Merry Christmas!

and Happy New Year! But is it too late to talk about Christmas? Or the tree we got at the farmer's market? Of course not!

So like I said, we headed to the good ole farmer's market. There were a lot of trees from numerous farms, which was a bit surprising and overwhelming at first. It was great though because good deals could be had and it afforded me the chance to haggle a bit, not to mention everything smelled fantastic!

Anyways after about 20 minutes of checking out the trees, we decided to make a choice, since after awhile, they all look the same and we were in danger of pine-peeping (photography pun alert!) the trees.

So here is Beth giving the seal of approval on our choice:




Our tree hailed from Ashe County, woohoo Western N.C.!


The tree was tied to the top of our jalopy wagon by the lumberjack.

Shucks, I miss my beard!

And here I am giving the tree my seal of approval too!

So back to house to put the tree up and then decorate it with ornaments, lights, ribbon, of which we previously had none. (We also got an amazing wreath from the farmer's market, but I can't seem to find the photo anywhere!)

After numerous trips to the store, kind gifts from friends and one boss, the tree finally was ready!






The view from outside:






We played host this year, and had Beth's grandmother, her sister Brittany, her parents and younger bro Andrew over for Christmas and the weekend. It was great to have the house filled with people, although the cats disagree with us on that!

Our main event was Christmas Day lunch, where we started out with spinach stuffed mushrooms topped with cheese, followed by a pear and walnut salad with mustard vinaigrette and blue cheese:






The main course was broiled salmon with garlic lemon pepper crust:




With sides of mashed potato gratin with goat cheese, garlic and scallions:






and steamed fresh asparagus sprinkled with Parmesan cheese:





For dinner, we had honey baked ham, sweet potato casserole, brown rice and stuffing. Of course, the rest of the weekend was spent eating leftovers of all of above.

And wouldn't you know it, after all the preparation and build up, it was all over with too quickly! Luckily, we had New Year's to look forward to, as we were headed to Whiteville for the big family oyster roast!

More on that to follow, hope everyone had a good holiday!