Christmas Eve is always spent with the better-half’s family. I’ll say this about this year’s gathering: nice, loud and fun. I’ll say this about the food: boring. I was one of the last folks to go through the buffet line and because I was dodging other people in the kitchen, I sat down too quickly. I got back up to grab a roll and realized the gravy was hiding over near the bread which was also way out of the buffet line of sight. I got excited about the gravy because it made me think I’d missed the mashed potatoes and stuffing. I scanned the line again and y’all…they served neither.
My plate this year looked like the red-headed stepchild of Christmas dinner plates. Allow me to describe my plate:
A small scoop of cheesy potatoes (the best dish aside from our ham)
A roll (no butter)
A bit of spinach salad because of the strawberries
A spoonful of green beans that were possibly the most bland thing I’ve put in my mouth all year (seriously, how do you screw that up?)
A spoonful of rice salad that was basically rice and pineapple chunks (WTF?)
A small scoop of spinach and artichoke dip from the appetizer table
I could have had some of our ham but I’d already eaten my weight as we were slicing pieces and the turkey didn’t seem to be worth the trouble. I completely skipped over the mixed vegetable bowl because it looked like someone opened a freezer bag and nuked it to death.
By eating basically nothing for dinner, I was thrilled to hear the gingerbread cake was made with actual shredded ginger and Guinness. Outstanding. I teased the baker that she was going to have to bring it every year because it will become the thing that she must bring no matter what. And, that is fine with me because oh my goodness. Next year, I’ll just skip to a slice of that.
Christmas morning was a totally different story because my sister rocks a breakfast casserole. I know we ate lots of other tasty things, but that breakfast casserole is the stuff of dreams. I stole half of a slice off one of the niece’s plates it was that good.