So last year for Christmas, I got a sewing machine. And I haven’t really been able to use it as much as I wanted, but I took full advantage of it right before Christmas. I made several Christmas buntings and some ornaments and a string of mini stockings. Once I was done, I had A LOT of decorations so I used them to decorate both our house and my pod area at work. I think they came out pretty well. :)

However during the holiday season, we also moved apartments from our one bedroom to a two bedroom townhouse. It took much longer to get settled than I would have liked to be honest, but ultimately we had everything set up before Christmas including a christmas tree that Sami made especially for the new house. He used a trellis frame and garland to make it flat and able to be hung high on the wall (so the cats couldn’t get to it). Then I decorated it with lights and ornaments. I’m actually really proud of how it came out.

We were also able to do one of our favorite traditions throughout December: holiday movies and desserts. We watched a new Netflix movie and had sugar cookies one day. Another day we watched Elf and I made Lebanese traditional holiday cookies. I got this recipe from Sami’s family (the first time they have ever shared it) in Lebanon and have been trying to get it perfect. I’m still not sure how well I’m doing, but they are delicious nonetheless.

On Christmas Eve, I decided to surprise Sami by making kanefeh for breakfast. I thought it would be a nice way to kick off three days of celebrating. It came out really good except I forgot the pistachios!! Oops! But even without them, it was tasty. Then later, we had our tradition of classic Christmas movies, hot cocoa, and mince pies. We watched Jingle All the Way which holds a special place for me since it’s what we watched our first Christmas Eve together. We also watched Home Alone 2 which is still a fun movie. We had sticky toffee cocoa (which we got on our recent trip to London) and apricot-hazelnut mince pies. It was delicious! I actually preferred them to traditional mince pies. They have a lot of toasted hazelnuts and dried apricot pieces with some raisins, cherries, and figs soaked in orange juice and a little brandy with a homemade crust. Delicious!!

Christmas Day was nice too. It was just the two of us this year but we FaceTimed so many family members that it was like we spent all morning with them. We unwrapped gifts and I got an instant pot!! It was like one of the main things I wanted so I’m super excited about it. But it’s one of the smart WiFi ones and I spent hours trying to get those features to work. It was really bumming me out. Luckily Sami fixed it for me! I also got a food processor, sous vide, Lets Go pikachu, and some books I wanted. Sami got a sound bar, speakers, mugs, PJs, a bastion LEGO set, Spyro reignited, and super smash brothers. He was very happy I think. I made us gumbo for the day and got to try out my new instant pot for the rice. I messed up the first batch but got the second batch perfect. I also tried to make macarons but somehow seriously messed those up so maybe I’ll try again tomorrow. All in all a good day. I also got to put out my British Christmas candy tubs. I got Cadbury roses and heroes ones!! I was so excited to pick out my favorites. :) Just friendsmas to go now!

We hosted friendsmas on the day after Christmas. Since we were expecting more people, this is the day I went all out with the cooking! I made beef ribeye roast with potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, and parsnips (this is so holidays to me), homemade pistachio orange bread, cranberry sauce, and gingerbread lemon trifle. I needed to really punch up the orange on the bread but it was really good. The trifle has layers of ginger bread, lemon curd, raspberry jam, candied lemon, crystallized ginger, and whipped cream. I was actually really, really pleased with how it came out! Seriously check out the pictures!!

Our friends Jason and Rashmi came over for friendsmas. They brought traditional butter chicken, squash, and gajar halva. It was all delicious. We popped some tradition British crackers and then ate so much food wearing our hats. Then we went to the mall to shop some of the sales; I got new tennis shoes, lol. Then we spent the night vegging out and playing super smash brothers ultimate and Pokémon Go! It was a good night. We had some left overs the next day before they continued on to a ski trip.

For the rest of my week, I finished the scarf I crocheted for Sami (he loves it), spent A LOT of time playing Pokémon Go (I love it), and trying to find creative ways of using the leftovers. I’m doing a while post on using leftovers so I’ll just mentioned what I made:

• Using roast (blog post)

  • Blue and white cheddar Mac and cheese with roast

  • Beef tomato sauce over pasta

• Using cranberry sauce and lemon curd and ganache (blog post)

  • Crepes

  • macarons

  • truffles

• Using extra citrus (blog post)

  • Orange cardamom semolina cake

  • Lemon bars

So that’s it for my holiday post. Look for my left overs post and instant pot posts to come soon! Hope you enjoyed ;)