Holidays and Traditions

When two people start a new relationship they have to meld and mix together their traditions for holidays. Some of the old traditions are traded in for new ones. We started by having a goose for Thanksgiving instead of a turkey. The Christmas tree went up on the Sunday after Thanksgiving due to circumstances like getting a new set of vent-free gas logs installed. But the tree did get put up,,,,just a few days later than normal.

Every year Mike makes goodie bags to give to his neighbors. He puts homemade jams in the bags. I made Christmas cookies to add to the bags this year.

I also made peppermint bark to go in the bags.

My sweetheart loves fresh yeast rolls to go with his holiday meals. This year I made rolls for the first time ever. I have made bread before but not rolls. It was not hard and I will work on perfecting this recipe.

One of my traditions is drinking Poinsettias on Christmas Eve followed by a rib roast, twice baked potatoes and a vegetable.

Christmas morning I found all the girls laying in the sun.

I built us a fire - that means I used the remote control to lite the fireplace and then turned the tree lights on.

After Mike made us a breakfast of fried salt-cured country ham with red eye gravy with some of my homemade rolls we did one of his traditions which is mimosas after breakfast. I can't handle OJ well so I made myself another poinsettia.

For Christmas supper we had a brined turkey, sausage & mushroom dressing, gravy, apple cider braised pearl onions, cranberry sauce, hot artichoke & bacon dip, rolls and deviled eggs. Those are a tradition at Thanksgiving and Christmas for Mike.

I am loving every minute of melding our traditions into new ones for us as we embark on our life together and am looking forward to creating new one together.

Gingerbread House

Every year before Christmas I make a gingerbread house but no one has really seen them. So this year I am showing what I did and what was done. I start out by getting out one of my most favorite kitchen toys, the heavy-duty mix master. Next I get all the ingredients together.

The house pieces are all baked and ready to be assembled and the candy for the decorations is on hand.

Before I can put the house together I need to make a batch of royal icing. It is the glue that holds everything together.

As I started putting it together one of the end pieces cracked in half. Later on a chunk came off one of the sides. I told Mike this year's theme should be "crack house".

Once the main structure was together I worked on the front walkway.

The finished product. I had a 5th grade girl help with the decorating and Mike did the landscaping.

Another view.

And another.

I had a great idea for the bricks on the fireplace end of the house and will work on perfecting this next year.

After all the work was done Mike called some friends and neighbors and invited their children over to demolish the house. They were all given a bowl for the house pieces plus some vanilla ice cream to go with it.

It didn't take long for the crew to cause a roof collapse.

Shortly thereafter we had totally demolished the house. Mission accomplished.