A little delayed, we know, but here is the story all about how Fargo denied us the ONE thing we were counting on it to give us....a WHITE Christmas.
Ever since we decided to move up here, Jenni thought she would at last get the real white Christmas she had been dreaming of since childhood. Not the slushy white Christmas that good ol' England provided, but a REAL fluffy white snowy Christmas. Well, to put it bluntly, Fargo put a crushing end to that dream of Jenni's and decided to have a record-breaking warm start to winter, thus resulting in our first brown Christmas!
Our whole month of December was busy and exciting, what with our engagement on the 12th, and the excitement of getting to spend Christmas Day together for the first time EVER! Our Christmas was glorious, complete with a bargain tree fro
m Michaels, stockings made by Jenni in our Bay Area sports team colors, our 50c Christmas balls from Menards, and snow...oh wait, NO SNOW! BOO
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| Our lovely little tree! |
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| Our souvenir from life in the North! |
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| A menards blue ball :D |
Since it was Christmas, Jenni busted out the mixer multiple times a week, and baked probably way too many cookies, and is now paying for it at the gym and in the swimming pool....those rude cookies!
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Jenni's delicious ginger snaps!
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Christmas morning was a happy happy time in our apartment. Santa managed to find us all the way out here in Fargo, he even enjoyed his freshly baked ginger snaps and Gatorade...we know because he left Jenni a note saying so :) After opening our presents from Santa, we got cracking on making Christmas dinner...
We decided since we boomed the roasting of a turkey at Thanksgiving, we would step up to a new challenge and tackle roasting a ham. This was a mighty successful adventure, even if we do say so ourselves. Even though we literally ate ham for the rest of the year sometimes twice a day, it was ahhhhmazing!
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| Now you see why the last 2 weeks of 2011 were filled with ham! |
One of our most favourite gifts were our amazing silicone animal oven mits from Rod Emily, Amy and Mia! They made for tremendous fun making our Christmas dinner, and non-Christmas dinners come to that :)
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| Mousey helping Brad cut the sweet potato |
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| They even work with our most awkward pot! WOO! |
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| Posing with our new pets |
While Chrimble dinner was a cooking away, we watched A Christmas Story punctuated with random gift openings, and skype conversations with people in England, Spain, and California! What cultured people we are :D
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| Brad opening :D |
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| Lionel Richie...yes Brad somehow discovered my secret love for the Lionel |
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| Lionel Richie and an ugly sweater!?! My Christmas is now complete! |
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| WOAH! We even got a gift from the BIEBS! |
Brad really hit a homerun with one gift though. He took Jenni's very very subtle hint that she would love her very own set of Angel Chimes, just like her Mum has always had. By subtle hint, we mean we were standing in front of the display with them at the mall and Jenni declared..."Ooooo, Brad, you can get me those for Chrismtas". Brad, as you can see, is a mastermind at reading between the lines :D
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| Jenni's OHH MYY GOSSSH IT'S CHRISTMAS face!!! |
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| Brad models the amazing hat Jenni gave him! |
Brad won the prize for most creative gift labelling system. Jenni was thrilled to discover all of the ways he thought of to write "To Jenni from Brad". Seriously, it had to be a record or something. Jenni is pretty certain she found a keeper in this one :)
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| Exhibit A: mirror writing |
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| Exhibit B: pet names! |
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| Exhibit C: Just because he can now :) |
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| Exhibit D: going for generic this time |
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| Exhibit E: Since there is only 1 of each here! |
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| Exhibit F: Creativity at it's prime |
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| Exhibit G: The teenie bopper in Jenni LOVED this one :D |
After a few hours of waiting, we finally got to tuck into our ham and roasted veggies! Brad made his Grandmas delicious sweet potatoes again, and again they were like heaven in a little pyrex dish! We also had some Paxo stuffing (thanks mum!), some roasted potatoes and parsnips! Since it was Christmas and Brad has committed to life with a Brit, Jenni introduced him to the obligatory Christmas cracker ceremony, complete with forceful wearing of brightly coloured tissue paper crowns! He was a trooper and wore that crown with pride!
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| Brad with his beer, food, and crown...one happy man! |
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| wine, food and crown = happy Jenni! |
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| Merry Christmas! |
After enjoying our delicious feast, we retreated to the living room, where we watched another round of a Christmas Story, Jenni enjoyed this tradition of Brad's and found a real likeness between herself and Randy...especially the claiming of all the Christmas pressies under the tree :) While watching this glorious film, we used the leftover supplies from Jenni's class gingerbread house party, and made a little gingerbread house of our own!
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| Just like we do in preschool :D |
After all the hard work of creating such an amazing structure, it was time for dessert! TRIFLE! Jenni decided to make one of her favourite desserts, a traditional English Trifle. Brad was a little unsure at first, having never tasted anything quite like trifle before.
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| Brad cautiously takes his first bite! |
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| All classy with our dollar store tupperware bowl! |
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| Corruption...successful! |
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| we <3 trifle! |
After munching on way too much food and watching a Christmas Story....again, we decided to call it a night. What a glorious first Christmas as fiance and fiancee!
And Happy New Year from the future Mr. and Mrs. Kumimoto! :D
