Christmas Day Pics - Part 2

Here's the last of the Christmas Pictures! After this I'll probably be sharing New Years Eve pictures :-) Cheryl is having a 70's themed party this year and we have our costumes ready for a fun night !
  

 Kristen got a 'Hamtrack' for her hamster Bella :-)

 Cheryl and Steve popped over on Christmas morning for Mimosas. Last year we went over to their house but her boys had gone to CA to visit their Dad this year, so they came over here. 

 

 Christmas dinner turned our perfectly, I was really pleased with my organic turkey, it was moist and cooked to perfection. I made mushroom and leek stuffing from the Clean Eating website AND made my own cranberry sauce for the first time this year (also from the CE website), both turned out really good. I should have used the tripod and timer so I could be in the picture - must do that next year!

 'Grandma' reminded me on Christmas night that we hadn't taken any family photos! I usually do it on Christmas Eve. Luckily it wasn't too late.

So, that's all the photos from this Christmas. I can't believe it's time to take the decorations down :-( I'm holding on and probably won't do it til Sunday, or even Monday when Kristen goes back to school. We always kept decorations up through New Years Eve back home, but it just depends how I feel each year as to when I take them down. I know many of you in blogland have already packed your stuff away.  I'm feeling rather lazy though and just don't have the energy to drag all the boxed back in the house from the garage! Right now I'm still trying to remove all the gifts and goodies from the living room and keep the kitchen clean - it's a never ending chore for some reason!

Leftover Turkey!

This was so good I just had to share!  I'm sure many of you like me have a ton of leftover turkey. The day after Christmas is easy, we just make a plate up again with all the sides, like yummy mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce etc. Then later in the day we'll probably have cold turkey sandwiches. But after that, what to do with the turkey? I decided to search online for some turkey soup recipes - I just felt in the mood for soup ;-) I found this one, Creamy Wild-Rice Soup with Smoked Turkey it sounded pretty good, and although my turkey wasn't smoked, I knew it probably wouldn't make much of a difference.

I didn't follow the recipe exactly, just used it more as an idea. . . here's my soup:

Basically all I did was saute an onion in a large skillet, then instead of adding carrots and celery I added about a cup and a half of frozen mixed veg! After that I added two tbsp of all purpose flour, then added a large carton of chicken stock. To that I added two cups of chopped turkey, and some 1/2 and 1/2 cream I had left over from making the mashed potatoes, not sure how much I used, I'm guessing about 1 cup. I made my Zatarins Long Grain and Wild rice packet seperately, then when it was cooked I added about half of the rice to the soup, turned it low and let it simmer for half an hour.

I have to tell you, the smell in the kitchen was delicious, even Jason shouted from his office "what are you making, it smells so good!"  So, if it's cold and wet, or snowy where you are (or even if it's not!) try making a nice hot batch of creamy turkey soup, it's total comfort food :-)

I'll be back tomorrow with more Christmas Day photos (for you Nenna) :-)

Christmas Day Pics - Part 1

Not much going on around here other than 'clean-up' from all the clutter still laying around after Christmas Day! Jason has gone to work today :-(  I think Kristen and I might pop out to do a little shopping, I have to find something to wear for our New Years Eve Bash at Cheryl's - it's a 70's theme this year!!!  

In the meantime, here's some pictures from our Christmas Day . . . . 

Santa's Been!!!

 Boo wants to open all the presents with Kiki :-)

 Shih-Tzu-Opoly!!!

 I bought her a little bell, just like in the Polar Express. . . she didn't like it when Daddy and I pretended we couldn't hear the bell :-/  She's looking a little nervous, and thought she was going crazy! oops, sorry sweety.

 She loved her shirt :-)

 and what's in this box?

 A wolf figurine, which she loved (she's trying to pose like the wolf!)

 Me, opening goodies out of my stocking (from Jason)!

 a little ornament from Kristen. (I got one from Jason too but didn't take a picture... I got him an R2D2 one!)

Breakfast!!!

Kristen took this picture!

I have more pictures from Christmas Day but I think there's plenty in this post, so I'll add them tomorrow. What are you all up to today? Anyone hitting the sales?

Merry Christmas

Hi everyone, I hope you've all enjoyed a WONDERFUL Christmas Day yesterday. We certainly did. I just posted a ton of photos to my Facebook page of Christmas Eve, I'll post the Christmas Day ones later. My sister doesn't have Facebook, so I'm posting some photos here today for her (and for all of you that don't have Facebook) ;-)  They are mostly self-explanatory, but in no particular order, Blogger is being a pain when it comes to uploading pictures, if I post just one from the few I've uploaded then go back to post another they disappear and I have to upload them again!!! So, I've posted them all at once and just left them in the order the posted! Sorry for the picture overload, but I know Nenna won't mind ;-)

 singing carols, before we read from the bible, then open our pressies to each other.

 Boo gets more excited than Kristen when we open gifts!

 new jammies, ready for Santa coming!

 and a new bathrobe

 a new toy for Daddy! (remote control mini helicopter)

 Grandma gets to meet her 'grand-hamster' for the first time!

 sprinkling reindeer food!

 my traditional yearly 'fireplace' picture :)

Putting cookies out for Santa!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!  We had a wonderful Christmas Day, my turkey dinner turned out perfect (I was worried the turkey might be dry!), I'll post pictures of Christmas Day later, right now I have a house to clean up from all the 'chaos' yesterday ;-)

It's getting close. . .

Wow, it's almost here - only 3 days til Christmas :-)  I'm all done with shopping, just have one more gift to wrap, and all that's left to do is a little house cleaning today (wash floors, clean bathrooms etc), and I'm ready for the big day. Oh, and I have to make a grocery list and get to the store first thing in the morning (before the rush). Then I'll have nothing to do on Christmas Eve except prep some Christmas Day food, and make dinner for my inlaws coming over.

Thanks to a great friend, we finally got our Gingerbread house decorated (Cheryl had an extra one). It was a packet from Ikea that didn't have icing or candy with it and it needed gluing together, but Kristen and I worked on it the other night and had fun together.  Jason popped in to the kitchen while we were 'playing' and grabbed the camera!

Kristen had just come out of the shower and still had a towel on her head!

 Then she swapped it for her Santa hat when she realized Daddy was taking pictures :-)

 

 

 The breakfast table is all set for Christmas morning :-)

 On Tuesday night Kristen's school friend Eden came over to have a sleep over. I've only just started getting to know her mom too, Keri. She stayed for a sleepover too ;-) The girls had fun hanging out upstairs, while me Keri and Cheryl had a girly night with some wine.

Her friend Eden loves pigs - look at her cute little slippers! And Kristen's slippers (being the not-so-girly girl that she is) are animal feet with claws!!

Ok, I must jump off here and go clean up a little. I hope you're all ready (or nearly ready) for the big day.