Happy New Year's

Travis and I must begin this year with an overflowing thankful heart-- we had a wonderful time with our friends on our first anniversary celebrating New Year's Eve. We could not be more grateful for the invite to Jim Hubeck's home for what appears to be a favorite tradition among our friends. We were indoctrinated into "Morris the Moose", his tale of a moose who wanted to be a reindeer, and his Shakespeare reenactments-- this year we did two scenes from Macbeth--on top of a wonderful spread of wonderful food and a themed "sparkling"wine tasting.

Chanelle did appetizers-- delicious crispy Stuffed Olives, a Sauteed Mushrooms with Thyme over crostini and a Brie en Croute--which paired so well with a dry sparkling brut. Then we moved onto our main course of Joes' BBQ with one of my new favorites for the year, a sparkling Shiraz. Then for dessert, the piece d'resistance, came out of a cookbook, Pure Chocolate, that Emily and I drooled over about two years ago called Triple Chocolate Pyramid that was a chocolate almond cake with milk chocolate buttercream layers and dark chocolate sliced on a diagonal to form a show-stopping pyramid.

Now we all knew it was going to be rich but it was also decadent and gave us that little pep we needed to get us through to the wee hours of the morning. Travis and I especially needed it as we had the farthest drive home of anyone, and we stayed to help clean up afterward. We got home around two but had a wonderfully delightful time.

For the rest of the day we are in a holding pattern until our friends join us for a Dutch tradition of donuts called oliebolen which roughly translates "oil balls" but pack a punch of delicious flavor that far exceeds the scary name. There is no way that we are going to eat all those cinnamon-sugar donuts filled with raisins, apples and lemon and orange zest. We truly would be oil balls ourselves if we didn't share.

We wish you joy on this new year and we anticipate wonderful happiness for you all in Christ Jesus our Lord. Travis and I both feel as if we have never been happier in our lives...needless to say, we cannot wait to spend Year Two together in our life together.