Before I can completely move on to say hello to 2019 and wrap up 2018 in a pretty bow, I need to write this Christmas post. To sum it all up, Christmas Day was exhausting, chaotic, fun and successful.
It was our first time hosting Christmas at our suburb house. It was last minute as the family did not ask us until last Thanksgiving which was just a month away from Christmas. Needless to say, we winged it. We went a couple of weeks before Christmas to decorate the house. We decided to not buy a fresh tree as it will be a challenge to keep it watered. Luckily, my SIL gave me their old tree last December and I am glad that we kept it.This was our tree for this year.
On Christmas Eve, since we do not really live at our house in the suburbs, I had to haul every single thing that I needed for entertaining from flour, maple syrup, measuring cups, wines, pies, etc. We loaded the SUV and I could barely sit with the amount of food and stuff that we had to take. The great thing was I remembered to bring every single thing except the powdered sugar. We arrived at our house in the afternoon. Christmas Eve was raining and we saw a rainbow on our way to the house. I made pizza for dinner and got ready for the next day. (I remembered to bring the pizza ingredients including the cast iron pan.)
On Christmas Day, after making waffles and eggs for our Christmas breakfast, I spent the morning baking Snickerdoodle cookies, Country Apple Fritter bread, making guacamole and putting together the cheese plate. I was already exhausted just with making these appetizers and desserts and decorating. Now, I have a renewed appreciation for my mom, Mr Sweetie's mom and all the party hosts who provide the entire feast from appetizers to desserts!
I will just post this cheese plate that I made as the house was packed and the table was full. I was not able to get photos of the food. Mr Sweetie's mom wanted a traditional Mexican Christmas meal of tamales and posole. We had "vats" of those. In fact, the posole was all I ate, bowls of it on Christmas Day and couple of days after Christmas. MIL cooked the posole and it was the best! It took her all day to make it. Traditional posole is labor-intensive and is really a labor of love. Hers was so good! We had so much wines and liquor as well as desserts. People brought more food such such boxes of chocolates, flan and stuffed eggs in addition to the guac and cheese plate that I made. We also had a birthday cake in addition to apple pie and apple bread. At the end of the party, we sang Happy Birthday to Mr Sweetie and another family member who blew the birthday candles.
The kids tore up the wrappings on their Christmas presents. We set up a cookie making table for the kids but MIL got the kind that had to be baked first instead of ready to decorate. Oh, well. We had to make a pass on that one as no one wanted to bake anymore. Every one was full, tipsy/inebriated (Ha! Ha!) and happy. I got to play Ms Homemaker/gracious hostess. It was a happy Christmas!
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| My dessert tablescape. Isn't it pretty?! I had the Christmas candles forever while the candy canes were leftover party favors that my artistic co-workers made. I got the cookie jar four years ago from our church donation and it was brand new! I just put everything together. |
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