Christmas day has been the same in my house for years- opening presents in the morning, rushing around like crazy people to prepare food and clean the house in the afternoon, and having a big family party in the evening. Yesterday was no exception!
The morning started with presents by the tree. As usual, Ralphie & Co. kept us company…
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| Go on and cry about it!! |
I was seriously surprised and thankful for the loot my parents gave me, which included a slow cooker for my apartment:
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| I see many soups in my future… |
A new pair of Brooks Adrenalines (perfect timing for my upcoming half training):
And two new cookbooks:
My sister-in-law Cammy also got me some of the good stuff:
She knows me well.
Luke, meanwhile, got socks and underwear.
Clearly, I’m the favorite child…I kid, I kid. He also got a wedding and a honeymoon 
After presents, I got to work in the kitchen! Cammy helped me chop and prep food for a myriad of dishes. We worked nonstop for about three hours and managed to get just about everything done. Less time than I expected, for sure!
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| Cammy and I |
Guests started arriving at about 2:30, and were greeted with an appetizer spread.
Crudites with ranch,
Mixed nuts,
Pita chips and whole-wheat pita with homemade sundried tomato and olive hummus from ED&BV (and Cammy’s Romanian eggplant dip, which I missed a photo of),
Shrimp cocktail,
Green and black olives with feta,
Brie with Mary’s Crackers and Ryvita biscuits,
And my Aunt Donna’s famous classic spinach dip in a pumpernickel bread bowl, which I also forgot to get a picture of 
For apps, I stuck to crudites, nuts, shrimp and pita chips with lots of hummus. The sundried tomato and olive combination was a winner.
Mike popped in to say hi for a few hours, too!
When the roast was done around 5:30, we all dug into dinner.
I’d made traditional Italian sausage, onion & peppers tossed with penne pasta,
Angela’s sweet potato casserole,
Parmesan-garlic mashed potatoes,
Rotini pasta with lemon-cashew basil pesto (also from ED&BV),
Roasted brussel sprouts, beets, broccoli and cauliflower,
Garden salad with romaine, tomatoes, cucumber, olives, red onion and oil & vinegar dressing,
Spinach salad with pecans, pears, dried cranberries, goat cheese crumbles and oil & vinegar,
Mama Pea’s better bay cheddar biscuits (which my cousins went nuts over),
Sliced seminola loaf and baguette,
And a pork roast, which my dad was in charge of.
I filled my plate with sweet potato casserole, pesto pasta, roasted veggies, garden salad and seminola bread. (I unintentionally ate completely vegan all night- easy to do when I’m in charge of food prep, I guess) The sweet potatoes and pesto pasta were by far my favorites- luckily we have plenty of leftovers!
Little Skreet was the life of the party! He takes awhile to warm up to people, but by the end of the night he was pooped from all his scurrying around and slept soundly on his mom’s lap.
For dessert, we brought out the spread I showcased the other day.
As usual, I went a little nuts on the dessert- a few small slices of each the pumpkin pecan brownie pie and raw chocolate cake, as well as lots of cake and peppermint barks, a dough ball, half a chocolate chip cookie, lots of fruit salad. The raw chocolate cake was an especially huge hit!
Overall, it was a wonderful night. I was definitely stressed about preparing so much food, but everything went smoothly and turned out just fine. I was dead asleep the second my head hit the pillow last night.
Time to get this day started. I have some stuff to do before this snow storm hits!
What was the highlight of your Christmas? Did you make any dishes?
