February Family Feast

We had our Anniversary/Love/Valentine's Day/February Family Feast today. Last Sunday (Valentine's Day) might have been a more appropriate day, but we had just gotten home late the night before from our little anniversary-get-away-turned-family-ski-trip to Jackson Hole. So we were in a bit of recovery mode. Today was a good back up day for our feast. Abi and Lily were my helpers and they did a splendid job. I had them pose for a few pictures before Corey got back home with all the kids -

Lots of pink food - Salmon, roasted red potatoes, mashed potatoes, beet salad, red grapes, lots of pink desserts, pink and purple and white flowers everywhere - 

Abi made the mashed potatoes and we put a little bit of beet juice in from my roasted beets, that was fun! Beets have such a pretty and vibrant color! I love it

Corey took the kids over to his parents house from like 2-5 so we could get everything ready. We told them to go get dressed up and then we could eat. Natalie is excited about the dessert tower!

Hyrum was smart and just stayed in his church clothes. He had mission prep at 2:30 and headed over to Corey's parents after that, around 3:45, even though he knew they were all coming back soon. We had a fun surprise when Joseph walked in the door! Around 2pm I thought "Bummer! We should have invited Joseph up!" and then lucky for us, Corey had already thought of that and told him. He cleaned up a little while we girls finished cooking and decorating. Everyone ready for the feast to begin. The girl's side (and Daniel... Lily had to rearrange the place seating when Joseph showed up)

Boy's side - 

Peter was excited about the berries in cream and didn't wait for us to give thanks. 

A few pretty pictures of our place settings - china that we got for our wedding from Corey's grandmother. We still have a few pieces that are not broken, although there is a crack or chip in many of them.

I love this balsamic beet and citrus salad...

Fine dining... seeing which kids pass the test. Joseph gets a point.

Owen putting salt on his brownie. He didn't make a mess though, so maybe we'd be willing to bring him to a restaurant.

Peter enjoying more desserts. 

This is a simple and do-able tradition that I'm hoping we will keep. I thought we'd done this every year but I might have missed a few... 2013 was our first family dinner, 2014 we had monthly parties that were over the top, 2015 was a decent showing... 2016 was good... (note to self, always get a group photo of the kids), 2017 Corey and I were in San Diego, in 2018 a snowstorm cancelled my last minute fancy dinner plans. Looks like I didn't do a family meal in 2019, but that's ok cause I had a one month old infant. Corey and I did get a night away. 2020 we did a fancy breakfast (I wish I had found that post first cause it has all the links I just posted above which I had to search for and find). Ok, well anyway. I've added this to my calendar to have a Family February Anniversary Feast sometime around valentine's day and our anniversary. It will be a little family feast celebrating the month that Corey and I were married and the month that we had our first kiss (19 Feb 1995) and the month that we were married in the temple. We watched our wedding video as part of our tradition tonight. I wonder if all these little people's spirits were there celebrating with us that day. It was an important day for all of us. It was the day our eternal family began. I'm grateful for my belief in the promise that because of Jesus Christ and temple, we can be together forever.