Part V - Blakley Christmas

Saturday brought a whole new round of Christmas fun. Uncle Able had come over late on Friday after riding motorcycles with Erik. He helped us do some cleaning and prepping for the day's events and joined the adventure of Target with B. Then, he headed off to pick up Aunt Audra from the airport while we returned home to wait for my parents. Audra's flight time was off and the plane was slightly delayed so we'd dug into the Ranch Burgers and Kraut Burgers before they arrived. (These are tasty farm creations - the Ranch Burgers are beef and beans with sauce in a a home made bun and I think grew out of the Kraut Burger concept. Kraut Burgers I think might also be called bierocks (sp?) and are of eastern european origin. They traditionally are mostly cabbage with some meat in a similar bun. The area where I grew up had many Germans and Czech folks and I think that is where my mother got the idea... but am sure she'll let us know:))

After lunch, B had to nap (naps were getting sparse and short with all the excitedment so he was due). My mom, brother and sister helped work on food for dinner as well as some begining work for the next day's Christmas Tea. My bro focused on Chex Mix --- I know, it is awesome and I'm addicted so it appears frequently in this season as I can't be trusted with it when I don't have guests. My mom and I started on the Meringue (aka "Magic") Mushrooms for the Tea. I love these little treats, but they are labor intensive so we generally only make them once a year together for this special event. They are basically piped caps and stemps of meringue dusted with cocoa and baked. Then you melt chocolate, drill little indentations in the caps and attach them to the stems with the melted chocolate---oh and you probably need about 200..... yeah- many hands help here. (Luckily everyone pitched in and Audra's friend Jess helped out later too - although we were convinced we hadn't made enough so had to make more).

When B woke up we had present time again. Audra and I got beautiful scarves that are almost big enough to be throws if need be. Able gave each of us fabulous photos he had taken that I love. I really think he should explore this career path as his photos are incredible, but I may be biased (I tried to help with some photo editing software so who knows). B got a bingo bed which was much fun and I think my parents enjoyed their gifts as well. It is always hard to know what to get them, but I do know my dad loves his atomic clock as much as I love the one they got me (having a clock projecting on the ceiling helped save my sanity with a newborn for some reason).

After presents, we had roasted turkey breast, apricot roasted sweet potatoes and roasted asparagus. It was a surprisingly light and healthful feeling meal and actually didn't take too much effort which was good as the next day held many cooking chores. Our house looked like a tornado area again, but in a fun happy full way. It was very special to host my family's Christmas this year. It was really due to people's schedule issues this year, but nice to have the option now that we are here. I really loved it and am so glad we found at least an afternoon where we were all here together. Simple, easy and cosy home.

Able and Audra stayed the night and played more with lil' B and were up and indispensible as we prepared for a new round of guests the next day! (You may notice in the pics that the many rounds of festivities + first trimester of pregnancy are begining to catch up with me at this point, but of course we perservered:)