up, but I am glad because I am ready for a break from teaching.

At the first of the week, I decided to try out this fudge cake in a jar.  It actually turned out really well!  I had some extra jars from making jam, so I didn't need to go out and buy any.  I actually didn't need to go out and  buy anything for this dessert, which was super nice.  The cake is from scratch and it is super rich.  I used semi-sweet chocolate chips and took the eggs out of the fridge and put them on the counter for about 2 hours to get them to room temperature.

The blog where I got this recipe from has a whole post about the jars and how since you are using jars for canning, they are resistant to high temperatures, so there really is no worry about the jars breaking in the oven.

The recipe calls for using a chocolate ganache filling and frosting on top.  I didn't have any peppermint extract or heavy cream to make the ganache, so I improvised.  I had made these candy cane brownie bites (another post on those) earlier and that recipe calls for these special candy cane Hershey kisses.  I had some left over, so I melted those kisses and used that for the filling.  I only had enough Hershey kisses to fill two of the cakes and I gave both away, but the ones I gave it to said it was delicious.  For the rest of the jars, I just melted plain Hershey kisses and used that in place of the ganache. 

The frosting I would like to try the next time I make these.  I think they taste pretty rich already without frosting added to them, so I left the frosting off.  These fudge cake jars are cute, individually sized and such an easy gift to give someone for any special occasion.  I enjoyed making these and giving them away.  Now, for some pictures.

With the melted candy cane Hershey kisses.

With the melted plain Hershey kisses.

The 4 jars to give away!

Festival of Trees

On the 3rd of December, Scott and I went to the "Festival of Trees" with our friend Teresa and her husband.  I had heard about it, but never had the chance to go see what it was about, so I wanted to make sure we went this year.  Scott did his last rotation of clinicals at Primary Children's Hospital up in Salt Lake and the Festival of Trees program donates all the money made to that hospital, so that was pretty cool.  There were a lot of trees, wreaths, quilts and a fun gingerbread house display.  I wish we hadn't gone on the last day because it was super crowded, but that was the only day available for us to go.  The festival is only open for 4 days, so that limits opportunity to go.  Because it was so crowded, we had to walk quickly up and down the aisles and I missed getting a picture of all four of us. Bummer.  I did get pictures of some trees though!

The capitol made out of white chocolate and gingerbread!

Madagascar gingerbread model.

Christmas Tree made out of holiday Barbies.

Snoopy Christmas Tree.

Up! Christmas tree.

Trying to get an overview picture of how many trees there were.

 Awesome plate.  It says "Wheat is for man D&C 89:17.  Chocolate is for woman. M&M 24:7."  :)
It was a fun experience.

This next tree wasn't in the festival, but it should have been!  It's our Christmas tree and we love it.