A Very Happy Holiday

Having two weeks ina row with four days off, at home, was so luxurious. I cut out a little early on the 23rd and went home to buzz about the house. On the 24th Mike and I treated ourselves with a trip to the movies. The 10:20am Invictus show was empty and besides us there were only 4 others. The movie was so great and only got us more excited to plan our 2011 return to New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup (yay!). Afterwards, we stopped into Meijer to pick up a few odds and ends and then went home to enjoy a nice dinner (3 fishes!). Christmas was just as nice. Mike went hunting, I went upstairs and wrapped presents while watching "Love Actually". That is such an amazingly good movie and it was great to watch it on Christmas morning. We opened our presents and then ventured over to Charlie and Sarah's for a little Christmas with the Sageman's. We made crepes with either ham & cheese or a berry compote for a delicious and light lunch/brunch. We played Wii for a while and then headed over to Mom's for Christmas with the family. We had soups and sandwiches that were delicious and we had lots of fun. Saturday, we made two batches of beer at the winery and relaxed some more. Finally, Sunday we capped off the weekend with a final Christmas party with the Moore's.

New Years was just as nice. I took Thursday off and went to hang out with Tiffany, Nathan and the family. It was a really nice time. Then Mike went hunting again before we headed into town to have New Years with Nate, Tara, Denise, Chris, Nicolette, Tom and Amanda. Sooooooooooooo much fun. I didn't get too tipsy, but I sure enjoyed being with all of our great friends to ring in the New Year. the rest of the weekend was enjoying my hubby at home and a deer hunt for Mike with Ben, Will and Smurf. What fun!

Pictures...

Christmas is Coming Full Throttle

Ha! That kinda sounds like a hokey Christmas action film doesn't it? Well that's kinda how life has been the last week or so. Mom's Annual Christmas Open House was last Sunday and it was a dousy! We were nose to the gristmill for 2 weeks to pound out the finishing details for the party. Mom's new-old house was glistening in it's Christmas glory and the community showed up to check it out and eat to their hearts content. I will say that the "Italian" inspired theme this year turned out some pretty amazing food. I was a pizza baking machine during the party. It was tough to navigate around all the people and shoes, but I think it all turned out grand.

Mom & Dad Keenan came north late Saturday afternoon and we had a little Christmas Sunday morning with them before the party. It was nice to just relax for a moment, have breakfast and open presents. I made fritatta and Mike whipped up some of his soon to be famous sweet potato home fries for breakfast. Mmmmm, they are yummy! Mike got some of the hunting things he had wanted and I got some perfume and several other wonderful presents. Momma K was an awesome party prepper as well during their quick visit. She came over to Mom's both Saturday and Sunday to help. She also did some very important sewing on a Christmas/Birthday present she was transporting to New Hampshire for us. Let me just say, they turned out great and I hope Christy loves them!

We also had a Cooking Divas christmas party last Friday. It was a very nice dinner out (with the hubbies) at the English Inn in Eaton Rapids. Besides the snotty waiter we had, it was a super fun evening. Had some delicious food, yummy wine and we really enjoyed our company. It was neat seeing the cozy Inn in the winter.

Looking forward to a couple of days off and a lovely holiday : )

Hip hip hooray!

Hip hip hooray and a round of applause for my husband! He passed his PE exam and will shortly be an official Professional Engineer. We went out for a celebratory dinner Tuesday night and it was a sweet celebration of hard work. I am so proud of him. He kept telling me how relieved he was to have it over with. I do believe I am just as relieved as he is. I'm pretty sure it was just as painful on my side of the isle making him study as it was on his side actually doing the studying. Being the wonderful husband/person that he is, he called me and excitedly told me his results and then told me thanks for making him study so hard.

It's nice to be appreciated for the hard work I had to do convincing him to study! And it's wonderful that he's going to be a PE for all his hard work studying and test taking!

Inspiration

Last night Mike & I had over our friends and newest neighbors (note: country ideas of neighbors is different than most... they live within 10 miles of us) over for dinner and I got to be the hostess with the mostest. I love playing hostess and cooking up a feast. Last night was a roasted red pepper fougasse, Moroccan pot pie and mixed green salad. It was topped off by Brian's delicious "gluten free" apple pie. It was so much fun, not only because our friends are great, but because I love cooking for people. The kitchen is just one of my happiest places.

So then, this morning I was reading one of my favorite foodie blogs, David Lebovitz's Living the Sweet Life in Paris, and a vision of inspiration came to me. I've been looking for something to make me more fulfilled in an creative sense and I think I've found it. On David's blog I was reading about a private supper club in Paris that was donating a place at one of their dinners for the Menu of Hope fundraiser that David is hosting on his blog. (A really fantastic cause by the way, all money raised gets donated to the United Nations World Programme's Purchase for Progress program, which assists low-income farmers to raise crops and support their local economies.) Anyways, back to the inspiration, I had heard about private supper clubs/underground restaurants before and thought that I would love to belong to one.

What would be better than that? How about hosting one? A private, members only dinner where I could spend a whole day cooking an amazing dinner that I could share with other people who enjoy great food. My friends and I often remorse about the vast lack of good restuarants in our area. I don't have the time or ambition to start a cafe or restaurant, but what if I could create one once a month? Sounds extremely fulfilling and utterly like something I was called to do. If I hadn't had our friends over for dinner last night and read that blog this morning, would this ever have occurred to me? It's amazing what the smallest things in your life can combine together to inspire. Excited about the possibilities...