Christmas Day

We had a great Christmas this year.  As usual we went over to my parents house on Christmas Eve to celebrate with the extended family.  It was a really nice evening with a bit of excitement as my Dad's prime rib roast went ablaze!  A small, sort of big, grease fire broke out but was swiftly put out by Andy's suggestion of pouring beer on it.  To all of our surprise it worked and the meat was saved :)  The meat was really good as usual and we also had the tamales we made and some ham, lots of food! 

Christmas Day we had my parents and Anthony and Laura over to exchange presents and have a nice dinner together.  We cooked a leg of lamb and it came out so good.  We were a bit worried but it was cooked just right and nice and juicy.  I also made a gravy to go with it that came out really good too :)

While Jamie and I cooked and after we opened presents the rest of the family watched the big Laker's game.  It kept them occupied while we cooked and we were able to pause and fast forward by recording it which worked out really well.  Of course, the Lakers didn't really show up for the game as everyone was hoping which was a bit disappointing.

Here we are at the table, just before we started eating.

Laura enjoyed the crackers and really embraced her harmonica prize!

It was really nice to spend the day together.  We all enjoyed the gifts and food but we truly enjoyed the holiday!

Gingerbread House

It's been a wet weekend and hasn't stopped raining since Friday.  We made tamales on Saturday and they came out amazing as usual.  I can't wait to have them on Christmas Eve.  We went to the movies and saw the new Narnia movie (it was good but not great) on Sunday and then made a gingerbread house in the afternoon. 

Complete with Marzipan doors and windows.



It was fun to make and took us a good hour to make but it wasn't long before our sweet tooth got the better of us :)

Christmas at Casa Griffin

We had a very productive and festive weekend!  Even though the weather was a bit warm (Okay some records were broken) we managed to have a very festive weekend.  We went to one of my co-workers Christmas party's on Friday and had a great time.  He has an amazing house, complete with a bar and wine cellar that everyone enjoyed!  Saturday we bought our tree and went to our neighborhood Snow Party in the park and Sunday we started and finished our Christmas Shopping :)

 Saturday we set up the tree and decorated.  It's so beautiful and the house smells so good.

 Our stockings are hung and ready for Santa!

All the presents are wrapped and under the tree, I think we are ready for Christmas.  Next weekend we will make Tamales, I can't wait!  Christmas just isn't complete without Tamales. 

 Hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday Season!

Christmas at Disneyland

I've always heard that Disney is pretty amazing during Christmas but we never had the time or money to go.  So we made it a point this year to see it.  We took Friday off of work, had a nice lazy morning, got a late breakfast at The Filling Station in Orange and then headed over to Disneyland.  We got there around 11am and stayed till 10:45pm.  I have to say it was pretty amazing!

To see the park all decorated and some of the rides converted to a holiday theme was so much fun.  Hearing all the Christmas music and seeing the holiday parade really got us in the season.  Of course, the best part was seeing everything lit up at night.  It was a cool night and it felt great to pull on our jackets and wonder around the park seeing everything so bright and festive.  We stayed for the holiday fireworks show and right after the show it started snowing!  Ok, it was more like foam then ice but it was pretty cool.  We also decorated the house this weekend so we are now in Holiday mode, we still need to pick out our tree but it's starting to feel like Christmas :)  At least half of our shopping is done, hopefully the other half won't be too difficult...