A new twist on an old tradition

Growing up, there were a few constants in our house on Christmas Eve: Fondue, opening our annual ornaments, and usually being allowed to open our gifts from Aunt Judy.

After a few years of tweaking I feel like my own family is able to carry on the same tradition in a sense. This year (and I've gotten the okay from Rod and Victoria to continue it annually!), I did a trio of Fondue: A creamy cheese fondue with bread (a Pampered Chef recipe of course!), The basic hot oil fondue with steak, chicken, some pre-cooked marinated shrimp, and broccoli, and A Cool Creamy Chocolate Fondue with bananas, pears, apples, and cookies (also a PC recipe!). I served buttered noodles with the main course, with a little of the leftover cheese fondue stirred in to tie them together. The only thing I really will need to work on for next year is the timing - I WAY underestimated how long it would take for the oil to get hot! Other than that, the dinner was a hit. We all ate a little bit of everything and felt fullfilled afterward.

Oh - and I carried forward the ornament tradition as well (Rod got to open the family ornament and Victoria got her own - a ladybug!).

We didn't open Aunt Judy's gifts - Rod's a stickler about the whole not opening any gifts until the morning.

I'm going to try to go to bed now, as the anticipation of seeing my beautiful daughter's face in the morning is probably almost as great as her anticipation of Santa's arrival!

We wish you all a safe and very Merry Christmas.

And no post is complete without a smile :0)