Quiet Christmas

Well, we've done it. We had Christmas by ourselves this year.

And it wasn't too bad!

Christmas Eve day was cold, cloudy and misty, making me almost feel that I was in Indiana for Christmas. However, why Televisa thought a Chucky marathon was fitting for Christmas Eve is beyond me.

Christmas Day was beautiful. While waiting for the pancakes to cook, I tried to get Clara to put the baby Jesus in his place in the nativity scene. She was into it until I told her to be careful holding him, and then she wanted me to do it. We wrapped him up well so he wouldn't be cold. ;)

Since we did not celebrate Thanksgiving this year, I really wanted to have a turkey. I threw that into the oven after mass, and while we waited for it to bake, we turned on the radio where they had a constant stream of Christmas music playing, and the four of us danced the afternoon away. We skyped with my family just before taking the turkey out of the oven.

The table was set, the sides dished out on serving platters, the wine was poured, the candles were lit. Mario carved into the turkey . . .

and it was raw.

Oops.

So we threw the turkey back in the oven, ate the sides, watched Bambi II on the TV, and at 8:00, just before throwing the children into bed (actually, I think the smaller one was in bed) we finally ate that turkey. It was glorious--crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside, everything a Christmas turkey should be. Well worth the wait.

Lesson learned: when the Joy of Cooking says that the turkey only needs to cook for two hours, turn it over and then cook it for another vague 30-90 minutes more. . . they're WRONG! (The only Joy recipe to fail me so far--I'm not trying to trash Joy! Usually I'm its biggest fan.) However, sticking to the standard 1 hour per kilo of turkey rule worked out pretty well. Unfortunately, I was only informed of said rule as the hubs was cutting into the raw turkey. I'm never able to remember the minutes per pound rule. This one I think will stick.

It was another interesting Christmas on another front, as it was the first Christmas I've experienced without presents. We didn't intentionally not buy presents for each other. (Although Santa Claus did intentionally not visit Clara because she'll be getting a visit from the Three Kings in a few days.) Truth be told, I had been planning on buying Mario a juicer (the one thing I know he wants and hasn't bothered to get yet himself) for quite some time. And I know he needs some pretty heavy hints if I expect him to get anything for me--which I had not been throwing out. December just flew by and I just never got him anything and never threw out any hints. No problem. Just keeping things simple, which is generally the rule we live by in this house.

It probably won't happen again next year, but I'm glad we tried it at least once. Even if it wasn't on purpose.

However, next year, I am really hoping to have a few more people around! THAT is what we really missed!