Our Christmas 2016

There are two of these very New England-y arrangements (made in sap buckets, set atop birch logs) at the front entrance of the nursing home.  So pretty!

Almost no photos here, alas, but simply a report on our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2016. 

On Christmas Eve, our son and his two teenage daughters joined us for supper: our traditional Christmas Eve Soup, which is just a simple potato soup garnished with bacon and shredded Cheddar.  I also served Iron Skillet Biscuits, plus sourdough rye bread from our neighbor.  Something for everyone.  Alongside, we also had a nice assortment of raw vegetables and a homemade ranch dressing dip.

After the main meal, we took a break to open gifts before returning to the table for dessert: a cookie and fudge tray, plus ice cream.

Christmas Day was very different.  I've already blogged about our breakfast.  After getting a slow cooker going with chicken for our supper, we headed out the door to church.  Our church was having one service, at 10 a.m.  It was a lovely service with special music and a good message.

Then, from church, we headed right to the nursing home where my dad is.  We had arranged to get two extra lunch trays with the thought of eating Christmas lunch with him in his room.  Now, this is exactly what happened, but we were so surprised when we got there.  We had expected to be eating off trays in our laps, but the staff had other ideas.  They had set up a card table in the room and made it so festive!  There was a tablecloth, pretty Christmas paper placemats and napkins, and even a little centerpiece!

When the meals came, we ate at our festive table and enjoyed every bite.  Roast beef, mashed sweet potatoes, asparagus, green bean casserole and rolls were so good.  And there was a choice of desserts -- lemon meringue pie and several types of cheesecake.  Mr. T and my dad chose lemon meringue pie and I had a two layer cheesecake with a fudge layer.  In addition we enjoyed eggnog (locally made and so delicious) and coffee.

After we had finished eating, my aunt and uncle also stopped by for a visit, which was so nice.  We enjoyed reminiscing with them and looking through the calendar I had made for my dad.

In the midafternoon we headed home and managed to accomplish a few things (gift wrapping on my part and a bit of carpentry work on my hubby's part) there before heading out to eat supper and exchange gifts with this good-looking group (and their parents)

at our daughter's home.  My daughter had made a roast and mashed potatoes and rolls.  I brought our slow-cooked chicken dish (which I hope to blog about next week -- it was fantastic! -- and Merry Berry Salad. This is a marvelous salad recipe from an older Quick Cooking magazine. The homemade cranberry vinaigrette is just wonderful, and such a gorgeous red color!

Photo from Taste of Home

And I also brought along -- yes, you guessed it -- a cookie and fudge tray for dessert!

We opened gifts in between and a good time was had by all.  Mr. T and I headed home around 8:30 or so, since  he had to work on Monday.  All in all, a different, but very nice Christmas!