Christmas Dinner-Christmas Eve-Fish

Christmas 2011

Christmas always seems like such a whirlwind to me.  This year, the time leading up to the big day flew by too.  Although it went by rather quickly, it was filled with love, family, and faith.  Can't ask for more than that!
Christmas Eve we went to 4:00 pm mass.  Since my husband and I were both serving we decided to get there early so we could be sure to get a seat up front.  Surprisingly mass was crowded this year but not as crowded as it usually is.
After church we headed home to finish cooking dinner and to heat up the things that I already prepared.  My husband is used to having fish on Christmas Eve.  I'm not a fish eater (except for Sushi) so I leave all of that up to him.  I buy the fish, and make the breading (this year we used 1 cup of GF Bisquick, 1 cup GF corn flake crumbs, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper) and he cooks it.  Because we can't bread with egg, we used Redbridge on some and cocoa nut milk on the rest.  It turned out very well (or so I'm told).  The boys loved the fish this year too.  He cooked baccala, smelts, and calamari in the deep fryer.  Then we also had shrimp cocktail.  Due to the fact that I don't eat fish, I made GF gnocchi with red sauce and an antipasti salad.  We had a lot of food and a lot of left overs.
   Here we have the last man at the table.
Relaxing by the fire and waiting for Santa.
 It's milk and cookie time!
 We added carrots for the reindeer and lots of candy too.
 A little snuggle before bedtime.
 The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...
After the kids were in bed it was time for mom to relax by the fire and watch It's A Wonderful Life.
Christmas morning started at 6 AM with the Little Man saying that he heard Santa downstairs and he was talking to the elves.  So down we went to see what he left.
 Santa left a lot of stuff
 Of course he left Lego's.
 The 3DS was a big hit
 As was FIFA Soccer 12 for Wii
 Here they are opening the box where I put the "Disney Trip".  You know how you see those commercials were the kids open the Disney Trip on Christmas day and they all go crazy?  Yea, not so much at our house.  They are really excited about it and they get more excited every day but all they said was "Are we going to Disney"?  Slight let down for mom :)  I wanted the craziness that you see on T.V.
Later that day my parents came over with more presents and we had Christmas dinner.  Then that evening we went to my in-laws for more gifts and Christmas festivities.  And the next day we headed to my brother's house for more celebrating with my brother, sister in law, and sweet nephew.
It was wonderful!  But now I'm tired.  I'm using this week to recharge my batteries.  Hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas. read more..