Merry Christmas!

What a wonderful, wonderful Christmas we had this year. After our "trip", I had to fly out to New York for a very intense work week, so my stress level was at an all time high. I came back the Thursday before Christmas and collapsed into bed by 8pm. Oddly enough, I woke up feeling so excited about hosting 18 people for Christmas Eve and wanting the holidays to be relaxing and enjoyable for everyone!

Once again, I hosted The Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. This is an Italian tradition which comes from the observance of La Vigilia Di Natale — the wait for the birth of Christ — in which early Catholics fasted on Christmas Eve until after receiving communion at Midnight Mass. The seven fishes represent different things depending on what your family believed ... most think of it as the number of days it took Mary and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem. I'm not Catholic, but I did marry an Italian and I really wanted to establish a tradition that Ashley would remember and maybe carry on...I just love the idea of having a house full of family with delicious smells coming from the kitchen while everyone tucks into a cocktail or two!

I really wish I hadn't been so absorbed in cooking that I forgot to take pictures of the table settings and display of food taking up every inch of the island. It really was something, if I may say so myself. In the absence of photos, here is the menu for posterity:

Ron's Antipasta Platter
Christmas Crab Dip
Scallops Wrapped in Bacon
Crudite Platter

Proscuitto Roasted Halibut
Baked Shrimp Scampi
Traditional Italian Cioppino
Baked Ziti
Fresh Italian Bread

Jenny's Fabulous Feast Fish Cookies
Coffee & Lemoncello

I loved every minute of it and was so happy to have the Swanson, DeLazzer, Larocca & Richey clan altogether again. It only happens once a year! (Unless someone gets married ... so let's get on it Scott, Trent and Paige! ...Well, maybe not Trent & not Paige for sure!)

Christmas morning was a blast. Ashley was very excited by all her gifts, but a little overwhelmed too. It really was fun to see her rip open her presents. She wanted everything out of the box immediately. The first pictures are of her riding her brand new rocking horse from Gigi and Papa ... she wasn't sure about it at first, but she warmed up to it pretty quickly! (if she didn't like it so much, I would be REALLY annoyed by the size of this damn thing! You're lucky Gigi!)

And I'm sorry, but Ashley's Christmas jammies are too cute, aren't they?! Oh ... and one other thing, I wasn't very good about taking pictures on Christmas morning either so I don't really have pictures of anyone! (which might just be a blessing since none of us had any makeup on, Ha!)