Williams Christmas in ABQ!

We had a lovely, peaceful Christmas here in our cozy apartment in Albuquerque. Things had been quite chaotic leading up to Christmas with all of our traveling that staying home and just being "us" was exactly what we needed! Our Christmas celebrations began with going to church on Christmas Eve. We both really enjoyed this service. Pastor Wayne talked about how to "identify a Christian". He spoke how "Christians" are known by how they display the fruits of the spirit. Unfortunately, he also had to apologize for most of us who say we are "Christians" but then don't show or bear that fruit in our life. It was convicting! I especially like how he went through each fruit of the spirit and defined what it means. For example he defined patience as the divine ability to graciously forebear people who get on your nerves. Do we all need to hear that at Christmas or what? How many times do we secretly want to run over the people in the Wal-Mart aisle who are blocking the whole aisle and taking five minutes to peruse the different box stuffing options? How many times do we want to yell at the guy who steals your parking space in the mall parking lot after you have waited five minutes for it? I know families look forward to Christmas all year and then sadly when it comes and you are with your family in a condensed space for more than an hour those people that are so special can suddenly become "annoying." I know everyone who reads this blog always has a gracious response in these circumstances, but it was convicting to me! Do people know me by my patience? Does my family know me by my patience? Does my husband know me by my patience?

Ouch...I'm not so sure.

After the service we then went to IHOP. Last year Adam and I were visiting his best friend in Tyler, Texas and drove back to Houston on Christmas Eve. We got really hungry and stopped by IHOP for dinner. We had these amazing pumpkin pancakes that we both have been thinking about all year since then!

Unfortunately, upon looking at the menu and ordering our pumpkin pancakes...

we found out they had run out! There were no pumpkin pancakes at IHOP!

We then settled for omelette's and berry pancakes. I'm not going to lie. My omelet made me a little sick and I could only eat half of it. We are currently re-thinking if we want IHOP to be a family tradition on Christmas Eve...we'll keep you posted:). We then came home to our decorated apartment! These are the lights Adam hung up!

These are our stockings. Both our parents had given us stockings last year so we decided to hang them all up even though there are only two of us currently...someday there will be four we hope. :-)

This is our nativity set that we received as a wedding gift last year...what a great gift!

This is our little tree sitting on our kitchen table. It looks large in this photo but don't be fooled, it is only three feet tall.
This is Adam on Christmas morning. Poor thing was tired as he woke up at six AM to take the cinnamon roll dough out of the fridge for me! I love you baby!

This is our finished product of our cinnamon rolls. Only half of them have icing because Adam doesn't like icing...I know weird....I just go with it.

I got the recipe from my good friend Kelly Dunn so I can't take credit for it but they were delicious! Here is the recipe if you want to make them:

Dough:

1 pckg. active dry east

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 cup luke warm milk

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter softened

1 t salt

1 egg

4 cups flour

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 T milk

1/2 t vanilla

(double this recipe for 13x9) pan

Dissolve yeast in H20

Stir in milk, sugar, butter, salt, egg, and 2 cups flour

Beat until smooth-5 minutes

Stir in the rest of the flour

Kneed for 5 minutes

Place in fridge over night

Roll dough into rectangle

Spread with melted or softened butter and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon

Roll into log and cut into sections

Bake in buttered 13x9 pan at 375 degrees fir 25-30 minutes

Top with glaze!

We ate our rolls with pumpkin lattes! We have an espresso machine and buy lots of pumpkin creamer during the holiday season...so good!This was our little tree with our stockings! Me and my stocking...I got lots of socks which is great because all my socks were falling apart and my toes were COLD!Here is Adam with his stocking! He was excited to get Madagascar the movie! We then read the Christmas story to Baby "J" in his baby Bible and then read it in the normal Bible for us.

We then went to our friend's - the Bassetts - house. We had a huge Christmas lunch with turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and more!Our good friends the Dunns were there too. They are from Vermont and have lived here just about the same time as us. We enjoyed bonding together as friends since we were all away from our families. I brought this spinach salad. Here is the recipe:

Dressing:

5 slices bacon

1 T minced shallot

1 t minced garlic

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1 T Dijon mustard

1-2 t honey to taste

kosher salt and pepper to taste

Salad:

1/2 lb. fresh baby spinach

6 ounces thinly sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion

To make vinaigrette, in skillet cook bacon. Discard all but two tablespoons of fat. Crumble bacon on salad when done.

In remaining fat, saute shallot, and garlic. Whisk in vinegar, mustard, honey, and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat.

Combine salad ingredients together and then toss with dressing.

I really liked the salad but the dressing was slightly too strong for me. A little amount of dressing goes a LONG way on this salad. I think if I make it again I would put in half as much of minced onion.

We stayed at the Bassetts for the afternoon and then came home and rested a bit. We then went over to the Dunns for games and dessert. I brought these Christmas meatballs. I really liked them. I got the recipe from good friend Meg Wallace. Here it is:

1 (16 0z) can whole-berry cranberry sauce

3/4 cups ketchup

1/2 cup beef broth

3 T brown sugar

2 T minced onion

2 t cider vinegar

Mix all ingredients and pour over browned frozen meatballs, or make home-made meatballs. I left it in the crock pot all day.

For dessert at the Dunns we brought an old family favorite of the Tune household-Cherry Cheese Pie. I didn't get a photo of it until it had already been eaten...oops. It looks better whole:).

Here is the recipe: It is from my momma:)

Filling:

8 oz. cream cheese softened

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 t vanilla

Blend this until smooth and refrigerate in crust over night or for several hours

Make graham cracker crust-cooking in oven

Top with cherry pie filling

This is so easy and so good! Adam actually made the crust and did a GREAT job. Christmas Eve I was cooking a bunch and he asked if he could help. I told him that he could make the crust. His eyes got so big! I could have asked him to solve global warming and he would be like "okay, I'll get on it," but baking put him totally out of his comfort zone! He was a trooper though and did it with love. I have to say it was a great crust!

Adam doesn't like things too sweet. I think when I make this again I may top it with fresh strawberries instead of canned cherries to reduce the amount of sugar. I love it but it is a pie you have to eat in small amounts because it is SWEET!

After game night, we came home and fell into our beds. It was a great Christmas! We are so blessed to have each other, have sweet, great friends, have wonderful families even if weren't with them, and to have a loving and living Savior!