Dec 27, 2010
Christmas has been fun filled, food filled and festive. We celebrated with my dad and his family all day yesterday.
That is my sister with one of the Christmas ‘hats’ we wear every year as we open presents.
We enjoyed champaign…
Hands free!! My Grandpa brought everyone hands-free, around-the-neck koozies; wine holders for the girls and beer holders for the guys. It was a hoot watching my Grandpa walk around with his!
This is my Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Mark, trying to get their koozies on.
Dad and Stacy (my step-mom) beat them to it.
Cooking, however, was not hands free…
…but I introduced my relatives to quinoa.
“Keen-what?!?!”
I thought about saying my usual “it’s healthier, a complete protein and an ancient Indian grain,” but decided that the “healthier” part was implied because I was in charge of sides and the rest was not necessary. I instead replied, “it’s pronounced keen-wa Grandpa, Q-u-i-n-o-a, it is kind of like rice” and that seemed to do the trick.
I also roasted “sprouts of Brussels.”
The name change still scared my uncle off.
My aunt Stephanie, who swore not to like them, said they were delicious and my Grandpa ended up picking some off my Grandma’s plate.
Lesson learned: always roast vegetable for the non-veggie lovers. They were delicious if I do say so myself.
They enjoyed this beautiful roasted pork …
while I enjoyed this AMAZING bean salad.
There was one traditional dish in the lineup; my uncles famous mashed potatoes. They are the Michelle Pfeiffer of sides in our family. They have appeared at every holiday meal and are always great.
Pumpkin bread and a Chai-apple rum cake (I think that was the name) were also enjoyed.
We then spent hours playing Aggie-opoly. My sister and I were in debt for most of the game due to ‘tuition increases’ and ‘pizza parties’ and even had to skip turns because we were ‘studying in the library.’ It was hilarious.
The game came to a screeching halt when my sister and I were in debt to my dad and unable to mortgage any of our property to the bank. My dad LITERALLY had all the money, the bank only had one-dollar bills left. It was a little too close to real life for comfort.
Before the excitement of family coming, over we opened presents with my dad and Stacy. I got a Garmin and was ecstatic! This little baby will be tracking my distance, pace, and other stats while I run.
I also got a much needed portable USB drive with 500GB and (used) washer and dryer for my apartment at school.
I was glad to see the washer and dryer because I was paying a friend in beer to use his washer, which was getting expensive. Come to think of it, quinoa would have been a much healthier and cheaper payment.
I’m glad you got to “meet” the family. I’m off to organize all the files on my computer and back them up. Wish me luck!
Recipe posts will follow.
How was your Christmas? Have you backed-up your computer recently?
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