Phew...

We made it! Well, another Christmas has come and gone. New Years will be here at the end of the week. Where does the time go? All that fuss and bother, cooking, wrapping, stressing, and then poof, all done. We had a wonderful day. Of course there was so much food between the eve and day, that we go into a food coma. Everything is so darn delicious though!

My brother in law does Christmas Eve, and hubby and son go early to start the preparing and frying. As Italians we do fish for the meal. Fried shrimp, scallops, filet. My brother in law makes paella, which is delish, crab and macaroni. I love crabs and macs! Fish salad, and he makes rice balls too, while not fish, they are so yummy.

For the day, hubby made the lasagna, sauce, meatballs, and sausage. I did the chipotle ham, roast pork loin, saurkraut, parsley potatoes, and green beans with onions and balsamic sweet sauce. All was so good, everyone loved the pork, I really liked the ham, the chipotles gave it a little kick.

For dessert we had cheese cake, I made panettone bread pudding with amaretto cream sauce, my sister in law brought her grain pie, or pizza gran as the Italians call it, and struffoli. Those are little fried balls of dough about the size of hazel nuts and then covered, literaly to the point of drowning, with honey and rainbow confetti sprinkles.

Here are some pics. The grain pie looks beautiful, these pics are not what my sis in law made, I couldn't find a pic of what the inside looks like, but it is a custard filling with the grain, very barley like mixed in, the other is the struffoli. I made struffoli last year with my Mom after Christmas and they came so good!! My dad just kept eating them and saying how delicious they were, so I will make them again this year, I will have Sophia help me.

Now we just kind of futz around and relax. The kids are enjoying all their gifts, there is so much. Christmas morning is an insane asylum here. My oldest daughter and 2 granddaughters sleep over and gifts just fly all over the place. It is just joy and laughing, screaming at the different gifts they all have gotten. I didn't do so bad myself! I got Skechers shape ups for my treks up into the park and hills here, Fergilicious ankle boots, True Blood goodies! I love Eric thongs!! Ha, never thought the hubs would go for it, too funny, and a thermos that says, I like my Vampire tall blonde and Viking, heehee! I also got a gift certificate to get my nose pierced! I'm so excited, I think it looks pretty. Here's a pic of my shoes, the exact ones I got, funny looking but they really work your legs and bum! It mimics walking in sand.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed your day together. Here are some pics from Christmas enjoy!

The picture of all the kids together is something we have been doing for years. All the nieces and nephews put on their Christmas pj's and we snap away. To see how each has grown each year is something. I may have to do a page just on this!