Fun-due (get it?)

Hello friends! We’ve been having a very merry night here.  It’s our last night in Seattle, so we exchanged gifts and opened stocking presents tonight.  Tonight was a wonderful way to wrap up what’s been a great trip. 

But before tonight…we met up with Ryan’s friends for lunch in downtown Seattle! The restaurant we went to (Icon Grill) was really pretty! It had an extensive menu, and a really nice, almost posh atmosphere. 

I ended up going with the special salad: mixed greens, topped with blue cheese, candied pecans, and the star ingredient: candy cane beets! I’d never seen these before.  They were pale pink, almost like watermelon chunks, but with white stripes (like a candy cane). They tasted just like a regular, earthy beet. How festive!

Here’s a shot of my lunch…sorry, it’s a little blurry.  I was trying to be quick 🙂

 

Ryan and I also split a cup of the butternut squash soup.  It was different than any butternut squash soup I’ve had before.  It was topped with a cashew salsa, and had a spicy, almost tomato-like taste to it.  It was really good! The cashews added a nice texture and crunch to the creamy soup.

Also, check out this wild mushroom three cheese pizza that Ryan got.  It was awesome:

After lunch, we walked around downtown Seattle and did a little last minute shopping with our friend Jen.  Anthropologie was having a huge sale, and Jen scored some really cute dishware.  One of the plates had a squirrel on it—I wanted it, but alas, my already full suitcase was telling me no way, no how. 

We returned home around 6:00, ready for a night of fondue and gifts.  Patti and Kristi had been working hard all day in the kitchen to prepare our fondue feast.  They made two types of fondue: traditional cheese (this one had a bit of a kick to it) and a “pizza” fondue that was a mix of cheese and tomato sauce.  They were both delicious!

For dippers, we had ciabatta bread, broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, and jicama.

Dinner:

 

And of course, the best part of fondue: the dessert!

We had two types of dessert fondue: regular chocolate, and peanut butter.  Yummmm!

Of course, we took the requisite family portraits before the gift-opening began:

And then, the gift-opening craziness began! Of course, our big gift this year was our snowshoes, which we already knew about, but we also got lots of fun little stuff as well. 

Carson was as entertaining as ever.  I don’t think he really knew what was going on, but he sure had fun with the wrapping paper! 

 

A fun time was had by all!

Tomorrow, we’re flying out of Seattle at noon, arriving in Dallas around 6, and then driving back to Shreveport.  Hopefully we should be home between 9 and 9:30, assuming everything goes as planned.

Hope you’re enjoying a joyous holiday!  See you tomorrow!