For the very first time since we’ve moved in together (that’s 4 years now!), Allan and I decided to decorate our little apartment with Christmas decorations. And let’s face it, when I say “Allan and I”, I really mean me, since Allan would much rather be playing video games than doing holiday decorations Plus, I’ll be honest — I’ve been suffering a little bit from wedding withdrawal, and I’ve been dying for an excuse to do floral arrangements, place settings and entertaining

Over the past two weeks, I’ve decorated our home space, the common room at work, and my parent’s house. I’ve been elfing it up this year for some reason! Normally we do Christmas completely over at my parent’s place as they have space to do the big tree… and while Christmas will most definitely still be over there, we are having my folks over for Christmas breakfast this year and wanted to prep the apartment in advance. I decided to do a silver and champagne Christmas theme with red accents.

 

We hosted a holiday dinner party this past weekend with Trev & Crista and Mat & Ali and managed to find some space for our pop-up table. Seating 6 around this table in our apartment is difficult, so swapped our normal computer desk for a “rolly” desk that we can roll into a different room when we have people over. Awesome! Then it was time for new place settings! I also did all the floral arrangements with fresh roses and Christmas greens.

Low flower arrangements with large red roses and berries.

I really like the way our place settings turned out and I think they are versatile enough to use all year round. Or do you think it would be too much for normal entertaining?

Here’s a silver wreath we used to bring some festivity to our kitchen.

And my favourite… a fresh wreath with peppercorns, pinecones and tons of greens… smells so good!

Our side table was replaced with some silver Christmas trees and mercury glass candle holders…

… a couple other accents here and there with reindeer and more candles.

The aftermath of our dinner party with some holiday decor on our coffee table and a festive throw blanket.

I find cooking for 6 people really hard to do with plated dinners, so we did quite a bit of prep the previous night. I learned how to clarify butter for the first time (awesome for searing scallops at an extremely high temperature). I also toasted the pumpkin seeds, prepped the chocolate decorations and the veggies to give the pasta some colour.

The next day, we put the kobe-style marbled beef short ribs in the oven for four hours and got the butternut squash soup going. Some photos of our prep with making the sage sauce, and the minted pea puree.

Allan did a really nice job with the striped raviolis. We did beet-coloured ravioli for the butternut squash filled ones, and spinach-coloured ravioli for the wild mushroom filled ones.

First course: Butternut Squash Soup with Roasted Pumpkin Seeds and Pumpkin Seed Oil, finished with a Parmesan Crisp … we always seem to make this one when other people come over! (recipe)

Second Course: Seared Scallops in a Minted Pea Puree with Applewood Double-Smoked Bacon

Third Course: Braised Beef Short Rib in a Red Wine Reduction with Cauliflower Puree and duo of Wild Mushroom and Butternut Squash Ravioli in a Brown Butter Sage Sauce (recipe)

Fourth Course: Tiramisu Cheesecake with Chocolate Decoration and Strawberries (recipe)

Overall I think our dinner party went well and our apartment is looking festive! I think we’re all set for the holidays…. can’t wait for Christmas! Can you believe it’s only 2 weeks away now?

What are your holiday plans this year? Are you going to decorate your place?

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Okay, so I’m a little late on the Christmas posts. I really enjoyed something about this year’s Christmas. I don’t know whether it was the food, or the company, or the fact that I decided to spend the least amount on presents that I could, or that it was a White Christmas. Everything just seemed to be just right.

Normally we do Christmas morning, with waffles followed by tea and/or coffee, and present opening, and eventually Christmas dinner. This year we decided to do Christmas Eve so we could celebrate it with my cousins and their newborn baby. Of course, life always throws a twist at you and they had to stay at the hospital with the baby, but we were still able to pull together the family and have a good one.

Getting caught putting presents under the tree

This was also the first year I was told (by my parents) to save money and not buy any presents. I decided on a compromise; I would spend as little as possible on presents but still buy everybody something. I can’t tell you what a joy it was to just focus on something small but meaningful for everyone, and not worry about the credit cards this year. It was nice to just be with my family, enjoy their company, and have a great time instead of stressing out about the material aspects.

The dinner spread my mom and dad made this year was incredible.

The place settings were tasteful and very very pretty.

The turkey (thanks to my cousin) was tender, flavourful, and had the most amazing gravy.

The side dishes were great… broccoli and cauliflower gratin with different kinds of cheeses, stuffed mushrooms, asparagus and others.

My mom made a decadent chocolate lava cake for dessert from scratch with Callebaut chocolate…

… with about 12 different kinds of home made from scratch cookies.

The tree looked the same every year. A fake tree with fun colours and lots of different ornaments. It’s not that classy but it’s always fun to put up and we don’t worry too much about it

It was great to have Allan there, part of the family now. We all love him dearly.

And my little brother, who decided not to buy anyone presents this year.

And my parents who are so kind, loving, generous, and full of life. I can’t be thankful enough to have them in my lives.

I truly love my family. My parents, brother, Allan, grandmother, cousins, and aunt… I feel so lucky to be surrounded by such amazing, supportive people. And I’m glad to be close with them every day of the year, not just on Christmas. Thank you thank you thank you for being in my life!

Allan and I both got SIGG thermoses for Christmas. Yay! Just what we wanted, and perfect for snowboarding and backcountry. I got my little brother a Luke Skywalker toy from Japan when I went there.

What a heartwarming Christmas Eve.

Allan and I have both been pretty much freakishly sick over the past week. It got worse after the Avalanche Training course and has been steadily sticking with us. I made some chicken noodle soup from scratch… which I love doing when I’m sick. It takes a long time but it is definitely worth it. It’s all about the fresh herbs, and using organic, free-range chicken.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you had a good one… a White Christmas… and time with your loved ones. I’ll be off from now until January 5th so it’s going to be lots and lots of snowboarding as soon as I get better!