Jacobson Family Christmas

Christmas this year was spent with the Jacobson family in our home here in Provo. Even though Grandma Sue, Papa, and Kristen only got to be here for 4 1/2 days, we packed a LOT into that time frame. This year, for me at least, was the year of showing off the amazing recipes I've learned and enjoying fantastic food with family. Here's a play by play of what we accomplished Dec 23rd through Dec 27th. I wish I had pictures if everything, but with two little kids to keep track of, even if I bring my camera I often forget to use it.

The in-laws flew in on the evening of the 23rd and we picked them up and headed into Salt Lake to have dinner at the restaurant called Vienna Bistro which served Austrian/German food. It was very good, though my favorite was the tomato and fresh mozzarella salad. I also had pork with a cream and mushroom sauce, which was excellent. The pickled red cabbage was not so great, but it had a VERY strong flavoring of nutmeg, which is not my favorite flavor. The appetizer we got had a selection of cold cuts and cheese and a pickle. Normally I do not like pickles. My aversion ranges from a "this tastes nasty" expression to a gag reflex. When Doug bit into this particular pickle, he said "Wow, that's a REALLY good pickle" and urged me to try it. I did, and to my surprise, I liked it! In fact, I've wanted another one for some time now. The only pickle I've ever liked, and it's only made in house at this restaurant. Doug's dad served his mission in Germany and so this restaurant was chosen mainly to give him a taste of the past, but although he claimed it to be good food, he's had much better in Germany. No surprise there I guess. It was a good thing we had so many people to help out with the girls because not only did we not start eating our food until almost 7:00, but we stayed up until past 10:00 with all our activities, which included a jaunt over to temple square to see the lights. They were awesome, even better than last year. The cedar of Lebanon was all done up in red LED lights and it was stunning, the best tree on the premises in my opinion. We didn't stay too long because Evelynn started to ask if we could please please please go to the car so she could go to sleep, and also because it was stinking cold! The poor Washingtonians were miserable to be sure. :)

Salt Lake Temple and Cedar of Lebanon.

BJ and Kristen with their nieces. Peace out.

This is in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Evelynn just got done telling me how badly she wanted to go to the car and go to sleep. Poor little kid.

Christmas Eve was spent doing a few last minute shopping excursions and making a fantastic turkey lunch. We had a Jacobson family Christmas activity in Ogden starting at 3:00 pm so we decided to have our turkey dinner early. We brined our turkey like we did for Thanksgiving, and it was amazing, just like last time. We also had baked yams, beans, rolls, the rest of the chipoltle cranberry sauce from thanksgiving (it freezes very well!), and stuffing, and it was just perfect. It made me wonder why I did so much Thanksgiving since this was so much easier, and just the right amount of food. Anyway, after lunch we went up to Ogden and the girls took their naps in the car on the way up (thank goodness! I didn't know if it was going to happen that day) and the party began. Doug's cousin Jesse and Aunt Diana put together a game in the mall just like the game Clue. We were all split up into teams (we were the Colonel Mustard team) with corresponding t-shirts and given clues to led us around the mall and find out who died, who done it, with what, and where. My team didn't win but it turns out that Grandma Jacobson killed Grandpa in the Billiard room with the 8 ball. Now you know. :) We were asked by several people whether we were doing something for the Amazing Race, and were idsappointed that they weren't going to get a chance to appear on TV. After than we went back to Kent and Diana's house and ate dinner and visited, but we had to get back to BJ who was stuck in Provo working that evening (and getting paid double for it, so don't feel too bad for him) and do our Christmas traditions before the girls fell apart completely. We finished the Christmas story (we'd been reading parts of it all month) and sang our carols and then put the girls to bed and set up the Christmas tree and stockings. I tell you what, it's so much fun being a parent with little kids at Christmas. It brings a whole knew aspect to the season that I just love. The next morning Evelynn was up around 7:15 to come out and look at her gifts. We had been keeping the tree in a corner of our living room and all the presents in our room so certain little girls would not be tempted to open them early, so when she saw the tree out in the living room proper with a LOT of gifts spread around it (I had no idea how much loot was actually there until then, and holy cow, way too much stuff!) she was a bit shocked. Please see corresponding video below to see the reaction. The presents took quite a while to get through since Eloise is not the fastest gift opener, but she got the hang of it amazingly fast and enjoyed herself thoroughly. For poor Evelynn though we could not go fast enough. Every present she got she tore into and exclaimed "wow!" or "cool!" or something like that, promptly dropped it and begged for another one to open. We could have let her open every one's gifts and she would have been happy. This year was the year if tutu's, the girls getting 5 total. They were a big hit.:) In case you're wondering what I got for Christmas, I got a hand blender from Doug (which I really did ask for and was so excited to get, so don't think he's a bad/odd husband for getting me it) a necklace that the girls picked out with Daddy's help, a sweater from my mother-in-law, a steam juicer from the in-laws (which I also asked for after seeing how easy it was to make and can juice this summer with the ward bottling activities), and ipod nano and running attachments from my parents, cash for new clothes, some games, music and other stuff. Doug got Legos, more Legos, Great Big Sea CD's, a whole slew of different kinds of root beer for him to try from my sister Lori, and other things I can't remember. After the presents we had overnight cinnamon rolls (which were fantastic) and our Christmas cereals.

The tutu's from Santa.

It was also the year of the Wiggles, thanks mostly in part to my mom, and they were also a huge hit. I now have enough coloring books, art supplies and craft activities to last me through the winter and I am so thankful for that! Thank you so much to both my moms!

Evelynn in her tutu, new shirt, and styling glasses. We were joking that all she needed was a big purse and small dog and she could make the tabloids.

There's me taking a much needed snooze and also guarding all the candy so Evelynn didn't gorge herself into a sugar induced coma on Christmas day.

Christmas day we did a Ham dinner with our "famous" ginger snap cookie crust, funeral potatoes, asparagus, rolls, and pumpkin pie. I can't find on my blog if I gave people the ham recipe, so here it is for all those of you who are dying to try the best ham in the entire world, no joke.
Amazing Ham Recipe (by Alton Brown--Food Network)
1 Ham Shank (not a butt portion, too hard to carve, and try to find the heaviest one, but it doesn't necessarily have to be the largest one. You want one that's dense and not full of liquid or covered in fat)
Spicy mustard
Dark brown sugar
Ginger snap cookies
Tin foil
disposable roasting pans (easier clean up, but if you have a real roasting pan, that works too)
old dish towel
Exacto knife/utility knife

Open ham and use utility knife to score flesh about 1/2-1 in. deep in a diamond pattern over entire ham. This will open up the fat layered on surface of ham so it can be peeled away later in cooking. Place old dish towel in bottom of roasting pan to soak up the fat and put ham on top, bone part sticking in the air. Take tin foil and crimp 3 pieces together along long side. Use this to tent the ham in pan, crimping all sides firmly so it's sealed but leaving a lot of space around the ham and trying not to have foil touch the ham. Bake at 250 degrees for 3-4 hours until the ham reaches the internal temp of 125-130 degrees. Take ham out, discard foil and set oven temp to 350. Peel/slice off all the fat on the surface of the ham that you can without cutting into the flesh of the ham too much. It should come off easily because of the scoring you did earlier. Spread mustard over all the ham generously. Sprinkle on brown sugar to cover mustard entirely. If you want, you can now spray brandy from a spray bottle over ham to increase flavor, but it is not necessary. Next, pulverize the cookies to a fine powder and then very generously cake onto the ham. Return ham to oven for about 1 hour or until ham reaches internal temp of 140 degrees and crust sets. Carve and eat!


Christmas day went by quite casually, and the day after Christmas was also very nice. We went up to Grandma Jacobson's house and swam in her pool and hung out in the hot tub. Then we made Thai food for dinner up there. I'm still trying to figure out how to get my PDF of the recipes on here, but when I do I'll post them. We had coconut curry, Pad Thai, and fresh rolls. Even Doug's aunt Janet, who is notoriously adverse to trying new things admitted that they were all excellent. Sunday we went to church, and Eloise did not go to nursery. We've had too many weeks in a row of her not going because of lack of naps, sickness, or we we're at church so she was having none of it. But that's ok, we'll try again this week.

Christmas dresses

After church we went up to visit Dale and Marrianne and their family who had just returned from their Christmas present trip to Disneyland, lucky stiffs. It was there that we said goodbye to Grandma, Papa, and Kristen since they had a flight out at 8:00 am and spent the night at Grandma Jacobson's house in Lehi so she could take them to the airport. This last picture is of Eloise who fell asleep on the way home that night. It kind of sums up the whole trip right there, just tiring, but oh so much fun. Thank you Jacobson's for a lovely holiday!