Sorry your Christmas didn't go according to plan.
It must be the year for that!
Ours was a little "off" too.
DD#1 and SIL were here last night for a few hours and all was "on track".
Supposed to have other 3 kids here by 2pm today for prime rib.
Two were late, one had to work for a while and got here just as the other 2 were leaving. And now she has to go back to work tonight!
So, mostly a quiet day for DH and I.
But, dang! the prime rib was good!

Sipping my wine at 7:20pm, DH and DD#2 snoozing in the recliners!

Sometimes you've just got to "roll with it" I guess.

Tomorrow we drive 2 1/2 hours to see my mom, brother, aunt and cousin and do it all over again! Just a sandwich and salad type meal though, so no major prep!!

Merry Christmas, All!
Deanna

Mine went kind of as planned, my family had their party last night. We had an ice storm overnight, so Elery left about 10 am so he could get home to work tonight and tomorrow. Ashley's boyfriend finally got here about 6 pm.

I made some fajitas for Ashley and I, and I spent the day doing laundry, cleaning house and watching MTV with Ashley, which very nearly made me barf.

Trixie, hope you find those steers soon....

Annie

Were the steers having their own Christmas party? Hope you find them soon.

DH made it home, so we've just been hanging out. We made a big dinner for the two of us tonight. It was way too much food, but I'll package some of it for him to take with him Sunday. Tomorrow he'll go up to see his mom, and I'll try to restore some sense of order to the kitchen. It looks much like a war zone right now. O_O

After an iffy morning thanks to my tummy, we skipped the mid-day holiday party and concentrated our holiday energy in the later afternoon on dinner with our family.
Thanks to Annie's expert advice my beef tenderloin turned out wonderfully, my father joined us (at least physically) and the kids were a blast! We managed a really nice family photo and a fun time was had by all. The weather was cool and clear and by most standards it was a great day!

Trixie-sorry to hear about the errant steers and the missed lunch, but I'm glad that you were able to make the best of it!

DH was supposed to join me with the kids and some friends for church last night at 5pm, but he wasn't able to leave work until 7. At least he made it to our annual dinner with the friends. He went to work this morning at 6am, the kids and I slept until noon or so, then ate a very nutritious meal of cookies, candy, chips and salsa! (We had planned to go have lunch with DH at work but he was too busy). He finally found time for us around 8pm so we picked up some Thai take-out and we all had dinner with DH at work. Didn't really feel like Christmas to us this year.
Hope you can round those steer up soon.

We had a quiet Christmas Eve as we always do, with a cold buffet supper of potato salad, green salad, sliced ham, cheeses etc. and some nice red wine. We watched Christmas music programs on German TV. There are always beautiful Christmas concerts there, and at the same time we opened our presents.

Christmas Day we went out for a restaurant lunch of Duck A L'Orange with red cabbage and baked pears, which we had booked previously. It was so nice not to have to spend Christmas Day in the kitchen. With just the two of us I really enjoyed being served food and wine with no dishes or mess to clean up afterwards.

We've been having hot and very windy weather here. Sun has been out and it's been quite lovely. Spent part of yesterday evening on Skype talking to daughters and family in Canada.
Today I'll roast a breast of turkey and go for a long walk in the sun.

Trixie I hope the steers are found today!

SharonCb

Trixie, I hope you find the missing Moo's soon. (Sorry, I could not resist)

Our went according to plan, even with wacky weather here too. Since Wednesday we have had rain, snow, ice rain, back to rain and some local flooding, more ice rain and now snow. Christmas eve was at one set of friends, then yesterday at anothers with the full load: 15 kids under 16, 25 adults, 4 dogs, boatloads of gifts and way too much food. Everyone went home with meals for at least today and they still had leftovers.

Today is going to be a lazy day. I will break in the new braiser form Aldi;s with some short ribs and try to figure out how to load songs onto my new iPod. Yup, I ned a 12 year old for that one. :)

Sounds like a memorable Christmas even though not as planned! Annie, the MTV made me laugh. I don't think I've flipped on that channel since it's conception in what?..the 80's !? I think of Boy George and Duran Duran when I think of MTV. I guess that is really aging me!

No glitches in ours. Christmas Eve was nice...over at my sister's/dad's house for ham and all the trimmings and goodies. My DW surprised us by having all the old home movies put on DVD so it was fun watching my nieces and nephew as little kids again and seeing and hearing my mom. Nice, but bittersweet at the same time. We did get a huge laugh at my sisters expense...apparently my DW got a shot of Cheri bending over retrieving something under the tree 9 years ago ...and uh...let's just say her rear end looked prety, pretty, pretty large LOL. We laughed until we cried...even Cheri did!

My Prime Rib came out perfect. I used Jim's method but the real trick just seemed to get the crust right and then cook internally to desired temp which was easy with my new digital thermostat. Actually I'm having some leftovers this morning along with hashbrowns!

Hope Santa was good to all my friends here on the CF!

Duane

Other than a phone call to my son and his family in Philadelphia, our day was quiet. A friend joined us for dinner and brought a lovely apple pie for dessert.

Since there is an on-going report on how the standing rib roasts turned out, I'll report on ours. We used the "Perfect Prime Rib" method that I posted on another thread, new to us. Slow roast at 200 for about 4 hours until temp is 120 (for medium rare), take out and rest, tightly tented. Turn up oven to highest 525. Rest for minimum of 30 minutes. Sear at 525 for 10 minutes. There was barely 1/4" of gray around the roast, even at the ends. The rest was perfectly medium rare, from the end slice (less the 1/2") to the middle, and the crust was nicely crunchy. Doesn't matter the size of the roast, either. It was perfect. Method renders very little in drippings, so we used some trimmings form the roast and rendered enough fat for the Yorkshire pudding. Note, we used a remote read thermometer, the kind that snakes out the side of the oven door.

Hope everyone else reports in on their Christmas Day!

Here is a link that might be useful: Perfect prime rib

I'm at my sister's house in Austin now, and we will be flying back to Los Angeles tomorrow. Christmas went very well, although it got cold on Christmas Eve. On Wednesday, it was 75, but then the next day it dropped down to 43° by late afternoon and was snowing, which is extremely rare. It melted as it hit the ground. We knew the outdoor temps because Kevin bought our parents a new clock that is also an indoor/outdoor thermometer. It was generally 78-80° indoors, which gave me a headache, but I could go to cooler parts of the house. I started everything pretty early because we arrived on Monday morning and did some shopping on Tuesday, at which time I bought the turkey. That gave me two days to have it in the fridge salted and one day to air dry in the fridge. I think it came out the best I've ever done, but then I do it so seldom that it's difficult to compare. I made cornbread this year for stuffing instead of grits because there were going to be 18 people, and I made Toffee on Tuesday, which my mother liked. I also made a sort of green bean casserole, which everyone loved, plus a green salad with bleu cheese dressing, mashed gold potatoes (which I baked in foil the day before), and gravy that I made using stock that I had made two days before with excess turkey parts (neck, wing tips, and an extra thigh that I bought for poaching). I made more than half a gallon of stock and used all of it - half for gravy, about 1/3 for stuffing, and the rest in the potatoes.

I'll post the family drama after I get back.

Lars

All and all a great Christmas here too. Christmas Eve was Chris , Amity Clive and I. After out traditional Tortiere dinner the kids put together Clive's present while we sipped wine in front of the upstairs fireplace.

We both got a chuckle about the roll reversal. There were the kids following complex instruction and assembling gifts on Christmas Eve instead of Clive! LOL

Christmas Day was fun. We used SKYPE and the WEB cam and were able to have Meredith "with us" as we unwrapped our gifts Christmas morning. It was very neat, worked like a charm but also brought a few tears.

Every one arrived as planned. We had a great afternoon of munchies, Wii, and lively debate.

Dinner was great, I was pleased with everything. As usual I cooked way too much but judging by the smiles as I loaded up doggie bags , that wasn't a bad thing!

Only one minor little glitch that I feel guilty even mentioning...but I will. I usually do all the food myself, with the exception of desert which I leave to my SIL. This year I asked for some help so my DSIL brought appetizers and my sister brought desert. I did the rest.
Everything they brought was excellent and enjoyed by all but ALL the appetizers my sister brought required time in the oven. As most of you know oven time is at a premium for meals like Christmas and T-day. Every time she wanted to serve an appetizer I had to take things out of the oven , cook the appy and then put the ham, beans, stuffing etc...back in the oven. Thank goodness I have two ovens so I could leave the 24 pound turkey alone! Would not have been happy taking that monster in and our of the oven! LOL

I appreciated the help but next time I'll be a bit more explicit about and kitchen restraints I may have. My fault not hers.

So another Christmas is behind us and another New Year ahead of us. Happy New Year everyone!

Our theme was Latin American food and all of it came out very well. I did a Cuban orange roast pork, slow roasted for 8 hrs at 250 degrees. It was delicious, juicy and tender - a big hit.

My nephew did homemade tortillas and several wonderful spicy salsas; my niece did pupusas with cheese and bean filling and a pickled coleslaw-type cabbage and carrot salad that goes on top, along with some less spicy salsas. One used homemade pickled tomatillos she had grown, and the other was really different - tomatoes and kiwi, a surprisingly good combination (and very Christmas-y in color).

A friend did empanadas, and my ex-BIL (who was hosting) did a beautiful arugula/fig/pomegranate salad - not terribly Latin, but he's a vegetarian and really couldn't find any interesting Latin veggie recipes, LOL!

For dessert we had a coconut rice pudding, with a choice of either rum syrup or raisin-cinnamon syrup.

Guest of honor was the newest member of our family, 10 week old Ethan, who is likely to be one of the most over-indulged children in the US, with three sets of doting grandparents hovering over the first (and so far, only) grandchild!

We had a very nice low-key Christmas. Thursday eve my DD made a simple supper of Shepherd's Pie, then after Church services we had cheese, dips, and snacks.

Yesterday we went to my brother's house for our big meal. DB and DSIL love to entertain, but neither are very competent when it comes to cooking. By all accounts, the food was dreadful, but the company of much extended family made up for it. At least one didn't have to worry about over-consumption of rich foods, and I was very pleased that I didn't have to cook. DSIL was putting out all the food on the buffet when we arrived, but we didn't sit down to eat for at least an hour. That gave plenty of time for everything that should have been served hot to cool down to frigid (tough, overcooked standing rib roast, mashed sweet potatoes, gravy, fettucine alfredo, paella, stir-fried veg). We brought most of the appies, which went over well, especially my homemade gravlax.

I am glad to hear everyone had a nice Christmas, even if it was quieter, or different than usual due to the weather. Ours was quite nice. Christmas Eve we go to my brother's. He took over the tradition from my aunt a few years ago when it got to be too much for her. There was ham, sloppy joes, green beans, corn, my augratin potatoes, his roasted potatoes with rosemary & parmasean cheese, veggie tray, relish tray, cookies.......and family, the very best part. If any of you follow the Kitchen Table, I had mentioned that my Dad was in the hospital with pnuemonia. He had a cold and his defibulator went of three times, so I took him to the ER, only to find out, he had pnuemonia instead of a cold, and the infection was making his heart rate go up, setting of the defib. Mom can't be alone anymore, so she stayed with DB#2 or me, depending. Dad came home on Tues afternoon. Everyone got to be together, as they didn't let him come home until the pnuemonia was kicked. The best!

Christmas Day, DS opended presents with DH & me before he went to work. At 3pm, DGS, DD & her S/O, his parents, and my mom & dad came for a dinner of ham, my augratin potatoes, green beans, green bean casserole, green beans, & mashed sweet potatoes. Dessert was DS's cheesecake, pumpkin roll and chocolate pie. When we opened gifts, DD was just about in tears, as she got enough photographic equipment to start freelance work. His parents went in with us on that. And of course, watching the 6 y/o grandson was great fun! All in all, I think we were blessed this year.

Tami

Merry Christmas everyone!

I took some time off from work this year so I could get back into the whole cooking groove. Its one thing to cook for a few but when it comes to entertaining it requires a whole different game plan.
I have always found entertianing to be very easy for me-while I know others often stress out about it I have a very laid back approach.
Alas I cannot really remember the last time I cooked for a crowd!! The whole past year the house was up for sale and so much of our "stuff" was packed away so there was no entertaining and the year before that was filled with major household projects it was just easier to let someone else do the party.

This year was my turn again and it went off very well.
I was "in" my element so to speak LOL!!

The meal was a casual buffet of all sorts of home made foods and salads which everyone enjoyed.
It was the first time 3 of my brothers have been to the new house so along with the food I was also giving home tours even jumped in the car and took a short drive to the riverfront (yea its only a few blocks but it was a carpy rainy day).
The only family drama was once again Momma Drama in that she really never rsvp'd and kept everyone guessing.
Her phone was off the hook all day Christmas eve which prompted my SIL to look in on her. She told SIL she did not want to come to the party.
I was ok with it I mean yes it would have been nice to have Mom there but I understand that she is not well and would rather not stray too far from her surroundings.

But she also told Brother #3 that she was going and needed a ride with prompted Brother #3 to tell Brother #2 to get her...Brother #2 called her to tell her the time and she said she already had a ride (Bang head agaist wall).
Brother #4 who was not attending due to his job told me that Mom never had any intention of going!! (Bang head agaist wall-repeat)

Again my whole philosophy is "whatever"??

So basically 5 of us siblings were together and mom sat home by herself but it gave us all a chance to put our heads together and start the talk about the next step in her care. Brother #1 has POA and says he will most likely have to use it since he feels she is not taking care of herself and now that her mental issues are becoming more evident, will have to look into either a full time caregiver or finding a suitable place for her-neither of which she will be happy about.

On a lighter note my MIL was indeed very social!! We tried to get her to play the wii but she did not want to. She did allow FIL to play pool and darts which is a stretch for her LOL!! And they stayed the entire day which was really great-her and Brother #1 had some good chats.

The one big mishap came on Christmas eve as we were trying to expand the dining table something splintered and so we had to use it regular size. Everyone gathered around it anyway as most good parties always end up in the kitchen LOL!!

Its quiet here today just relaxing watching the PBS cooking shows enjoying the end of the snow as it melts!

Cheers!
Susie

Christmas eve was nice, a dinner with ham and potatoes romanoff with my sister and Jack. Then a family mass at church with many of the children doing the nativity play, Chance was an angel. Since we ate so early ( 2:30) by 7 pm we were hungry again so had pasta with tomatoe sauce!

For Christmas dinner Dave and I cooked the turkey, stuffing, and made gravy and a broccoli casserole and take it to his Moms- good thing she is only about 20 min away. She did all the rest of the dishes. We had a nice visit, good food and then played "Catch Phrase".

It started snowing here the morning of the 24th and has not stopped - except it is about 0 degrees and it is almost like rain. Very messy and not usual for us at all!

Trixie - hope the cows are home! Glad to hear no major catastrophes happened. Hope you are all relaxing and enjoying some down time.

Christmas Greetings from the Great Lakes State!!

Between the iffy weather and work, I had no idea how my Christmas was going to turn out. I managed to finish all my work by 3 PM Wed., and since the weather was crystal clear at that point, I decided to just throw everything in the car and head out for MI. I even left dishes in the sink, but I got on the road by 4:30, stopped at a friend's on the way out, and was seriously underway by 5:30 PM. Made it halfway, stopped for the night, got up early the next day and beat the storm home. Surprised the heck out of the 'rents, which was a good thing! The way the storm turned out, I could have even waited until Thursday morning to leave. We really didn't get much bad weather except freezing rain Thursday night late and early Friday AM, when most sane people aren't on the road anyway. I know those closer to the Lake have it worse though.

Christmas dinner was quiet with just me and the folks. I got my wish and got salmon for dinner--it was excellent, and it is a treat that I can't afford to buy myself so it was a great Christmas present. I was going to make cheesecake but we had so many marginal bananas that I made banana cake with chocolate frosting instead. My Christmas baking and cooking has not been what I planned this year, but I think I should have known better than to plan. It has been like I usually cook--to use up stuff out of the fridge before it goes bad! The night before I left PA I made potato mushroom wild rice soup to use up potatoes left over from Hanukkah. I haven't liked it due to me not liking cremini mushrooms (I've tried and tried) but my mom loves it.

Am going out with dear friends tonight from the old hometown. We've been friends since we were five years old!

I have enjoyed reading all your responses and glad that everyone had a good Christmas, with just a few glitches, here and there. But your meals all sound delicious!

We found 14 steers and steered them back to their home today (and hope they stay there.) We have 6 from another pasture missing and we hope they are visiting the neighboring pasture. The two other pastures with steers have stayed home and keeping fingers crossed that they stay that way.

We are supposed to have more weather next week, but don't think it will be as bad as this one, or at least hope not.

Now wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

After 9 hours on the road yesterday, we are back home and the dogs are happy! LOL

Left Wednesday morning and headed to my daughter's in Chicago. Weather was fine until we crossed into Illinois, where we got the opportunity to drive through freezing rain....not to mention rush hour traffic!

Thursday we did a little bit of last minute shopping, and then went to my son-in-laws home for a lovely dinner of cream of mushroom soup, green salad, filet of beef, steamed green beans, and roasted potatoes. Dessert was French Silk Pie, and a couple of chocolate roll desserts. Lots of good wine and good conversation with their wonderful family.

Christmas Day Nasri spent most of the day preparing a meal of Roast ham, braised quail, and sweet potato fries. I had made spanikopita at home earlier in the week and brought a couple dozen to be served as an appetizer, but they took longer than expected so we served them with dinner. Dessert was Capuccino Mousse, and it was a huge hit (thanks to you all for posting my recipe! LOL).

I finally found a way to enjoy sweet potatoes! The fries were very good, I was pleasantly surprised!

Back on the road yesterday morning. The drive was awful for the first 3 hours, but then the weather cooperated and we got home around 6:30. Went over to the neighbor's for a glass of wine and to thank them for caring for our dogs. Today it will be a day of "catching up" at home...have laundry to do and get ready to go back to our weekly routine!

Glad everyone had a good Christmas!

Linda

Well we didn't get the 20 inches of snow that they had predicted, we were ready to be snowed in for a week, as it was expected to have 50 mph winds too. Just 5 inches of snow and the winds. Made it to my folks only to get stuck three quarters of a mile from their house. Packed the engine full of snow and threw the belt but friends and family managed to get us out and Dad pulled us the rest of the way home. All my siblings and family made it, 12 adults and 10 kids under the age of 6 and we all stayed over night and the next day. Other family came on Saturday and had a good time. We left in a blizzard and made it home in good time and left before anyone had any fights lol. It was a great holiday and I made a ton of goodies for the holidays which I haven't done for some time.

Stacie

Nine pounds of ham, four loaves of whole wheat bread, four loaves of french bread, one pan of lasagne, three or four pounds of meatballs, twelve Italian sausage links, a vat of sauce, three heads of lettuce, a dozen tomatoes, two cheesecakes, one birthday cake, a cheeseball and crackers, five dozen eggs, eight pounds of potatoes, three gallons of milk, several quarts of orange juice, gallons of coffee, millions of cookies, one gingerbread house, two two-and-a-half pound tenderloin roasts, and pickles, chips, olives, cheeses, odds and ends galore later, all seventeen of the kids and grandkids have gone home for a few days.

Yesterday was granddaughter Hannah's first b'day, so we will gather at her house for another festival today, and Tuesday is youngest dtr's 25th b'day, so we'll gather again at my house! Don't know what we're going to eat yet.

I'd live like this all the time, if they'd let me.

Sherry

We had a lovely Christmas. DD flew in on Christmas eve morning. It was her first time here at Christmas in three years so she wanted to make the Christmas eve dinner - beef fondue with a variety of sauces, Caesar salad and potatoes and then we went to church at 10 P.M. and watched DH sing in the choir.

On Christmas day, we had our drop-in brunch and it was great - lots of guests and minimal cooking since I'd prepared almost everything ahead of time. The star of the show this year was the ham. I used a recipe from Boston's Durgin-Park and marinated a ham smoked by a local butcher in honey, fresh orange juice and sherry for three days. Then it was glazed with brown sugar, mustard, and more of the marinade mix and baked on Christmas Eve morning. It was great!

Christmas night, we had our traditional chicken-rice-leek soup and rye bread with a crunchy cheese topping.

Good food, good friends, and good cheer to finish out the year.

Everyone's Christmas sounds so wonderful!

Trixie - I hope you find the rest of your missing bunch - yikes! Maybe they're just spending Christmas visiting friends :)

Annie, Ashley didn't make you watch Jersey Shore, did she? That show is a train wreck.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve at a friend's annual party. One of my kids commented that they felt like they were in a Soap Opera, since everyhting was so fancy and perfect! My contribution to the party was a very strong champagne punch and a tray of desserts, including chocolate cheesecake mini-cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies and iced Christmas cookies.

Christmas Day is quiet for us since we don't celebrate. But we did have another family visit and hang out which is always lovely.

AM

AM, yes she did. Along with Parental Control, Teen Mom, Real Life and probably a couple of other things I don't remember. Sigh.

I keep telling her that is NOT real life, she says she knows but it's funny. I just thought it was stupid.

Trixie, so you are still 7 steers short? Are you going to "party til the cows come home"? Sorry, I couldn't help it. I just keep thinking about a 4th of July weekend several years ago when I spent 10 hours on horseback, rounding up errant cattle from the National Forest, from the neighbors and from the local Bed and Breakfast. It sucked, so I'm sorry.

Annie

My stepdad, who is 84, had a major stroke several weeks ago. We weren't sure he would make it, but he is recovering and was in good enough shape that we all enjoyed the day together.
Best Christmas present we could have hoped for!

Trixie, hope things will sail smoothly for you for the rest of your holidays.

Petaloid, I am glad to hear that your stepdad recovered and that you all enjoyed the best Christmas gift.

Our Christmas was uneventful. We have friends and families staying with us and they all want to eat their own food. So I try to stay out of the kitchen and let them do their "things". You know how's it like having too many cooks in the kitchen! LOL

Hubby did the Christmas turkey and the whole she bang. Dessert was from a friend who bought me a while cheesecake for my birthday. For three days I did nothing but sat there and ate.

Today, everybody is taking off for a short family vacation to Canmore, a town not too far away from here. This is our family tradition but this year we have one body too many so I decided to stay home and let the rest of them go. We tried to fit everybody in but that put me under a lot of stress. Once I finally decided not to go, I felt much better. I will miss my family vacation but it wouldn't be better if I pushed it and ended up worsening my sleeping disorder. So I will be home alone the rest of the holidays. Al

My DS and his partner were with us for Christmas Day. I made a 6 pound semi boneless ham and did the pineapple and cherry topping. DS made a dynamite Ultimate Potato Gratin casserole and I made Baked Spiced beets. We had an apple pie for dessert. It was a nice quiet day and a great time for all of us.
Now today my daughter and her DH and my two grand daughter's are driving in from Pittsburgh. I'm making an impossible spinach pie and an impossible cheeseburger pie for dinner for when they get here. I also made Anadama bread and we'll have gingerbread with hot lemon sauce for dessert. It will be like another Christmas.
Then on Tuesday DS and partner are coming up again to visit with all of us and it will be dinner #3!!! Seafood Newburg is what I've planned so far. If my legs don't give out first!
Joann

I emjoyed reading about all of your celebrations. Glad to hear most of the steer are home.

My Christmas started last Tuesday with the arrival of Nieces 1 & 2, plus 1's DH and two sons. I adore those kids. I gave then some Avatar figures and they played a lot with those. I got a bracelet made of beads. Mom made a pot roast dinner.

I worked Wednesday and Thursday. The boss gave me some liquid soap and a candle that stink to high heavens, so they will be regifted or taken to the thrift shop. The aroma is supposed to be Fig but it's actually P.U.

Christmas day was very quiet and made me wistful for the days of lots of relatives and complete bedlam. My older son came over and made a nice breakfast of french toast, bacon, eggs, coffee and juice. I got out the good china and silver just for the heck of it.

I gave him a set to learn to juggle and he spent most of the day fooling with that and could do it by the end of the day.

Dinner with Mom and she made lobster tails that were very good. We found #2 nephews shoes under the dining room table so I mailed those back on Saturday.

The other half of the family arrives this Tuesday for lunch. That's my BIL and his wife, Niece #3, her DH and two daughters. Can't wait to see them.

I work on Monday then have the rest of the week off. I have a job interview on Wednesday morning. I'll let you know more about that.

I think I will make asparagus soup tonight. I bought a lot hoping I could convince Mom to come here for dinner, but no luck.

So far no plans for New Year's Eve except to go to bed early!

Tricia, hope you have located all of your steers.

Our Christmas was a nice quiet affair. I drove down to Victoria early Thursday morning so I could pick Matt up and get home in time to go to work. Matt stayed until Saturday night. One of his friends stopped and picked him up on his way back to Victoria. I love having our son home for a few days.

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner - Tourtiere.

Our neighbour Clif and his visiting son Chris shared Christmas dinner with us. Matt and Chris are similar in age. Dinner was again just a traditional Christmas dinner with all the normal sides. Mashed potatoes, rutabaga, brussels sprouts and stuffing. This year I made a bread/cornbread stuffing.

Clif brought me over a lovely Prime Rib to cook for Saturday night's dinner. Along with roasted potatoes, cauliflower gratin and broccoli I also made yorkshire puddings.

I worked on Sunday so dinner was simple. Lots of leftover turkey breast for Hot Turkey Sandwiches.

New Year's Eve is always the same. We stay in and have champagne and lobster.

Trixie, I hope you have found all of your missing steers by now. That was one heck of a storm for sure. A white Christmas for us and the second or third blizzard warning we have had here in the Tulsa Metro. We had severe thunderstorms the day before...lol!

I hosted again this year and thanks to the weather our afternoon open house didn't happen. That's cool as the family made it here before the roads got to bad and we enjoyed the afternoon and evening together opening presents and nibbling on all of the munchies and desserts.

Christmas day we checked out all the gifts from Santa and then had biscuits and gravy with scrambled eggs and sticky buns for breakfast. Dinner was prime rib. Then the we spent some time digging out the cars in the drive. We had some good sized drifts for this part of the country. All and all another good holiday for the most part.

MTV isn't what it use to be back in the day. I remember the firts vid of video killed the radio star back in 80 - 81. Do they even play music videos anymore??

David

My Christmas miracle is that my sweet dog is still here. Diagnosed with an aggressive cancer in May, she was given a death sentence of two to three months. That was the best gift of my Christmas!

We also had a snowstorm, which she loved. It did my heart good to see her come galloping in from the snow.