Well It has been a week since I last posted anything here and I'm starting to feel like I'm having DTs. Christmas has always been a trying time at best and to be honest I'm glad it is over. All the entertaining is done. And while I love to cook for my guests I always feel like a bulldozer has run over me when I'm finished.
By the way Happy New Year to all those who read this. Last night I entertained my last guests for the season. Eight of the Candian Rangers came to my house for supper on their way through to FSJ on a recce for a snowmobile trip that will happen in late January. Eight burly men with my family of four meant a very tight squeeze in my very tiny little house. It all went off well. I served Lake Trout in white wine and sauted veggies with the good old standard of mashed spuds for the main course. With Raisin, Cranberry, Bread Pudding with Bailey's in it for dessert, no belly felt empty afterwords. I think they enjoyed it and were most appreciative that they didn't have to eat sandwiches from a package that they got at a service station since there were no restaurants open on New Year's Eve in our little town. They were out the door by 9 p.m. which meant that my family was able to ring in the New Year with just ourselves. How perfect is that!
There has been a lot of entertaining here over the last week like most people, I'm sure. We had a open house on the 29th that started at 9 a.m. and ended at midnight. We entertained many of our friends that day. Hubby and I enjoyed our 17th anniversary in the last week too. While we didn't do anything spectacular (we will plan something great later in the spring) we did have a good day. Entertainment wise though, the day that stood out as the best was the 27th when a close friend of mine and her DH came for dinner and we had a lovely time with them. Before that there were wonderful gifts under the tree, though Hubby's still haven't arrived in the mail..... but that's a whole other post. Christmas dinner was held at my parents house as my father was not well enough to come to my house. We cooked the turkey and lugged the great big thing in to their house while they cooked the vegetables.
Hubby is off with the Canadian Rangers for FSJ today and I'm not sure if he will be back tonight but I'm taking the leftovers to the parents house to spend the afternoon with them. We have a couple of evenings out with friends at their house over the next few days and then we will celebrate Old Christmas Day on the 6th. That rounds out the festive season quite nicely. The tree will come down on the 6th as it always does. We will hang our antique stockings on the 5th so that we will have them to open before school. Then when everyone is home in the evening we will have Christmas carols on the stereo, a nice cooked pork roast with dessert for dinner, open our gifts and take down the tree and decorations. The house is put back to rights and Christmas is forgotten for another year. I actually have come to enjoy Old Christmas Day better than the 25th of December. It is much more peaceful. Probably because there is no pressure and no expectation. I always save some Christmas presents for that day and of course we open tiny stockings that have nothing other than sweets in them. The shopping is done before Christmas so no rushing in stores when you really don't want to be there.
We started this family tradition about two years ago when the daughters discovered that Santa had forgotten to remove the boxes with the bills still attached that their gifts had come in. "How could that be when Santa made the gifts at the North Pole?"
Let me tell you it is very difficult to watch the magic of Christmas crumble on your child's face when they find the boxes and receipts for the gifts Santa had supposedly brought. The truth came out and while Daughter #1 was ready for the truth at 11 yrs of age.... Daughter #2 was not at 9 yrs of age. Christmas had been ruined pretty much, and so we decided to make Old Christmas day magic, celebrating it as a more special day than the 25th, remembering that Santa was not what Christmas was truely about but the Baby Jesus and nobody really knows what day He was born on. Old Christmas day is also the same as Ukranian Christmas. I think it stems from the orthodox tradition. It is most commonly known as the 12th day of Christmas.
What ever your traditions are, I hope that you have enjoyed the celebrations and from my family to you, ALL THE BEST FOR 2009!
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