Croik's holiday adventures
Dec. 29th, 2007 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
croikSUCCESSFUL HOLIDAY!
For the past week I've been at my parents', helping out over the holidays. Every year we have dinner with my dad's side of the family on Xmas, but this year my mom's mom was in town as well, so they decided to have a big dinner Xmas Eve, too! Which all amounts to a mad house, pretty much.
Because you see, you haven't truly met an A-Type personality until you've met my Grandmother. My Grandparents were always somewhat wealthy and had eight kids, so she's a pro when it comes to large and impressive parties. The house must be spotless. Everything must be perfect. Drives my poor mother crazy, but we throw some impressive holidays when Grandma's around, let me tell you! I don't think you'll ever find an 80 year old woman with as much determination as her.
For example, our menu!
Christmas Eve Dinner (with my uncle and his family)
Appetizers
Shrimp with dipping sauce
Crackers with cheese ball / gourmet garlic cream cheese
Brie wrapped in a puff pastry
Christmas cookies
Dinner
Steaks on the grill
Cheesy potato casserole
Cheesy zucchini casserole
Garlic toast
Spinach salad with some kind of raspberry dressing
Dessert
More cookies!
Raspberry pie
Pecan pie
Yum yum. My cousins helped my brother and sister and I clean up and got to catch up (we don't see them that often). We all had a great time. Amazingly, my aunt still remembers the only Japanese word I ever taught her, which was years ago ("Kuso" XD). And then we got to clean the house all over again for the next day!
Christmas Dinner with my Dad's 4 siblings and their families, plus grandparents
Appetizers
More Shrimp and sauce
Chips with mango salsa / guacamole
Crackers and cheese
Leftover Brie/pastry
Swiss cheese fondue
Dinner
Beef tenderloin roast
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Cheesy zucchini casserole (we made a ton of that)
Steamed broccoli and carrots
Relish tray
Fresh fruit
Rolls
Green bean casserole
Sweet grape salad
Kielbasa sausage
Dessert
More cookies!
Chocolate chip cheesecake
Hummingbird cake
Now the thing about cooking a beef tenderloin in the way that my grandmother insists on is that you have to keep it in the oven all day, without opening to check on it even once. Somehow, opening the oven for even a moment during the crucial bake time ruins it completely. I'm not sure how it works, but it means that cooking anything else requires a tightly managed schedule. Thankfully, with so many of us around, we finished everything ahead of time and it went down without a hitch! Sibs and I cleaned up again. It's the least we could do for our mom XD;;
On Friday we hosted again, this time for my adult cousin and his new wife and baby, but that was a little less of a hullabaloo. Though we still had chicken and rice and zucchini (oh god) and fruit and salad and bread and brownies blah blah omg. More dishes.
It was an exhausting holiday! And on top of that, because our Grandma was in the guest room, my sister and I had to sleep down in the basement, where heating is kind of an afterthought. Every night I went to bed with socks, flannel pants, my winter nightgown, a sweatshirt, and three blankets. Even my freezing apartment with the windows that don't close feels nice after that <3.
But I'm not really complaining. It was a long week, but it's always good to be with family over the holidays. Sappy, I know XD;. But my grandfather (father's side) has had Parkinson's for a few years now, and he seemed to have more spirit this year than last, which is always a good thing.
Plus I got lots of good stuff this year >:D
From my parents I got an MP3 player (first I've ever owned! It's teeny and red), along with a toaster that also cooks eggs (fan-fucking-tastic!), various cookware, some moneys, and froggie pajamas (I have a collection going! I'm up to four). My sister got me Lair (PS3), and my brother got me Revenant Wings (DS), which are both awesome, because they're games I wanted to have but didn't want to pay for! Then I used the money my grandpa gave me and bought Assassin's Creed! Which was so impressive graphically to my parents that they never got around to asking me how much the PS3 cost me in the first place :D
For the moment I've gotten the most use out of Revenant Wings, with somewhere around 20 hours logged (it was my job to keep Grandma company the day after Xmas, which amounted to her watching the DVD set we got her, and me fighting the forces of evil with tiny sprite people. Good bonding time). But that's going to need to be another post, because...there's just too much to say about the pint-sized little travesty, and I'm close to finishing it anyway.
So! That was my Christmas. Came home earlier today and glad to be here. TK's home for her winter break all this week so hopefully we'll be catching up on a lot of anime watching and game playing. And...work, of course, because I've already got another book due on the 7th, bleh.
Happy Holidays everyone!
For the past week I've been at my parents', helping out over the holidays. Every year we have dinner with my dad's side of the family on Xmas, but this year my mom's mom was in town as well, so they decided to have a big dinner Xmas Eve, too! Which all amounts to a mad house, pretty much.
Because you see, you haven't truly met an A-Type personality until you've met my Grandmother. My Grandparents were always somewhat wealthy and had eight kids, so she's a pro when it comes to large and impressive parties. The house must be spotless. Everything must be perfect. Drives my poor mother crazy, but we throw some impressive holidays when Grandma's around, let me tell you! I don't think you'll ever find an 80 year old woman with as much determination as her.
For example, our menu!
Christmas Eve Dinner (with my uncle and his family)
Appetizers
Shrimp with dipping sauce
Crackers with cheese ball / gourmet garlic cream cheese
Brie wrapped in a puff pastry
Christmas cookies
Dinner
Steaks on the grill
Cheesy potato casserole
Cheesy zucchini casserole
Garlic toast
Spinach salad with some kind of raspberry dressing
Dessert
More cookies!
Raspberry pie
Pecan pie
Yum yum. My cousins helped my brother and sister and I clean up and got to catch up (we don't see them that often). We all had a great time. Amazingly, my aunt still remembers the only Japanese word I ever taught her, which was years ago ("Kuso" XD). And then we got to clean the house all over again for the next day!
Christmas Dinner with my Dad's 4 siblings and their families, plus grandparents
Appetizers
More Shrimp and sauce
Chips with mango salsa / guacamole
Crackers and cheese
Leftover Brie/pastry
Swiss cheese fondue
Dinner
Beef tenderloin roast
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Cheesy zucchini casserole (we made a ton of that)
Steamed broccoli and carrots
Relish tray
Fresh fruit
Rolls
Green bean casserole
Sweet grape salad
Kielbasa sausage
Dessert
More cookies!
Chocolate chip cheesecake
Hummingbird cake
Now the thing about cooking a beef tenderloin in the way that my grandmother insists on is that you have to keep it in the oven all day, without opening to check on it even once. Somehow, opening the oven for even a moment during the crucial bake time ruins it completely. I'm not sure how it works, but it means that cooking anything else requires a tightly managed schedule. Thankfully, with so many of us around, we finished everything ahead of time and it went down without a hitch! Sibs and I cleaned up again. It's the least we could do for our mom XD;;
On Friday we hosted again, this time for my adult cousin and his new wife and baby, but that was a little less of a hullabaloo. Though we still had chicken and rice and zucchini (oh god) and fruit and salad and bread and brownies blah blah omg. More dishes.
It was an exhausting holiday! And on top of that, because our Grandma was in the guest room, my sister and I had to sleep down in the basement, where heating is kind of an afterthought. Every night I went to bed with socks, flannel pants, my winter nightgown, a sweatshirt, and three blankets. Even my freezing apartment with the windows that don't close feels nice after that <3.
But I'm not really complaining. It was a long week, but it's always good to be with family over the holidays. Sappy, I know XD;. But my grandfather (father's side) has had Parkinson's for a few years now, and he seemed to have more spirit this year than last, which is always a good thing.
Plus I got lots of good stuff this year >:D
From my parents I got an MP3 player (first I've ever owned! It's teeny and red), along with a toaster that also cooks eggs (fan-fucking-tastic!), various cookware, some moneys, and froggie pajamas (I have a collection going! I'm up to four). My sister got me Lair (PS3), and my brother got me Revenant Wings (DS), which are both awesome, because they're games I wanted to have but didn't want to pay for! Then I used the money my grandpa gave me and bought Assassin's Creed! Which was so impressive graphically to my parents that they never got around to asking me how much the PS3 cost me in the first place :D
For the moment I've gotten the most use out of Revenant Wings, with somewhere around 20 hours logged (it was my job to keep Grandma company the day after Xmas, which amounted to her watching the DVD set we got her, and me fighting the forces of evil with tiny sprite people. Good bonding time). But that's going to need to be another post, because...there's just too much to say about the pint-sized little travesty, and I'm close to finishing it anyway.
So! That was my Christmas. Came home earlier today and glad to be here. TK's home for her winter break all this week so hopefully we'll be catching up on a lot of anime watching and game playing. And...work, of course, because I've already got another book due on the 7th, bleh.
Happy Holidays everyone!
