Christmas Eve

We hosted Christmas Eve this year- good GRIEF there was a lot of food! For posterity:

Appetizers: baked parmesan puff pastry twists, baked brie with meyer lemon marmalade, carrots and Uncle Dan's, chips and Lipton dip (standard for family functions!), a veggie and olive tray, and a platter of sliced grapefruit and clementines drizzled in simple syrup and topped with pomegranate seeds, and sugared cranberries.

Main Dish: baked salmon with meyer lemon, red onion, and dill

Side Dishes: Jell-O, baked potatoes with toppings (butter, sour cream, green onions, bacon, cheddar), green salad

Drinks: sparkling and hot ciders

Dessert: pie and Grandma's raspberry Jell-o/sweetened cream cheese/pretzel dessert.

The kids mostly ate Ruffles for dinner, and everyone enjoyed themselves! We had my family, my sister's family, my parents and siblings (all but one sister who was traveling for the holidays), my Aunt and Uncle's family, my cousin's family, my grandpa, and my husband's grand parents. All told, we were four kids and 16 adults, and paper plates saved the day :)

As you can see, the evening ended with most kids being read to in various rooms of the house- it was fantastic! We sent each other home with gifts to open the next morning.

My little family read Luke 2 that night for scripture study, and talked about the shepherds and how they must have felt, and talked about the Wise Men and what they brought, and we let the girls unwrap their Christmas Eve present (pajamas!)

OK, I had 2 very nice Christmas books lined up for the evening. A few days before Christmas, my little brother asked what the girls would be opening, and ribbed me. "Everyone needs Christmas jammies! It's not Christmas morning without Christmas jammies!" Oh no- my girls HAVE pajamas, why would they need more? I realized a few hours later that E's pajama pants showed a lot of shin, and M's weren't all that warm, and went straight to Target. I got home around 9:30 exhausted and pleased with myself, and my husband daringly pointed out I'd purchased the wrong sizes- they would have fit perfectly a few months ago! He went out Christmas Eve day and found adorable pj's for them, and they love them, and I love him, and all is good and right in the pajama world now.