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I hope you didn't think Christmas was over, because it might go on for quite a while here.

Christmas breakfast:

Make-ahead french toast that has a stick of butter in the ingredient list. This only gets made once a year.

(left nuts off a few pieces for the kids)

Scrapple - because chopped up pig parts mixed with corn meal and spices result in one of the most enjoyable breakfast meats.

and scrambled eggs.

After breakfast everyone sat around, played with toys, and watched Christmas t.v. while I cooked and baked all day. I actually really enjoy food preparation, and when Adam is home to watch the kids, it is even better. So the day wasn't spent relaxing, but instead spent doing something I enjoy. I made chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter oatmeal cookies. After the first batches of peanut butter cookies came out of the oven, I knew something was wrong because they had not spread like they usually do. After a moment of pondering, I realized I forgot to put in the eggs - oops. I tasted one after they cooled, and they tasted fine, but were very crumbly without the eggs to hold them together.

I made up a vegetable tray, and a BLT dip. The BLT dip is courtesy of Paula Deen and the Food Network and it is so delicious.


BLT Dip
1 cup mayo
1 cup sour cream
2 ripe tomatoes diced
shredded lettuce
1 pound of bacon fried crisp, crumbled

1. Mix together the sour cream and mayo. Stir in half of the bacon pieces.
   
2. Spread on the bottom of a serving plate.
   
3. Sprinkle with lettuce, tomatoes, and rest of bacon.
   
4. Serve with crackers, slices of baguette, or whatever you like. Best to serve immediately so the tomatoes don't sog the lettuce.
   

My photo isn't that great, but the flavor is (any recipe with a pound of bacon in it is sure to please.)

We got to my mom's around 4:30, and the main business of the evening was to consume huge quantities of food. We skipped a sit-down dinner this year, and just did lots of appetizer type foods. My aunt made creamy crab soup that caused many satisfied moans. My sister Sherrie brought her famous artichoke crab dip that we look forward to every Christmas. She also brought fruit and fruit dip.

My sister Tara made a spinach dip that Adam was crazy about. (We were obviously very excited about dips this year.) Dad made shrimp, one of his specialties, with loads of Old Bay so you didn't even need cocktail sauce. My mom also made her yummy bean salsa (she sent me home with some that I have been eating for lunch the past few days) and prepared berries and whipped cream. And she put out a platter of sliced ham for those non-diplovers. With all those yummy choices, about three vegetables were eaten of my veggie tray. (I have also been eating veggies and dip for the past few days.)

We sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus with a cake Mom made that had Jesus spelled in M&Ms. Katie let out a big "oooooo!" when she saw it.

The kids ate the cake with ice cream, so that the adults could enjoy the fourteen other sweets on the dessert counter. Yes, there were desserts galore. My favorite was Sherrie's pecan pie. At the end of the night while we were playing Balderdash (lots of fun, much laughter, Adam won), I kept helping myself to little slices of pie and whipped cream. I didn't serve my eggless cookies because I didn't want them to be crumbling all over my mom's house, but before I left I let my sister Tara taste one, and she said I should never make them with eggs they were so good. Go figure. So I left the whole plate with her, because you don't want to know how quickly Adam and I would have polished them off the next day.

The kids received some more great gifts. My mom got Katie a bin of plastic animals, and Joey a bin of dinosaurs. They both love them. Katie even took a gorilla with her to K-Mart on Saturday. But now I face the task of taking out some old toys to make room for the new toys. I will try to sneak them out while the children are napping.

(& there still may be more Christmas posting to come -- some for the benefit of family living on the other side of the country -- sorry non-family readers)