Merry Christmas!

Very warm day today-- we were all in summer-y clothes for this Christmas dinner, which was fine with me... the cats were very content to be on the screen-porch until dinner was over and our friends were gone and the little Christmas elves came out and cleaned everything up. (Ho! Ho! Ho!)

We all had a wonderful dinner. Started off with cubes of cheese and fresh green grapes and blueberries skewered onto the little gold Napier mice servers. I sprinkled the serving plate with grated cheese and it looked like the mice were having a snack themselves. Next came the crawfish bisque--- delicious, and it came out better than ever because as soon as I put the crawfish in that pot yesterday, I shut off the gas and let the soup cool down and then put it in the fridge. When I finished cooking it today, it was nice and thick and the crawfish were cooked through without being over-cooked.

I used the bread machine to make a loaf of home-made bread, which I had timed to be ready when my Aunt Dolly's little cheese-mice were put on the table. The aroma of the bread goes all through the house and out the door. I swear you can smell the bread baking on the front porch.

The main course was a roast loin of pork, which L & S brought over. L cut slits into the meat and filled them with sliced garlic cloves. As the meat cooks, the garlic gets very sweet as it flavors the pork. I just tasted a bite of the roast... very good, but I'm not much into eating meat.

Side-dishes were my husband's mashed potatoes (with cheese & bacon), his neighborhood-famous oyster dressing, sweet potatoes with pineapples, and a spinach and feta cheese casserole (made by L -- she made the same thing for Thanksgiving and other holidays, and it's always good). The sweet potatoes were the best and the easiest I've made so far: I baked the sweet potatoes in the microwave till they were almost done, then peeled them and cut them into thick round slices. Into a baking pan they went, layered with chunks of pineapple. I sprinkled everything with brown sugar and a little bit of maple syrup (no butter!)-- I did all of that yesterday, then covered the pan with foil and put it in the fridge. All I had to do today was re-heat them, and they finished cooking and the top got browned as they were heating up.

For dessert, we had my husband's home-made Plum Pudding (a Christmas tradition here), and I made a pumpkin pie. L & S brought over some home-made Greek pastries from a friend of theirs, and I also had the coconut-dipped sherbet cups for a little bit of ice cream. I was going to make hot apple cider today, but it was so warm outside that I didn't think anyone would want that.

About ten minutes before Miss C and her parents came over, V next door stopped in to say Merry Christmas and give us a gift (a book about Christmas in NYC). V also walked into the dining room to see the table settings, and the place cards I had made. She's been doing this now for the past few holidays. I keep telling her that I will show her how to make the place cards, but I don't think she wants to make them-- she just likes looking at ours.

As always, Christmas comes and goes too quickly every year... which is exactly why I decorate early, right after I take down the Halloween decorations. This way, we can enjoy our holiday decorations for all of November and December. You can also enjoy the holiday itself when all the decorating details are done ahead of time. The large fresh tree in the living room, up since the day after Thanksgiving, is now not so fresh. We will probably take that down this weekend.... it will be a two-day job, I'm sure.

One thing is for sure--- unwrapping Christmas decorations and putting them around the house is a lot more fun than taking them down and packing them away. Maybe the same little elves who clean up my kitchen would like to un-decorate the house? (Ho! Ho! Ho!)