It's the day after Christmas and while things were certainly different this year, they were also very good and I feel so blessed.
I'm truly honored to be able to go through this life with my people. My husband and three boys make my life so much more than I ever thought it could be.
Christmas Eve was different, but also a lot of the same. We did not go to church. Instead, we watched it on TV. This was NOT my preferred way to attend mass, but Christmas Eve mass is usually packed with people and due to Covid, our pastor had to put a limit on those attending to 125. We just felt that it was better and safer to stay at home and watch it on TV. Right about the time mass started, so did a snow storm so I'm going to take that as a nod from God that we did the right thing. We got about 15-18 inches in total. Talk about a white Christmas!
We had our usual menu of fried calamari, smelts, and baccala, along with shrimp cocktail, stuffed shells, and various cheeses. We watched a few Christmas movies on TV and then it was time for the eight year old to put out the milk and cookies for Santa and carrots and reindeer chow for the reindeer.
Christmas morning started around 7 am. The 8 year old gets up VERY early every day, but we told him that he could not come out of his room until 7 am. It worked. Then it was chaos and craziness! The wrapping paper was flying and months and months of buying and preparation was over in 20 minutes.
Dinner is usually ham, but this year we had a standing rib roast. I have never cooked a standing rib roast before and the boys, who are big meat eaters, were almost as excited for the roast beef as they were for the presents. That's a lot of pressure for mom! But luckily the recipe I used was fantastic and the roast came out perfect. The boys were in heaven. We also had au gratin potatoes, green beans, and I made a red wine au jus for the beef. We were sufficiently stuffed, also known as fat and happy.
We did not get to see our extended family, but we did call or face time everyone. We hope to have a social distance get together with the grand parents this week. But family was truly missed on Christmas day.
But I don't want to dwell on what we didn't have, because we really had so much and were so blessed.
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| The Christmas Eve table |
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| Mass on TV |
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| Yummy cheese tray |
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| Smelts and baccala |
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| Calamari |
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| Stuffed shells for mom who doesn't like fish |
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| Putting out the reindeer chow. You can see the snow blowing in the background |
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| Christmas morning |
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| It really snowed! |
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| We even got snow on the front porch and that's rare. |
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| Standing Rib Roast |
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| Standing Rib Roast covered in garlic herb butter. |
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| Finished Product |
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| Green Beans and Au Gratin Potatoes |
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| Red Wine Au Jus |
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| A giant tent in my family room the day after Christmas |
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