Christmas Dinners and English Crackers

Last weekend we had an impromptu dinner at my house. One of my friends was spouse-less due to hunting season starting and my hubby was gone due to a clergy event. So I got this idea that I'd invite my girlfriend and her children over for dinner and a movie. It turned into a huge fun filled night with 2 other girlfriends and their families coming over (the 2 husbands came along too! They were waiting for Guido to come home, but he didn't make it home until everyone was leaving).

I made a huge pan of baked ziti (which came out too dry, but everyone was kind enough to it anyway). We had a huge platter of Christmas cookies from a cookie exchange earlier that day and all of us adults played Uno. The kids (7 of them in total, of which 2 where infants, the rest ranged from preschoolers to early elementary) watched Polar Express. Because we didn't want to break our family Advent tradition, my kids invited everyone to participate in their "candle time" It felt kind of neat watching my 3 year old evangelize to his friends. Everyone left around 9pm, with a promise of another get together on Friday, January 2nd. This time all the guys will be getting together to play Axis and Allies the board game. The women folk will probably be playing cards.

It was the first time this season I got to use my Christopher Radko Christmas plates. I love these plates they are so pretty and my mother got them at Target 4 years ago after Christmas for $2 a packet. I ended up getting 4 sets and have 12 nice Christmas place settings. Every year I try to have a Christmas dinner at least once to use my Christmas plates. I always like to throw an intimate party with good food, laughter and our silly tradition of English Christmas crackers.

So tonight I invited our pastor, his family and our deacon over for dinner. I made Seafood Paella with a side of green & yellow beans with baby carrots and crusty warm Italian bread. It was really good. For dessert I made a blueberry dump cake and served it with Vanilla ice cream. Believe it or not the Paella was a box mix that came out scrumptiously delicious.

I placed one cracker on each place setting and before dinner we popped them open and made everyone wear the silly hats throughout dinner. We then share the corny jokes and see who has the best toy gift. We've done this now for the last 4 years and its been great fun. Here are some pictures of us in our goofy hats.

Nora & I ---- Fr. Randall, Guido, Dcn. Kerry, & Jonathan