Christmas Plans

With Thanksgiving being 2 weeks away, I am starting my Christmas plans.

We have Christmas here for the family. My MIL does Thanksgiving at her house for the family and my SIL does Easter. So yesterday I started to gather things here and try to decide on a Christmas card, since they get mailed out the day after Thanksgiving.

Then I went to Walgreen's....

The deal they had on boxed cards was just too good to be passed up! Buy 1 and get 2(!) free! So for 6.99 plus tax I got cards for this year. These are the 2 boxes that I am going to send out....

Plain and simple. Of course the Christmas pig ones were very cute too! My husband does not share my sense of humor though, so I passed on them.

Now to make my list and check it twice!

We also do a theme for Christmas and this year it is going to be England. Every year we do a different country and do traditional food from that country. We also do some of the customs from that country for Christmas. We gift Christmas bulbs that I get at our annual Bronner's trip. The bulbs have that country on the front and on the back is a bit about their Christmas traditions. Gives the kids a look into Christmas in other parts of the world. Last year we did Italy because I was on an Italian cooking binge. Next year we are doing Australia since my husband and I are going there next summer.

If you have any good Christmas goose recipes or tips (hint hint Yvonne and Jacqueline!) let me know!

Now I got a funny Christmas story for you. Since it happened 11 years ago it is funny now. Our son was almost 3 months old and I was planning Christmas dinner for about 20 people in our old little house. We had just gotten a new stove the previous summer. I loved my new stove cause the oven and all 4 burners worked. I planned on cooking a "turkaling". You take a cornish hen, debone it, and stuff it back into shape with one kind of stuffing. Then you take a duck, debone it, put the cornish hen inside and put another kind of stuffing around inside it. Then you do a capon, debone it, put the 2 other birds inside it and put another kind of stuffing around them. Then you debone a turkey, put the other 3 birds inside and another kind of stuffing around them. Then you debone a goose, put the other 4 birds inside and another kind of stuffing around them. Then bake.

It took me 3 days to do the prep work for these suckers! Deboning a bird is not a fun or easy task. So Christmas Eve we baked it. We cooked it on a cookie sheet and wrapped about 2 boxes of aluminum foil around it. Jeffrey woke up at 2 am to be fed and when I walked out of our room the entire house was engulfed with smoke! I woke up my husband and we found that the grease had started to drip out of the aluminum foil. We sucked out as much grease and juices as we could and thought it good. Opened all the windows to air out the house I had just spent 2 weeks cleaning too. Then I took Jeffrey into the living room to feed him.

I kept thinking when he was eating that it seemed to be getting smokey again. After he was done, I went to take him into the bedroom to put back to bed. We had to pass through our kitchen to get to the bedrooms. I looked over and flames were coming out of my new stove! I screamed for Jeff and he came running. He opened the oven and the whole thing was on fire! I just stood there crying as he put out the fire with a fire extinguisher.

The house was trashed, the stove was unusable and dinner was ruined. Jeff tried to make jokes about it but that just made me more upset. He carefully unwrapped it and all that tinfoil had kept the fire extinguisher crap from getting in. So at 5 am he took it over to his mom's and had her finish cooking it. It was very good. Everyone loved it. Don't know if it was worth destroying the kitchen for though.

So there is my funny Christmas story. Haven't made a turkaling since either.

That reminds me I have to get a really really deep pan to cook a goose in!

So I am off to write out Christmas cards to be mailed.

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Don't forget about Cindy's party on the 16th!

My little thing has to do with this area....

and having people over for the holidays.

I still need to plan a birthday party for Syrina who turns 3 on New Year's Eve....