Thanksgiving and Christmas 2009
So the Holidays have come and gone and we have yet to post anything. So I guess we'll start with Thanksgiving. We were blessed with the opportunity to again visit Uncle Karl and Aunt Linda in Cranberry Township, PA for Thanksgiving. We spent the evening before at home preparing pies for the feast. I enlisted the help of one of the young men in the ward who did not have Young Men's that night due to the Holiday. His younger sister is a newer member of the Beehive class at church and still wanted to work on her Young Women's Personal Progress so she came over along with her brother where we spent some time in the kitchen. The girls made turkeys out of Oreo cookies, candy corns, Whoppers, Reeces, and frosting. The pies did not turn out as good as last year but it all worked out alright.
Thanksgiving at the Johnson's was fantastic. The food was exquisite and the company even better. We sure do love the Johnson family. Above is a picture of Uncle Karl modeling the remainder of one of the apple pies.
Well after a challenging week of finals the Holidays were truly upon us. Right after our last test on Friday, I rushed home after dropping Jari off with a friend of ours in the Ward, changed into my thickest clothes, and went to play Tactical Air Soft. It was fun but I came home with damaged hands and a resolve to never go play again against people with automatic pistols...Anyway, there was a rumor about getting some snow. I did not believe it much because I thought it was simply a matter of custom for people here in the area. What do I mean? Well, there are two things that are discussed more than anything here in the District: Politics and Weather - the weather being the dominant one of the two. So when I heard that "we are going to get a big snowstorm" I did not think much of it - that is, until it snowed 18+ inches and Church was canceled.
And even now as I sit here on Feb 6th, we are receiving more snow. This time, it's heavy - wet snow. We already have received over 12 inches and it is supposed to snow all day. Funny that we went all last year with no more than a few inches all winter...
Christmas morning finally came and oh what fun we had. Here I am sporting the sweet party pants that Jari made for me. I am also modeling a book on Ebelskivers and cooking up some traditional Ebelskiver pancakes for breakfast. I spent the better part of a whole day along with Rebecca, trying to find that pan, and finally was able to Metro to downtown DC where I found it at Williams and Sonoma. It was way too expensive but in the spirit of keeping the Nielson Christmas Breakfast of Ebelskivers alive, I thought it was worth it. We made so much batter that I saved the rest and cooked them up for dinner later that night using cheese as the filling and made a papaya/banana/strawberry/orange juice fruit smoothie to go along with them. Simple yet delicious.
And what would Christmas be without a gift that keeps on giving? Here Jari is modeling one of 12 chapsticks that I gave her for Christmas. We both tend to lose them, so I thought that if I bought her a whole bunch of them, the chances of finding one just as we lost another would greatly improve and we would never go without the soothing creaminess of Chapstick or Bert's Bees Wax. The fun part was wrapping every single one up in their own little box. I had to create boxes for them of various sizes so as not to give them away, and that took a while, but all my efforts to conceal what was in the next box failed after she opened 3 of them. She's simply too smart to be outdone. She still enjoyed opening the rest of her chapsticks though.
Jari and I did not celebrate the holiday alone. Rebecca came up from SVU to stay with us for the two week break. She was very generous in her gift-giving and we enjoyed her company. Living far away from family makes you miss the small opportunities that we used to have to spend time with family on a regular basis. So we were glad to have her come up even it was for a short time. As we understand it, they have canceled their school for a little bit right now due to the snow. Funny - I don't ever remember school being canceled in Utah. I guess the teachers did not want to have to make the day later on so they showed up just the same and expected the students to do the same. I don't really blame them though - there is nowhere for the snow to go out here. Everyone lives too close together to be able to just push the snow between houses - or at least that is what it seems like to me.
I'm sure you were expecting this: Food. Christmas is not only a time for family, but for food also. This is our little creation: A braided loaf stuffed with ground beef and potatoes and topped with cheese and ranch dressing. Jari made up some Angel Roll dough and I cooked up the filling. It was all going so well when we suddenly realized that it was still on the countertop and not on the cookie sheet for baking... So for the next five minutes, we used 2-3 spatulas, 2 long knives, and our hands to transfer what was a beautiful - symmetrical - loaf on the cookie sheet. You may notice by this picture that symmetry could not be used to describe this work of art. Oh well. It sure was tasty! In fact, I think it is on the menu for tomorrow :)
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