My heart feels so full from this holiday weekend. I don't even know where to begin. The only photos I have to share are from the twenty minutes it took to get a cute "first Christmas" photo of Derek and I. And now commence the word vomit:
I literally couldn't breathe the week leading up to Christmas. My nose decided it was the perfect time to get congested. I was bummed because I didn't want the skin around my nose to get dry and flaky, AND I couldn't taste food (so heartbroken, haha). I watched an unhealthy and undesirable amount of Grey's Anatomy on Netflix to cope. On Saturday our church held our annual Christmas Eve candlelight service which was so fun. Tasha, Justin and Riley led worship and their three-part harmonies were FIRE.
On Sunday we were back at it again at church for our Christmas service. It was so fun being surrounded by my family. After church we had lunch at Kabuki with my mom, and she gifted me with the most amazing gift ever: a Le Creuset round dutch oven, a spatula and potholders. After lunch we zoomed over to Yucaipa to spend Christmas with more family. Derek and I stopped at Vons to pick up some dinner rolls on the way there. We had three different soups: enchilada, chicken noodle and chili with cornbread. Our sister, Valarie, made yummy swedish meatballs too. Soup is basically my favorite thing ever, so it was perfect.
My mom and brother ended up joining in on the festivities too. Every single person in Derek's family has such a disarming personality. They are so loving. My husband's probably the sweetest and most caring person I know. Later we opened gifts and as it turns out - my mother in law got me a dutch oven too HAHA. Guess both of my moms think alike. ;)
The kids were running around with their new toys, I was eating all the desserts, our grandma read a devotional and wrote all the grandchildren sweet letters that we read aloud, and the whole family sang karaoke to finish off the night.
The dutch oven my mom gifted me was in the classic cerise (bright red) Le Creuset color. The next day we went to Williams Sonoma because I really wanted it in either caribbean (turquoise) or marseille (royal blue). Instead of exchanging it, my mom decided to keep the Le Creuset for herself and I ended up getting an oval Staub oven instead. The lady sold us on the self-basting lid. But seriously though, it is SO beautiful. It's in this classy, deep red wine color. I'm literally obsessed. You'll probably see photos of it at some point.
To break it in, I made dakdoritang. It's a Korean dish: spicy braised chicken stew. SO GOOD and it's really easy to make. You basically throw all the ingredients into a pot, bring it to a boil and let it sit for about an hour. Though I added way too much gochujang and my nose tends to run when I eat spicy or hot food. All I can say was that it was worth it. I invited a couple of my friends to enjoy some with me. I think that's my favorite part about cooking - feeding loved ones. :) I'm usually always way too lazy to cook for myself, much less take care of myself... but there's no real way to describe the satisfaction that comes with feeding others. I should really cook more and have endless dinner parties. TURN uPPP
I don't believe I had much direction with this entry, but long story short... I love my husband and our little life together. Plus he's really handsome, looks cute in baseball caps, gives the best cuddles and loves me so well. It was a great "first married Christmas".