Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

1 week off for Christmas and New Years and it feels like it's not enough.  I also can't believe how many Friends episodes I watched on TV, and the marathon is still no over til Jan 7.

Christmas started at Anthony's place on Dec 22.  I got there late as I had work and then made fresh monkey bread.  The food spread was already out.

Party Food.

More Party Food.

The tree looked nice.  It looked even better with some cool glasses that turned any light into reindeer, Santa, or snowmen.  I forgot where it was from.

Anthony's Christmas Tree.

After the kids left, we played some Telestrations, Code Names, and Between Two Cities.

Code Names.

I saw Gavin, Emi, Yuto, Noah, and Lena on Dec 2.  They brought a cheese cake from Uncle Tetsu's.  It was good, but I think mine is better.

Uncle Tetsu's Cheese Cake.

They also brought cheese tarts from Pablo's in Toronto.  Emi says it is a chain from Osaka, Japan.  The regular version (white) is really good.  It's like a mix between a Chinese egg tart and creme brule.  The chocolate version is not as good.  Very chocolate mousse like.

Pablo's Cheese Tarts.

Christmas this year was at Joe's house.  I made sushi for the party.  It took me awhile to prepare and make 14 rolls of sushi.

Sushi Preparation.

Big tree with lots of gifts around it.

Joe's Christmas Tree.

The appetizers: wontons, sweet potato chips, sushi, nachos, chorizo pate, popcorn, and Chinese pasties.

Appetizers.

The main course: roast beef, oysters, chicken, garlic shrimp, meatballs with mushrooms, veggie dishes.

Main Courses.

Dessert: Frutti Di Bosco cake, Nutella cream puff wreath, rice krispie squares, coconut puffs, cookies, and mix fruit.

Desserts.

We played a new game this year: Unwrap the Gift.  Susanna and I prepared the gift by wrapping in multiple layers and boxes, to make difficult to open.  The object is to roll dice and when you roll doubles, you put on the lobster claw oven mitts and try to open the gift while everyone else continues to roll the dice.  When doubles is rolled again the opener stops and is replaced by the double roller.  It took about 10 mins for the gift to get opened all the way.  Ben won the $25 McDonalds card in the middle.

Unwrap The Gift.

Family Christmas was the next day.  Susanna and I made 2 roasts with our own dry rub recipes.  Susanna's on the left and mine on the right.

2 Roasts.

Susanna's came out nice and rare.

Susanna's Roast.

Mine came out nice and rare too but I forgot to take a pic, but it is the meat on the closer plate.  Family Christmas dinner also had leftover sushi, salmon sashimi, baby bok choi, and meatballs.

Family Christmas Dinner.

The roasts tasted about the same.  Susanna's was abit more spicy than mine, but I can say which was better.  The potatoes and carrots on the other hand were abit salty.

I took the roast beef bones, end pieces, and the salty vegetables home.  I boiled and cooled the meat for about a day, and then added the salty veggies to make a stew.  They stew was really good the water nullified the saltiness.  I added a couple eggs to thicken it.  Most of the gelatin from the bones boiled out too.  Gave the dish a nice healthy stickiness.

Stew.

Made fresh rice to pour the stew over it.  The stew was very meaty as most the meat shredded apart.

Stew on Rice.