Elliana brought delight to the entire family this weekend. She loves to say "yeah" to questions asked of her and she gives an extra enthusiastic "yeah" when we said "Go niners" for the game on Saturday. She doesn't quite understand opening presents but would help tear the paper and would give an "woah" response some of the time. Of course, she loved playing with the ribbons, boxes, bags and any glass items given to an adult (like the four onion soup bowls Brandon got for one of our meals, see below).
Dressed for Christmas Eve Service
Christmas morning
Showing off a cute present from Aunt Connie
Elli trying out her big present under the tree - and she scores!
Elli trying out her big present under the tree - and she scores!
Food!
We are very proud of our Christmas weekend menu as well. We went to Farmers Market on Saturday morning and cooked our vegetable dishes around that. Lunch on Christmas Eve Day was Butternut Squash Risotto with Pecan crusted Pork Tenderloin. And after Christmas Eve Service, we had baked Onion Soup with so much Gruyere! I understand the appeal of onion soup when you throw that much cheese in the bowl with it!
Christmas Day was Prime Rib Roast, trio of roasted potatoes (sweet potatoes, red potatoes and yukon gold potatoes) and roasted root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, turnips and celery root). I do not plan to roast turnip in the future. The bitterness in that vegetable was not my favorite. I was pleasantly surprised at the celery root vegetable. It had a nice sweetness. Also, we realized once we sat down to eat that we should have roasted green beans or did something green for the plate. However a great meal overall. And we enjoyed it with a 1997 Kunde Cabernet Sauvignon, which showed beautifully. It was a wonderful first Christmas for us here in our own home!
Before
After
It was a wonderful Christmas indeed! You and Brandon were super as host and hostess. Elli was SO much fun! The food was SO good! Thanks so much for inviting us to you home this year. Love, Mom & Dad :-) xxoo
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