football & skeeball with oklahoma friends!!

{the lovely lovely nora & cari!}

ooooooooklahoma was full of wonderful friends too!  our norman night out was at the garage for bowl games & delicious fancy burgers & a lot of skeeball.  blake & aric, as it turns out, are skeeball pros.  we just might have a skeeball machine in our future.

{aric & blake's new best friend - 

the fella with whom they shared their beer winnings}

oklahoma city was calling our name this trip too!  we finally got to one of our favorite okc restaurants, republic gastropub, for more delicious burgers & brews.  & two of our wonderful med school friends joined us!  blake & i are so excited to hear newton {finally!} proposed to his adorable fiancé!  we welcome you to the married club with open arms, friend.  & we finally got to see mr burget since he became a dad!

{the gentlemen - newton & brad}

fantastic friends.  fantastic friends brews.  fantastic red meat.

love love,

kjp.

a very merry christmas at the porters'!

& then our christmas fun continued with the porter family!  blakey's little brother & wife joined us, blake's grandma nonie joined in, uncle jess & crew even stopped by for dinner, & of course dave & lisa!  it was so wonderful to see so many happy faces.  justin & peyton, you were so missed!  next year.  game on.

{note: dave never got all riled up about coach sampson's possible future as the nets' head coach.  maybe he's toning it down these days.  or maybe not :)}

we started our celebration with a new years morning breakfast accompanied with bacon & cilantro bloody marys.  that's right.  bakon vodka with freshly chopped cilantro.  it sounds weird but, as it turns out, is really really good.

{great brother time.  most of it was outside.  by the fire.  with the dogs.}

{our matching christmas gifts!!}

{hello!}

{my favorite gift of all}

{the cousins!

tanky & kaiser played & played & played & played.

it was adorable.}

{new years hoppin john with black-eyed peas, of course!}

on our last night in the ok, nonie took us all out to das boot camp, the new german restaurant on main street norman owned by royal bavaria.  we drank their german beer in boot cups & ate german sausages & watched a bowl game & a thunder game & had a great family meal.

{boot lights!}

{blake's jager schnitzel.  he loved it.}

a very merry christmas, indeed.

love love,

kjp.

a very merry christmas at my dad's!

our first stop in ooooooooooklahoma was at my dad's house!  we got to see all of the oklahoma gang, eat some awesome food, have a glass of kendall jackson or two, watch a lot of football, & celebrate christmas!  it's always always nice to be home, especially when you get to stay for more than a day.

{dad & izzy playing santa!}

{dad got his favorite christmas gift - 

a days of trivia calendar.

year... 15??}

{cozied up on the couch opening gifts}

{the gervacios}

{the bellers}

{the super fabulous christmas log roulade with meringue mushrooms!}

{so so impressed.}

{my sweet husband & myself}

our drive to oklahoma was a blast, by the way.  we stayed overnight in a motel with the little guy.  turns out tanky loves motel slumber parties.  he also got to experience his first snow in two years!  he didn't exactly remember loving it...

love love,

kjp.

our christmas feast!

blakey & i had a feast on christmas day!  it was pretty darn delicious, so i {obviously} am going to share it with you.  & it's really nice to have my holiday recipes all in one place to cheat next year :)

for breakfast, we again had the delicious pioneer woman christmas morning migas & chorizo!  soft scrambled eggs with tomatoes & peppers & onions & tortilla strips & monterrey jack cheese & cilantro. all served with delicious cheddar chorizo.  yum!

& for our christmas meal, we had to have blake's "traditional" christmas bird - cornish hens!  this recipe is super easy.  seriously.  you stuff a sage leaf or two under the skin, stuff a clementine in the bird, rub the little thing down with butter, sprinkle with salt & pepper, & cook.  easy as pie.  {which, by the way, is a horrible saying.  pie is not easy.  cornish hen - super easy.}

{we, ever so delicately, carved our wishbones out!}

this year, i added mashed potatoes & rutabaga to the christmas meal.  so delicious.  & you feel a little bit healthy with the root veggie instead of just potatoes.  to get an idea, i started with this recipe, but didn't really follow it.  i boiled equal parts of plain ole russet potatoes & rutabaga, chopped, until fork tender.  drained them.  mashed them up with some butter & milk.  threw in some chopped green onions, zest of a lemon, fresh parsley, & salt & pepper.  delicious!

{our new favorite wine: steele chardonnay}

i had grand plans to finally try baked kale, but when i went to start, i realized i had forgotten to buy kale.  for the baked kale.  so, luckily, i had all of the ingredients sitting around for green bean casserole {thank you, julie byrd!!} & decided that would be a perfect green side dish.  {to which blake explained would not be healthy, although green.  obviously, husband.  it was for the pictures!}  & quite delicious too.

to top off our christmas feast, we finished with my favorite annual rum cake!  ooooh, it's so good.  so so good.  rum & sugar & pecans.  a delicious treat.

{rum cake with our wedding flutes!}

a fabulous side note: rum cake is still super delicious 4 days later.  thanks to the ridiculous quantity of rum syrup, it is still quite moist.  impressively so.

a very merry christmas to you & yours!

love love,

kjp.

our very merry christmas!

we had a wonderful & very merry christmas!  blakey, tanky, & i ate all day long, chatted with our family, opened presents, & had a lovely day together.  it was so much fun to spend an entire day with my husband & puppy, especially on Jesus's birthday.

{our christmas tree!}

{mr malcolm was a happy christmas boy!

so happy to chat with him & his parents!}

as always, we waited until christmas morning to wrap tanky's gifts & put them under the tree.  he immediately sniffed them out & went to town tearing them open!  he's a pretty impressive gift opener.  & he's very grateful for his gifts too :)

{tanky's annual stuffed toy}

{sharing his gigantic chew with dad}

{so pleased}

{happy christmas to all & to all a goodnight!}

love love,

kjp.