A Lunch Demonstration

It's more than wonderful to have some family living here in town. I love being able to see nieces and nephews and sisters and sisters-in law as often as I want. Because of our proximity, and because we are rather fond of each other, we recently decided to host a monthly lunch party to demonstrate our favorite recipes. Since I happen to love having people over, cooking, and talking, I offered to go first! No surprise there, I'm sure.

The Menu

Rumbi Island Grill BBQ Chicken Salad

White Grape Strawberry Cranberry Gingerale

Homemade Oreos with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

We had the nicest time. I got to show them our Christmas decorations, and then we broke into the cooking demonstration because we were all so hungry! I made one of my favorite salads from one of my favorite places to eat, Rumbi Island Grill. It costs about $8.00 to get one portion of this salad in the restaurant, so I decided to try making it at home. It worked, and for about $14.00, it feeds four people! It was fun to cook and eat with family in my home. Then, to completely cancel out the fact that I made a salad for lunch, we made homemade Oreo cookies and enjoyed those. Sitting around the dining room table, the only place where seating is available in our home, we enjoyed conversation and planning the upcoming Family Christmas Snack Table party. Soon, however, babies started to get tired. It was time to leave around 4:00 PM to get them home for naps.

I know my house isn't baby-proof in the slightest, but I should have thought it through before having two tiny ones over for a visit! I have bite-size ornaments on my tree, and we found out pretty quickly how delicious they are! Poor little Evan had an ear infection over the weekend, and you could tell he wasn't his normal self. He rarely sits on his mama's lap without wanting to get down to explore the town. He was completely content to just take it easy during his visit. He's just the sweetest little man, and him staying in one place simply meant I got to kiss on him more easily rather than having to chase him for it!

When John got home from work, he said hi then went into the garage to start working on the sideboard (he does that for a few hours every day. It will be done soon, we hope!). My sisters both looked at me and asked if he always gets home from work and goes straight to work at home. I said yes. What a dream guy!

We are going to switch hosting each month and have a "Lunch Demonstration" as often as we can. It was so much fun to have them over for lunch! And now we all know how to make a salad as heavenly as the restaurant makes!

A Story

I'd like to tell a story to illustrate a point. For our honeymoon, John and I went on a Carnival Cruise from New Orleans to the popular northern destinations of Mexico. However, before we even got into the Gulf of Mexico, the ships engines broke down and stalled us for about four hours. Because of this, they gave a credit of money to each guest for causing delays in our first day at port. Some people would now be late to their day excursions, so the cruise line was reimbursing for such setbacks. The money came in the form of a credit to be used on the ship. I'm sure most people not only spent this $33, but went way above that in purchasing trinkets, pictures by the boat photographer, massages, and drinks while gambling the night away in the floating casino. My husband and I, however, received a check under our door the morning it was time to disembark. We made money on our cruise. We didn't spend a single cent!

The moral of this story is that my husband isn't exactly known for spending money. When we were setting up our budget after first getting married, I decided it was a good idea to have a small amount set aside each month as a "Fun Fund" for me. It was money that I could spend without feeling guilty and without having to answer to a single soul for it. When it came time to allot some money to John for the same purpose, he skipped on to the next item on the list. The point is that he spends no money on anything not necessary for life support. He's very good with money in that he never uses it on useless items.

That being said, you must now understand what a big deal it was for John to finally break down and purchase a new receiver for his theater room. He has been wanting and researching receivers since I've known him. His old machine didn't have half the hookups he needed for all the new components out these days, and the sound just didn't do any movie justice. Every time he mentioned it, I was very encouraging towards us just ordering a new one online. He wisely never told me which model number he would get, simply because I would have gotten it for him years ago! But last week, he came home a different man. And he said we should order a new receiver from our favorite online retailer, Amazon. Before he was finished saying the sentence, I was already on Amazon looking up the receiver so he couldn't change his mind. I'm decisive like that. Especially when it's for a husband who literally never spends money on himself.

I tracked the package all week until it finally arrived on our doorstep yesterday. John was so excited and tore into the box immediately! Then he read the manual for the next two hours so he knew exactly how to make everything perfect. I doubt I could have been so patient with a new toy! While I worked around the house, he ran some sound tests and finally announced that it was ready for preview. Of course, he used his favorite movie, Dark Knight, to show off what this new machine could do. We only own one blu-ray disc, and that is the latest Batman movie. Don't worry...we use the blu-ray player lots since all the DVDs we get from Netflix are blu-ray. He was grinning as I sat down to listen to his work. And you know what? It's absolutely incredible. I had no idea what we were missing!

Though he hates anything Apple, he offered to show me how to hook up my iPod Touch to the receiver to play my Christmas music. Do you have any idea how great Andy Williams sounds in surround?! It wasn't hard for John to get me excited about this latest and greatest machine!

We rarely go to movies anyway, but I doubt the theater will see us ever again. And though John never spends money for fun things for John, he is rather enjoying this new treat. The cruise line would be shocked and proud.

Temple Lights of Mesa

As a child, I remember making family trips to Salt Lake City to visit the Christmas lights of Temple Square. It was always incredible, with every square inch of trees being covered in bright, cheerful lights. However, it was almost impossible to withstand the negative temperatures while still enjoying the festive surroundings. Even hot chocolate didn't do much to warm us up at we wandered the grounds in downtown Salt Lake!

The Mesa Temple also has a Christmas Lights display each December, but it is much more pleasant to be outside.

Reasons Mesa Temple Lights Are Better

1) I was wearing a light jacket and not shivering.

2) There isn't a single patch of snow to be seen within one-hundred miles.

3) Everything gets translated into Spanish after being spoken in English.

4) We could visit the same spots of wedding pictures taken two years ago.

5) I still had hot chocolate, but it wasn't necessary to sustain life.

6) Not once did I have to avoid a pile of manure from horse-drawn carriages.

7) We drove eight minutes to reach the temple grounds, as opposed to almost two hours.

8) Two words: Palm trees.