Current mood:

pleased

First Christmas in the New Home
What an interested day it turned out to be: Earl's mother baked cakes early, and then I took control of the kitchen. I wrestled it to the ground and pounded it into submitting to my will. And by late afternoon, with the assistance of my lovely partner and my brother, dinner was a success.

Thanksgiving marked the first major holiday and family gathering at the new home; but looking back on it now, with Christmas dinner behind me, Thanksgiving was a dry-run for the main event more than anything else. The November feast was only myself, mom, my brother, and my uncle. Christmas added Earl and his mother. (Not only was this the first true holiday meal at the new home, it was the first meeting of the moms [queue dramatic music].)

Today's menu consisted of:

• Turkey - a 6/7 pound breast-only deal
  
• Ham - an 11 pound piece of pork basted in a home-made honey, brown sugar, and citrus glaze
  
• Red Mashed Potatoes - skin-on with crushed garlic
  
• Stuffing - need one say more than simply "stuffing"? I thought not.
  
• Green Bean Casserole - a simple dish consisting of fresh green beans, sour cream, cream of mushroom soup, salt and pepper, and coarsely crushed Ritz crackers
  
• Candied Yams - fresh yams with a home-made brown sugar, syrup, and butter sauce
  
• Biscuits - the one corner cut... Pillsbury's frozen biscuits-in-a-bag come out perfect if you don't follow the directions (do 400 degrees for 15 minutes on the middle rack-level, and not what the bag says)
  
• Earl's Mom's White Potato Pie - what, you ask? White Potato Pie. It's good. Very good. And apparently very much a "Maryland" thing. Here's a recipe as proof.

After dinner we exchanged gifts and I couldn't have been happier with the way the day went.

A nice, yet exhausting, Christmas. Indeed.