Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

from The Williamson's

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

Ramblings of a Wife

Our weekend consisted of finishing our holiday shopping (YEAH!) and work on the farm. Since I can't show (obviously) what we bought or seeing hubby rake leaves is not really exciting....here are a few things that occured over the weekend.

1) We saw AVATAR!!!! I was skeptical about it but it was really cool. I would love to see a movie on how they could possibly spend $300 million dollars on this movie. Don't get me wrong the images were neat. I also came across an underlying message of saving our Mother Earth. I wonder if that is intentional or not. I guess the media will let us know.

2)

Happy 10th month Birthday

Remington!!!

3) I did not do a post on our Christmas decorations but I have seen The Nester and her Christmas tour. I was surprised on how people display their Christmas cards. I wanted to show a picture of how we display ours.

It is a rustic goldern Christmas tree that I can slide cards into. I love being able to look at all of the cards at one time. I found it at a home decorating shop called Laurie's near our town.


4) Not to brag, but I consider myself knowledgable of wines. So why in the world would I listen to others and buy this.....YUCK!!!

To each his own, if this is your fav but trust me when I say there are better wines out there. What is a girl to do???? Cook with it!!! I made Coq au Vi courtesy of the Food Network's Sunny Anderson on Cooking for Real.

Ingredients
4 chicken legs, thighs and drumsticks kept attached, skin removed
1 bottle red wine
4 cloves garlic, smashed
2 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
1 bunch fresh parsley, half whole, half chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Vidalia onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 pound thick-cut bacon, cut in fours
1 pound button mushrooms, halved
8 ounces frozen pearl onions, thawed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound pappardelle noodles, cooked al dente, warm
3 tablespoons butter

Directions
In a large bowl, add chicken with wine, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and the whole parsley stems. Cover and marinate for 24 hours in the refrigerator. Remove chicken from marinade and pat dry, reserving marinade. Season chicken with salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven, sear chicken on all sides in 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat until golden brown.

Remove to a plate.

In the same pot add more oil, if needed, and saute the onions, carrot and celery until tender. Add cayenne pepper and tomato paste and cook until tomatoes turn a deep reddish brown color. Add flour and stir until incorporated then pour in reserved marinade. Stir and simmer until thickened about 10 minutes. Add chicken back to the pot and pour in enough stock to just come up the sides of the chicken but not cover it completely. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook covered for about 1 hour or until the chicken falls off the bone.

Gently remove legs from pot and strain liquid from the solids, discarding the solids. Return chicken and strained liquid back to the Dutch oven and bring to a simmer. Heat a large saute pan with remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat and add bacon. Cook until crispy then add mushrooms and pearl onions. Continue to cook until tender and browned. Add mixture back to the pot with the chicken. Toss the noodles with butter. Place the noodles on a serving platter or individual plates and top with the chicken.

Garnish with chopped parsley and serve.

Thank you for reading my ramblings. Now I am off to clean my closet and get our home ready for guests this weekend. Tomorrow I get to visit with my Aggie Gals plus 3 1/2 babies. I can't wait!!

We're Looking Forward to...

Jason has been waiting for this movie to come out since he saw the trailer. I'm....not so sure. We will let you know after we see it TOMORROW!!!

Our weekend is consisting of finishing our holiday shopping and working around the Williamson farm.

Christmas Card 2009

I am so blessed to be married to a graphic designer who just loves when I inform him that it's the Christmas season and time for Christmas cards!! He also designed our wedding invitations...with my help of course.

Jason and I created "our logo" which is in the bottom left hand corner. We unveiled the logo on our glasses used at our wedding.

Merry Christmas

from Our Family to Yours

A Weekend of Christmas Fun

Hubby and I had a weekend packed full of holiday fun.

On Friday night, we attempted to have our Christmas cards printed. Key word attempted. While they were being "printed" we had a nice date night dinner. About 2 hours later we go to get our Christmas cards and NOTHING. The way they were printed was not at all what hubby designed. We got home and hubby went through his design again for another attempt in the morning.

Saturday morning we try again to get the pictures printed and NOTHING. After more technical difficulties and 3 HOURS later and NO breakfast we finally got them printed.
~~On Wednesday I will post our Christmas card through the Christmas Card Carousel. It looks like fun!!





Saturday night we went to hubby's Christmas party. We had alot of fun and because he was the one that took the pictures we were only in a few. 1 of the 5 pictures we are in. I will spare you the others.

On Sunday we enjoyed hanging out on the Williamson farm. I completed my weekly chores of laundry and cleaning while also baking Amish Friendship bread, Chocolate Chip, Walnut, and Pecan cookies, and our weekly dose of whole wheat bread. I also made my Chicken Chowder. Hubby also completed his outside chores and made a Southern Soup. I am so happy that for my last week of work I get to actually relax and not worry about dinner and chores.

See you again on Wednesday to see our Christmas card and hopefully by then they would have made it via "snail mail" to family.

Photo Shoot 2009

What happens when the momma, dada, and puppy have the camera set up for automatic pictures??

The Williamson's Photo Shoot

for Christmas Cards 2009!!!

During the pictures we were getting irritated. Looking back we had alot of fun!! We did get a great picture for our Christmas cards which I will post later : )

Maroon and Gold, What A Sight to Behold

Our family tree.

Some of our Christmas traditions:

~Our Christmas tree is real. We went to the local tree farm the day after Thanksgiving to get it.

~We decorate the day after Thanksgiving (ALWAYS)

~Since our first Christmas tree, we have always bought an ornament that is significant to what happened during the year.

~There are just a few Aggie ornaments, only a few.

I put a bug in hubby's ear that I may want to start putting up trees around the house. HA!!! After Christmas sale, HERE I COME!!!