Christmas Recap

We did things a little different this year. Usually Chrismas eve looks like this: Go to Dan's grandparents for a few hours, visit, eat then rush off early to have a second, very late Christmas eve dinner with my family, open more gifts with them and then around midnight drive home to put our grumpy, overstimulated kids to bed.

This year Dan took the kids to his grandparent's gathering while I stayed home to clean the house in preparation for my family's Christmas eve dinner. Just about the time Dan got back, dinner was served. We had a spiral cut ham, garlic mashed potatoes, yams and green bean casserole. Our family, like many, has special treats that come out at Christmas time. Ours are Norwegian in origin and are must haves for the Roush Family Christmas. Gjetost (pronunciation: 'yeah-toast') is a type of goat cheese and Oslo Kringla, a Norwegian pastry. The only thing missing this year was Julekake (pronunciation: 'yule-a-cogga), which is a Norwegian Christmas bread. We also love our egg nog with a dash of nutmeg sprinkled on top. Yummers!

After dinner, my sister Toni made everyone Creme Brulee! It was so yummy...I caught Dan sneeking in to the kitchen several times trying to get his hands on some more dessert. Then it was off to bed for the kids. Eveyone stayed over, so we moved furniture around to get settled for sleeping. Then the next morning the kids got up ready to open presents.

I was so tired from cleaning up the night before that I didn't realize everyone else was already awake. Before coming downstairs, we were serenaded by the women in my family who sang us "we wish you a Merry Christmas."

After all the gifts were opened we fixed breakfast and enjoyed a lazy morning together. Soon enough, the guys and kids (one in the same, I know) got out the nerf guns and began to wage war on each other. After most everyone left, Dan brought out his special 3-d version of Settler's of Catan, a game Aaron and Tami like to play too. After Aaron came out from nowhere and won, we called it a day. They left for home and we headed over to Dan's sister Katy's house for a Mexican Christmas dinner.

While dinner was cooking, the kids opened up gifts with Grandma Flutter. Dinner was great! Katy had made tamales from scratch along with homemade refried beans served with tortilla chips, salsa and guacamole. She also gave us something new to try...goat's meat. It was prepared in the traditional Mexican fashion with wonderful seasonings. I couldn't believe how good it tasted. For dessert we had flan and apple pie. Boy, it was all so good, I stuffed myself silly! Then after playing a couple games, I crashed out on the couch. We left and got home around 10 p.m. When we got home, we were too tired to open our gifts to each other, so Dan and I decided to wait until morning. This morning the kids opened their stockings from Santa and spent the rest of the day playing with all their new things. We couldn't ask for a better Christmas...just wish we weren't so tired from all the fun!