Holidays Part V - Christmas!!!

 Christmas arrived!  Santa snuck into the girls rooms and left each of them a Dream Lite and candy filled candy cane.

The goodies left from Santa shown below.  Kaitlyn and Madelyn received Clarice and Rudolph as a joint gift.  The doll toys were for Kaitlyn and the Rapunzel tower was gifted to Madelyn.

Now it's time to open gifts - yay!!

 Look at our piles of gifts...

 Uncle Tim received his customary pair of socks.

Daddy only had one gift under the tree, well actually in the basement.

 Look at the huge box.  What did Dave get?

A new grill (our old one stopped igniting after the move)!

 Pa Mark and Mary Ann arrived just after lunch time.  The girls eagerly participated in another round of gift opening.

Kaitlyn sipped on some kid friendly egg nog while the adults started to work on dinner.  

Daddy preparing the beef tenderloin.

 Daddy and Tim salt and peppering the tenderloin.  We kept it very simple.  Per our trusted cooking reference, Cook's Illustrated, we roasted and then seared the tenderloin.

 Check out that heat!

Uncle Tim cooking scallops as our final dinner preparation.

Daddy cutting up the tenderloin.

Christmas Dinner Menu

Scallops

Beef Tenderloin/Salmon

Cauliflower Puree

Green Beans with Almonds

Fresh Green Salad with Goat Cheese and Michigan dried cherries

Creme Brulee

Kid Dessert: Ice Cream with Sprinkles

After the girls went to bed, we shared some creme brulee.  It tasted great, but I'll admit it did not hit the true custard mark.  Next time, we'll nail it!