Merry Christmas Everyone! I was blessed with a wonderful two days surrounded by the people that I love. I’ll take you through a photo recap of the highlights. To begin, I baked Emily’s Pumpkin, Fig and Pomegranate Upside Down Cake:
Pomegranate arils on the bottom of a spring foam pan.
The fig, pomegranate, and dried cranberry mixture
Dense, rich and delicious pumpkin cake
Pretty as a picture, and tastes even better 🙂 The cake was made for Christmas Eve which I unfortunately did not photograph. It was a great night with my Dad’s side of the family and Eric came, too. I brought a spring mix salad with pears, dried cherries, almonds, and goat cheese. There was also shrimp cocktail, my parent’s New England Fish Chowder (with shrimp and scallops), ham and cheese tarts, and our family’s traditional pork pie. Now, on to Christmas morning:
My parents still put out our Christmas presents after we’ve gone to bed on Christmas Eve. Yes, my brother and I are both in our 20’s…it’s fine, just go with it 🙂
Matching stockings, we bought these last year from Target, they’re so cute!
All the doors on my Advent Calendar have been opened!
A Christmas bread from Panera to munch on while opening gifts.
The house was decorated to spread the cheer 🙂
Present piles on the couch!
My Mom, so excited to receive a 2010 horse ornament from my Dad (she tries to collect them each year).
Santa’s so good to me 🙂
New England girls need their knee socks in the winter!
My big brother, very excited to get a remote controlled helicopter.
The big reveal! My mom and I surprised my Dad and brother with a motorcycle lift for them to work on their bikes. They were very excited!
Eric gave my mom a wine aerator for Christmas…it became the favorite gift of Christmas dinner!
My brother’s a hot sauce fanatic.
More shrimp cocktail, yummmm.
My aunt made spinach and mushroom filled phyllo cups.
Oh, and my dad roasted a brontosaurus prime rib.
There were roasted potatoes
Brussels sprouts
Sauteed green beans
And the most simple and delicious baked salmon ever!
My Pepere got a new hat, how cute is he?
Leftover Pumpkin, Fig, Pomegranate cake and a piece of Buche de Noel (the french name for a yule log).
A plate full of cookies
And with that, Pepere says “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”
lots of love,
Em
Mindfully Emily 
Fun glistening pom seeds!
We gave my grandfather-in-law a new hat and he also seemed to enjoy it 🙂
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Your grandfather is adorable in that hat! It’s also really sweet that your parents still put the gifts out after you go to bed 🙂
Thanks Stephanie! He is too cute and my parents are so wonderful for still doing that for us, we really think it’s fun! I just checked out your blog and noticed your a Boston girl, too! I’ll definitely be following!
Looks like such a fabulous time. And my husband would kill for that helicopter thing. Men are so weird.