A Gift from Tiffany's

My dh flies so much that Northwest gave him a gift. He got to choose something from Tiffany's. Yes, the Breakfast at Tiffany's place. And since this is probably the only thing I'll ever get from Tiffany's, I took pictures.

Even the bubble wrap had Tiffany's name on it.

Isn't it pretty?

Fifth Annual Tapas Night

This year on New Year's Day, we held our fifth annual Tapas Night. Tapas are little Spanish dishes. My dh and the children usually cook them for me. They started the day before and made a couple of the dishes. This year, we let the children vote for their favorite dishes of the past. We had four dishes from the past and 5 new ones.

First the prep pictures. Deb with her dessert.

Nathan with his Stuffed Pimentos.

Making the meat filled potatoes.

Aaron making the Banderillas.

The Finished Meal: First, the Banderillas. Aaron also made a parsley based sauce that you dip the Banderillas in.

Beets with Romesco Sauce. Also by Aaron.

Stephen's Shrimp in Spicy Tomato Sauce.

Peppered Potatoes (very tasty!) Aaron made these also. We used Spanish paprika and it was fantastic. Much better and smokier than regular paprika.

Stephen's Chorizo Wrapped in Lettuce before they were baked.

The finished Chorizo.

Deb's Catalan Mussells.

Nathan's Rice Filled Pimentos.

Nathan's Meat Filled Potatoes.

Deb's Fried Custard (but we didn't fry it this time!)

The Last of the Christmas Pictures

Just some misc. pictures from the visit.

Aaron is extremely flexible or double jointed or whatever you call it. He is secretly proud of his ability to bend his thumbs back like this.

A series of pictures taken through my kitchen window.

All dressed up for the Christmas Eve service.

Overall, it was a wonderful visit and it will be very very hard to ever top this Christmas, what with the snow, the cousins, the wagon ride through the woods singing carols, the good food, and a sleepover on Christmas Eve.

Christmas with the Cousins!

We let the children have a sleepover in the boys room on Christmas Eve. There was barely any floor space left once we got all the mattresses and sleeping bags down. And amazingly, they did go to sleep fairly soon after the lights were out.

Then it was up at 7 am for stockings! We did hear them excitedly whispering at 6:15 am. Who knows how early they were really up, but they couldn't come out of their room until 7 am.

After stockings, we had breakfast of fried eggs and cinnamon rolls.

The tree in all its glory.

The boys were just thrilled to get these mugs.

My sister had made this great calendar for us featuring pictures from our reunion earlier that summer.

More Lego Star Wars!

Matching Princess Barbies!

Nathan got a cool Star Wars (of course) bionic arm that he put together.

And Uncle Mike got a great gift - A year's subscription to Peep of the Month club. I'm sure he's going to enjoy it all year long.

More from the House of Photos

When we toured this house and studio back in May 2009, we know that we would have to take my bro-in-law here. It was so full of angles and cool photos that we knew he would like it. I think he was being polite when we talked it up so much but once he was inside it, he was enthralled.

Here are a few of my pictures from the house. First, my dh coming up the driveway to meet us for the tour.

They had set up the living room with the Christmas decorations of the family, complete with a little tiny electric train.

More fun with the Cousins!

We had lots of fun with the cousins. We made snow ice cream - another first for them.

Looking at Deborah's silly bands (the latest thing I have been told).

Warming up after playing in the snow (some more).

Looking at Nathan's train.

Thanks to Grandpa, Nathan had two working lights.

More playing in the snow.

And of course, we played lots and lots of games.