Month: December 2020

What? The Bigs had a Christmas guest? Hahaha, this is The Bigs we are talking about, people. It’s just me. Like my disguise?

While it may look like it, this is not a disguise. This is just what I wore on Wednesday.

Time to prepare tapas for Christmas Eve. Cooking chickpeas for hummus:

I let Dad make the bread and baba ganoush:

Time to open presents!

Silly Bigs, there is no such thing as too many gifts.

Seriously, stop grumbling.

Check it out. A superhero apron with a pocket. SO COOL.

New track suit and fire boots:

Christmas breakfast. Coffee cake and Christmas smoothies.

Christmas ski. Santa brought some powder to the mountain.

We worked up a hunger. Christmas dinner time. Tomatoes roasted

for hot charred cherry tomatoes with cold yogurt:

We also made Uncle Jim’s recipe for individual beef croustades:

and a Pan co’ Santi:

We also had a couscous with a pear, walnut, and arugula pesto. I chose the sides. I don’t actually like the tomatoes. The Bigs think my choices were driven by a desire to have a red and green theme.

For dessert we had yule log:

You may be thinking, boy, they eat a lot. I wonder if they are getting chubby. Nope!

Back to the slopes on Boxing Day. Mom took these pictures on the ride up to the mountain. Don’t worry, Dad was driving.

I was in a rush to get there. I was meeting Riley (or as I like to call her, Ri Ri).

We had more fresh powder. The Bigs eventually had to tell me we had to leave.

It was a tiring day. Good thing I have my new husband for lounging…

I didn’t lounge for long though. I had a dinner date with Meera. Her dad made dal. I was in heaven.

Our Christmas Sing-A-Long was this week. The teachers told us to wear a fancy outfit. I chose this:

Plaid and plaid don’t go, Mom? Whahahaha

Dad and I know better.

Skiing in the Pacific Northwest. Saturday = powder.

Sunday = rain.

I thought skiing in the rain was fun. You just need to bring a dry change of clothes and a warm hat.

Something not fun we did this week was buy a new refrigerator. Ours died. Due to the pandemic and the Bend building boom, there were no choices unless you wanted to wait until April, no delivery, and some really grumpy Bigs. I took charge and got that fridge installed.

While we waited for the new fridge, we kept our food in the garage. It was about 40 degrees in there, so almost cold enough. We had some good food despite the issues. Tortilla soup:

Truffle salt pasta with spinach, tomatoes, and SHRIMP:

Roasted eggplant and tomato soup:

Tuna, mango, veg bowls:

And we made our own ‘nutella’:

We’ve been cross-country skiing since before Thanksgiving, but Mount Bachelor finally opened, so we get to go ‘pine skiing now! On the Rainbow lift:

Making gingerbread cookies:

and decorating them:

Ready to go on the tree:

This lady found a home near our 3-D-printed snowflake:

In addition to skiing and baking, I also do floral arranging. My latest centerpiece creation:

We only tried one new recipe this week, vegetable quinoa stew:

We need snow. Here I am taking matters into my own hands:

Crane building:

Mom’s birthday:

These party hats make me feel like doing unicorn pose:

Birthday cheesecake. This four candle is getting a workout. It started its life at Ryan’s fourth birthday…

I’ll cut the cake with my light saber (thanks for that great idea Uncle Chris):

Look at this slice, perfect:

Christmas tree hunting:

Supervising the installation of our tree:

‘Helping’ with the lights:

Done:

I made up another recipe:

Turkey, potatoes, gravy, lettuce, truffle salt, and pepper salad:

Remember the pumpkin Becky and I carved my name into?

It made a delicious curried pumpkin soup:

We also had a sour apple slaw and five-spice tofu bite bowl this week: