OMG !

Every year DH asks what I want for Christmas, I give him some ideas and then he buys something of his own choosing - always something great, but never from the list !

This year I didn't have much of a list and when he asked I didn't worry too much since he doesn't use 'em anyway LOL.

But he asked again and so I made a very, detailed list - stores, hours, addresses, specific items WITH pictures. There was now way for him to say 'I wasn't sure' :-)

Yesterday I opened the complete Harry Potter set in Blu-Ray and the Twilight book set.

AND these...


He did good ! :-)

Merry Christmas !

We survived another one

It's a lot of work but worth every bit of effort!

There were 15 of us this year - we lost a couple at the 9th hour.

Marjie & g had questions on the last post, I'll answer 'em here...

Marjie - I made the candy cane ice cream twice now and it didn't get eaten as well as the other desserts. We don't eat very much ice cream in the winter so I skipped that one this year - only made the eggnog and french vanilla.

g - the Christmas dinner started a long time ago (this was the 12th in the house and maybe 5 or so before that in the apartment) as a way to plan a December get-together with some of our friends. The first year, Hubby decided it would be a good idea to make an actual turkey dinner as we were either at his parents or mine for Christmas Day and we didn't make our own turkey. By the end of the first dinner, it was tradition and we've done it every year since. Started with 8 people and when we moved, we could sit more people and it's usually 14-18 people now.

The french vanilla ice cream is straight from the KA booklet.
The eggnog ice cream is from cdKitchen.com Eggnog Ice Cream w/Hot Buttered Rum Sauce and btw, the rum sauce is also excellent !

This is a final pic of ALL the cookies right before I packaged them up. Absolutely no idea how many I actually made.


Some pics of the evening - we ought to (but don't) take a group shot. I think I picked pics that managed to account for everyone. Notice in the first pic, hubby even managed to get himself in the reflection of the window !






Every person except 2 owns dogs and we had 5 four-legged creatures hoping for treats during dinner. Afterwords they all grabbed a lap and crashed.

...and has anyone ever seen a dog sleep like this. I think Charlie was a contortionist in a past life LOL


It was a fabulous weekend !

The final countdown

so. Where was I ? Ah, more getting ready for Christmas Dinner. Saturday's the big day - and I'm down to the last few hours of prep.

Sunday, I made the ice cream - french vanilla and eggnog. No pics of the final products but DH was ready with the camera while I was making them and not paying any attention to him !


Monday and Tuesday - more cookies:

Some regular green tree spritz for the regular gift boxes and another full batch of spritz along with another batch of ribbon cookies made with Splenda for a friend who's watching his sugar. I was prepared for a difference in taste and/or texture but these are soooo close to 'normal' that I'm pretty impressed.

Tonight I made the cheesecakes - plain New York style (will make a strawberry sauce to go on top) and a chocolate-vanilla swirl (my swirling needs work LOL)


Cranberry sauce is made, the turkey will be thawed on time and a bunch of chopping is already done for the stuffing. Saturday morning I should be able to have the bird in the oven by 8am or so.

Tomorrow, there is still the almond cake, lemom pudding and a couple of pies to make.

We'll be ready - we always are. It's been crazy busy but it's always worth it.


Parting Shot:

We needed a new tree this year and found a good buy on a 9ft pre-lit one. My brother spent the day with us last Saturday and he decorated it while I puttered in the kitchen.