Christmas Eve dinner with Pat & George

Tuesday morning (12/24) dawned with beautiful blue skies….delightful after a gloomy day of rain on Monday.  I had several things to get done, so I hopped up kind of early.  

Michael and Cookie took off on a walk and I got my blog out before heading out on my errands.  I stopped at Anne’s to go over instructions for her kitties.  She will be traveling soon and we will be feeding and loving on her cats while she is gone.  Then I stopped by the bank to drop off treats and pick up new check registers and after a quick trip to Harris Teeter (it was a ZOO!!) I was home by 10 AM.  

Michael was making his traditional omelet for breakfast: 

with leftover hash browns and artisan bread

so I headed to the studio to baste another QoV:  

I only left an inch between the old one and the new one

By the time I was done basting, the omelet was done and I headed to the kitchen to get my baking done for the day.  

Pat & George invited us for their over-the-top Christmas Eve dinner, and Pat loves my almond flavored sugar cookies, so I wanted to take some of those along:  

And George likes the dipped Ritz/peanut butter sandwiches, so Michael put together the sandwiches and I got them dipped:  

I got to rest for a bit before putting together dough for my butter buns.  

We left just before 5 PM to make our way to the other end of the complex.  They had 8 people for dinner:

Margo in front, Sharon & Pat

George & Keith

Lisa (Pat's daughter)

There were yummy appetizers:

along with a brie baked en croute

and the table and centerpiece looked beautiful:

and after the beef tenderloin was done on the grill:

We all sat down to eat (and eat and eat!!):

lobster tails

broccoli/cheese casserole

Along with the tenderloin and lobster tails, there was a broccoli/cheese caserole, corn casserole, salad, rolls, and baked potatoes.  There was sour cream with chives for the potatoes, drawn butter for the lobster and bernaise sauce for the tenderloin.  The only thing missing was......absolutely NOTHING!  We had a champagne toast and dug in!

After clearing the table, we all kind of congregated in the kitchen for dessert.  There was an almond tart and a platter of all different kinds of cookies.  George decided we all needed a short beer chaser.  Now, most of you know that I absolutely detest beer.....when Pat had beer-tinis for her martini night...I drank something else.  WELL - these were absolutely delicious:

Probably because they only LOOK like short glasses of beer, but they are really a liquor called '43' topped with heavy whipping cream.  Everything was absolutely perfect....and we rolled home after 9 PM.

I hope you and yours are having the Merriest Christmas today: