Christmas!

We had a quiet Christmas at home this year.  My brother was with us the 22nd through the 24th which we really enjoyed.   William was literally counting down the minutes until he arrived on Saturday.    Thank goodness the Uber driver was mostly on time! 

Saturday the 22nd

I enjoyed doing some last minute Christmas shopping with coffee cup in one hand and phone in the other.  Luckily Santa's Amazon sleigh delivered on the 24th. 

We tackled a lot of baking that day, as well.  First up was dough for my first ever attempt at cinnamon rolls (or any yeast dough).   I was thankful how easy my Kitchen Aid mixer and the dough hook made it.   We made traditional cream cheese frosted rolls.   But we grew up eating a sticky bun variety where my mom coated the bottom of the pan with butter and brown sugar so when you flipped them out they had a gooey topping.  I think I prefer those and will make them that way next time!  At the very least I need to be more generous with the cinnamon sugar inside the dough before rolling it up.

Games while waiting for our goodies to cook.   Somehow we never got any puzzles or other games out over the weekend.   In addition to cinnamon rolls, we made gingersnaps and frosted sugar cookies.   We gave a few cookies to neighbors and ate the rest up before Christmas.  So much delicious sugar!

Sunday the 23rd
We moved up Christmas Eve to the 23rd and did our VanMeter family gifts - to/from Ryan and those mailed from my parents - as well as had our big meal.  Our traditional Christmas Eve meal is prime rib that John sears on the grill and then bakes low and slow all day.  You know when it's meal time whenever the digital thermometer stuck in the roast tells us it's time!  This year since we are only four people, we had steaks instead.  It was a delicious holiday feast accompanied by Old Fashioned cocktails crafted by Ryan and of course some red wine.

Saturday the 24th
We opened our stockings on Christmas Eve morning before Ryan left, and saved the rest of our packages for Christmas Day.   William enjoyed reading (well, probably just iPad watching) in the box that my new decorative pillows arrived in that morning.   The pillows were part of the gift that will keep giving for our family - our basement redo is almost done!  We watched Home Alone on the new TV while sitting on the new couch in the room that is inhabitable once again! 

Sunday the 25th
Apparently William has never learned that he's allowed to wake up his parents on Christmas morning!   Luckily I woke up around normal time so we could get the morning started!  William received a Lego set from Santa, a Nerf gun from Daddy and some practical gifts like a scarf and book from Mommy!  That's always how those gifts work out, which I think is hilarious and wonderful!  Of course, Mommy is always ready for a vacation, so the surprise last gift was a box with William's flip flops, pool goggles, snorkel and diving sticks in it to represent that we were heading to Hawaii for the rest of the holiday!  William was shocked.  He was also pleasantly surprised that we had "found" his water gear because the day before when we went to the gym pool, he was disappointed that we couldn't "find" any of those things!

For Christmas dinner we ate at the movie theatre!  Best idea ever!   We saw Mary Poppins Returns which was very cute.  Now I need to see the original Mary Poppins, since I'm not sure I've ever seen it start to finish.

One last holiday photo is our display of picture cards - my favorite part of the holidays is sending and receiving cards!

Holiday Festivities

It's easy to get into the Christmas mood around here with the weather turning cold and so many activities to do.   It's also a busy time for this tax accountant, but we try to find time for our favorites.   

Lego Display

New to us this year was the Lego display at Cantigny, traditionally known for its gardens, World War II history museum and tank collection.   It's fascinating to see what can be created from Legos.  My favorites were two Back to the Future movie scenes.   Oh, and the trains that went around the first display we saw.  I was like a little kid and said, "Ooh!  Train!" the first three times it passed me!  We also ran into William's buddy, Blake, and his family while we were there.

Christkindlmarket
This was the first year we didn't hit up the Chicago Christkindlmarket and only went to the one in Naperville.  It's not as much fun at being in the city, and the bratwurst line was too long to wait, but we did get our cinnamon sugar pecans and our ornaments.  For ornaments we celebrated 2018 travels:  the Colosseum, the Rialto bridge in Venice, and a tree sloth for Peru.   William picked a jet ski and panda - perhaps aspirational for future vacations!

Holiday Lights Trolley
It's been a few years since we did the holiday lights trolley tour organized by our homeowners association.   Ironically our neighborhood has some of the best lights for our side of town (i.e. the area that the trolley can cover in a one hour tour), so except for some exceptionally decorated standalone homes or blocks, nothing can compare to our entire subdivision.  But, wow, do some people go all out!

Winter Party
After three years as Room Coordinator (alone or with another mom), I did not sign up this year.  Mostly that is because I knew I was going to be traveling for two of the three classroom party days.  So my interaction with the classroom has been as field trip chaperone and as a volunteer for the classroom winter party - the only party that I knew we'd be home to celebrate.  They ended up having a few parents cancel, so John got to come, too!  I never get good photos on party day because the kids are running around like crazy and I'm busy running activities.   I'm sad we didn't get a photo of the three of us.   I did get a photo of John hauling the game to the school and running it in the gym.  It was our version of Christmas Cornhole.   The kids used either a bean bag or a cardboard present crafted by William to attempt to get in the hole.   The winners (any kid with 2 points) had a play off.  I think they enjoyed it!

The craft back in the classroom was to use modeling clay to make a snowman.   After we got it home and displayed, I realized that was also the kindergarten craft!   On the left is K (likely heavily assisted by the parent volunteers) and on the right is 4th (no help required but perhaps a little more ET than snowman?!).

Victoria & Albert's

After our tour, we headed back to the Boardwalk to rest and then get dressed up for dinner.  Our reservation was for 5:30 p.m. and the expectation is that the dining experience takes around 4 hours.  We got there are few minutes early to have time for photos in the lobby of the Grand Floridian and buy gingerbread treats to take home.

 

Our reservation was in the Queen's Dining Room, a side room that has only four tables, each with only one seating for the night.   The reservations are staggered for 5:30/6/6:30/7 so that each couple is at a different spot in the fixed course meal.   Since we were first we got several photos of the room and our table alone. 

Our personalized menus that included each course included in the prix fixe, plus a few optional add ons and wine pairing. 

 

 

You know it's a nice place when your purse has its own seat.

I took a picture of every bite and sip we took but I'll have to edit them so this blog post doesn't print over 17 pages in my year-end blog book.

Amuse bouche:  New Zealand Langostine with Caviar, Avocado and Lime

 Bison Tenderloin with Horseradish Creme and Clementines

 Black Cod with Broccolini and Cheese

 Wild Turbot with Toasted Capers and Preserved Lemon - and John with a big laugh because we forgot a photo of it before he started eating.  So we reconstructed it a bit!   This was an optional course that only he got, hence the reason I forgot to take a photo of my plate. 

I have no idea what this is since it's not on the menu! 

Roasted French Quail with Corn Pudding and Spinach - the joke by the waiter here (after we ate it) was that it was a fancy version of a corn dog.  He was totally right!  It came up because we questioned the Malbec wine pairing - it was a much different Malbec than we had tried before.  I don't remember how it was different (but it was good) but he said the "corndog" was why!

Kurobuto Pork Belly with Pineapple and Peanuts - the left is pineapple bite and the right is the pork belly bite.

Here our server is getting ready to carve butter off of the toque for our third round of (different) bread!

 Australian Kobe-Style Beef with Potato Pinwheel

 Add-on for John's plate is Miyazaki Japanese Beef

 Coffee Service, Port and Cheese Course

 

 An extra dessert of chocolate lavender cake

The scheduled dessert of Maple Chiffon with pumpkin butter and Calabaza crisps

 

John doesn't love port, so he got some Scotch for his after dinner drink.

The finale was a sampling of chocolates.  We couldn't eat anything more there, so they made us little boxes to take home.   Except for the brandied cherry.  That wouldn't travel well they said, so we ate it there!

It was four or more hours before we finally made our way out of there.  It was a memorable evening, and the food and service were exquisite!