After Christmas, Yet Still in the Middle of the Holidays

Whooooosh!

That’s the sound of Christmas sweeping by. It was a wonderful holiday, and yet in a blink of an eye, it’s a Christmas Past.

Mr. Gordon and I got up early (as our habit) on the 25th, and after some coffee, exchanged our gifts. It was lovely, quiet morning.

Christmas Morn – Coffee and Presents

I actually gave Mr. Gordon his “big gift” around Thanksgiving. I had planned on checking prices at Kohl’s to see what kind of deal I could get compared to online options. Mr. Gordon was with me and I wasn’t planning on buying it then. I was just going to casually walk on by the box and eyeball the price.

Well… it was priced right (on sale) and also earned me a bunch of Kohl’s cash. It was better than the one Mr. Gordon had earmarked in his online wish list. So, I said: Merry Christmas!

Plus, BAGELS. The man makes me bagels!

I also gave Mr. Gordon this hummingbird feeder (pictured below) and he really liked it.

We both like that it’s actually red glass instead of painted glass.

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For Me?

My big gift was such a surprise – and WOW! I was (am) so excited! Mr. Gordon, my own personal Santa, gave me a Canon PowerShot SX530 HS!

I’ve been wanting a nice camera for awhile now for taking photos for GardenCookEatRepeat.com and whatnot, and this was a totally unexpected present. I really am fortunate. 🙂

(As you can probably guess, the photos from this post are still photos we took with our iPhones. I mean, I had to charge the new camera!)

ALSO, Mr. Gordon’s son gave me a Canon Sure Shot 80u camera because I love film photography. That will be harder to master, but I am so pleased. Just so pleased!

Okay, a few more lovelies – and I’ll be getting to some great appetizer recipe recommendations below. Stay with me. 😉

Hand-made Holiday Ornament from Great-Niece and Great-Nephew = THE BEST

A Scent-sational Ornament!

Mr. and Mrs. Simmons – Ain’t they sweet?

Ready for it? It’s the March of the Penguins!

Oh, the cuteness!

A Waddle of Penguins

Like my cute little friends? I’ve been wanting to make these for awhile. Simple recipe: Colossal-sized black olives, small-sized olives for the heads, carrots (sliced, raw), cream cheese, green onion strips (just the green tops), and toothpicks.

Note: I goofed up and didn’t buy colossal-sized black olives, but bought extra-large black olives instead. Turns out that extra-large and colossal are NOT the same. The extra-large were pretty small. If you make this recipe, make sure you definitely get the colossal-sized ones for the penguin body.

If you Google “stuffed black olive penguins” you will get all kinds of recipe sites. Foodie with Family is one. I like her recommendation for the green onion scarves. One more note, I don’t like using the Neufchatel cheese she suggests, so I just used regular cream cheese.

Party Poppers

I also made this fun and tasty mini-sweet peppers appetizer recipe from Listotic. I pretty much followed the recipe exactly, using 3 diced jalapenos AND I went with her option to “dip your final poppers in shredded cheese for more cheesy goodness.” I rolled the cheese ends in a thicker shredded sharp cheddar. ALSO, the recipe author recommended making the day before. I was worried that the sweet peppers would make the cheese mixture inside watery, so I made them on Christmas morning. Not necessary. Turns out it would be fine to make the day before. The leftovers were great the next day – not watery at all.

I took 2-pounds of red, orange, and yellow mini sweet peppers and stacked them in a lovely, round pyramid for the presentation.

And… didn’t take a picture. 

BUT, here’s a shot of the leftovers.

Not Pictured

I also made these delicious Bacon and Chives Mini Cheese Balls from Diethood.

I was in such a hurry to get out the door to the family gathering, I forgot to take a photo of the mini cheese balls. ARGH. But check out the recipe on the Diethood site. I didn’t follow it exactly, but it was still very good!

My change-ups: 

• Where she used 1/3 less fat cream cheese, I used original Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
• I don’t like turkey bacon, so I stuck with the real deal.
• Also, I tossed the bacon into the cheese and mixed it into the ball itself versus rolling the cheese ball in the bacon bits and chives. It was fine, but next time I will roll the cheese balls in the bacon as directed.
• Additionally – and maybe because the cheese balls had the bacon mixed in – they were a little bigger than I would have liked. I will roll them smaller in the future.
• I used the recommended chili powder, but I’ll swap that out for some smoky paprika when I make this recipe again. Try out a different flavor, you know?

The Day After

Usually Mr. Gordon and I have the days between Christmas and New Year’s Day off from work. This year, Mr. Gordon has to go into the office. I miss him and I’m sure he’d rather be on vacation, but what a blissfully quiet December 26th for me.

I read, I wrote in my new 2020 planner (thanks, Sandy!), and I even napped for an hour – totally not something I normally do.

It felt glorious to “do nothing.”

Coming Up

• How Could I NOT Have Known About Chili Mac?
• Planning the New Year’s Eve Feast (but in the meantime, you can read about past NYE feasts here)

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