Our Christmas Dinner 2011

We spent this past holiday season at our vacation home in the sunny south.  It was a very different Christmas not being surrounded by family and friends.  We have only been away from our home on Christmas day on one other occasion when we took the kids south one year.  It was hard then and it was hard for use to be away this past year.  Prior to leaving we knew a couple of our kids would join us for the holidays but we had arranged to have our big Christmas celebration on January 22, 2011. 

My husband and I were up bright and early full of anticipation.  We sipped on our coffee while getting the turkey ready for the oven.  Then we moved on to making the many appetizers we would enjoy throughout the afternoon (eg. kibbeh, crabmeat dip, hummus, crudites, and etc.) First to arrive were parents of oldest and youngest grandkids.  The kids were extremely excited to see us so there were a lot of hugs and kisses.  Next to arrive were parents of middle grandkid who was excited to see Grandma and Papa as well as cousins.  It is so cute to see these three little ones interact!  We chit chatted enjoying an abundance of snacks while waiting for one of our kids with significant other to arrive for the magic present opening time.  We were all saddened a bit that one of our kids with spouse could not make it.  We had stopped by their place to stay a couple of days before returning home so brough well wishes for the sibs home with us.

I kept the dinner quite traditional this year.  We had turkey with stuffing (not dressing, stuffing), gravy, peas, corn, and home canned cranberry sauce.  I put out freezer pickles and pickled beets in Depression glass pickle dishes.  We had fully planned on making Swedish potatoes, a family favourite but we were enjoying simply being with the family so much that my husband decided to put potatoes in to bake during the last hour of the turkey roasting.  We brought down the large fold-up table to adjoin the dining table so we could all sit together.  In total there were 12 of us.   It was a wonderful dinner filled will lots of laughter and good memories!  That is what it's all about :)