Our Holiday Dinner

Butchart Gardens were fabulous last night! How festive!! The carolers were particularly good this year, and I always get a laugh out of the 12 days of Christmas displays. The French Hens and Lords a Leaping are my favorites. We also enjoy how they light the bare trees to make them look red and gold and not so wintery and baren. The "flowing water" lights in the sunken garden are pretty damn cool too.

Dinner was super yummy, but by far the richest meal I've had in a while. Totally not point friendly by any stretch of the imagination...almost ridiculous really.

I had a White Russian while waiting to order. And bread. Then the seafood sampler appetizer (the sablefish chowder was soooo yummy). I chose the 6oz rib-eye with garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus, and truffle hollandaise....so rich! We had a fantastic (expensive!) bottle of wine too. We ordered dessert because it just seemed an appropriate way to end the meal, but it turned out to be huge so we only made it part way through (homemade mini cocoa donuts w/ chocolate ganache for dipping and a small Mexican hot chocolate....to. die. for.).

The good part is that I now feel satisfied to skip over any more ridiculous holiday meals until Christmas at Mom's. I've enjoyed some potatoes, some cheese, and some chocolate. I feel confident I can make it through til Christmas Eve now without much incident. I have a Gingerbread House building evening to get through and maybe a few good-bye drinks with friends, but those are totally doable in a reasonable way.

Plus, DBF is gone now, so eating salad for dinner isn't such a bad thing around the house!