No gorgeous table pictures here! The table cloths (unironed and wrinkly) were thrown onto the tables about 30 minutes before we ate. One of these years I'll get the table decorated in advance :) I'm always a little too ambitious with the menus. Roast Goose with Chestnuts, Prunes and Peach Brandy (the gravy was fabulous) and a Roast Turkey breast with make-ahead giblet gravy, individual mince pies, Pommes Duchesse potatoes, two stuffings, pots de crèmes for dessert, and more and a few things I never got to, too. This year was just about perfect! Very happy day, because I had a crowd to feed. Loved seeing the pictures. Mlweaving_Marji - definitely know the feeling when the kids AREN'T there. Isn't it nice when that day is over, when it's like that? (P.S. I've been eyeing the brussel sprouts recipe too).

The best holiday tradition here. I'm of Polish decent. Our Christmas Eve meal is a big deal. The whole family gets together and has traditional Polish Fare, three kinds of Pierogi, potato pieces boiled then sauteed in oil and onions, fish, mushrooms, peas, rice, prunes, olives, candy, wine and soft drinks followed by cookies, nut and poppyseed roll for dessert. Before the meal there is a large rectangular shaped wafer (consistency of communion wafer) everyone has a piece and those at the table break off a piece or yours and you of theirs and eats it, it's called Oplatki. I've always loved our traditional Christmas Eve better than any other Holiday tradition.

Our 'out-laws' (DIL's parents) have a traditional Polish Christmas Vigil meal on Christmas Eve. Last night there were twenty of us at table. Champagne is served before dinner. Then there is a sharing of wafers where each person greets every other person attending, eating bits of one another's wafers. The purpose is to mend any old year's discords and wish good things for the coming year. The table is set with the best china, silver and crystal. There is straw under the white tablecloth to evoke the manger in the stable. DIL's father reads from the Bible -- and this year recounted his first nativity play, where he played the ass! Then the meal begins with homemade soup made from imported Polish mushrooms. (Evidently becoming scarce.) Salmon has been a welcome addition to dinner in recent years. The rest of the meal is varieties of pirogi and cooked cabbage. After dinner there is an enormous sweets table with homemade cakes, cookies and candy. (DGS pointed out the six kinds of cookies and the caramels he had helped his mom make. Doubly delicious!) When the children can't stand it another second, the mound presents under the tree is attacked! Towards the end of that, carols are sung in English and in Polish. DH and I drive home while some of the family goes on to mass. (DH and I are not Catholic -- which becomes more 'OK' with passing years. It's nice to visit with DIL's big, extended family.) Today is bright and sunny near Lake Michigan's shores. I see walkers, joggers, and dog walkers passing along our street already. DH and I have had our breakfast -- with the stollen I *finally* found! Happy Christmas Day, good KT friends!

Christmas Eve is our big family gathering, we include a dinner for 20. We serve buffet style, but sit at dining tables. (I discovered that 20 is the perfect number: 10 at the DR, 10 in the sunroom at two folding banquet tables) We went with a simple dinner menu this year: beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes (two trays from costco, they were great, and pretty in my new red-orange Dansk pan) and a simple Chistmas salad my aunt made. Elegant! Appetizers were made/brought by others: just shrimp w/sauce, an artichoke dip with crackers, and my kids always make the classic Lipton soup dip. Dessert was the most complicated: DH made his mom's Walnut glory cake which calls for 9 count'em 9 separated eggs. But it's not called "glory" for nothing! Our Scandinavian tradition calls for rice pudding which, for the first time, came from my kitchen. It was a tad soupy, but delicious. And folks brought cookies and candy. Christmas morning DH made our traditional "Eggs McDH" and mimosas. We forgot to make the fruit medley, but that's okay. Then we went to my folks' and my brothers met us up there, for baked French toast (made with Challah, best French toast ever!) and bacon. Christmas night is our quiet intimate dinner at home of leftovers, at the dining room table with the party dinnerware. Me, I felt like the Very Hungry Caterpillar: I ate "one nice green leaf and felt much better". Literally, I had the salad with no dressing lol! Ahhh.