Christmas at the Stoner's of Eagle River

In celebration of our last real Christmas tree. Next year we are moving on to the world of fake trees. Ours is going to have a twist and will be an upside down tree.... to be continued on that.
If we were to describe Christmas with only one word at the Stoner's of Eagle River that word would be "Food": It seems that once again we managed to cook and eat and cook and eat. Talk about the next meal as we are eating one... We would think that we don't have a life.... So we started the holiday week with Paul's 22nd birthday party with a spiral cut ham with a savory glaze over. Few good friends coming over. Brownies.... for dessert. Beer and Wine. All good!. Then we had the Christmas Eve's feast.... Huge King Crabs, traditional oriental cabbage salad to go with it, Oysters, Shrimp and Scallops with Pastis cooked on the grill outside as the huge snow flakes where coming down. Just lovely night. We drank champagne rose and Newcastle Beers and Macallan 18 years Scotch. That was lovely too. So lovely that when Santa wrapped the presents (in fabric this year to help save the planet) she got really creative with the name tags!!!! Anyhohoho! It was a fun evening. Next morning we woke up to more food. Emily had made French toast (pain perdu) from a very decadent cinnamon sugar loaf from the Great Harvest Bread Co.(http://www.greatharvest.com/bread/recipes.html ) ( That and maple syrup on top with bananas slices and walnuts it was just yummy!!!!!! We opened our presents. We apparently were very good this year because we got a lot of good stuff. (here is Curt showcasing the present he got from his Mom that scored big this year with the first season of the television show "Planet Earth". He just loved it, I do too by the way) We waited few hours but got on with making the leg of lamb ready to get on the grill.... yes, it was still snowing big fat snow flakes. Gorgeous! I made mash potatoes and Emily made the fennel (fenouil) and carrots roasted in the oven. I love those. Just a little olive oil over them and heat does the rest to release it's amazing sweet taste. And for desert....... drum roll....... an apple pie! Nothing better than this in my opinion. So here we were eating again and again. Don't you love it? I do. Our traditional "Creche" or nativity scene with Santons from Provence, Germany and the US. It has been a nice time. Paul and Windy are very cute together. They went snowboarding in Alyeska one day. Windy's first time on the board. Emily has been very active between work, yoga, visiting with her friends and cooking for all of us and still finding time to spend with her Mom (Yeah!). Curt took few days off. It has been so nice to be all together again. The house is full of sounds and the walls are accumulating memories. My latest Santa is Hippie Santa and was donated by Gaylene and retrofitted by Emily.
Gaia and I and my new hat that I love love love. Thank you Bunny! It is so green and soft. Just marvelous.I could pass for an Afghan who stole her husband's hat. Here it is in color.... ready? ... tataaaa the fleece sweater is from Emily (she loves me) it is a LOLE (The brand name means "live out loud every day". I think it fits me....ahahhahah I went outside (10 degrees F. Today about -8C) and they both passed the test. My ears were sooooo toasty.
Happy Endings for this Year 2007.