Merry Christmas one and all!

Are you having deja vu?  Me disappearing shortly after Thanksgiving?  I guess I need to embrace the fact that December is one busy month!  Well, here I am.  Refreshed, renewed, at least five pounds heavier and excited to begin regularly blogging again.

As you all know, this site is as much a photo journal of my adventures as it a cooking blog.  This post will align with the first description more than the second. Sorry if I dissapointed. 

This Christmas marked a couple of firsts: I hosted my very first Christmas, complete with the grocery shopping, decoration hanging, bed making, Christmas wrapping, and all the mayhem associated with hosting nine humans and three canines in one house.  It was remarkable -- everyone got along, no one got overly intoxicated, and I didn't poison anyone with my food.  Merry Christmas one and all! 

Also, the Great Samoan Hunter and I cut down our first Christmas tree.  I imagined the outing would resemble others where we hike into the woods, climb mountains, and return 12 twelve hours later exhausted and starving with a Charlie Brown tree.  Much to my surprise, we found a glorious tree after walking only 50 yards. I think it was the prettiest tree in the whole forest. 

  

Since Heather, AKA Martha Stewart, could not join us for the holiday, I had to step up my wrapping game.  3337 pieces of tied yarn later, not sure the beauty was worth the effort.

My consolation prize for HOURS of wrapping, the Cooking Channel and Food Network.

Before everyone arrived at the river mansion, the temperatures hovered around zero.  When the Great Samoan Hunter decided it would be fun to take his dad duck hunting a few days later, the temperatures dropped to a balmy -14.  My camera frosted shut.  My shutter reluctantly captured a few shots before it retired for a cup of hot coffee.

These ducks were not shot the day my nostrils and eyelids froze shut. 

Nothing moved in those temperatures, less the hunting lunatics.

Thanks to the cold temperatures, we were able to utilize the deck as a walk in refrigerator/freezer, as the kitchen was bursting with delicious food. In fact, I still have enough food stored to host another Christmas.  Don't judge me if I feed you Christmas ham in March.

Christmas Eve buffet table with all things good and holy.

In addition to wonderful food and family, we also were incredibly lucky to receive a special visit from Santa. His visit was complete with crying babies, presents and camouflaged muck boots.

After the family left, I ditched the frigid temperatures and snow.  Four airports, a sunrise, a sunset, and innumerable crying babies, I arrived:

 Saipan!

I packed an extra suitcase filled with Heather and Nick's Christmas presents and got to celebrate all over again!  I couldn't get enough of the fake snowmen and palm trees decorated with lights.  

 We rang in the New Year with true Hodges class.

And danced with the Japanese teenagers who had overrun the hotel.  They couldn't get enough of Heather.

In addition to hopping from beach to beach, happy hour to happy hour, mainly I ate my way through Saipan.  Heather and Nick were the most amazing tour guides. I sure miss them. 

Thursday night street fair = fabulous people watching and cheap and delicious food.

Whole squid, anyone?

 

This is called the Saipanda.  I consumed as many fruity beverages with flowers and/or umbrellas as my wallet and waistline would afford.  Thanks to this trip, I am now actively seeking employment and a personal trainer.

Between the beach lounging, fruity drinks, spicy tuna rolls and snorkeling, we snuck in a tour of a merchant marine ship.

 

 As you can tell from the photos, the past several weeks have not been any fun.  Truly, all I can say is that I am so grateful and feel very blessed for having the opportunity to spend time with family in amazing locales.  2011 went out with tons of love and laughter and 2012 has continued with even more.  I'm looking forward to the great fun that is in store in the coming months.  I hope you and yours also had a wonderful holiday! 

I promise my next post will be food related . . . a recipe even . . . probably a healthy one considering the decadence that has ensued recently.  See you then! xoH

Adios pequena casa

I live in a state that lacks a professional sports team. Because of that void, the good people of Idaho are FANATICAL about college sports. Case in point: Bronco Nation. I attended a game with my dad on the famed blue turf earlier this season, and I am quite certain we were the only fans not wearing blue and orange from head to toe. I was in fact wearing canvas coveralls and my dad was donned in camouflage, which was hysterical in its own right, but we stuck out almost as much as if we had worn the Wolf Pack's blue and silver.

None-the-less, people of Bronco Nation are insane. Tailgating at BSU should be added to your list of things to do before you die. I will be so brazen to say that BSU fans are the most passionate and diehard folks on the planet. I think some bleed blue.

Which leads me to the Fiesta bowl 2010. Suck it BCS. Just saying.

We hosted a delightful gathering of nibbles, beer, and you guessed . . . CHEESE DIP! I'll post recipes soon. As we watched the game, or to be more realistic, shouted, cursed and squealed like little girls, we came to the conclusion that if BSU won we would make a sacrifice.

Remember those lovely little houses Heather and I made before Christmas? These houses. Delicate, intricate, detailed. Well, they were the items of said celebratory sacrifice.

As if I need to refresh your memory, I live in Idaho. We grow potatoes in Idaho. We also have brothers-in-law named Nick who make potato guns. Here's an example of the most badass potato gun on the planet:

From a distance of thirty yards, this tater gun will put a hole in a cedar fence. This tater gun put holes in both of our mini houses. No fences were harmed in the filming of this video.

Until next year BSU football.

Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?

I just returned from a most excellent Christmas at my parent's house. I am relaxed, recharged and my jeans don't fit as sveltely as they did one week ago. Tis the season to eat and drink from sun up to sun down, right?

We normally attend Christmas Eve service, but this year we praised baby Jesus' birth in a whole new way: The Beatles on Rock Band. I wish I had had a video camera to capture the awesomeness that was our evening. Singing was a gene that was left out of our genome. Fortunately, my sister married Nick who vocally carried us through many four star performances. My parents both took turns at the mic crooning away to their favorite tunes -- my mom favoring the psychedelic, Indian-inspired tune Within You Without You. Sweet baby Jesus. This was the highlight of the entire weekend for me getting a glimpse of my mom in her hippie days. I was waiting for the LSD to magically appear. The judge also rocked out on Helter Skelter until he got claustrophobic from the presents 'Santa' had placed near him. "Why are all these presents closing in on me." I can't do it justice. It was the best Christmas Eve ever.

The rest of the weekend was equally as enjoyable. We played lots of games, namely Settlers of Catan. It is a new favorite in our family, and I highly recommend it for yours too. We played it at least ten times. We ate copious amounts of delicious, non-fat food, NOT!, and consumed more Coors Lights than I care to admit. I'm still digesting and cannot think about the 17,000 calories I will have to burn off so I have something fun to share with you that is not food-related.

This is a photo of my parent's living room:

On this table are Christmas photographs from over the years. It has become a sister tradition to get a photo taken with Santa and put it in my mom's stocking. However, a sad thing happened last year: my parents moved to Burley. Santa doesn't live in Burley. He lives at the Magic Valley Mall in Twin Falls. It was the first time we had EVER skipped a Santa picture. We did not disappoint this year.

Now that we are all adults, sitting on Santa's lap is a tad bit uncomfortable. We all get anxious on the approach to center-court because no one wants to sit directly on Santa's lap. Please note in the following grownup sister pictures who is never sitting directly on Santa's lap. Muhahahaha.

For years my mom took us to the same Santa in Nampa. I really thought this man was Santa. He lived forever. You'll see. The man drank out of the cup of everlasting Santa life. I wish he was still around, as they just don't make Santas like they used to.

I hope you and yours had a very Merry Christmas. xoH

Santa looks as concerned as I do.

Enter Heather.

Holy cuteness, Batman.

Check out at Heather's knee-highs.

I love my who-sister.

Enter Julia.

Oh the teeth. Cute sweaters though.

Stone-washed denim all around. Same Santa.

Then we grew up. 2003

Not on Santa's lap.

See you next year, Santa.

I wish I were a mini person to live in my mini house

I couldn't write another word last night. I was papered-out. We had a beautiful dusting of snow here in Eastern Idaho, and I was feeling festive. Festive meaning I wanted to drink peppermint schnapps and decorate gingerbread houses. It's too cold to do anything else but stay inside and hibernate. The National Weather Service is calling for a wind chill watch:

"PROLONGED NORTHERLY FLOW THAT BEGAN YESTERDAY WILL BRING ARTIC AIR

INTO CENTRAL AND EASTERN IDAHO. THE NORTH WIND MAY BE STRONG ENOUGH TO COMBINE WITH THIS COLD AIR AND PRODUCE EFFECTIVE CHILL TEMPERATURES COLDER THAN TWENTY DEGREES BELOW ZERO."

I forgot when I moved back to Idaho that I would be moving to the tundra. I took the trash out earlier and my nostrils froze. It's cold.

I think I've only decorated one other gingerbread house my entire life and I recall it looking similar to this:

I wanted my house to look festive, but not like the Christmas candy isle threw up on it. I wanted it to look earthy. I wanted it to look like a house where I would live. Heather and I each had our own little house to decorate, and you'll see each of our senses of flare. I am so impressed with how they turned out. We had fun rocking out to Christmas music and sipping on hot chocolate spiked with peppermint schnapps, too. Beats the heck out of writing about cognitive development in middle school students.

Hailey's little house.

Welcome, friends.

I kind of didn't want to play after this roof. Pain in the ARSE!

Heather's little house.

River rock chimney and icicles, are you kidding me?!

Rosemary swag.