Third Weekend

Joshua and I had Isaac and Heather over Friday evening for some sushi making, part of our celebration of Heather's birthday. We started off with some cucumber salad.

Then we took turns making sushi rolls (no raw fish though).

Yum!

Gayle gave me a bag of pecans last weekend, so I set to work shelling them. 

 We ended up with a delicious bowl of pecans.

I also made bread Saturday; one loaf of which was promptly devoured.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve we had a party at Dad and Mom's house. Heather set up a photo booth so we could all take pictures together, which was lots of fun.

There was also dancing; a New Year's Eve tradition.

There were only four of us still awake at midnight, but Isaac, Jonah, Joshua, and I ran outside with our poppers, then drank champagne. Happy 2013!

Dinner

I may have planned the menu for tonight intentionally so I could use our new cast iron pot and pan...

First Christmas Video

When Heather mentioned the making a video of our new home, I thought it sounded like a great idea. That weekend she came by and got some footage, then made a great video. Thanks Heath!

Our First Christmas

Christmas morning started out deliciously, with breakfast. Actually, that's not true because it really started at midnight when we were at church, but then we slept and started again with breakfast. We had monkey bread, quiche, and persimmons.

Everyone joined us after breakfast to exchange gifts. We had drawn names way back before Joshua and I left on our trip and Christmas morning Bethany and I found out we had drawn each other's names, which was fun. Gayle and Joy made pajamas for everyone, so we took a group picture with our new pjs.

We headed to Visalia afterwards to spend time with my family. 

Emery was good at opening her presents. And so cute in her Christmas dress!

We had ham with a fancy red and green Christmas soup appetizer for dinner. It was a busy day, but great to spend time with each other and our families.

Shortbread Tradition

 This post was delayed due to not wanting to spoil a Christmas surprise, but now Christmas is over so here it is. Joshua and I made shortbread cookies together last Friday to give to his dad on Christmas, it's a Kerr family tradition for the men to make shortbread. We had some trouble getting enough flour in the dough, but we ended up with some tasty cookies. Two days later, Joshua got to make shortbread cookies again with his dad, but I don't have any pictures of that because I was at the Nutcracker Ballet with Gayle and Joy, which was great.

Sugar Cookies

Gayle had sugar cookie dough ready to go, so after arriving in Modesto in time for lunch, we spent Saturday afternoon baking and frosting cookies. Hard to beat that festive activity. 

I hadn't ever frosted stockings before, but they were a lot of fun. And there were staple favorites, Christmas trees and snowflakes.

Pomegranate Champagne Jelly

I was inspired by my sister-in-law, Joy, to make pomegranate champagne jelly. I got a bunch of pomegranates last month and managed to get them all juiced and make one batch of regular pomegranate jelly plus some pomegranate syrup, but then we were in the process of moving, so the juice portioned out for pomegranate champagne jelly had to wait in the freezer for awhile. While we are still in the lingering stages of moving, things are mostly settled and Friday seemed like a good day for jelly making. 

Since we had an open bottle of champagne, we decided we better have a nice dinner to go with it. The biscuits were a bit of an afterthought that didn't really go with the rest of the menu, but we had to try the new jelly!

It is quite delicious and so festive.

Turducken and Lights

Heather called me on Thursday to find out if we would like to join them and other members of the family for dinner at the Nickell house that night, followed by going to see Christmas lights. After deciding to join in the festivities, we found out that Heather was making a turducken roll for dinner, thanks to an early Christmas present from Isaac's grandma. I was particularly excited about the evening after hearing that news. I had never had turducken and was excited to try it.

It was a tasty dinner. This roll not only had turkey, duck, and chicken, it also had sausage. Heather put two tables together and decorated for the occasion.

After enjoying our dinner, we piled into a couple cars and drove to a house in Visalia that has a great light display. It turned out to be two houses next to each other and you tuned your radio in to hear Christmas music that the lights are synchronized with. It was pretty cool. 

Kitchenaid

Dave and Gayle brought a load of Joshua's things down last weekend and while they were here we tried out the new mixer. It was wonderful.

First Sunday

Joshua and I decorated our tree on Sunday; it was such a fun little project. It was raining outside and we had Christmas music playing and were cozy inside. 

We also put together our Advent wreath. The tree and wreath comprise the sum of our current decorations. Everything feels so festive now, it's great. 

We went to my parents' house for dinner, but when we returned, we lit the candle for the first Sunday of Advent. In the past, I have only had Advent wreaths at church, but I like having one in our home that we can light after reading scripture together.