New Years Day

My parents spent Christmas in the middle east with my sister and her family, so the rest of us had Christmas with them on New Years Day. Devin and I went the night before and stayed until Friday afternoon. It was such a fun and relaxing couple days to be with my family.

For the past several years, the main Christmas meal has a theme, usually a type of ethnic food. This year was Asian-themed and Devin and I were in charge of the sushi appetizers.

Devin spent a good two hours prepping rice and chopping and matchsticking carrots. :) I love how he will get into something like this and go all out to make sure it's perfect.


I mainly assisted and gave advice and wrote down his menu. 



My mom did the main dish of Kung Pao chicken. It was beautiful and delicious. She also probably spent a couple hours chopping and cooking up small batches of chicken. Bless her.


With lots of grandchildren, mostly boys, the house can feel loud and chaotic at times, but I'm always amazed how after opening presents the kids slowly disperse and seem to calm down and it allows the adults to do our exchange, which is one of my favorite parts. We each give each other a favorite thing of ours and I love seeing what everyone does and always come home with such great things.


My parents have 13 grandchildren, soon to be 14. Of course we're missing Clive and Os in this one. Such a great group of kids. It's been so fun watching them grow up. And weird to me that I can have adult-like conversations with kids that, in my mind, were just Henrik's age a couple years ago. Henrik was a bit apprehensive about being in the mix of everything for the first couple hours but soon settled in and was loving all the action and playmates. This morning at home he woke up asking for "Fi" (his sweet cousin just four months younger than him). I think he's pretty bored being back home with just his parents.


Henrik found my mom's camera and went around squatting in front of people saying "cheese". It provided some fun entertainment for awhile for us and him. :) Of course his finger was over the lens for every picture he took.


Thanks mom and dad for a great Christmas. I couldn't be more thankful to get quality time with my favorite people. 

7 comments:

sarah.flyingkites said...

next time your fam does an Asian theme, please invite me :)

petite+grand said...

Oh my word.. Your parent's home brings back many good memories :)!

Sandra said...

Ok that sushi looks professional and oh soooo good!!! Nice job. I'm now in the mood for sushi😀

Betsy said...

The food does look amazing, but the company looks amazing-er. Love you all and I would have given anything to see H go around with his finger over the lens saying "cheese" - HA!

L, Ann and boys said...

I second the memories at your parents house being warm and fuzzy from years gone by ;)

leah said...

i can ditto the comments above. always loved being at your parents house. :) fun memories. Looks like many were made this year for your family!

Daveana said...

The sushi looks amazing Devin! Love your Christmas tradition of ethnic food! Sounds so fun! Sounds like you had a great Christmas with your family! I can't believe how big your nieces and nephews are! AHH! How time flys! Love you lots Em!