bet those asians who visit my blog were excited about the potential for free rice for yourself, right?

 

Today while perusing recipes, I happened upon a blog that sent me to this site: FreeRice.  How it works is that you play a vocabulary game where for each word you get right, this organization donates 20 grains of rice.  Yes I know it’s through the United Nations, but hey, I like the idea of playing a vocab game to make me smarter (or at least pretend to be smarter) and possibly help with distributing rice to those in need.

Every Christmas Eve, Jon & I celebrate the holiday with his family for a scrumptious meal at his parents’ house.  This year, Grandma Morningstar & Grandpa Gingerich joined us for a very tasty dinner of prime rib, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad and bread.  I always make dessert, since I’m better at preparing it than I am at healthier courses.

This year, I chose to make a Tiramisu Cake, posted by Deb of Smitten Kitchen. Of course, my finished product was not nearly as delectable looking as hers, but I tried!

 My frosting wasn’t nearly thick enough, but it worked out fine.  and the special sauce which makes tiramisu so tasty did not saturate the cake layers as well as it could.  However, the cake was definitely smooth and light, and after eating such a large meal, a non-heavy dessert was perfect!

My other food contribution was a Breakfast Bread Pudding for Christmas breakfast.  For several years now, Jon & I spend the night at his parents’ house so that we can wake up there and have a special morning brunch.  This year we planned a bigger get-together since my cousin Danette and her family were intending on joining us (however her son had a bad cold and like good parents, they didn’t want him to get sicker from being out and about).  So for breakfast we had the same family members around the table, but this time with less heavy food.

Our meal included my bread pudding in two options (with mushrooms or with ham), homemade waffles, fresh fruit and customized smoothies courtesy of Jon & his Vitamix.

As always, we ate very well for Christmas Eve and Christmas breakfast. For us, Christmas isn’t about gifts and receiving things from people, we take this time to reflect upon the year and see where God has brought us and where He is leading us.  It’s a chance to spend some quality time with family.  and it’s a time to stop and appreciate all that God has done for us as a family, as a business and as His servants.

We hope you all had a joyous holiday with your loved ones!