I had to get up early on Christmas morning to get our dinner for that evening started. I volunteered to make our traditional Christmas dinner, chili, which I later regretted volunteering for. So while everyone else was still sleeping, I was up making chili. I also had the bright idea of making two different chilis so that we could have some variety, stupid decision #2 of mine. After I got most of the ingredients into the chili, I decided to get everyone up so that we could get going on breakfast and presents.
I poured everyone a mimosa to get the morning started off right. While I continued to make chili, Gina got started on breakfast. We had our traditional holiday breakfast, kielbasa sandwiches. This is a tradition that came from Gina's family which Jared and I have continued because they are so delicious and easy to make.
After breakfast, it was time to start opening presents. We emptied our stockings first which were about to fall off my mantle because they were so full. I was very excited to get to use my new stocking that my mom made for me. Then it was time to open the presents under the tree, even though they weren't "under the tree" technically. Gina managed to bring enough presents for everyone on my street because she loves to buy us gifts so much. So rather than "under the tree" her gifts were in front of the tree, in front of the fire place, and extending into the foyer almost up to the front door. We had our work cut out for us.
I continued to pour mimosas as the gifts slowly consumed my living room. We all received lots of wonderful gifts and had a great time opening them.
We were able to enjoy a few moments of laying on the couch, snuggling and drinking mimosas before it was time for Christmas presents, round 2.
Late morning, my parents arrived with Chris and Melissa and my grandparents. Now, it was time to exchange presents with them.
They hung out and enjoyed some mimosas with us for a little bit while I continued to work on my chili, which was not going so well. Remember how in my other blogs I was boasting about my ability to make really good chili? Well apparently when I have to make chili under pressure, it sucks. The white chicken chili was way to salty and the beef chili just wasn't tasting right either. I was getting so frustrated. Luckily, Jared and Gina came to my rescue. Jared was able to work some of his seasoning magic and get the beef chili tasting just right and my dear mother-in-law taught me a little trick about how to remove saltiness from a dish. She suggested that I add white rice right into the chili without cooking it first. Supposedly the rice would absorb all of the salt as it simmered in the chili. It worked!!! I was so thankful for all their help, they surely saved the Christmas dinner! In the end, everyone thought that the chili was really good, but it wasn't my best work. Still, we all really enjoyed it.
After my parents left, we had to get to work on Christmas dinner. Once the chili fiasco was out of the way, Gina and Jared started making their own specialities. Jared made his famous BBQ Bacon Wrapped Quail appetizer, which I still cannot give you the recipe for because he says that it is a secret and won't give it to me. Gina got to work on her speciality, calamondin cake. She was very excited to use her new food processor that Jared and I got her for Christmas. As you all know, I do not eat cake so I can't comment on what the calamondin cake actually tastes like, but everyone else sure seemed to love it. I can't give away her recipe either because it is a secret, but I'm sure if you ask her to she will make you one :)
Christmas day dinner was hosted by my parents at their house, so we made our way over there mid-afternoon. As soon as we arrived, I made my spiked apple cider for everyone to try. Instead of making it drink by drink, I decided to make a big batch of spiked cider in a punch bowl so that we could just refill our glasses straight from the punch bowl and the drink would already be made. I used 2 bottles of Martinelli's traditional apple cider and 1 bottle of Captain Apple Jack in the punch bowl. Then I garnished each glass with a cinnamon stick and it was ready to enjoy.
We decided to put off dinner a little bit and just hang out and drink our cider. Gina, Erika, my mom and I love to play word games together. For Christmas, Erika gave Gina a new word game called Appletters. We spent the next two hours playing Appletters, drinking cider and snacking on Jared's quail appetizer.
Later, we decided to dress up Bailey, my brother's dog, in her holiday costume. She was not too happy about this, but she made an awful cute reindeer.
Once we arrived back at my house, I was still in a game-playing mood. I decided to get out my favorite game from when I was a kid, The Game of Life. I still have the original game from when I was in elementary school and amazingly all of the pieces are still with it. So Gina, Erika and I sat around and played Life while watching Home Alone.
We really had a wonderful Christmas and I was so glad that we all got to share it together this year. Next year, I'm voting for a white Christmas snow skiing in Colorado. We'll see if I get what I want :)
Merry Christmas from my family to yours!
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