It's the last week of the year...

I hope everyone had a very merry and festive holiday weekend! I know we did - but we may never need to eat again! We ate like kings all weekend, and we'll be living off leftovers until next year... I think that's the best part of the holidays. Here's the Cranberry Apple (Crapple) Pie I made for the Coles' Christmas Eve dinner - Mike says it was delicious but for some reason the bottom crust was a little soggy this time. Guess I need to make another one to make up for it! I also made a Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake with Kahlua Cream - I thought it was delicious, even if I did find the recipe on the internet and it called for a boxed cake mix! I'm going to have to remember it.



My paperwhite narcissus bulbs are blooming like crazy - I keep them on the front porch because frankly they stink and make me sneeze, but I think they are very pretty. I brought them in to take a picture of them and they made the whole room smell, so I think next year I'll try the red amaryllis bulbs.

And finally, I managed to get my husband in the same place as me long enough to get a picture! Unfortunately, I didn't realize I looked so TIRED! But, here you go - (as always, click on the image for a larger photo)

We opened all the mysterious boxes from the family last night, and let me tell you we were blown away by the amazing gifts we received. Our little girl is lucky to have such a wonderful and generous extended family! (And I'm incredibly grateful for such a great set of in-laws!) Everything was so great and thoughtful, but I have to say that by far the best gift was the one Mike's mom sent to him. It really took his breath away and rendered him speechless - he was extremely touched.