Ben's Birthday

Christmas

Christmas this year was amazing. Ben was so wonderful and thoughtful. I woke up to Clark's antique train going around the lit tree. Ben woke up in the middle of the night and set the train up. It was a great surprise. After spending the morning together we went to Rich and Rose's for the famous Welling Christmas casserole. It was delicious! We then went to both of our parents houses to visit. It was a perfect day.

Christmas Eve

Dinner at Grandpa Welling's. We had lots of yummy food and lots of fun!

Bott Christmas Party

Tolman Christmas Party

Gingerbread House

Ben is doing the 12 days of Christmas for me. He's so sweet. Tonight we made a gingerbread house together. We learned on the food network (probably our favorite channel) that if you decorate the pieces before you put it together you can get a lot more detailed. So that's what we did. When we put it up it was so heavy that it fell. We did manage to get a few pictures before the destruction. Even though the house fell, we had so much fun doing it.

Holiday Baking

We had lots of fun (and lots of peppermint) baking today. We made caramel chocolate pretzels and a new found recipe, peppermint pinwheels. (thanks to Alton Brown of the food network). I love to try new things. Sometimes they don't quite work out. Ben is a great cook and mastered the cookies and dipping. I love cooking with my love!

Peppermint pinwheel recipe can be found here.

Temple Square

We went to the lights at Temple Square with Ben's family. We had a yummy dinner at CPK then froze our buns at temple square. It was cold but beautiful!

Light Parade

I have lived in Bountiful my whole life and had no idea that we had a light parade! It's being going for about 6 years. It is a delightful little parade. It really got me excited for the holidays!

Holiday Bruschetta

I was very pleased with how this turned out! Everyone loved it. Here is the recipe if you want to try it. I made it up so change it as you will.

Holiday Bruschetta

Ingredients

1 baguette

white onions

pears

fresh cranberries

brown sugar

sparkling cider

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

gorgonzola cheese

6-8 hours before you want to serve the bruschetta...

-thinly slice onions, put in a crock pot with a little oil and brown sugar

-slice pears, in a separate crock pot put pear slices, fresh cranberries, and sparkling cider

(if you don't have two crock pots you can cook the pears and cranberries on the stove, just cook it all until it gets bubbly and hot)

Before serving...

drain the liquid if there is a large amount in the onions or pear/cranberries

slice baguette into cracker size

toast both sides in the oven

brush olive oil on one side of the toast

sprinkle balsamic vinegar on the toast

place a small spoonful of onions on toast

place a small spoonful of cranberry/pear mixture

sprinkle gorgonzola cheese on top

if desired, sprinkle more balsamic vinegar on top

ENJOY!