A Holly Jolly Christmas

This time of year always seems busy... First, there is Thanksgiving (which the Brits do not celebrate in case anyone was wondering), followed by my birthday, then Christmas, and lastly, New Years. I apologize for not having posted a new blog in some time. However, we haven't done much of interest other than the day to day tasks.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we found ourselves with some old friends from our previous base, the Harrisons. They hosted a pot-luck dinner which is always nice (means less cooking!). We brought sweet potatoes, with marshmallows of course!

Funny story with the sweet potatoes.. First, sweet potatoes here are GIANT! Really, they are enormous! They are also not nice and roundly shaped as what we're used to in the states. These potatoes are wonky- for lack of a better word. They have all kinds of groves and pits that make peeling them difficult. Not only are they difficult to peel, but you need a chainsaw or some sort of heavy duty power tool to cut them into pieces!

No, my large butcher knife was NOT dull. Anyone that knows my husband knows that we cannot have a dull knife in the house. His philosophy is it's better to cut your hand off with a sharp knife than to have to make more than one cut with a dull(er) knife.

Well, once I had mashed and added some yummy ingredients- butter, brown sugar, etc. I topped them off with marshmallows and placed them in the oven. 30 minutes later, the marshmallows hadn't changed! Now, it would seem obvious I had forgot to turn on the oven.. WRONG, it was on 350. I don't care what people say about each oven having a mind of its own, but once you've got the feel for it, it's great.. This oven is IMPOSSIBLE! I turned up the heat to 400. Marshmallows got a little softer, but we didn't have time to wait, but I was determined to have my toasted mallows...

I decided to turn on the broiler. Genius! In less than 10 seconds I had perfectly browned toasted marshmallows. However, my oven wasn't too happy I outsmarted it and filled the oven and house with smoke. The fire alarm wasn't too happy with the oven's revenge and started screaming bloody murder! The fire alarm really doesn't like the oven anyways, it's always going off on it... And just so you know, I'm a pretty excellent cook! I have witnesses that can attest to that (and my superior cooking skills).

So, with the sweet potatoes in tow we went to Thanksgiving where they were most thoroughly enjoyed! And we played Crimes Against Humanity afterwards. If you know what that is, I'm sure you're laughing. If not, I'll just leave you confused.

Birthday

For my birthday, we invited our friends over to our house for dinner and games. I made pot roast, which I did in the Crock Pot (fool proof!) and very delicious! We've made some new friends that are just amazing, and it's been great getting to know them! We played the Game of Things in which each person writes a thought about a particular category/phrase that is read out loud. Then each player, in turn, tries to guess who thought what. Pretty fun! I can say I had a great birthday!

Best of all, Jacob baked me a cake, chocolate with chocolate icing!

Christmas

As far back as I can remember, I've always had a Christmas tree that had the color coded branches that you had to build the tree with. There may have been 1 or 2 years before I went off to college that my mom had one of the pre-lit trees that come in 3 parts, but my tree in college and our first years of marriage were the color coded branches.

In our attempt to downsize, fearing we wouldn't have a lot of storage space, we got rid of that tree. Even though Jacob hated that tree, I wish we had it. It reminds me of home and of Christmas. However, we did buy a new tree, pre-lit and in 3 pieces. I hate it. It doesn't fluff right, and I think the manufacturers are getting skimpier on the branches and needles! And no, we can't have a real tree- I'm allergic. But, we've got some pretty neat ornaments that are memorable to us which I LOVE!

Jacob initially had to work Christmas Eve, but a couple hours before he had to go in, he received a call saying he'd be on standby. So, Christmas Eve we had our Christmas together and our friends, the Perkins came over.

Christmas Day, we went with the Perkins to a friend's house for Christmas. Again, we had a potluck and I was making the desserts. Most of the week I had been baking- apple strudels, pecan clusters, homemade pound cake, and brownies! We didn't stay as long as we normally would have, but we had stayed up pretty late Christmas Eve...

We also got to Skype our families back home which was great! It's difficult being so far away from our families as we are both family oriented people, but we are very fortunate to have great friends here to share our adventures with.

New Years

Not sure what our plans for ringing in the New Year may be, but we do have an exciting adventure in the works coming up! I can't wait, but I'm going to leave you in suspense until my next blog (which shouldn't been too long await, fingers crossed)!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Have a cup of tea!