Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Thanksgiving was a success, although the turkey soup has not been made yet, the carcass is frozen and waiting for that perfect, cold, snowy, day.  Christmas is upon us and I am ready.  The tree is up and decorated, the shopping is done, the presents are wrapped, and the groceries are put away.  Keep in mind this is only December 22nd and my niece is in disbelief.  I have no cookies yet.  I leave that task to Mom, Daughter, and Sister-in-Law.  Our Christmas Eve consists of pasta, bread, salad, and hors devour es, which are our responsibilities ("our" meaning myself and husband, who most graciously helps.... really!) and cookies, cookies, cookies... respectively.  Oh, and least we forget my husband's specialty, a family tradition that the Yeiser's call "catalani" (not sure of the spelling).  One would think this fits right in with pasta, however, it is completely a Norwegian dessert consisting of lady fingers, whipped cream, and lingonberries.  We, the Italians, might look at it as Norwegian Tiramisu.  Cookies will include Mom's Italian specialties, traditional frosted sugar cookies and the all time favorite chocolate chip and peanut butter kisses.  So we have covered many ethnic backgrounds with one spectacular meal.  That's right, no ham or turkey.  This year the pasta of choice is Spaghetti, complete with spaghetti bibs!  What a family pic this will be.  Stay tuned.  My New Year's Resolution will be to post more regularly.  You might see the pics around Valentine's Day.  That's when I plan to post about not keeping resolutions and procrastinating.    Fa la la la la, ha ha ha ha.

Here's wishing you and yours a Very Merry Christmas (yes in my house it is CHRISTmas) and a Prosperous, Healthy, Happy New Year!!

Wow!

Just can't believe how busy I must have been to totally miss December!  Hope every one's Christmas was Merry and Happy New Year!   Christmas in our family was a great time.  The traditional Christmas Eve lasagna... delicious, decorations..... beautiful (with the exception of the garland lights on the front porch that quit working the day before), Christmas Tree.... perfect, guests.... all accounted for (minus one nephew in Utah), 3 year old scared enough to pee her pants of "stinky the garbage truck".... priceless.  Ah yes, and the hilarious game of Apples to Apples.  Christmas Day included the movie "The Tourist", which I would rate a 3.5 star flick.  Johnny Depp made it a 5, but Angelina dropped it down 1.5 stars.  Trip to the casino.... a ton of fun.  Won $300 and lost $400.  Isn't that the story of 99% of the attendees.  Nevertheless, a great Christmas season.  Now, we venture into 2011.  Maybe I'll make a thankful list instead of a bucket list.  Write down everything I am thankful for.  Yeah, maybe I'll make that a New Year's Resolution.... we all know what 99% of us do with those!  Happy Happy New Year!