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Monday, January 10, 2011

Holiday Wrap-up

So yeah, I kinda took a bit of a blogging break there, huh? After a crazy Fall, I tried to keep December as stress-free as possible and that basically meant that sewing and blogging got to take a backseat to all of the other holiday activities. While I may not have been sewing, I was spending enough time in the kitchen to more than make up for it.

This year, I spent a full 3 day weekend baking and making sweet treats for co-workers and other friends and family. The goodies were packed into individual boxes and delivered over several days. I think I made somewhere around 600+ white chocolate pretzels snacks, 5 dozen gingerbread snowflakes, 20 dozen cakeballs, 5 dozen gingerbread cakes and a tray of brownies. Yeah, it was nuts. Pictures from the kitchen madness:



Two weeks later, we had my mom and brother over for a small Christmas Eve dinner before we opened gifts and generally made merry. I grabbed the ham from Honey Baked Ham shop so I could focus on the sides - slow cooker gratin potatoes, creamed spinach, roasted carrots with dill and roasted asparagus. For dessert, homemade pumpkin pie.



Add to that a ton of beer, wine and other spirits and we had a great night.



The next morning, Jim and I were up super early to head off to his parent's house for Christmas breakfast and more gift opening. The breakfast spread is always yummy and expansive including pancakes, breakfast casserole, fruit, muffins, bacon, eggs and a variety of beverages. That afternoon, we had the rest of the extended family (including my mom and brother) over for a full Christmas dinner. The average group is 40+ folks and I'm always amazed that we're able to get everyone seated in the house. See?

I had been asked to make a couple of appetizers, so I made mini caprese bites and a gigantor cheeseball (thanks again Winnie!).

The cheeseball was the hit of the pre-dinner hour. That sucker was gobbled up and only a few dregs were left by the end of the night. Guess I'll file that one in the "tried and true" favorites box. ;) Another rollicking good time was had by everyone, but I was pretty much exhausted by the end of the weekend. It had been a looong month.

We were the definition of boring for NYE, hanging out at the house with a homemade dinner, a bottle of wine and the countdown on television. Even though it wasn't terribly exciting, it was just what we needed. We managed to catch up on some sleep and get the house all put back together before returning to work that Monday, so I'm calling it a win.

And now, here we are in 2011. Crazy! I'm not one for resolutions, but this feels like it's going to be a good year. I figure if it's anywhere close to as awesome as 2010 was, then I will be more than thrilled. I'm back in the sewing room, which I missed terribly and am happy to be back to a normal schedule. Hope the holidays treated everyone well and that 2011 is starting off on the right foot for ya!

16 comments:

  1. I'm a sucker for au gratin potatoes and would love the recipe if you feel like sharing. :)

    I am in awe of your cooking/baking/entertaining skillz!

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  2. I love this post! You did such a great job!

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  3. Oh YUM!! And I think I like your pretzels better than the ones I made, because the minty Kisses in mine get kind of overwhelming after a while. What did you use for the center of yours? White choc melting chips?

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  4. You call this stress free?! Beautiful spread.

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  5. Christmas is my time to bake also. And we gave cookies to Justin's coworkers as well, although he doesn't have near the number of people to give gifts to as you do. Goodness!

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  6. Your kitchen looked like Santa's bake shop! Your holiday meals look divine. Here is to a fantastic 2011!

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  7. Look how awesome you look! And look at all of those yummy treats!

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  8. You certainly don't do things by halves!!! Great work -it all looks just wonderful - Happy New Year to you too!

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  9. Happy to see you back! Everything you made looks so delicious! What did you put in that ginormous cheeseball? It looks like something my family would like.

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  10. happy NY! sounds like you had a hectic, but enjoyable, christmas with the fams;) uber-impressed with the baking/cooking!

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  11. All those treats you made look delicious! Welcome back to the sewing room and have a fantastic year!

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  12. i did a ridiculous amount of cooking and baking for the holidays too, but you take the cake.

    hardy har har :)

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  13. happy new year! everything looks fab, of course.

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  14. I'm super impressed with the amount of baking you did!

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  15. Wow that grub looks amazing, bet it tasted lovely

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  16. Looking forward to a new post soon! ;-)

    BTW! I've passed on a blog award to you... Please drop by my blog and check it out if you have time!

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