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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Merry Christmas!

For all my frustrations with the holidays, we ended up having what I think was our best Christmas yet. A couple weeks ago, after after talking with my husband across the TV pondering and meditating on my deepest feelings about Christmas dinner to find inner happiness, I realized that one aspect of Christmas that has always stressed me out is trying to cook a big Christmas dinner. While my cooking has come a long way (pause as I give myself a pat on the back), it is seriously lacking in the roast/prime rib department. Unfortunately, the Big Giraffe's skills are on par with mine. The fact of the matter is that no one really likes any sort of roast that we make. (Yeah, I did make a great roast once, but that went, as it were to the dog.)

However, it seemed silly to throw up our hands and abandon making Christmas dinner to do something like order Chinese food or eat a frozen pizza like rumor has it I just may have suggested in the past. For all my joking around, both the Big Giraffe and I are capable of making at least a few tasty meals that won't give anyone diarrhea. Trying to find a meal that we both enjoyed making and both enjoyed eating might be a stretch.

That's when I realized that we could switch our Christmas Eve almost-tradition of fondue to Christmas day. The Big Giraffe and I do love making and eating fondue. We do it at least twice a year. I even taught my moms group how to make fondue a couple of years ago. I say almost-tradition because last year with a newborn and a 3 year old, it was just too much. Plus we were worried, probably rightfully so, about our older son (OS) being around an open flame. No, rest assured, we wouldn't have let him participate in fondue making. We would have, as we did this year, made him his own dinner.

A friend and her son were going to be our honored guests at Christmas dinner so I ran the idea by her. She seemed pretty excited about it too. Two days before Christmas, I sat down and did a bunch of searches for recipes. I wanted to try something new this year. I ended up finding the Melting Pot's recipe for a burgundy broth for cooking meats and vegetables and the recipe for their Green Goddess Dipping sauce. The big Giraffe and I had a wonderful Christmas Eve. After visiting the Sudbury Lights (which I wrote about over at the New England Mamas) we put the kids to bed and spent a relaxing hour chopping bread, veggies, meats and cheeses while I made 3 homemade dipping sauces, all accompanied by eggnog and Christmas music. It was a wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve. (I will admit that it was more relaxing because only one kids gift required assembly this year and the assembly was very miminal.)

On Christmas morning, we just lounged around playing with the kids and enjoying our Christmas gifts. I have learned some valuable tips about lubing up before triathlons courtesy of a triathlon book I really wanted that my BIL and Sil gave me. Then it was time to pick up Sally HP and her son. Since all the food was chopped and prepared in advance, setting up the fondue was stress-free. The boys had hot dogs and Mac n Cheese which they finished quickly and then they went off to play. We adults had a wonderful time eating fondue, talking and laughing. It was a wonderful Christmas.

A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Sometimes the best traditions come out of doing something that's not traditional but that you really love doing.

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posted by Alex Elliot @ 7:18 PM   5 comments
5 Comments:

  • At 12/26/2007 9:28 PM, Blogger Jodi said…

    My in-laws do fondue on x-mas eve also. I had never heard anyone else doing it.

     

  • At 12/26/2007 9:58 PM, Blogger Heather said…

    That sounds wonderful actually.

    We just do a bunch of appetizers on Christmas Eve, then whatever my mom feels like making on Christmas Day. This year it was a hamburger bake and cheesy potatoes. Yum for cheesy potatoes.

     

  • At 12/26/2007 11:24 PM, Blogger SUEB0B said…

    Do you know the fondue rule? If you drop your chunk of food in the sauce, you must kiss the people on both sides of you. I think this was back in the 70s though.

     

  • At 12/27/2007 11:36 AM, Blogger Kami said…

    how wonderful Alex... good thinking! Glad you had a nice relaxing Christmas.

    My mom handles the cooking of the turkey so it's all stress free for me until I have to take over!

    :-)

     

  • At 12/29/2007 9:48 PM, Blogger Suzanne said…

    Very glad to hear that you had such a nice holiday! Merry Christmas, belatedly!

     
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Name:Alex Elliot
Home:MA, United States
About Me:Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

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