Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas weekend was considerably busy given the limited traveling! We wanted to do something special for other people this year. I was surprised by the number of people I knew who either did not go home to their families or spent very little time with them. Being out of town every previous year made it easy to miss this unfortunate reality.

We made a big German breakfast for some friends and their little girl on Saturday morning. Later that day, we visited another friend in the hospital (due to a serious accident in November). For dinner, we brought my sister and her family WCM's famous cornbread chili and my new favorite, spinach salad. (While he was cooking, I had a chance to work out - thank you, Honey!) For Mass, we went to the Cathedral. An impressive orchestral/choral performance began at 10:30 PM. The Mass was concelebrated wonderfully by five priests. The only glitch was a homeless woman adding two of her own Jesus & mangers to the beautiful crèche during the Bishop's homily.

For gifts this year, we decided to give each other some hints. This might seem obvious, but it took me years to realize that no man can read my mind: just tell him what you want. And, for the fist time in my life, I received excellent gifts from a man. (He did read my mind regarding the contents of the golden box, though. Guess he really does know me better!)

Gifts to WCM: White Chocolate, M&Ms, Gift Card for Ledo's Famous Buffalo Chicken Pizza, and Gift Card for Some of His Favorite Beers at Gordon Biersch. He's told me twice now, "Honestly, for gifts and surprises I really like my food." You got it, Honey!

I was impressed by the beautiful organic soap and bath bombs from Lush WCM bought me. Several months ago I said, "you know, if you ever want to get me a small surprise that I will love, buy me anything in this store." Then I forgot about it. He didn't. He slipped out one Saturday while I was preparing a big presentation. The Godiva box is a custom mix of chocolates he knew I would love: mints, crème brulée, almond, etc. Nice work. :)



He also bought beautiful citrus-smelling candles ... a little piece of heaven. :)


We spent Christmas day with my sister and family. She has posted some great photos here. After the kids went to bed, we played an exhilarating game of Cities & Knights of Catan, during which my sister slaughtered everyone.

On Sunday, we went to St. Joseph's in Old Town Alexandria, which everyone raves about. It was phenomenal - quaint and beautifully decorated for Christmas! Afterward, we spent the day cleaning up (our Christmas tree was dryer than a match box), doing laundry, and going out to a nice dinner. We really enjoyed our first Christmas together!

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The National Christmas Tree

As a little date last night, we saw the National Christmas Tree exhibits. This tree - near the White House - as well as the tree in front of the Capitol, are truly spectacular. Their size alone make them worth seeing. We did not see Santa, but we checked out everything else, including the show, crèche, yule log, and state trees. The fenced-in area was pretty popular. Hundreds of people come each night. We had a great walk around the city and stopped in at Austin Grill for a warm dinner.

Take One: These shots are difficult to get right.

Take Two: Notice the impressive train set behind us.



The beautiful crèche on display in the Elipse. Thanks be to God we still are honoring - in public - the Reason for the season.

 Here's a beautiful slideshow of Christmas lights spectaculars. Travel, anyone?

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"The Best Meal You've Made"

Skillet Macaroni & Cheese

with Bacon

and Cabot Extra Sharp White Cheddar

(made with Skim Milk - 75% less fat)

Spinach Salad

with Sugar Coated Walnuts

Dried Cranberries

Blue Cheese Crumbles

and Light Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing

One day when raspberries go on sale I will try the dressing from scratch. Overall, we both liked the recipe. I would have preferred boiling the macaroni and then adding the cheese. The sauteing process left a flavor I wasn't expecting from a mac-n-cheese, but WCM liked it very much.

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In Anticipation...

This weekend, we visited my sister, who is almost 9 months pregnant. We decorated cookies with the kids, made spaghetti with a borghese sauce, and cleaned. A good time was had by all!

John tried really hard not to dump the entire red sugar shaker on the tops of his white chocolate covered oreos, one of WCM's favorites which is not available in stores this year.

Lucy had the green. And Anne Marie was meticulous about placing snowflakes and sugar sprinkles.



We now have a package's worth of delightfully decorated oreos by very excited children!

 

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Outside Our Window

We had about two inches of snowfall on Thursday - quite mild compared to last year. It looks like it will hang around through Christmas, which is really nice for us. This will be our first Christmas away from our homes. It looks kind of like the Midwest, although we realize you all currently have *much* more snow!

One nice thing this year is that both of our offices are closed on Christmas Eve. We get a nice little long holiday weekend together!

The first snowfall of the year.

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Beef's What's For Dinner

Inspired by the desire to try something other than chicken - and by the Harris Teeter lean ground chuck sale ($6 for 4 lbs.) - we whipped up this big meatloaf. Mr. "I've-never-had-a-meatloaf-I-didn't-like" has been eating this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

He made me listen to classic Meat Loaf tunes like, "I Would Do Anything for Love." Ah, the early 90's...

We did try Croque Camille's sauteed green bean & grape tomato salad. WCM preferred it with a hint of lemon juice. It was pretty good when all was said and done.

The best part about this meal is that it took less than 30 minutes to prepare - and sixty minutes in the oven. I put it in, picked up WCM from work, and arrived back home with 20 minutes to spare! Mmmm ... hhhmmm. :)

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A Few New Food Favorites

Thanks to a tip from WCM's sister, we discovered the joy of Chicken Perigord Style. It is quite tasty and looks much fancier than it is to make. I think this just may be the dish that changes WCM's mind about mushrooms!

Sauteed mushrooms.

Chicken broth-based cream sauce.

The pre-greened plate.

Fresh veggies for a little balance.

And the easy dinner, which I make whenever we don't have much time/energy to cook:


Herbed chicken with broth gravy and steamed vegetables.

Tonight, we discovered the best alfredo sauce in the "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking," a gift from our wedding. This was the third way we made the sauce and by far the best. A dash of nutmeg was the golden touch!

And, thanks to one of our priest-friends, we have a new Mac N Cheese and vegetable dish to try and a blog for great French recipes!

This week's challenge: asparagus.

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Delighted By My Spouse

We have been running all week long, but managed to accomplish some exciting things last week, including combining our insurance (saving us hundreds this year), having our house blessed, and preparing and giving my talk to teen girls about confidence and body image.

It seems that I get asked to give a talk every 6 months lately. Often, I say "maybe" or "have you asked this other person who speaks more often and better than I do?" This time, however, I felt drawn to the topic and excited about it.

Normally I am reticent to discuss any part of my presentations (even just to get feedback) until I have a solid outline, which I've worked and reworked, so that the critic has something expansive to critique. However, two Sundays ago, on our way to visit my sister and her family, WCM said to me, "so, have you thought about what you will tell them?" I had. He affirmed that what I had was good, gave helpful feedback regarding how to get their attention and emphasize the points (thank you, homiletic and litigation experience!), and helped me establish a solid outline. I spent over 15 hours research, writing, re-writing, and practicing this talk. (There are so many studies and articles on this subject, including this, this, and this.) We mostly wanted to get the girls thinking about what is unique and beautiful about them - part of a larger faith-based program that teaches girls about style and modesty. He listened to me over and over.

While I was driving home from the presentation (my first 60-minute presentation!), I thought to myself: this entire talk was substantially better because WCM helped me! The points were clearer. I got their attention more effectively. And they responded very well to each part. I thought, Wow. We can accomplish so much more together than we ever could have on our own. I am really, really glad that I waited for a good man - and one whose natural gifts and personality were an excellent match for mine. I can't believe how much easier something as simple as talking to young women was because he helped me with it.

In light of this, we talked about how strange it is that young adults today are so reticent to commit. Our lives are much, much better because we did!

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Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Passage from Morning Prayer:

The Lord is waiting to show you favor ... blessed are all who wait for him!

              -Isaiah 30:18


We finally kicked our colds, set our Advent goals, and made our Christmas lists!


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Friday's Fish Dish

The WCM gets credit for the sauce. He's much more of an improviser than I am. It made this recipe excellent! Extra Parmesan and a few extra dashes of nutmeg and viola:

Fettuccine Alfredo with Shrimp

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Christmas Tree Hunting!

We decided to take advantage of the good 40+ degree, sunny weather yesterday and pick out a Christams tree at a farm. One of us hadn't anticipated the windchill and is now sick. However, we did find a beautiful, narrow Leland Cypress for our living room.



"Show me which tree to cut down."



We (I) originally wanted a white pine, but there seemed to be none around. (The man would probably have been happy with an artificial tree, although we have no where to store one.)



A leyland cypress of perfect shape & size.

The man did most of the work. I was running after him with the camera to catch the *perfect* first-Christmas-together moment.

It was FREEZING with the windchill. Next year, we will probably just pick up a tree locally.

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Getting Closer to A Fish Recipe the Husband Likes

The Dear Husband makes his famous mashed potatoes while I set the table & finish the rest of the meal.

Salmon in Phyllo, Mashes Garlic Red Potatoes, Mixed Romaine Salad

It was better than the salmon bake, but the husband still prefers a good beer-battered, fried fish. One tip from the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cook Book is to rinse off the fish and pat it dry with a paper towel before preparing it. That way, it looses a lot of the "fishy" taste. It worked pretty well in this case. We made 3 salmon steaks and shared the leftovers on Saturday.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Bless the God of all, who has done wondrous things on earth; Who fosters people’s growth from their mother’s womb, and fashions them according to his will! ... May He grant you joy of heart and may peace abide among you. -Sirach 50 

As a little Thanksgiving gift, I've downloaded all our wedding photos to Facebook and the "Our Wedding" page here. We were very happy with them, and hope that you enjoy them as well. Looking through these photos reminded me of just how blessed I felt that day!

 

And this is what we did for Thanksgiving.

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What Has My Thoughts

This interesting column brightened my morning. I am still trying to figure out what it means to be a good wife. It seems to include a lot of dishes, laundry, food prep, listening, and patience.

Saturday: After two days of conferences for us, we took the afternoon through Middleburg and the Loudon countryside.

Sunday: Determined to try something new with our chicken, I took a stab at Chicken Oporto, which the WCM liked very much!

The last load of laundry just rang, which means I can no longer put off the folding, exercise, and errands! Thank God for the 40-hour workweek, which gives me this morning off. :)

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One Month of Discoveries:

Life is relatively easy so far.

"Morning person" should be divided into two categories: moderate and intense. The moderates would be those who like to wake up in the 6:00 hour. Of course, I would put myself in the "moderate" category. (2021 Update: Anything in the 5am hour = "moderate" morning person. School schedules, feeding/dressing kids, and having personal time depend upon it.)

It's okay if we don't do everything together.

It doesn't matter that the toilet seat is up (even though I have a neurotic feeling that everything I touch will fall into it).

Breakfast is really important for so many reasons, including our mental, physical, and emotional health!

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Fish, It's What's For Dinner

Tonight I tried baked salmon fillets. The flavors were fantastic! That is an orange (not a lemon) with orange peel, fresh oregano, freshly ground pepper, and olive oil. Each fillet is baked in foil for about 30 minutes. They should come out perfectly flaky. My mom made this for us when we went camping in the Boundary Waters. It was exceptional after being baked over a fire. Tonight's was oven-baked, but not too bad!

Salmon-Vegetable Bake.

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A Few More Favorites!

We heard again from the photographers and should have all of the photos by Monday. I'd really like to post them in chronological order, so bear with me. We're still waiting to see all of the reception photos & wedding photos taken from the front of the church, but here are few favorites as a "sneak peak."

We loved the farm!

Great role for a child-ham: Flower Girl.

"Please observe how to wear a handkerchief."

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Gratitude

Tonight I am grateful for a clean home, the sounds of a running appliances, and the enjoyable day off work today thanks to our veterans!

Hike in Shenandoah National Park guided by the pro-camper.

Starbucks coffee after my meeting with the Padre.

A man who shattered all of my bitter theories about the less fair gender and who constantly proves to me that love bears, believes, and hopes all things. I'm so grateful that I could honestly tell a colleague last week: the greatest blessing in being married to WCM is that I didn't have to compromise my expectations and desires at all. He surpassed all of them.

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Getting Ready

A few getting ready shots have been posted here.

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Coming Soon!

Wedding Photos! We should have both photographers photos from the wedding & reception soon. We'll try to get them up within a week.

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