What are You Doing for Christmas?

What are you doing for Christmas Eve or Christmas day in terms of celebration or Dinner? Are you dining out? Or eating at home with friends? Or going to a friends house for dinner?

What are you having for your Christmas meal?

We traditionally have the same neighbourhood couple for dinner and invite one other couple.

Having a breakfast gathering here and then going to friend's house later in the day. Really hard to feel like Christmas with this intolerable 70 degree weather and sunshine.

I can live without a "white Christmas" ; an interesting thought in itself. Obviously, it wasn't that way in Bethlehem, so I figure it was part of the co-opted-by-the-church original Winter Solstice Pagan celebrations. Plenty of snow in Europe, along with pines.

However, let's not let the facts get in the way of a good story. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. OLE!

Now we know we can blame it on Gringal:

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Current Radar (Blue = White):

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I could care less about snow, especially after all those photos the other day.

This is our year to cook dinner, and we've already started. Mostly non traditional food.

That's damn cold for ABQ isn't it? I know Santa Fe (higher elevation) gets very cold. You are colder than some East Coast states. And much colder than So CA.

I admit it. It's ALL MY FAULT for saying "snow".

What am I doing? We're having something good at home on Christmas.

I'm getting allergic to the large crowds on special occasions. Hard to get good service with an overworked staff. So you wait. And wait. Mass produced dinners usually don't quite measure up, either. Then people start getting likkered up while they wait for their food, and the ones who went to the "laughing hyena" school of speech get going. After a while, I'm wishing I were somewhere else: Like home.

Hard to beat a home cooked dinner with a fireplace blazing, nice music on the CD player and good company to boot. A little brandy and life is excellent.

Wishing you all a fine time, too........whatever you're planning.

gringal wrote:I admit it. It's ALL MY FAULT for saying "snow".

What am I doing? We're having something good at home on Christmas.

I'm getting allergic to the large crowds on special occasions. Hard to get good service with an overworked staff. So you wait. And wait. Mass produced dinners usually don't quite measure up, either. Then people start getting likkered up while they wait for their food, and the ones who went to the "laughing hyena" school of speech get going. After a while, I'm wishing I were somewhere else: Like home.

Hard to beat a home cooked dinner with a fireplace blazing, nice music on the CD player and good company to boot. A little brandy and life is excellent.

Wishing you all a fine time, too........whatever you're planning.

I feel the same way, and so that's exactly what we're doing on New Years Eve. It's safer to have a little get together New Years day when there are no drunks on the road.

We'll also be home Christmas, but just a small group that we know well.

A happy holiday to everyone.

A friend and I are going to a French restaurant on Friday. Sat and Sun I'll stay home and watch TV and stuff on the cookies I hope Santa will bring.

Next week I'll do my income tax online to be ready to file the day the IRS opens their online window.

John:

You are somewhat correct in your assumption but Albuquerque does typically experience a 5 to 10 day cold snap each winter. The city has a somewhat unique geography in that the Valley sits at about 5300' but the heights will exceed 6000'. Santa Fe does sit at 7000'. We have this phenomenon called "Canyon Winds", which is basically an east wind blowing off the plains from beyond our mountains which sit on the east side of Albuquerque. Right now, we are experiencing gusts in the 30 to 45mph range but they are predicting 60mph. On the plus side, we won't accumulated a great deal of snow up here but on the negative side, we cannot have a fire because of the wind blowing down the chimney and we have whitecaps in the toilet bowls from wind blowing down the vent pipes. This too will pass and we will go back to sunshine!

Here in the Great White North.... it ain't white...

Supposed to be 4 or 5C the rest of the week....

I thought I might take in a little " Parka Golf "

Hot Tub by the Lake... Dinner by the Fireplace...

Early dinner with dear friends and their families. Home to the fireplace and “Chocolate Margaritas”. All in all, good.

Dinner at home with friends,costco ham,pasta,waldorf salad and lots of ponche,but for New Years we go to the little rancho in Guanajuato where my wife was born and most of her family still lives,my father inlaw will butcher one of his young pigs and a baby goat,roast the pig on a spit and do the cabrito Nuevo Leon style.Entertainment; bonfires, fireworks,music and the burning of the Viejito and lots of tequila and pulque.Great traditions,lots of fun and salt of the earth people.Happy Holidays everyone and muchas gracias CB for the forum.
Spanish expression for the day:Portanse mal y cuidanse bien:Behave badly and take good care.
Chris

viajero - we have one thing in common a Costco ham for Christmas.

Happily slaving away trying to meet my own expectations of the chosen Traditional Christmas Turkey Dinner. Almost everything is from scratch:

Already baked fresh graham crackers & have the crust ready for Pumpkin cheese cake. I chose not to make the cream cheese & sour cream this year...cheated.

Fresh green bean casserole w/homemade cream soup & crisping my own crunchy onions.

Mashed potatoes, grandma's marinaded sweet potato or yam casserole w/homemade marshmallows toasted on top.

Grandma's cranberry salad.

The croissant dough & whipped butter has already rested overnight, ready for the next step. They'll be hot out of the oven before the turkeys come out tomorrow.

Beside homemade almond butter chocolate covered bon bons that were made before Thanksgiving & have waited in the freezer for Christmas Eve, there are chocolate chunk cookies. Still sour cream lemon & a blueberry cream cheese pie to make yet. I'm tired reading this but it brings me a lot of satisfaction at this stage of my life.

The tricky part is getting what I need done now in 2 1/2 hours before a prior engagement. Croissants will be rolled out and raise in the fridge over night. Those will be delish w/the homemade berry freezer jam I made for the first time after Thanksgiving.

We're celebrating w/a Mexican family that has been close to us since we moved here. Dinner, dessert and opening some gifts together Christmas Eve after a beautiful traditional Candle Light & Christmas Hymns service. If you'd like more info about that, send me a p.m. Christmas a.m., dressing up for Christmas Sunday at church & having a more intimate Christmas w/immediate family after.

New Year's Day I want a leg of lamb stuffed w/garlic & fresh rosemary from the garden, pureed sweet potatoes, & green salad. Dessert: chocolate covered pumpkin cheesecakes & I'd be thrilled if I could see the Rose ball Parade w/live commentaries & a few fireworks in Chapala from home :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sooooo, MyHomeSweetHome would you mind sending me a P.M. with your address, and a map?

TIA,
raq

BTW This kinda makes my non traditional Christmas spam roll seem a little dull.

What time should we come over?

will do raq.

ahhh, i'd love to have you sometime coons ;0)

johninajijic wrote:viajero - we have one thing in common a Costco ham for Christmas.

Thanks John,any digs I've taken at you in the forum were just in fun,Merry Christmas from my family to yours.
Chris

MyHomeSweetHome wrote:Happily slaving away trying to meet my own expectations of the chosen Traditional Christmas Turkey Dinner. Almost everything is from scratch:

Already baked fresh graham crackers & have the crust ready for Pumpkin cheese cake. I chose not to make the cream cheese & sour cream this year...cheated.

Fresh green bean casserole w/homemade cream soup & crisping my own crunchy onions.

Mashed potatoes, grandma's marinaded sweet potato or yam casserole w/homemade marshmallows toasted on top.

Grandma's cranberry salad.

The croissant dough & whipped butter has already rested overnight, ready for the next step. They'll be hot out of the oven before the turkeys come out tomorrow.

Beside homemade almond butter chocolate covered bon bons that were made before Thanksgiving & have waited in the freezer for Christmas Eve, there are chocolate chunk cookies. Still sour cream lemon & a blueberry cream cheese pie to make yet. I'm tired reading this but it brings me a lot of satisfaction at this stage of my life.

The tricky part is getting what I need done now in 2 1/2 hours before a prior engagement. Croissants will be rolled out and raise in the fridge over night. Those will be delish w/the homemade berry freezer jam I made for the first time after Thanksgiving.

We're celebrating w/a Mexican family that has been close to us since we moved here. Dinner, dessert and opening some gifts together Christmas Eve after a beautiful traditional Candle Light & Christmas Hymns service. If you'd like more info about that, send me a p.m. Christmas a.m., dressing up for Christmas Sunday at church & having a more intimate Christmas w/immediate family after.

New Year's Day I want a leg of lamb stuffed w/garlic & fresh rosemary from the garden, pureed sweet potatoes, & green salad. Dessert: chocolate covered pumpkin cheesecakes & I'd be thrilled if I could see the Rose ball Parade w/live commentaries & a few fireworks in Chapala from home :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Wow, sounds great!!
Chris

MyHomeSweetHome wrote:will do raq.

ahhh, i'd love to have you sometime coons ;0)

Hey not just me, with a menu like that I was planning on bringing everyone I know.

Sounds great, have fun and worry about the diet next year.

Our 5.5k Mexican Prime Rib Roast (aged 3 weeks) is in the fridge waiting to be cooked.
Our dinner with friends will include roasted potatoes, camote, broccoli casserole, along with wasabi horseradish and home made pickles. Sides include Canadian Cheddar and Mexican Manchego cheeses, home made pepper jelly, olives, and maybe more. Dessert will be individual cheescakes with whipped cream and fresh blackberry topping and chocolate coated strawberries

Fresh margaritas, wine, beer

AND 70F+-.

What more can you want

[quote="DaveP"


What more can you want[/quote]


Uhhh Dave, how about MyHomeSweetHome in the kitchen to cook it all and wash up afterwards. Just a suggestion.

raqueteer wrote:[quote="DaveP"


What more can you want

Uhhh Dave, how about MyHomeSweetHome in the kitchen to cook it all and wash up afterwards. Just a suggestion. [/quote]

I love the cooking part. I have the washing up covered

Did you say you were inviting us all over? Oh, you didn't. Oh.



Have a great one! You sound like a fantastic cook.