Courtesy of the Un Mom.
Sooooo busy! Baking hoska bread for my son's class, whipping up powdered sugar icing, getting in some gym time, buying last minute presents. Whew! Anyone else feel like this has been a marathon?
First things first. I am having a giveaway. Click here to see the details. It is guaranteed to be yummy! You have until Sunday, December 27 to put yourself in the comments to be eligible for the random number generating!
Gave a presentation to my son's class about the history and heritage of Christmas we celebrate today. Showed them how to make Swedish paper hearts. Not that I have any of that heritage. I work at a living history site and we celebrated Swedish heritage, among others, this year. I made the hoska bread (Czech Christmas bread), again not because I have the heritage, but because we talked about it at my site. It was fun to share with those fourth graders. Even if they got wound up.
Who's going out of town for the holidays? I'm not! I'm glad I am not, because I like to cook and cook I will at home! I hate to wash up afterwards. Usually Mr. Wild isn't too disgruntled, but I do really dirty the dishes and he gets a bit tired of how many dishes I dirty. Tonight is warm potato leek soup, no matter how much the children cry about it.
So, plans for dinner. Don't ask me why, but Christmas Eve dinner has been Italian in my house and my parents' house for a while. Not for any particular heritage. Maybe because it's easy to make and most of us like it? So I've carried it into my home. I am planning mostaccoli (sp?), skillet cauliflower (from Lidia's Family Table cookbook), and a nice spinach and baby pea salad. I also plan on serving crostini with sun dried tomato spread for an appetizer and Noel tortoni (ice cream with m&ms and maraschino cherries) for dessert.
I also like the tradition that I think my parents started, where we each get to pick one present on Christmas Eve to unwrap. My parents are supposed to be coming, but with the weather, that may be iffy. And who hasn't been talking about the midwestern storm. It could be rain, freezing rain or sleet, or heavy snow. I'm hoping for the rain, except for the flooding that may occur.
So, menus...
Christmas Day we will have ham, sweet potato casserole, lemon apple (jello) salad, green bean casserole, home made rolls (I'm going homemade, why buy dough for rolls? I can do it myself) and pumpkin pie. I have been thinking about trying to make a dried cranberry stuffing, but I've not found a recipe I'm satisfied with. I don't want cornbread, apples, or sausage in it. Maybe I will, maybe I won't.
We sometimes have savory eggs on Christmas morning. Thinking lots of Velveeta cheese and eggs and butter. Yeah, so it's a heart attack waiting to happen, but we only have it once a year. But me and Mr. Wild and my parents would be the only ones eating it, so if they don't come, it will have to wait.
I realized this year that my kids don't know a lot of traditional caroling Christmas songs. Their school is so good about being diverse, they don't know Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Here Comes Santa Claus, Away in the Manager, Silent Night. Some are religious, some are not, but I was thinking how sad they don't know them. Guess what I think I'll do to remedy it? My husband will think I'm nuts, I'm sure my kids will groan, but I think I'll organize a yearly caroling party with in-town friends. Print out the words, meet at our house with their full familes and then wander the streets of our town, bringing Christmas cheer. No one goes caroling anymore. Why not? I think we will, and we'll be silly and goofy and maybe weird, but it should be fun. Then I'll serve mulled wine, hot chocolate, and maybe wassail and maybe have a chili dump. (Warning to my friends in town who read this, yes, this means YOU!) We'll be a crowd and there will be safety in numbers for the embarrassment factor. I miss singing and caroling. Let's start a new tradition. Well, I'm going to anyway!
Need to go make soup. Hope your holiday is shaping up to be a good one!
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1 comment:
Awesome crafts with the fourth graders!
I love being home for the Holidays! Ever since my kids were born we started the tradition of having our family's X-mas eve party at our house. This year there will be 15 of us, both families combined! I hope my little house can handle it.
Hopefully your parents will make it in before the storm hits. My BIL and his GF are driving in today from North Dakota and should miss that whopper of a storm if they leave at a reasonable time.
Carroling sounds fun but could be cold. Brrr.
Happy Holidays to and yours!
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