Day 18 ( and i am caught up...at least for today)

Oh the joys of Christmas Dinner! The food lovingly and perfectly prepared. All the family gathered around one big table dressed up in their best Holiday clothes. The crystal and China is sparkling and there is a smile on everyone's face.

That's what Christmas Dinner looks like, right?
I suppose so in a Norman Rockwell or Currier and Ives painting. Certainly not in my house!
We use to have a more traditional Christmas dinner, with Turkey and dressing and all the fab sides. It was certainly never all of us at one table, none of us lives in a castle! the kids were usually at the "kids' table" and the adults if they were lucky, all sat together in an adjacent room. As the years went by and we got larger and larger....the more and more tables we needed! so now we may be in any number of rooms at any number of tables.
There were years when some china was used because we needed that many plates.
I think one of the best stories is that one year my Aunt who was hosting Christmas dinner, purchased some large heavy duty disposable plastic plates because she didn't want to have to wash all the dishes after the meal. Well, after dinner my other aunt or my mom decided they would wash the plates and reuse them on New Year's Day when we were back together; and thus the tradition started.
Those disposable plates were around for years! What ever family had the next holiday would wash the plates and take them home with them until the next use. On and on they went, around and around the family for years! I tell you i grew up eating on these things!



Now our Christmas Dinner looks more like this! My mom use to make homemade lasagna in December for the family birthday celebration. We no longer get together for that, so last year she suggested doing it for Christmas instead. We all agreed that we could do with out one more turkey!


so my mom makes lasagna for all of us and my aunts and cousins and all the rest of us do the salad and desserts.