Christmas Eve

I had about a million things to get done on Saturday (12/24), so after Michael left for golf, I plunged right in.  I cranked up the Christmas music and got busy in the kitchen…which as you know always makes me happy :~).  Pat & George invited us to join their family for Christmas Eve dinner, and I wanted to take along a few goodies to share.  Pat said that George likes Reese's Peanut Butter cups, so I finally got to try to make one of BG’s Christmas treats.  I put peanut butter between 2 Ritz crackers, chilled them, then dipped them in chocolate.  I even got a little “presentation” going and found my Christmas jimmies to sprinkle on them:  

I know Pat loves my almond sugar cookies, so I made a batch for her:  

I had done Christmas napkins for her, but decided to give them a quick wash and press in case she wanted to use them at dinner:  

4 each of 3 different patterns...I love to mix my Christmas napkins

I got 2 runs of homemade Bailey’s done and took one bottle as a gift for the hosts, and one bottle to share with all of the guests.  Around 3 PM I put together a pan of Golden Pull Apart Butter Buns to take to dinner with us.  Ann Mary & Jim came over to exchange gifts...and Jim had bought Michael the perfect pair of Christmas socks: 

We left at 5 PM for the dinner.  There were 9 of us at dinner: 

Pat & George & Lisa (Pat’s daughter), George’s sister and brother-in-law Della & Bill, her close friends Fay & Al, and Michael and me.  Appetizers were HUGE shrimp, kielbasa and cheese cubes:  

I only ate a tiny bit because I thought I knew what dinner was going to be like….but I still totally under estimated it.  They had salad and veggies and the aforementioned buns, then there was an entire beef tenderloin done on the grill (I don’t even really LIKE beef and it was like heaven).  Because George cooked the whole tenderloin as one piece, everyone could get a piece with the amount of “doneness” that they liked.  They had homemade horseradish sauce to go with that.  Then there were HUGE lobster tails, with each person having their own heated butter for dipping.  There were also baked potatoes with sour cream and chives for topping.  

George did a lovely Polish ceremony about breaking and sharing bread, and also a lovely champagne toast.  After dinner Pat had told Lisa that she could open her Christmas gifts and it was fun to sit and watch her as she saw each new thing she got.  

Of course, Lisa finally received the quilt Pat made for her, full of embroideries of ALL of Leonardo DiCaprio’s movies (in case you can't tell....Lisa LOVES all things Leo!):  

After that of course, we had to stuff ourselves one more time with Pat's homemade cream puffs and candy:

We came home around 10 and watched TV and lay on the couch like dead things until bed  :~).