Merry Christmas - Instagram Style!

Merry Christmas!!! I hope you are all having a wonderful day spent relaxing, enjoying time with family and remembering how great the year has been! We are spending the day in Disney World, one of my favorite places! 

I did the 25 day photo challenge in Instagram all through December and thought I would show you Christmas through my eyes over the last (almost) month. 

Have a wonderful day!! I'll be back next week with pictures of our awesome trip!

The list:

Day 1: Lights

Day 2: Decorations

Day 3: Gifts

Day 4: Tradition - pickle on the tree!

Day 5: Santa

Day 6: Stockings

Day 7: Snow

Day 8: Tree

Day 9: Treats - Friendship bread!

Day 10: Joy - lounging with my husband and watching the Grinch

Day 11: Carols

Day 12: Vintage (somewhat)

Day 13: Festive - Old Town Alexandria

Day 14: Glitter

Day 15: Warmth

Day 16: Ornaments - one very close to my heart

Day 17: Wreath - Nana's awesome snowman wreath

Day 18: Giving - a wonderful time of year to be a teacher!

Day 19: Reindeer aka little man

Day 20: Memories (in Disney World!)

Day 21: Bells

Day 22: Cookies - freshly baked on the way to Florida

Day 23: Sparkle - Epcot!

Day 24: Xmas Eve in Hollywood Studios
at the Osbourne Family Spectacle of Lights

Day 25:  Unwrapped - lots of goodies!!

Our Christmas Card 2012

Merry Little Tree Christmas

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Dinner at Brasa

Trey and I have been wanting to try out Brasa Steakhouse for a while now. Last year for his birthday Nana gave him a giftcard to go there and this fall I bought a coupon book from the chorus at school that had a $20 off coupon in it! So we finally went to Brasa a couple of nights ago and Sadler and Katherine joined us. It was a cool experience. There are three different options for your meal, the silver (just hot and cold bar), the gold which we got: unlimited salad and appetizer bars in addition to the full dinner rodizio experience which includes thirteen cuts of beef, lamb, chicken and pork and cinnamon roasted pineapple, and platinum which adds a lobster tail to the gold selection.

We started with the cold salad bar, it was very unique and had a variety of things that we nibbled on before our meat started coming. They have a meat runner who brings you all 13 cuts of meat and cuts off a slice or two for you. It is a lengthy process getting through all of the meats but it is a nice, slow meal. That way you actually have more time to digest your food and get through more than if it is just all on your plate at once. Once you have been offered all of the cuts they will ask if you would like anything again. We got a few different selections brought back to the table, filet, sirloin and the house special. While the meats were coming around, I went to the hot bar and got some sides to nibble on. I wasn't as excited with that selection as the cold bar, but there were a few really good items up there.

And to top off the meal they bring around the cinnamon roasted pineapple... it was amazing!

And since no post is complete without pictures, here are both couples at dinner:

Mexican Dip

My friend, Stephanie, made this for a tailgate one time and we devoured it so I got the recipe for her. I made it for a function at work and thought I would share the recipe:

What You Need:
2 - 11 oz cans of Mexican Corn (drained)
1 - 4 oz can of chopped green chiles (drained)
8 oz of shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of mayonaise
small green pepper (chopped)
1/2 of an onion (chopped)
Optional - chopped jalepenos (I didn't include them!)


What You Do:
Mix all ingredients together and serve with tortilla chips!

Dogfish Head: Round 2

This was our second time going to the Dogfish Head Brewery... this year we planned ahead and booked a tour EARLY since last year we randomly decided to go there and the tour was booked. The tour lasted over an hour! It was cool, we were told all about the history of Dogfish Head and then got to see "behind the scenes" of their brewery and warehouse. They are in the middle of a lot of construction, they are under-going a $52 million expansion!

 Grain:

 Oak Barrels:

 Hops:

 Beers saved for quality control... World Wide Stout from 2009

 Kegging line:

 Bottling line:

 The scheduling robot:

 A bunch of kegs:

 Old whiskey barrels, etc for making cask beer:

During and after the tour we enjoyed our 4 free samples and then did some shopping.

The original beer making of Dogfish:

 The original hops machine:

 They also make liqour! Sold only from the Brewpub

You can't purchase beer over 15% ABV in NC so we stocked up on those that we really like but can't get down here.