Our Christmas Trip to Utah - Part 3: Christmas with the family

Our last major adventure in Utah was the main one - our family Christmas Eve party.  Mom had the girls make cookies for the party.  Each girl made a big batch of cookies in a marathon of cooking on Monday (December 23).  They made gingersnaps, molasses crinkles, snickerdoodles, and chocolate chip cookies.  It was a cookie fest.  

Oma felt ill when she woke up, so she put Yulia and me in charge of making sloppy joe filling for the party. I took on that responsibility and accomplished the task.  Mican and Roger's family came in the early afternoon and we visited before going over to the church that Mom had reserved so that we could set up and have the party.

Lexa during her cookie shift.

Eating our Christmas meal.  Grown up table and kids table in attendance.

Burl and Shellee and Brennan came and Aubree and Jessen came a bit later.  Mican and Roger and their kids came. Yulia and I and our four girls were there. Oma rounded out the crowd for dinner.  Ben came over in time for the program.  Suzette and her family were in Boise and didn't make it down this year.

Sixty percent of the kids with spouses.

Ben conducted the program and we had some sharing of our blessings for the year, Nika and Lina played a few songs on the guitar, and Ben, Burl, and I sang "We Three Kings" accompanied by Jessen.  Lina was  finishing up all her requirements for the Young Women in Excellence Award that is being discontinued and playing for the family passed her last requirement.  We are very proud of her achievement and the fact that she buckled down and did most of it in four months.

Guitar sisters!

Uncle Ben conducting.

We Three Brothers

It was raining so we didn't stop and look at all the lit graves in the cemetery.  Apparently that is a new tradition.  We did drive by and look at all the pretty lights.

Lights in the cemetery.

Mican and Roger stayed over for Christmas eve and the next morning our stockings were filled and left on the kitchen table.   We opened our presents from Oma and each other.  After Mican and her family left to visit their in-laws, the girls opened up presents that they had gotten for each other. They all gave each other thoughtful gifts. The rain had turned to snow overnight and so we had a white Christmas after all!

Christmas snow!

Sisters!

Mayos and Sophie!

Christmas morning presents.

Yulia and Mican model the aprons that Oma brought them from Italy!

Pancake breakfast!

The girls give their presents.

We had a nice Christmas with the family!

Sunday morning, December 29, we flew home.  Ben came and helped drive us to the airport.  It was nice to spend some time with him in the car since we hadn't seen too much of him during the visit.  We got to the airport early and checked in.  After hanging out for awhile, we ate lunch at Qordoba and then went and boarded our plane.  We flew to Houston, which was fun since we followed a similar route that we'll take when we move to Texas this summer.  In fact Yulia took a picture of the pine forest area that we will be living in as we were descending into Houston.

We had a quick layover in Houston, a long flight to Frankfurt, a short layover there, and then a six hour flight to Nur-Sultan.  We arrived and got taxis and got home safely early in the morning of December 31st.  It was a quick visit to Utah, but a nice one.  We were happy to be here for New Years with Babushka.

Waiting for our flight in SLC.

Lexa and Mama in their Jazz gear!

Lina is super excited to travel!

Lunch!

Looking at our future home.

Some happy campers on the last flight home to Kazakhstan from Utah.

Of pumpkins and cookies

Back in September I was looking for a pumpkin because it was fall and I was craving a pumpkin pie! There is no canned pumpkin in the stores here or at least I didn't see any. I was hoping they would have some real ones at the local bazaars but they weren't selling them until October. The pumpkins that were here were way different from the ones I was used to in America and the ones I had in Russia. They are brownish on the outside and a very rich orange color on the inside with just a couple of seeds. The texture is also different, and so is the taste. They are super sweet! They almost taste as if somebody was watering it with honey while the pumpkin was growing! I am not sure what kind of pumpkin it is but we liked it!

I didn't have a pie pan, so I decided to try a new recipe and make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies instead. I found this ginormous 5 kg (11 lb) box of chocolate chips at the local store. 

And the chocolate chips were ginormous as well!

Because everything is ginormous in Kazakhstan! 


Even my cookies turned out ginormous! Oh, they were  good, really, really good! Since October I made them just about every week! They are always a big hit with kids and adults alike! 

So I decided to share the recipe here, mostly so I do not forget it myself! And I have to tell you that if you like pumpkin pie and you like chocolate, you will love these babies!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pureed pumpkin
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
• ½ cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions: 

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.

2. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.

3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.