Christmas Joy...

We had Christmas dinner at our house this year; Mark & I had Thursday and Friday to start cooking and preparing for the dinner on Saturday. Thank goodness we planned it that day, otherwise the blizzard would have ruined our day... there was still 18 inches of snow mixed with some ice left on the ground , but almost everyone made it to our house for dinner! Mark and I did the turkey, and ham, which are pretty easy, but we also wanted to make some things from scratch. I made sour dough rolls that you have to start two days ahead, Mark did a loaf of frenchbread in the bread machine, and they both came out PERFECT! Also baked two banana nut breads, the first was gone in minutes, the second lasted a couple days...I went to Paula Deen's website and got her momma's recipe for egg-nog; it was DIVINE! The kids couldn't get enough. We also used her recipe for irish cream liquor, and it was gone in two days... and her cornbread dressing was the BEST I've ever had... also made her giblet gravy (without the giblets or liver-YUCK), and the cranberry sauce too, maybe I should've called our dinner 'A Paula Deen Christmas'... we just love her, (Mark actually has a crush on Paula)... Aunt Terry brought the sweet potatoes, and my cousin ,Sissi, brought a bean and corn salad that were both YUMMY!!! PawPaw Chris came, my Dad came, my Nanny came and brought banana pudding (my request), ALL the boys came, Paige was able to get off work early and be here...Mamu made her pea-salad (also my request), and it was just a FEAST fit for a king. We had a really great day. The next two days, Mark pulled the kids around on his home-made sled, behind the 4-wheeler, and the whole neighborhood could hear them screaming like they were on a rollercoaster. I don't think my girls have ever seen that much snow! We had the BIGGEST snowman in town.