It’s a new year, wow!  Where did the time ever go?!  I look at the boys and they are getting HUGE, I know time has passed but it still surprises me sometimes.  December was a busy month as I’m sure it was for most of you.  Here’s a peek in our kitchen during that madness….

Between various holiday school parties, teacher gifts and a teacher luncheon there was a lot of action in the kitchen.  Here’s a collage  sampling of what happened in our kitchen.

The big picture is Sean and Ewan “decorating” their own pizza on a family pizza night, always a favorite dinner night!  Then from the top right around we have:  Jack decorating some World Peace Cookies from Dorie Greenspan’s Dorie’s Cookies, the decorated World Peace Cookies, a rum cake soaking in the pan overnight for a teacher holiday luncheon, Jack posing with all the teacher gifts the boys took to school and desserts for the teacher luncheon, a veggie plate for Jack’s class holiday party, Jack making eggnog and Ewan rolling gingerbread cookies in sugar.  Wow, that was all done in just two days!!

We also had some delicious holiday meals.  Christmas Eve we have homemade pizza.  It’s been a family tradition ever since I was a young child.  I only remember one year we didn’t have homemade pizza (the dough didn’t rise and we had an emergency pizza delivery night)!  This year the boys enjoyed helping Daddy grill the pizzas.

Christmas morning we opened presents bright and early.  Then a couple hours later we had brunch.  This year I resisted the urge to bake a yummy treat, I’m glad I didn’t since the fruit with whipped cream was more than enough.  Josh and I also had our fruit soaking in St. Germaine too, perfect to go with the bubbly with St. Germaine as well.  The fritatta was also delicious.

I managed to keep Christmas dinner simple too.  The boys had cornish game hen for the first time.  Served in their own little cast iron pan they thought it was kinda cool to have their own chicken.  Green beans and creamed kale rounded out the meal, along with wine of course.

We also had plenty of Christmas gifts that were kitchen related.  All the guys got a cast iron dutch oven for camping which we will be testing out soon.  The boys also got this set of Star Wars goodies.

They also got these stainless steel snack containers.  I can pack their post swim practice snack in here and they are some happy boys!  Right now the go to is diced chicken, organic crackers, dried pineapple (made in the dehydrator Josh got for Christmas) and chocolate covered almonds.

In addition to the boys’ Star Wars cookbook we also got four other new cookbooks.  Josh is studying up on camp cooking while the boys are going to learn to bake with minimal assistance.  I’m loving both of my cookbooks as well and looking forward to trying many new recipes.  I also have a new pastry board which will come in handy when making some of the recipes from The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook I got from my brother.  It contains recipes from a bakery in Seattle where he lives.

I also look forward to testing out my new pullman loaf pan.

And finally we ended the year with these delicious pretzels Josh baked.  He used a recipe from Classic German Baking.  They were extremely popular, we had friends over New Year’s Eve and there wasn’t a single one left!

I better quit now before this post gets even more out of control. I’ll save a few things for next month.  Liz over at Bizzy Lizzy’s hosts this monthly roundup, though this month we are officially still on holiday.  I had so much to share I figured I’d do a post anyway, just imagine how long next month’s post would be if I waited!!