Enthusiasm for Upcoming Feasting!

No recipes, no great details, but just a brief blurb about my great excitement for the upcoming holidays.

Just for fun, we decided to birth five of our six children from right before Thanksgiving through the first part of February.  That makes three major holidays and five birthdays.  Yep.  Each Sassy kid gets to pick their dinner of choice, plus the cake of their choice.  This is in addition to the traditional breakfast of Swedish Pancakes.

Then throw in Thanksgiving, which is always at our house and includes 16-25 people.  Most everything made by me, from scratch, the whole she-bang.  Immediately following the day (plus usually an extra day of leftovers) we launch directly into Christmas cookie baking.  It would be simplistic to say I bake a few.  Perhaps a dozen kinds?  More?  Sure, why not?  Of course, let us not forget the Christmas food itself.  My SIL ponies up for the Eve, but I do the Day for our family of eight, and we try to plan a meal around one of our five combined ethnic heritages.  This year is German.

If we're not too fat or sick yet, New Year's Eve comes rolling down the street.  It happens to be the birthday of Sassy #3, so we have a deluxe birthday dinner, plus extra treats.  Just for kicks, we throw what's become an annual New Year's Day Skating Party which includes a couple other families and a big pot of chili made by me.  It's a great day to make other people's children eat up the rest of the Christmas cookies :)

Whew!

For people who loathe to spend time in the kitchen, or cannot even fathom that amount of food and prep, rest assured that I do not fly solo.  My kids are all right in there with me, planning, tasting, rolling, baking, sprinkling, stirring and making monstrous messes.  It's mostly for them, so why not, right?  We all enjoy it tremendously, and I hardly ever lose my temper.

If you are a member of my husband's family, stop reading right now.  Ok?  For the rest of you, we're doing a rather different Thanksgiving menu.  Oh, sure, there'll be turkey and dressing and potatoes and cranberries and all that jazz.  But it's going to have flair and flavor and a major break from tradition.  We've wanted to do such a meal for several years, but each season about this time I say to the man, "It SOUNDS like a good idea, but your family will fuss!  They expect their usual foods!  They'll be disappointed!  They will rebel and declare the meal to relocate next year!"  And the man caves to my emotions and says "what the heck, I don't care."

Not this year.  We're amping in way up.  Lighter, more flavorful, interesting twists, gourmet flourishes, and a (hopefully) completely satisfying and tasty feast.  If they want a regular turkey dinner, they can cook it themselves on Friday, right?

As long as I can beat my BIL at our annual, cut-throat Scrabble game, no one will get hurt.

Comments

  1. Ooohhh, can't wait to hear your menu! I get to plan the entire menu this year for the first time ever, and I'm giving everything a new twist as well. I just semi-finalized the menu last night!

    I too am already thinking about Christmas cookies. I picked out some new ones to try while I was perusing magazines last night.

    Yay! The only thing is - I DO fly solo, have a tiny kitchen with hardly any counter space, and NO dishwasher. Ack.

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  2. A kindred spirit! I'll share mine if you share yours :)

    I did 8 years of no dishwasher, I know your pain. You get into a routine for sure, but it's still a lot of extra work!

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  3. Oooh fun! I'm rebelling against boring mashed potatoes this year, throwing cream cheese, crispy bacon and fresh, fire-roasted green chile in them and then baking them...YUMMY!!!

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  4. you're speaking my language kiddo! ;D Love it!

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