I’m kind of glad that I’ve waited this long to re-cap my Christmas festivities because I really just cannot bring myself to do all the “year in review” and “goals for 2012” posts that show up this time of year. I definitely have some goals for next year and some exciting things on the horizon, but I’ll save those things for another day.

This Christmas we drove up to the Chattanooga area to spend Christmas Eve with Jeff’s family.

The tree at his Papaw’s house was knee-deep in presents!

They got passed out rather quickly with the help of two “Santas.” Do you guys do that in your family? Someone, usually one of the kids gets to “play Santa” and hand out all the presents!

And in Jeff’s family everyone takes turns opening gifts one by one, so we all get to see what each person got and take pictures easily.

And when it’s not your turn to open one you can take turns snapping photos of each other instead!

After about 2 hours of unwrapping gifts (yes it takes that long but it’s part of the fun) we went into the kitchen for dessert. I brought a carrot cake because Jeff recently mentioned to me that carrot cake was his favorite, so I just had to make it for him.

Not just any carrot cake though, this was a carrot cake with a clementine cream cheese frosting! It might just be the best thing I’ve ever baked.

It makes me so happy when people like things I’ve cooked or baked, and everyone definitely loved the cake.

After dessert we went back to Jeff’s parents house to spend the night so that we could leave from there to head to Hiawassee, GA the next morning. My Dad’s side of the family has moved up there in recent years and it’s a beautiful part of Georgia, even if it is 2 and a half hours away.

I was so done with snapping photos so I didn’t really take any that day except for this one of me and my Dad. Don’t we have the same eyes?

So you may have noticed that I haven’t told you what Jeff and I got for each other yet. We actually exchanged gifts the Friday before Christmas so that we’d have time to “play” with our new stuff before we had to head up to Chattanooga.

I sent Jeff down to the basement to open his since I’d been storing it down there.

It’s a home beer brewing kit! We’ll both enjoy that one! 😉

He is so excited about it and has been spending the last week reading up on brewing techniques and shopping for the ingredients he’ll need to make his first batch!

He had also been dying for me to open his gift to me for all of December, and now I know why…

It’s a Cannon Rebel DSLR camera!!! Ahhhh!

I’ve been dying for a better camera for ages. I’m really starting to understand and enjoy photography and it was time to upgrade for sure. I absolutely love the Cannon PowerShot S90 Point and Shoot that I’ve been using for the last 2 years and I’ll definitely continue to use it, but a DSLR was necessary for me to be able to continue improving my photography skills and to take more professional quality photos.

It’s also going to be invaluable for a personal project I’ve been working on…….

Anyway, I hope your holiday season was wonderful too. See you all in the new year!

Awesome dinner last night with my wonderful in-laws.

Jeff and I met up with his parents at Canoe in early celebration of their anniversary and also for my birthday (I’ll be 27 on Tuesday, woo!)

Canoe is a gorgeous restaurant situated right next to the Chattahoochee River with beautifully landscaped lawns for strolling in the springtime when the dogwoods blossom and hang low over the river and geese grunt their territorial protestations from the manicured flower beds.

Being that it’s winter though, we did no strolling. But luckily, Canoe has so much more to offer than a pretty view. Their menu, focusing on fresh fish, house-grown vegetables and herbs, and succulent game meats, is fantastic and makes it an impossible task to choose something ho-hum.

We started with a breadbasket of sourdough, cranberry-walnut bread, and a spicy jalapeno flatbread. The flatbread was my favorite, it was an explosion of buttery flavor followed by a creeping heat.

I had a Calvados Punch, an apple-flavored cocktail that was deceptively fruity.

And Jeff ordered an Old Fashioned with Blanton’s bourbon.

For starters, I got the artisan cheese salad. Jeff’s mom, Nancy, got the same. I don’t think either of us were expecting the giant wheel of cheese and explosion of bacon that arrived and both of us ended up pawning off some of the richness on Jeff, who was only too happy to finish it off. It was delicious though, I wish I had asked what the cheese was because it was easily one of the yummiest I’ve ever had.

I got the special for my main course which was a macadamia crusted grouper with crispy rice, brussels and mushrooms, basil oil, and some sort of creamy sauce that was crazy-good.

Jeff got the duck breast. You can pretty much bet on Jeff ordering duck if it’s offered on any menu. I’m not a huge fan of it personally, and this breast was much too rare for me. He loved it though, along with the veggie and duck sausage stuffed crepe and sweet chili and fruit sauce.

Ok, I’m sharing everyone’s meals because they were just so good. Nancy had the salmon with baby spinach and spaghetti squash and a citrus pecan vinaigrette.

Mike got the rabbit with swiss chard, bacon ravioli, sweet potato hash, and candied garlic sauce. I’ve had this entree before years ago and I know that it’s a hit. The slow-roasted rabbit reminds me of soft and sweet pulled pork barbeque.

For dessert, we shared the chocolate chestnut roulade. A super-soft slice of clove-tinged pinwheel cake with chestnut creme, chocolate frosting, cracked macarons, and creme anglaise.

I could’ve made a meal out of this! It was everything I look for in a perfect dessert; cooling, creamy, soft, and luscious.

Jeff knows that it’s a husbands job to relinquish most of the dessert to the wife. 😉

We had a really great time together and a fantastic meal.

Love these guys!