Yup, everywhere you look there are signs of Christmas. On the streets, people’s homes, in the malls. Santa is making his way to town.
I saw this at Costco about a month ago and bought it for my daughter.
I’ve been meaning to share it with you, but kept forgetting. It comes with:
- 24 plaster ornaments
- 9 tubs of paint
- 4 tubes of sparkle paint
- 4 paint brushes
and it was only $9.99!! I thought that was a steal for 24 ornaments.
While little brother napped, big sister painted. She really seemed to enjoy it.
I joined in on the fun. These are the perks of motherhood, you get to enjoy everything you didn’t get to do as a kid, only better because you get to create these memories with your own kids.
Great bonding time!
Christmas is extra special for us as my daughter was born on December 24th. Yuppers, she’s my Christmas eve baby. Best gift a mom could ever get for Christmas, I’d say. Speaking of birthdays, my in-laws came into town to help celebrate my son’s two-year old birthday this past weekend so we also decided to start putting up our tree.
Love this next picture. They’re even holding hands…melts a Mom’s heart.
We still need to finish decorating. When you have kids, sometimes you just have to finish things in steps.
Pssst…just between you and I, I heard Santa loves milk and cookies 
. At least that’s what I think she’s saying to him. What do you think K is saying to L?
When I think of Christmas, I also think of FOOD. We bought some diver scallops to make as a side for L’s birthday dinner.
I know a lot of you would just eat the “meat” of the scallop and throw away the rest because it may contain toxins, but I grew up eating everything. When we made them at home, my parents would throw away the small black sack and keep everything else. Even at some Chinese restaurants they would keep everything. Since that’s the way I was brought up eating them, I decided to keep it that way. Christmas and birthdays are about tradition, aren’t they?
I steamed the scallops for 5 minutes. As they were steaming I heated up some oil in a pan. When the oil was hot enough, I threw in some garlic. As soon as the garlic started browning, I threw in some ginger, sautéed those for about a minute, threw in the green onions for another minute and then added a pinch of salt.
When the garlic, ginger, and green onions were done, I separated half the mix and topped them on four of the scallops (there were eight scallops in total). With the remaining half that was still in the pan, I added some soy sauce, tossed them around and then topped them on the remaining four scallops. To be honest, I wouldn’t add soy sauce next time as it was too overpowering on the scallops. Scallops should be kept very simple so that you can taste the sweetness and freshness of the wonderful meat. Plus, I think it looked much better without the soy sauce.
For an appetizer, I made these lovelies: Filo Cups with Crab and Pineapple Guacamole.
When I saw the recipe on Devaki’s site, I knew I had to make them, and boy was I glad I did. They were a hit! You can’t go wrong with guacamole and crab meat. Thank you for this wonderful recipe Devaki. I couldn’t find filo cups so I used pastry cups instead.
Two weeks ago I tried two of Denise’s dishes and absolutely fell in love with them. On the left was her Apple, Bacon Duck and Onion Galette. I don’t eat pork so she suggested I use duck instead – brilliant! On the right was her Roasted Potatoes with Mushroom Vinaigrette. Both these dishes seriously blew my mind away. Thank you Denise for your delicious recipes.
I loved the potatoes and mushrooms so much that I had to make them for my in-laws and parents to try on my son’s birthday. Needless to say, they were tasty. The only problem I had was that the recipe called for peeled potatoes and I got lazy and didn’t peel mine. Plus, I used small potatoes when I should’ve used big ones. DO WHAT THE RECIPE SAYS PEOPLE! I didn’t enjoy the potato skins. I am horrible at following instructions.
I also want to add that Denise and Lazaro are teaming up again to host another Quickies challenge. This time it’s a Quickies Noodle Challenge. Join in on the fun if you have time. The prize is Denise’s amazing cookbook.
Along side Denise’s wonderful dish, hubby made a roast beef. I’m not a huge meat-eater so I had a quarter of a slice. My Dad kept complimenting him on how perfectly cooked his roast was. It’s nice to get complimented once in a while, isn’t it Gary? (I’m playing the guilt card towards a new camera everyone . LOL.)
The roast WAS cooked beautifully. (And out comes the suck-up card 
.)
A wonderful dinner shared with loved ones. By the way, don’t set up two cameras on auto shoot at the same time. Can you see that some of us are looking one way while others are looking another way? Not very smart of us….haha. It’s party time from here on for us as K’s birthday is Dec. 24th, then Christmas, then new years, then Gary’s birthday right after new years. Lotsa partying…woot woot!
Do you eat the whole scallop, or just the meat (white part)? If you celebrate Christmas, when do you usually start putting up your tree?
Lastly, Lynn of The Actor’s Diet made an awesome video of the Foodbuzz Festival 2010. Here it is if you missed it. Thanks for making and sharing this video with us Lynn.
That’s it for this week everyone, thank you for reading. Until next time, friends and family .
