Saturday's Christmas Supper with Friends!

This year Aleksy and I wanted to hold festivities for our friends at our place and invite everyone and have a Christmas supper. We suggested this idea to Warren and Chelsea who thought it would be fun if they invited some of their friends, and we invited some of ours. We extended the invitation to LOTS of people, and unfortunately many couldn't make it but we had 10 people for supper and a few for appetizers before supper or dessert after supper. It ended up being a tremendous success with lots of food that all turned out delicious and good company who all seemed to get along well!

This was the first time that Chels and I have ever made a Turkey independent from family members. We got some tips from Chelsea's Mom... We poured some butter over the bird first then made a flour concoction of AP flour, paprika, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper. We covered the turkey in this then put it in the oven on high (425) for about 20 min then cooked it for the rest of the time on 350, basting occasionally. And I must say it turned out FANTASTIC!! Wasn't dry in the least bit!!

I am a large fan of a good bargain. So I didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for decorations for one night! So I bought those white trees at the dollar store, some confetti and chocolate bells and those served as festive decorations (and looked great for the price!). Aleksy and Warren were running some errands for us during the day and bought us flowers so we put those up for decorations too! We saved quite a bit of money on plates, napkins etc. by using what we already had at home rather than buying Christmas themed disposable items. We also saved money by not buying expensive wine- I showed Chels about the 1.5 L bottles of wine under $15 - keeping it classy ;)

We started the evening by having appetizers at 5pm: dips & pitas, the oriental party pack (good ol' M&Ms), stuffed baguette with cream cheese, pesto, artichokes, sundried tomatoes and spinach, seafood stuffed mushrooms (Chelsea's creation: delic!), brie with red pepper jelly wrapped in pillsbury croissant dough  (simple and so good). Then supper was at 7pm. This is Chels loading up her supper plate. Everyone brought different items to help us out (like potatoes, vegetables) so we didn't have to spend the entire day cooking, which made it a lot easier!

Everyone getting ready to start their supper! And Al & Steph being posers!! :)

My favorite shot of the night. This is only those who could make it for supper (we didn't get a picture of those who made it before/after, but we're very glad they could come for even a little!!) and this is actually the picture Alejandra took with her camera - it looks a bit nicer than the one taken on our camera!

Ah dessert. My favourite part of life. And we had a great variety too! Alejandra made the cake on the bottom: a pound cake of sorts with meringue on the top, Steph made an AMAZING PB ice cream cake, which satisfied my undying love for PB, and Chelsea and I had the 2 plates of assorted desserts. Chelsea made her yummy treats with her Mom: truffles, shortbread, peanut brittle, "souped up rice krispie sqaures" (Chelsea's words!! ha) and I made sugar Christmas cookies, shortbread, PB balls, and brownies.

It seems that every time Steph and I want a picture of just us, Al needs to be in the picture. This is a very regular looking picture for Steph and I!

We're definitely going to have another supper next year (hopefully by that time we'll have our own house to have it in!) and hopefully everyone can come out again (and hopefully more can come too!). 

December Birthdays!

This past weekend was bday celebration weekend! Celebrating my brother (14), nephew (13), and niece (4). So many December birthdays: Trevor on the 16th and Brandon & Emma on the 22nd. We started the celebrations at my Moms on Friday and these pictures are from that evening! We also had celebrations on Sunday at my Dads!

 I love to get pictures of my 2 nieces together and see how they grow! I have so any and they look so much bigger wit every new picture! This picture of Rachel reminds me exactly of her Dad, my bro in law Kenny. After the 22nd, Emma will be 4!

 Me and my Rachel!

 Present time! This is the tea set that I got for Emma! I looked absolutely EVERYWHERE in the city for this porcelain tea set... you name it and I checked there and when I stopped looking that was when I found it at Giant Tiger! I guess everyone makes plastic ones now because that's all I could find. I had a tea set when I was little and I thought it would be an adorable gift so I got 2: one for Emma and one for Rachel! Emma was so excited she wanted to have a tea party right away.

Rachel helping Emma out with opening her bday presents, or at least watching very closely.

 My Mom got Emma these little pups and the girls were "walking" them around the house.

 Me and the bday girl in her new birthday robe.

For those of you who know me very well, you know about my germaphobe issues. Well I learned a new trick from my sister! After about 5 different people blew on the birthday cake three times, I began to think about all the spit that must be on the cake. And my sister mentioned that she never eats the top of the cake. Brilliant! A break-through for comfort in my germ issues.

Katherine's November fitness successes

In an effort to see how useful my gym membership has been and how active I am during the month, I have been keeping track of my fitness schedule for the month of November:
Nov 1 - pilates 30 min
Nov 3 - pilates 30 min
Nov 6 - volleyball 1 hr
Nov 7 - gym: 30 min elliptical, 5 min bike
             hot yoga - 1 hr
Nov 13 - skating 1.5hrs
               volleyball 1.5hr
Nov 14 - gym: elliptical 30 min, bike 10 min, abs 10 min
Nov 17 - gym: 25 elliptical 15 bike, 10 abs
Nov 20 - volleyball 1 hr
Nov 21 - gym: elliptical 35 min, bike 10, abs 10
Nov 22 - hot yoga 1 hr
Nov 27 - volleyball 1 hr
Nov 30 - hot yoga 1hr (at the athletic club),
               gym: elliptical 30 min, bike 15 min, abs 10

That looks like a lot more than it looked on my calendar! My hopes are that if I am writing this down for the month, I can see if my $40/month for the gym is worthwhile and if I need to pick it up a little!

I also bought a pass for moksha yoga, and go about every other week (usually with steph!). I also tried out hot yoga at the athletic club, which is pretty fantastic that it is included because at moksha, it costs $16 every time you go. I prefer moksha, but I definitely still enjoyed the athletic club's version - it was not as hot though. I hope December is more (or at least the same) active... I have to make up for all the cookies and baked goods i'll be eating!