holidays – Page 11 – thosecoolkims

Christmas Eve with The Kims!

This year was the 2nd annual Kim Family Christmas Eve Dinner here at our house, and we had a blast. We really enjoy putting on dinner for our family and we like seeing how excited they get over our preparations. :) It was nice and cozy – a party of 6. Ed’s Dad, Mom, Aunt and Uncle all were in attendance and it was a really nice time.

First, we got the table ready. We like to make make it look Christmas-y, but still in our signature modern aesthetic. Here’s this years table setting:

Then, off to the kitchen. Both of us enjoy the cooking!

Carrie works on her signature antipasto salad …

The final product!

Ed prepares the scalloped potatoes … (thanks to Carrie’s mom for the recipe!)

About to go in the oven!

Tonights menu consisted of:
Ham (we’ve never made a ham before, it turned out pretty well!)
Scalloped Potatoes
Garlic Green Beans
Antipasto Salad

and …

Peppermint Chocolate Sundaes for dessert!

Afterwards, we enjoyed lots of coffee, a great political discussion, and of course – the gift exchange…

Dad is happy about his digital photo frame/clock/calendar/radio combo!

Aunt Grace got a pretty hip shirt …

We had a lovely time and are so happy to have our family enjoy the holiday with us in our home.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Goodies

I was so lucky to spend the day on Saturday baking with my mom. My mom is a master in the kitchen, and I was very excited to make some treats along with her. We decided on baking Pumpkin Bread loaves, chocolate chip cookies, Grandma’s old Swiss Sugar Cookie recipe, and I was very excited to try out Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Peppermint Cookies. They are delicious, and I am amazed at all we got done!

I always enjoy the packaging part, and this is how mine turned out:

I think I might have done ol’ Martha proud?

Thanks for all the help, Mom!
xoCarrie

We’re Grown Ups!

We hosted Christmas Eve Dinner for the Kim Family last night. It turned out awesome. We were so excited to have everybody over and do some serious entertaining with all of our fancy new wedding gifts!

Here’s an aerial shot of the table:

Carrie wanted to be fancy so she made little placecards with candles for everybody. :)

The food even turned out good! Thank goodness for Carrie’s mom, she helped out by doing a trial run with us on Friday night. Both Mom & Dad came over and they were our food tasters! Here’s a pic of the finished birds, we can’t believe we made these, it’s way too adult-like. Look out next year, we might be making the Thanksgiving turkey!

The menu:
Mixed Green Salad
Cornish Game Hens
Wild Rice
Ed’s Special Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Steamed Asparagus w/Bearnaise Sauce

Here’s Ed excited in the kitchen:

One of Carrie’s family Christmas traditions is having mom’s Ribbon Salad for dessert. It’s made out of lime jello, cherry jello and a middle cheesecake-like layer with lemon jello, crushed pineapple and cream cheese. Usually mom makes it in a jello mold, but we used our fancy-schmancy wine glasses for everybody to have their own individual dessert. They were a hit!

And finally – the family.
Top Row: Ed, [future bro-in-law] Mani, Shannon, Mom
Bottom: Dad, Imo, Uncle
Yay for Christmas Eve ’06!