Christmases Past...

With only 11 more days until Christmas my mind is pleasantly thinking of Christmases past. Waking up to the wonderful aroma of a turkey cooking in the oven, wondering what gifts were under the tree for me and my sister and hoping that we weren't getting anything stupid like sock and underwear (my Mom was notorious for putting those kinds of gifts under the tree for us). We never had any sort of special breakfast, it was always a bowl of what ever cereal we had in the house.

With that in mind, I've been asking my family what kind of dinner they would like to have on Christmas Eve- so far it could be a hot pocket or a frozen pizza as no one has voiced an opinion. I can't get over that they have no opinion on this matter...maybe they trust me to make something yummy, I have no idea. I decided that I'm going to make make a special Italian style dinner on Christmas Eve with Panettone for dessert (oh how I love that stuff-see my link to my cooking blog for Panettone recipe links). Then for breakfast on Christmas Day I'm going to wow them with my French style breakfast, I'll be giving them an extra special treat that they won't expect :) Dinner will be on a much smaller scale than Thanksgiving as I will only be cooking a small turkey breast as compared to the massive 20 pound turkey that I cooked for our Thanksgiving dinner (it really was a LARGE bird). Maybe I'll make it (the turkey breast) Cajun style and instead of mashed potatoes I'll make rice- ooh that sounds yummy. I love to cook for Thanksgiving and Christmas but just things other than the "traditional fare". I want to add some taste bud pizazz to it all.

With Christmas and the fresh fallen snow on my mind- it's making me want to cook up lots of Christmas goodies for my family and friends.