And thus concludes...

Our rather short Christmas Bucket List for 2012.  December was a little bit crazy for us.  We both had the flu for the first couple weeks after Thanksgiving and then I did something ridiculous but painful to my back the week before Christmas.  But we were happy to celebrate when we could and have enjoyed our first Christmas as a married couple.  We are looking forward to 2013.  We have an entire year to plan more fun things to put on our holiday bucket lists!

Our First Christmas Tree

9. Decorate our family Christmas tree

We didn't have lights.  We didn't have a tree skirt.  We didn't have a star on top.  We didn't have the hooks that I needed to hang my "pretty" ornaments.  We rescued our secondhand tree stand from the Silvas.  But, what a tree!

We are blessed to have so many fun memories wrapped up in every ornament that we did hang.  And next year I am feeling rather ambitious in regards to what kind of tree I want to have in our home.  But this one will do just fine for this year.  And we love the smell of a real Christmas tree.

(No spiders so far!)

Monday, December 17, Family Home Evening

Christmas Cookies (with Red Hots!)

8. Make Christmas Cookies

We had Clay and Haley George over on Tuesday, December 18, to decorate Christmas cookies.  This time--thanks to Shannon McQuarrie--my cookies actually turned out and didn't become flat unrecognizable globs of dough.  Her recipe is below and I hope she doesn't mind if I share it:

GRANDMA B’S SOUR CREAM SUGAR COOKIES

The McQuarries were in the Cherry Hill 6^th Ward—the first ward Andrew and I lived in after we got married.  Shannon was a domestic goddess and made the most amazing goodies.  Their family had us over the last weekend of every month to celebrate “Cookie Fest.”  We would all bring a plate of cookies to share.  This recipe is her grandmother’s recipe and it is wonderful!

1 c. sour cream                                                 1 t. baking soda

1 c. butter, softened                                                      1½ c. sugar

3 eggs, beaten                                                              1 t. vanilla

1 t. lemon extract                                                          3 t. baking powder

5 c. flour

Mix sour cream and baking soda together in a small bowl and set aside.  Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Mix in eggs, vanilla, and lemon extract.  Sift together flour and baking powder.  Add sifted dry ingredients to mixture alternating with sour cream mixture.  Roll out the dough on saran wrap and chill overnight.  Bake at 400° for 5 minutes.

I would like to try the recipe again with almond extract instead of lemon since I love the taste of almond.  And I may try using butter-flavored shortening for an even softer cookie but I believe Shannon would consider that blasphemy.

We also had Red Hots--of sorts.  I can't believe how hard it is to find those suckers and they are Andrew's absolute favorite.  He loves the combination of chocolate chips and Red Hots on sugar cookies.  I found a knock-off at Target but they are going to have to do for now.

Breakfast Quiche (whatwhat!)

Look.  If you want the bomb quiche recipe (SARAH LYNN COLEMAN) then here it is.  Warning.  It's the bomb.

ROBERT NAKEA’S HEAVENLY QUICHE FROM THE LORRAINE

Brother Nakea was in the Champaign 1^st ward with our family.  Not only was he an amazing musician but he was a spectacular cook!  This is my favorite recipe from him.  We love to change the meats and cheese varieties around every time we bake this.  One of our favorite combinations is pepper jack cheese, bacon and kielbasa.

9” frozen pie crust                                             8 oz. shredded Colby Jack cheese       

½  lb. smoked ham, chopped                            ½  lb. bacon, cooked and crumbled                 

6 eggs, beaten                                                  1 c. heavy whipping cream

Prepare pie crust as directed.  Spread cheese, ham, and bacon on crust placing cheese near the crust for a stronger flavor.  Add cream to eggs and pour over other ingredients.  Bake at 375° for 45-60 minutes or until inserted knife comes out clean.  Place pan on cookie sheet to avoid spillage.  You may want to loosely wrap the quiche with aluminum foil for the last 20 minutes so that it doesn’t get too brown.  This is definitely a once-in-a-while splurge!

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I love the holiday season!  It's such a fun time of year and there is so much to do and see.  It's so exciting.

Strapping it to the top of Andrew's pathfinder

4.  Buy a Christmas Tree
Andrew and I did buy a Christmas tree.  We both love the smell and joy of having a real Christmas tree and so we went out to a lot close to our home and picked a small tree out the Saturday before our ward Christmas party.  It was really cold that day and starting to snow so we made our decision pretty quickly.

"Now this isn't one where all of the needles fall off, is it?"

I was nervous about it having spiders and asked the guy who sold it to us if it had a "spider-free guarantee" but he laughed at me and told me that he personally knew they were COVERED in spiders.  Thank you, Mr. Salesman.  But so far we haven't seen a single living creature crawling around on or near the tree so I think we shook it out pretty well.  Phew!

We love our tree!  It's so nice to have in our home. We rescued an old tree stand from the Silvas but we have yet to put anything on it.  No tree skirt.  No lights.  No ornaments.  No star.  Ha ha!  We wanted to wait until Laurie brought Andrew's ornaments down from Washington but her trip keeps getting delayed due to weather.  But, we have a tree and it's our first Christmas tree.

5. Watch "White Christmas"
"White Christmas" is my favorite holiday movie to watch.  I love it.  Every thing about it.  Andrew and I cuddled up with warm mugs of hot cocoa and settled in to spend a lazy Sunday evening watching this classic.

6.  Send out Christmas cards 
We also got our Christmas cards printed up.  We didn't get too fancy this year.  But we got them out!  We sent out 225 cards which seems like a lot to me for our first year of marriage.  We feel so blessed to have so many dear friends and members of our family, though.  And I have loved getting cards in return!

 Sherry Ward took our photos this year.  This is the third time we have used her and we love her!  We highly recommend her.  She is so professional and prompt in getting your edited photos back to you.  Here are some of our favorite photos that we didn't include:

 
7.  Look at Christmas lights
 Saturday night,  after dinner with the Silvas, we drove down to Spanish Fork to see the "Festival of Lights."  It was only $7 a car and they have a cute drive around the golf course with holiday music.  I found a scavenger hunt for Christmas lights on Pinterest that was super cute.  Unfortunately, they didn't have a lot of "traditional" holiday displays at this particular venue.  However, if you were looking for a Santasaurus, look no further, folks!  There was also a bunch of Olympic sports represented and a festive, erupting volcano.  Quite the menagerie!

We have been finding more holiday movies to watch.  Our personal collection is rather dismal so we have renting movies on Amazon Instant Video or borrowing from friends.  We watched "Elf" and "Home Alone" this weekend.

Andrew's Big Three-Oh!

We celebrated Andrew's birthday the weekend of December 7-9.  It was nice to spend the whole weekend celebrating.

Friday night we went to Station 22 Cafe for dinner.  If you haven't been there since they remodeled and revamped the menu: GO!  Our food was amazing.  We met up with Chris, Amy & Baby Jane Silva; Dustin & Katie Locke: and Clay & Haley George.  It was so fun.

The chef sent out mini chicken and waffle appetizers for us as we waited.  Yum.  They have an amazing menu of bottled sodas (largest in the nation!) and we all had to try something.  I had the peach Nesbitt's.  Delish.  Our food was spectacular all around.  I got "Belle's Turkey" which was an open-faced turkey sandwich smothered in root beer gravy and topped with onion strings.  Holla!

Our server found a song on Spotify called "Happy Birthday, Andrew" (the band has 800 birthday songs with names) and they made Andrew a float with his choice of soda. Then we went back to our place to watch The Dark Knight Rises.

Saturday we went back to Station 22 with Devin, Katherine, & Clara for lunch.  We also went to the BYU vs. Utah basketball game and it was a birthday miracle that BYU pulled out a win on that game.  Ward Christmas party?  Check.  Two new paintings to hang in our home and signed by Greg Olsen?  Check.  Fresh Christmas tree from the neighborhood tree lot?  Check.  A good (and busy!) day.

Sunday night we had family over to celebrate.  We made Ingrid Taylor's super secret and super yummy enchiladas verdes.  I wish I could share the recipe but when I begged Ingrid for it, I swore I would never reveal it.  I made a really easy key lime pie for Andrew that was the bomb.  It made for some pretty pictures as well!

ANDREW’S BIRTHDAY KEY LIME PIE

Andrew requested a key lime pie OUT OF THE BLUE for his 30^th birthday.  I found this recipe on allrecipes.com.

2 cans sweetened condensed milk                              ½ c. sour cream                                  

¾ c. key lime juice                                                      1 T. grated lime zest

9-inch prepared graham cracker crust                         1 lime, sliced

Whipped cream                                                           Maraschino cherries

In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice, and lime zest.  Mix well and pour into graham cracker crust.  Bake at 350° for 5-8 minutes, until tine pinhole bubbles burst on the surface of pie.  Do not brown.  Chill pie thoroughly before serving.  Garnish with lime slices, whipped cream and cherries.

Happy birthday, Andrew.  I love you!

A Christmas Story!

3. Watch "A Christmas Story"
Lisa heard that one of the movie theaters was showing "A Christmas Story" for the holidays and so we got tickets.  Andrew couldn't come because he had Young Men's that night.  There were only like ten of us in the whole theater but we had such a good time laughing together at our favorite parts (and even as a scene would begin in anticipation).  What a terrific holiday movie!

A few weeks later, when Lisa went home for Christmas, she and Mom went out for Chinese and then watched this movie.  I sense a new tradition in the making: Chinese food and the movie are THE PERFECT combination!

An Anniversary of Sorts--December 4

December 4, 2010 was our first date.
 
Andrew took me up to Salt Lake City to watch a BYU basketball game (what a season 2010-2011!) and then we had dinner afterwards at Charlie Chow's Dragon Grill.  Any place that has "Dragon" in the title has to be awesome.

December 3-4, 2011 was the night we got engaged.

We had an amazing day to commemorate our one-year anniversary of dating including another BYU basketball game in Salt Lake and dinner at Charlie Chow's.  That night, after midnight, so that it was technically December 4 (which was a Sunday), Andrew popped the question.

December 4, 2012 came too fast.

Andrew and I have been fighting the flu in a major way since the day after Thanksgiving.  As of this writing,  we are 3+ weeks with cold symptoms still (have you heard my tuberculosis cough yet?)  Tuesday, December 4 snuck up on us and on our lunch break from work we remembered and wanted to celebrate.  It was going to be tricky to make a quick drive to SLC and back in time for Andrew's bowling league tournament.  But we did it.  And this time I got to wear not only my engagement ring but a wedding band as well.

Egg Nog & A Christmas Carol

And so it begins!

It's December and now we get to turn our time and attention to our Christmas Bucket List for this year.  It is a little smaller than our Fall Bucket List and still evolving as we think of more things to do but we'll get there.

You can follow our Christmas adventures this year on Instagram at #jamchristmas2012 (which is Jessica & Andrew Mitchell Christmas 2012 just much, much shorter).

1. Read "A Christmas Carol"
I wanted to find the perfect copy of this book for our family so while I was busy scouring bookstores, Andrew downloaded it for free on the iPad and finished it before I even started.  But we both really enjoyed reading it and I ended up finding a nice illustrated version with the complete text that will make for great fireside reading with our kiddos in the future.

2. Get nogged
 Andrew loves egg nog and I like it, too, so for our first FHE in December I made up some homemade egg nog.  This stuff is the bomb.  Promise.

GRANDMA’S EGG NOG

This recipe is adapted from Grandma Martin’s original recipe.  You cook it so that the egg nog is pasteurized and safe to drink.  The first time I made this, EVERYONE was skeptical.  But it was amazingly good and even the “non-noggers” liked it.

4 c. milk                                                                       5 whole cloves

2 ½ t. vanilla, divided                                                   1 t. ground cinnamon

12 egg yolks                                                                 1 ½ c. sugar

1 pint whipping cream                                                 1 pint half and half

Nutmeg

Combine milk, cloves, ½ teaspoon vanilla, and cinnamon in a saucepan, and heat over lowest setting for 5 minutes.  Beat egg yolks.  Slowly add sugar to eggs and beat until fluffy.  Slowly stir warm milk mixture into the eggs and return to saucepan.  Slowly heat up mixture and bring to medium heat, stirring constantly for 3 minutes, or until thick.  Do not allow mixture to boil.  Strain to remove cloves, and let cool for about an hour.  Add vanilla and half and half.  Prepare the whipping cream as directed and fold into mixture.  Refrigerate overnight.  Stir before serving chilled with a dash of nutmeg.  So good!

I made this for the first time last year and I have to confess that the reason I figured out a way to pasteurize it was because I suspected my friend, Amy Silva, was pregnant and I didn't want to put her in an awkward situation where she had to pass on drinking the egg nog.  Turns out she doesn't even like egg nog in the first place so by making it "safe" for her, I put her in the awkward position of having to confess that she just doesn't drink egg nog.  Period.  Hilarious story.