A Little Holiday Review

I hope everyone had an amazing holiday season - it's hard to believe the 2013 holiday season is over! From getting ready for Thanksgiving, to hosting Christmas and celebrating New Year's Eve (which is actually Nick and my anniversary), it's been a bit of a whirlwind! With only four weeks between the major holidays, we only had a day of relaxing before it was time to get the house ready for Christmas. In no time we had the stage set for the next holiday.

Christmas Tree Decorated

It's always fun decorating the tree because we have collected so many ornaments from our travels that we get to re-live those trips as we decorate. I have to say, Arthur had some trouble with the tree and seemed to enjoy the taste of our sentimental ornaments a bit too much and gobbled them up! While some of them cannot be replaced, the one from our honeymoon is being replaced by the resort after we sent a desperate email!  Phew!



For me, in order for it to feel like Christmas, I must have butter cookies, and this year was no exception. My mom came in on the Sunday before Christmas, and while I had the dough ready to go, she helped me cut, bake and decorate the cookies. Of course I had her bring in her cookie cutters. These are the same ones we have been using for as long as I can remember - some are from her mother!

Butter Cookies!

Nick was in charge of our bone-in prime rib Christmas Day dinner, so I took responsibility for Christmas Eve dinner with my brother, mother, Nick and I. For some reason I really wanted to attempt beef wellington. It being Christmas Eve, the night was deserving of a distinguished meal, but with only the four of us I knew if it went downhill delivery pizza was a viable option! I have to say, the only reason why this worked out so well is because Meesh's recipe on Just Add Cheese was amazing! The step by step instructions and corresponding photos made everything pretty straight forward. I don't have any photos of my process because, seriously, I followed the recipe as closely as possible. Somehow, after about 5 hours (because I also made a cake), I ended up with a lovely medium rare beef wellington.  I would definitely make it again, but maybe when I don't have much else planned that day; that, and I would make the duxelle the night before. However, if you want to make a beef wellington, I highly recommend following Just Add Cheese's guide because it makes the whole process a lot less intimidating.

Beef Wellington!

Christmas day was a bit crazy, from presents to family to loads of food; I didn't get any photos! However, the bone-in prime rib was delicious! Nick's expert cooking of a lovely Butcher Boy cut of meat strikes again.

For New Years we kept it simple - after hosting Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas, we were looking forward to heading out and letting someone else cook for us. However, we were not interested in a limited prix-fixed meal, so when Nick noticed that Mamma Maria had availability for our group of 4 we jumped on it. We have had such success there in the past that even with their somewhat limited menu, we were not worried. After our great meal, we were home in time to catch the fireworks on our roof deck, use our wedding noise makers and enjoy our TWO year anniversary!

Hope you had a great holiday season - looking forward to what 2014 has to bring!