Christmas Day!

We had a very pleasant Christmas Day. It began early with Esther coming in to wake us up at 7am. Not too bad, but we had been counting on her sleeping in like Nathan - 8:45! We opened stockings and presents and finally got to breakfast just before noon!
Sleeping bags from Grandma and Grandpa Janis. The kids were very excited!
Can you tell she adores the Barbie Rapunzel from Grama Brown?
Cute kiddos being sweet to each other.
Trying a new tradition for Christmas breakfast, Daron prepared a yummy Middle Eastern spread. Oranges, berries, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, pita, cheeses, and hot chocolate. Yeah, not Middle Eastern but the kids really wanted it. We dipped the pita in olive oil and za'tar, a mixture of toasted sesame seeds, thyme, ground sumac, and salt. We would break off a piece of pita, wrap some cheese and an olive in it, then dip into the olive oil and za'tar. Delicious!

The kids played so nicely together all afternoon with their new toys. It was such a pleasure. Daron even got down on the floor with them and played. They loved that.

Dinner was a little more simplistic than Thanksgiving, though it still took awhile to prepare. We did a Colonial tavern meal, complete with checked tablecloth and our special pewter candlesticks from Williamsburg. The ham with Clementine glaze was slightly overdone, but tasted delicious. Green beans, mashed and carmelized sweet potatoes, buttermilk biscuits, gingered pumpkin soup, and syllabub rounded out our meal.
Syllabub, a Colonial drink/dessert usually made with wine and sherry and cream. Ours was made with pomegranate soda, lemon juice, lemon zest, and cream - topped with mint and sugar coated cranberries.


My only regret was that the plum pudding wasn't done on time and we had to switch to dessert plan B - hot cocoa and biscotti. Not really Colonial, but yum all the same. Once the guests left and the kitchen cleaned up, we dug into the plum pudding. Served with the sauce!





Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve Celebrations

This Christmas Eve we spent at Roark's house. As is the longtime Brown family Italian tradition, we made homemade pizzas. As we had a bunch of people, we made seven of them, though we only ended up eating just over four. Here they are!

BBQ chicken made by Elaine and Derek
Canadian bacon and pineapple
Tomato, sundried tomato, feta, and spinach - Rebecca's choice - and it was delicious!
Meat lovers - Roark made this one
Pepperoni, sausage, and olive made by Sarah
Veggie pizza by Laura
The leftover pizza by Sarah

Sarah making her pizza and Esther feeling a need to be in the picture, too!
Elaine making the first pizza.
Daron tossing the pizza like a pro.

Cute kids hanging out together.
Nathan played a sheep. He declined any costume, but he baa-ed as well as a sheep!
Esther being an angel. She wanted to be Mary until she saw the flowy angel costume. It helped that the role included standing on the table being the center of attention!
Sarah was Mary, Laura was Joseph, and Derek got to be the donkey.

After dinner, the Nativity pageant, and hot chocolate, we bundled the kids into the car and came home. Now that they are in bed, we're watching our annual Christmas Eve movie, The Nativity Story, which I highly recommend. But we'd better get to bed soon as Santa will be on his way!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Pride and Prejudice Parody

I'm finally getting around to posting this! On October 23, a group of friends and I performed a parody which I wrote based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The Bennet family and Charlotte are all Mormon in the play, creating a funny blend of LDS culture and Austen's original lines. We had so much fun putting it together. I can't wait for the next project!

The first video is our dress rehearsal. The second is the live performance. Enjoy!





The video quality diminished when we put it on the blog. Sorry about that!

Golden Turkey on My Table

We hosted several friends for Thanksgiving yesterday. Daron and I were up until 1am on Wednesday night making pies and brining the turkey. I wish I'd taken a picture of this massive 19 lb turkey floating eerily in brine. It barely fit in our refrigerator! The brine was a salt water/thyme/maple syrup/brown sugar mixture and it really made the turkey moist.

From the time we got into the kitchen yesterday (9:30am) to dinner time (4pm), we did almost nothing but cook, clean, wash dishes, set up, wash more dishes, and cook some more. Whewph! It's hard work, but I really enjoy putting on a feast. I love working with Daron on it. We have the same vision and just go, go, go until it's done. It seems strange, but it's really become a bonding time for us - working together to serve others. It really becomes a labor of love.

Our beautiful Thanksgiving table! I found the turkey and candlesticks at a thrift store and spray painted them gold.



The turkey plates were from TJMaxx. I just wanted a little something special. I love these!

Place settings with real pears.

Golden turkey on my table - there can be no turkey like thee! (Ever seen Man of La Mancha? Golden helmet of Mambrino? No? Okay...)

The pre-brined and grilled turkey in all it's glory right after Daron brought it inside. It didn't have quite the smoky flavor that last year's did, but it was moist, it was done on time, and it was delicious!

Besides turkey, we served green beans, carrots, mashed potatoes with bacon and rosemary, plain mashed potatoes, sausage, apple, and raisin stuffing, cranberry sauce, cranberry fig relish, homemade gravy, homemade Lion House rolls, and pumpkin and apple pies. Oh, and plenty of Martinelli's!

Sister Grant, the elders, Nathan, and Daron.

Daron again, Brother Tessmer, Sister Chretian, Cydney, and Esther.

Right as I put the last of the food on the island and Daron was carving the turkey, I heard Esther crying. She ran into the kitchen holding her hand above her eye and there was blood everywhere! I began to wonder if I was going to spend Thanksgiving in the emergency room! She had been twirling with her plastic horse and it knocked her right on the eyebrow. Fortunately, when I mopped her up, the cut was tiny and stopped bleeding pretty quick. With a bandaid and a kiss, she was ready to go and the meal was served almost right on time! I had one more thing to be grateful for, I guess!

The name of our family blog is Peace and Plenty Here Abide. I really feel like that has been the case in our home. Granted, it's not always peaceful, but we try. I feel very blessed for all that Heavenly Father has given to us - each other, our home, food to eat and share, safety, freedom, and our amazing extended families! Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween Activities

This year our theme was pirates - not super creative, but it was fun. I went to a zillion thrift stores grabbing little pieces of costumes, boots, scarves, and other needed items. My best find was boots for myself that are in great shape for $7.99! Some of the pieces needed a little altering and some clever reworkings, but the final result was pretty good, I think. Several people at Daron's office told him they looked like they were professionally done. Yes!! My thrift-store-costuming skills have progressed to a new level!

Here are the kids doing the annual Trick-Or-Treat at Daddy's office on Friday.





Here we are for our ward Trunk-Or-Treat activity on Saturday. Hurrah for the Pirate King! We had Pirates of Penzance playing in the car, but none of the kids understood what it was all about. That's alright. We knew and sang along.

We finished off our Halloween weekend with our annual Dinner in a Pumpkin on Sunday evening with some friends. The pictures I took didn't turn out super, but the food did! We had our dinner baked in a pumpkin (meat, mushrooms, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, tomato sauce, and spices), butternut squash soup, salad, and buttermilk biscuits. And brownies for dessert - thanks Maren!

Cute Poses

Wedding

The main reason we went up to Massachusetts in September was for my little brother's wedding. He married a girl from New Hampshire and they are the perfect match. Daron and I really enjoyed spending time with our kids up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire for the week before the wedding. Then after the wedding, Daron came back to Dallas while the kids and I spent another two weeks enjoying the fall up there. Between everyone's cameras, there were hundreds of pictures! So I'm just going to post a few - mostly from the wedding.

Michael and Melanie with the 7 grandkids from our side and 1 from her side. She was in a hurry to take the picture before Daniel accidentally had a diaper explosion on her dress! As you can see, most of the grandkids were very excited to be taking pictures!

The newlyweds just coming out of the Boston Temple.

My Dad, my Grandpa, and my Uncle Ed. Can you see the resemblance?

The four original Brown siblings! Again, notice any resemblance?

My adorable little boy. He was so excited to wear his suit - just like Daddy!

Nathan and Esther being adorable.

Another shot of the grandkids - a little happier this time, albeit blurry.

My grandparents at the reception.