My Favorite Things
I'm all wrapped up in enjoying Christmas but I wanted to take a few moments to be thankful for a few of my very favorite gifts this season.
A few weeks ago I asked an Italian friend of mine if she could email me her Tiramisu recipe. Matt is not a big dessert fan but loves Tiramisu. She asked when I needed it, I told her for Christmas, and she said she would get back to me. A few days later I received an email telling me to check out a video on my Facebook page.
My friend's husband filmed her making Tiramisu. She explained each step and even gave me a few Italian lessons and her grandmother's secret cooking techniques as well. My heart was so full as I watched her video. I probably could have logged on to one of a million cooking websites and found a recipe, but I knew Monica's would be authentic and I figured passing on a recipe wasn't too much to ask. What I got in return was the sweetest gift and far more than I hoped for. She showed me the exact consistency I needed to achieve with each of the different mixtures and offered some optional ideas for flavor and adjustments to the recipe for serving sizes.
As a bonus, the Tiramisu she was making was then passed on to another friend of mine as a gift. Truly a sweet (pun intended) blessing! Don't bother checking out my Facebook page for the video. She set it as private so that only I could see it and made me promise never to show anyone!
This is my Tiramisu. Monica assessed my photo and agreed that my lady fingers needed more soaking and I needed more of the Marscapone mixture. However it was tasty and we were so blessed!
The second awesome gift I received was actually a birthday gift intended to be worn for Christmas. Another friend of mine whipped up an awesome up-cycled sweater skirt for me. She took old sweaters in Christmas colors and finery and surged them to make the most adorable Christmas skirt ever in the history of all time. I wore it a few times this season and fully intend to get one more wear in before the clock strikes 2013! For some reason this is the only picture of myself in my adorable skirt. Its all blurry and lame, so I have to wear it again in order to properly document the cute factor.
A few weeks ago I asked an Italian friend of mine if she could email me her Tiramisu recipe. Matt is not a big dessert fan but loves Tiramisu. She asked when I needed it, I told her for Christmas, and she said she would get back to me. A few days later I received an email telling me to check out a video on my Facebook page.
My friend's husband filmed her making Tiramisu. She explained each step and even gave me a few Italian lessons and her grandmother's secret cooking techniques as well. My heart was so full as I watched her video. I probably could have logged on to one of a million cooking websites and found a recipe, but I knew Monica's would be authentic and I figured passing on a recipe wasn't too much to ask. What I got in return was the sweetest gift and far more than I hoped for. She showed me the exact consistency I needed to achieve with each of the different mixtures and offered some optional ideas for flavor and adjustments to the recipe for serving sizes.
As a bonus, the Tiramisu she was making was then passed on to another friend of mine as a gift. Truly a sweet (pun intended) blessing! Don't bother checking out my Facebook page for the video. She set it as private so that only I could see it and made me promise never to show anyone!
This is my Tiramisu. Monica assessed my photo and agreed that my lady fingers needed more soaking and I needed more of the Marscapone mixture. However it was tasty and we were so blessed!
The second awesome gift I received was actually a birthday gift intended to be worn for Christmas. Another friend of mine whipped up an awesome up-cycled sweater skirt for me. She took old sweaters in Christmas colors and finery and surged them to make the most adorable Christmas skirt ever in the history of all time. I wore it a few times this season and fully intend to get one more wear in before the clock strikes 2013! For some reason this is the only picture of myself in my adorable skirt. Its all blurry and lame, so I have to wear it again in order to properly document the cute factor.
What I love about the skirt is: it is soft, warm, and it has a story. The grey and cream sweater that you see on my left quarter shank there is a sweater my friend Darlene gave to my friend Angela a few years ago at one of our bible study breakfasts. Not only do I have an adorable, warm, comfortable skirt made by a dear friend, but I carry with me memories of times past. It is totally funky and I LOVE that about it. And I love that my friend knew I was balsy enough to wear it!
A few other noteworthy gifts were a simple Christmas decoration that said "Joy" on it from Gabe. He said he bought it for me because I was joyful.
Eli's blessed me with such a sweet heart this year. He wanted an iPod Touch so bad. He is saving for one and at the costly rate that the iPod Touches run these days, it was going to be a long road! We decided to give him my old iPhone without the sim card, so it is essentially an ipod touch. He opened the box and saw the iPhone and we told him what it was. There was not an ounce of disappointment in him. He didn't care that it was an old, used, out of date, knock-off of what he really wanted. He saw that it was essentially what he wanted and loved the case! Within seconds of receiving the gift he looked at us and said "does that mean I can give Gabe my old iPod?" Yes! Happiness all around.
The last one I want to mention was a family gift from my cousins to us. They gave us a fun-filled weekend this past weekend that was really just a plain old good time! We went to Vancouver to a German-esque Christmas Market, looked at lights at the Botanical garden in the pouring rain, Gabe got to sit on Santa's lap after singing carols and listing to him read a Christmas Story, and a special bonus was Spencer's convincing conversation with Gabe that he also believed that Santa was real! There was lots of laughter, great memories, and truly a fabulous weekend! The gift of this little excursion was priceless.
Here is a photo of the whole gang of us at the end of the night.
Here is Matt and the boys as elves. Oh and "Jeves" Matt's English Butler protecting Matt from the rain by holding his umbrella. Jeves stayed in character the entire night and despite puddles, low branches and awkward moments where Matt and I were kissing....he never broke character nor let a drop of rain fall on Matt. Good times!
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