silent night - or not!

I just returned from being home for the holidays and it was a great time - and I'm definitely not ready to go back to work - but I will. :)  There was a lot over the weekend, so I'll keep this as brief as I can.

The nice thing is that we didn't have to dream of a white Christmas because we had it naturally - but the roads were good enough for the festivities to press on.  I got home a couple of days before the holiday and ended up playing darts with Russ' league because they needed a sub; I'm terrible at darts, but it was fun and they didn't get upset so we had a good time.

We spent Friday getting ready for company at mom and dad's house because they were hosting - everyone pitched in so we were able to have some downtime in the afternoon, which was unexpected, but welcome!  We went to church and the kids program was good, as always.  I'm a little disappointed that we don't seem to sing one of my favorite songs (What Child is This?) during the service anymore, but the whole thing is very nicely done and I love when they sing Joy to the World as people recess.  And then it was time for the fam to come over.  By Brian's count, there were 57 people there.  It was a little overwhelming and sometimes a little crowded - not at all a silent night - but overall a lot of fun with great company and I wouldn't ask for it to be any other way. When all was said and done, we were full and exhausted and happy. 

You can find some pictures here (mostly on Christmas eve.)

On Christmas day we finished cleaning up after the party and had dinner with just the 6 of us... and we tried something new this year that we've never made at home: Prime Rib.  After searching online and reading a number of reviews, we settled on a recipe from allrecipes.com for Foolproof Rib Roast.  By we, I mean mom.  She really did most of the work on this, so I won't take credit.

Foolproof Rib Roast1 standing beef rib roast (ours was 7 lbs)
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder

Allow roast to stand at room temperature for at least 1 hour; I think mom had it at room temperature for a couple of hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Combine the salt, pepper and garlic powder in a small cup. Place the roast on a rack in a roasting pan so that the fatty side is up and the rib side is on the bottom. Rub the seasoning onto the roast.

Roast for 1 hour in the preheated oven. Turn the oven off and leave the roast inside. Do not open the door. Leave it in there for 3 hours. 30 to 40 minutes before serving, turn the oven back on at 375 degrees  to reheat the roast. The internal temperature should be at least 145 degrees. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before carving into servings.

Our notes:

• We were skeptical, too.  Leave it in the oven for 3 hours while it's not even on?  Excuse me?  It works - we ended up with a great prime rib.  But don't open it - serious. We even taped the oven shut (per a review we read) so no one at the house wouldn't open it without thinking.  Laugh if you will, but it works. 

• Once you turn the oven on after the 3 hours, maybe check the temp at 20-25 minutes and then again if you need to.  Ours ended up done medium, which I was perfectly happy with that, but if you want it medium rare or something, recommend checking it a bit sooner. But NOT during the 3-hour don't touch period!
• Mom said that next time she would maybe try some other kind of rub on it (vs. the garlic/salt/pepper) - it was great, but you can probably try any kind of rub you want and use this process.

And viola! 

I have mentioned before that we don't really do presents anymore, except Santa still comes and puts things in our stockings.  This year, Santa contracted the present duty out to our mom and she filled our stockings with something really neat - she made table runners and matching potholders for each of us kids and personalized them with something we like. 

Keith got eagles, Brian got lighthouses, and Russ got deer.  And me?  Post-it notes and office supplies.  It's hilarious and awesome how well mom knows me and my love of office supplies.  I'm excited to hang it up at work because my colleagues know it too. :)  Thanks, mom! 

I hope you all had a very, merry, wonderful holiday season - however you celebrated!