Saturday Night Pizza Tradition

I've heard it said somewhere (maybe it was just me saying it) that in order to make something a tradition, you have to do it 3 times. Well, its official - we have started a new tradition: Saturday Night Pizza. That's right, we managed to make it three weeks in a row. I'm following in my sister's footsteps (and using her pizza dough recipe) by having pizza once a week. You can see evidence of our first pizza night here.

After that, we went on to have two more pizza nights when Bill's mom was here. We were very creative when making our pizzas because, if we are going to do this every week, we don't want to get bored with the same ol' pepperoni pizza. The second SNP consisted of a Pesto Vegetable mini-pizza and an Alfredo Chicken & Onion mini-pizza. Both were delicious and so unbelievably yummy. For the third SNP we had Stir-Fry Pizza, with vegetables and teriyaki sauce. It was really good...better than I thought it would be, actually.

We are looking forward to our next pizza night. Good friends will be joining us for SNP and we plan to have Ham & Cheese and Sausage & Green Pepper (although, we'll probably leave the peppers off of half the pizza so Alex will like it more). I can't wait! Here are some photos of the last two SNPs. I wish you could smell and taste how delicious these pizzas were!

Alfredo Chicken & Onion Pizza

Pesto Vegetable Pizza

Stir-Fry Pizza

Christmas

The Christmas season is my favorite time of year. There are so many traditions and everyone always seems to be in a good mood. And the best part of Christmas time, is Christmas day. But first, Christmas eve.

On Christmas eve, we went to church for the candlelight service and we sang Christmas carols in the piazza with our candles. It was so picturesque and I really enjoyed it. When we got home, we opened one present each. (We both got new holiday flannel pants to wear on Christmas morning.) We also made cinnamon rolls so they could be ready to pop in the oven on Christmas morning.

We had a wonderful Christmas day. I love waking up on Christmas morning and opening presents. In the old days, I was usually the first one up in the morning...that hasn't changed! But, we did sleep in a little bit, I wasn't about to wake up at 6:00 AM to open presents...I value my sleep more now than when I was a kid. We woke up and leisurely opened gifts before having cinnamon rolls for breakfast - at noon! Later in the evening, we had Christmas dinner. It was so very delicious. We were still full from breakfast, but we made room for ham, scalloped potatoes, peas, and cranberry sauce. So yummy!

Here are a few pictures of our very merry Christmas and our fabulous food. We hope that each of you had an equally joyous Christmas time!

our new flannel pants on Christmas eve

cinnamon rolls ready to bake on Christmas morning
our tree is so pretty with all the presents

I got all kinds of goodies from my sister and her family

Bill got a new scarf and he was Santa's helper

Bill's mom opens her stocking

Bill likes books!

a new Christmas tablecloth...we even used it for our dinner

after presents, we had freshly baked cinnamon rolls

They were so good and the smell was unbelievable

our Christmas dinner

Christmas Party

I have a lot of catching up to do so here I go...

On December 21, we had a Christmas Dessert Open House. I've done it once before and I would like it to become an annual tradition, but I'm not making any promises. It was a lot of work and a lot of cookie baking, but it was also a lot of fun and totally worth it! We started making cookies several days before the event. I was able to make everything I love and not have to eat it all myself...yum! We made all kinds of Christmas desserts...we had fudge, Russian tea cakes, Hello Dolly bars, Moravian ginger cookies, German chocolate pie, pumpkin pie, peanut butter cookies, jam thumbprints, muddy buddies (or as Sandi taught me to make it - puppy chow), rice Krispie treats (with holiday M&Ms), spritz, and carmel corn. It was all very delicious and beautiful.

It turned out to be a great evening. Lots of people came and ate lots of desserts and had lots of fun.

making the carmel sauce

carmel sauce on popcorn = carmel corn
yummy!

cookie dough

making spritz

even Bill helped!

spritz are so festive

spritz in a tin

all Christmas cookies should be kept in Christmas tins!

fudge, Russian tea cakes, Hello Dolly bars

all the pretty desserts

Coming Soon

I have so much to write about and so many pictures to share. We've had another pizza night and we've made a million different kinds of Christmas cookies and desserts and we even had a huge Christmas Dessert Open House. We've been enjoying the visit of Bill's mom as he takes her around Rome being a good tour guide. All in all, we're having a busy and festive Christmas season. It's almost Christmas day!!! I can't wait. Our tree has presents under it (more than I imagined it would) and we're all having lots of fun. I'm looking forward to our first Christmas as a married couple...should be fun!

Unfortunately, I don't have time to write everything I want to and I can't post all the pictures that Bill has taken for me. But, I'm going to get to them soon. I just want you to know that I haven't forgotten and I will be back soon...very soon!

Until then, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas time. It is such a festive time of year and I want everyone to enjoy it as much as I do!!!

Pizza Night

Tonight we started a tradition. A fun and exciting (and tasty) tradition. We made pizza. We are going to have pizza on Saturday nights from now on. Well, we probably won't have pizza EVERY week, but we'll try. We sure started off with a bang. We invited our friends to help us inaugurate this tradition and we made Spanish Ham pizza and Pesto Chicken pizza. Both delicious! We had a lot of fun making pizza and eating it...here are pictures to prove it. (There aren't any pictures of Bill because he was taking them...but he had fun too.)

The crust is an empty canvas

I'm making the pesto pizza
Mike's making the ham pizza

Rachael adds cheese

Alex adds more cheese, we like cheese

one RED pizza...

one GREEN pizza (Christmas colors!)

so delicious

pesto chicken pizza - a new favorite!

cheesy goodness

Christmas Time

Its definitely Christmas time. I haven't been posting anything recently because I've been super busy. This is the busiest time of year, for me. I've been working on Christmas presents for my friends and family and I was able to get them all made, wrapped, packaged and mailed this week. It feels good to have them on their way. There's still a lot to do...Christmas baking is next on the list. Its just nice to walk around the house and see all the Christmas decorations. It is the MOST wonderful time of the year, indeed!

The wreath is hung on the door to greet everyone and say "Merry Christmas."

Our stockings are hung by the radiator with care...

and the aprons are awaiting the Christmas Cookie Baking Frenzy that's coming!
Our Christmas card tree is ready for any cards we receive

and we anxiously count the days 'till Santa comes.

We have presents under the tree...

and Christmas candy on the table,

while our nativity scene reminds us of the TRUE meaning of Christmas.

We hope that your house is as festive as ours while we all enjoy the holiday spirit!

December

Happy December Day! We put our Christmas tree up on Saturday. Its so pretty. Did I mention that I love Christmas? Bill spent some time getting the perfect picture of our tree tonight. Here it is. Its so festive to sit in the living room with only the tree lights on. This truly is "the most wonderful time of year!" I hope you are enjoying the season too.