We do traditional American for Thanksgiving and then traditional Puertorican for Navidad. That is: arroz con gandules(spanish rice w/pigeon peas), roast pork, pasteles(the carribean version of tamales---instead of corn, the dough/masa is made out of finely grated Yucca or finely grated green bananas and some other tubers that aren't common here(yautia---aka Malanga, aka Taro root). They are then wrapped in banana leaves after they are filled with a meat mixture(usually pork). You thought tamles were a pain in the butt to make!!! Even with the food processor I spend 4 hours just making the masa---ever peel green bananas??? The other sides are usually potato salad, pan con ajo(garlic bread), and for dessert arroz con dulce (a concoction similar to rice pudding---very sweet and made with coconut cream), and tembleque---a custard made out of coconut milk, sugar, and cornstarch that is cooked on the stove and then poored into a dish to chill and sprinkled w/cinnamon. In Puerto Rico they drink coquito(like egg nog, only has coconut milk in it and usually rum). Yummy---unless you don't care for coconut. It is a lot of fun for my kids to learn about the Christmas traditions there. They get gifts from relatives here on Christmas, and more gifts from relatives in Puerto Rico on January 6th---Three Kings Day. Sorry I wrote a novel about our Christmas traditions. Tyffanie

My husband's parents used to celebrate the English way, or what they thought was English (they're from Hong Kong). A full dinner at 6p on Christmas Eve, putting up the tree, opening presents at midnight, and then eating a full meal AGAIN at 2am in the morning Christmas Day! This really wasn't very enjoyable for me, and since my MIL worked it was pretty stressful for her, too, doing all that stuff! They would make roast leg of lamb (Chinese will eat meat in huge quantities if they can afford it!), shepherd's pie, several Macanese (Portugese recipes adapted from Macau cuisine) dishes, and one little lonely package of Green Giant creamed spinach for 8 people. Eventually over the years, they stopped doing these parties, due to ill health and just getting tired of all the work involved. I was secretly relieved, although my husband STILL misses opening presents on Xmas Eve, LOL! My family of third-generation Asian Americans, celebrates Christmas Day. We never have a set menu, as all of us, including my now-grown-up nephew and niece, are dynamite cooks and love to experiment. Although we do a mostly traditional Thanksgiving, Christmas is always different. Sometimes we do "theme" ethnic cooking; sometimes we do more traditional stuff. This year it's slow-roasted salmon and prime rib, because my nephew is anxious to try cooking his first Big Piece of Red Meat :)) I make a smoked salmon sushi appetizer that the family really likes, so I offered to do the hors d'oeuvres this time. My BIL is vegetarian so he'll do a Greek salad and we'll have a couple of desserts -- probably a tiramisu and a fresh strawberry tart with lemon curd filling. My sister is in charge of the starch this year, could be pretty wild as she approaches cooking as a science experiment! New Year's we celebrate individually. My sister and her family do a buffet drop-in. My husband and I usually make ourselves a nice festive brunch -- blueberry French Toast or Chocolate Pancakes, and then maybe rack of lamb or filet mignon for dinner.

I don't often do multi course dinners with wine but have done several. What I have learned is: don't use china but white ware dishes Use dishwasher safe wine glasses Then: Salad plates in dishwasher with soup bowls (actually used an extra set of dishes I had for plates under the soup bowls all went into the dishwasher) Salad plates were done and clean in time to be reused for dessert, along with small forks. Have a helper to plate courses so you can load up the next load in the dishwasher *** I am very thankful that my dishwasher is VERY Quiet!*** So, I took care of dishes as we went, did a sample plate for each course as we went. Many of my friends expressed they would like to learn how to manage multi course meals so I felt comfortable pulling a few of them in to assist. You are very right about bone in meats . . I also have developed a dislike to dining with shells on shrimp (even tails in shrimp cocktail, or split lobster; I want to be able to eat anything set on my plate and not need to handle the food to remove or set aside bone or shell). The other thing I learned is not to invite people that didn't appreciate wine or food. Dinners like that take a lot of effort and to see someone push food around a plate because they have never tried it before and are not willing to even try a bite is disheartening. As for wine, if someone downs the glass in 1 long sip . . . they are a nope for the next time! BTW that wasn't a sip it was a guzzle! Also, yes the glass shouldn't be to the brim of the glass! Those friends I invite for potluck or buffet meals

I made our Christmas meal yesterday, since I am stuck at work today. Turkey tenderloins, chicken dressing, cranberry sauce (from the can) Mac and cheese, collard greens. I brought some to work with me to eat later, along with the absolutely sinful dark chocolate dipped pretzel sticks SO gave me for Christmas. I assume he will eat some later if he gets hungry while I am here at work. I made a pan of brownies this morning while I was getting ready in case he wants something sweet afterward. The dogs got the ham hocks from the collard greens for their Christmas present. My sister hosted some of her husbands family for Christmas Eve. A couple of his sisters, that's all. They always have tons of finger food for Christmas Eve and I made some of them for her and delivered them the day before so that I could have Christmas Eve all to myself and SO. Homemade salsa, olive bread thingies and sausage stuffed French bread. She said her kids did NOT want to leave Santa cookies. They left him cheesy olive bread and chip dip. (I guess they wanted to get a leg up on the other kids of the world. To be fair, I would rather have olive bread and chip dip than cookies any day)