Christmas Recap

Alex and I had a very nice and quiet Christmas this year. It was the very first time we spent the day all to ourselves. We made a huge turkey dinner the night before and had left overs for almost a week. We decided to only exchange a few presents between the two of us, but we got lots of gifts from our families. My mom sent us a huge sampler from Omaha Steaks.

It included 2 filets, 2 pork chops, 6 hamburgers, 2 sirloin steaks, 4 twice baked potatoes, and a chocolate cake. Each one tasted AMAZING! Not one item was freezer burned or stale and all the meat was probably of the highest quality that I have ever had. It also came with a huge block of dry ice. I filled the kitchen sink and watched the smoke billow out of a good 20 minutes. I was so giddy that you would have thought I was 5 or something. I guess for a moment I was and it was great. The dog was not impressed at all.

My mother-in-law came down for Serbian Christmas which falls on January 7th. From what I understand, Serbian religious holiday's are based on the old Orthodox calendar which fall about 2 weeks after ours. Christmas is the 7th, New Years is the 14th, and I forget the date of Easter. Now I know how Santa delivers all the toys to all the boys and girls around the world. He has a two week delay for all the Orthodox families in Europe to meet his dead line. I guess his night isn't that long after all. Anyway, Mom wanted to cook dinner for Christmas Eve (January 6th) so I turned the kitchen over to her. She made some incredible baked beans, the best cheese pita I have ever had, a cabbage salad, Serbian peppers, and grilled salmon.

Then for dessert we had an assortment of stone fruit (raisins, dates, figs, cranberries, prunes), walnuts, oranges, and chocolate. We barely had room to snack after dinner and we still have left overs.

Of course, Christmas day is not the same without a few presents. We surprised Mom with a few little trinkets before we headed out for a day of shopping at the mall. That's one of the great things about Serbian Christmas... you get to take advantage of ALL the sales and then some.

On Mom's first day here we had a fajita feast complete with freshly made mojitos. I couldn't resist getting a picture of Mom with her extra large drink standing nervously next to the dog. She looks somewhat comfortable here but really she's scared to death. She hid in the bathroom twice when she couldn't find me only to discover that the dog waits outside the bathroom for you to come out. By the end of her stay she felt a little more at ease. I hope by the end, she realized that Davey is completely harmless, regardless of how big he is.

Here is the fajita buffet line. The menu included beef and chicken, sauteed bell peppers and onions, refried beans, shredded cheddar cheese, lettuce, sour cream, Mexican style rice, and Alex's tomato salsa and freshly made guacamole.

Mom loaded up her tortilla and then picked up her fork to eat everything off her plate but was quickly reprimanded for doing so. The fun part of enjoying fajitas is eating with your hands. Never having enjoyed one before, it was quite a delight to watch her try to keep all the good stuff where it belonged. We giggled a bunch and ate until our hearts were content, watched a few episodes of Mad Men, ate some pie, and then called it a night.

As always, it was great to have my mother-in-law come for a visit especially for the holidays. It seems this time all we did was eat and watch movies but it turned out that's exactly the rest and relaxation that we all needed. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that 2010 will be more amazing than anyone would have ever guessed.