Happy Christmas Eve everybody!! I LOVE this day!

Christmas Eve Dinner is a big event in our family.

On my side of the family a tradition has existed for, oh, 25 years at least, that makes it an exciting dinner:

We take turns hosting dinner at one of our houses – (in the last 12 years or so that’s included Jeanne and I, my Mom and Dad, my brother Dominic and his wife Alesha, and my Sister Gina and her husband Bill). In addition, we often wind up with extra friends or family being invited, which is always a nice addition! Whoever hosts is responsible for making dinner – and the fun part is that dinner is always from a different culture, or country, or ethnicity, or part of the world – some kind of cuisine/family of recipes/foods that we wouldn’t normally eat. Also fun: no one attending can know what it is beforehand – it’s a surprise to everyone who shows up. (So usually for weeks ahead of time, the rest of the family will be trying to find out what it’s going to be!) Some recent favorites have been Moroccan, Senegalese, Arabic, Ukrainian, and Native American.

This tradition is a ton of fun, and is always followed up by a big gift exchange where the kids all get presents, and the adults give a present to the one other adult in the group who they’re buying for that year. The dinner usually winds up having a few dishes that people just LOVE, and a couple that we don’t! (We still tell horror stories about the Tortilla Torte –Good God it was so awful– or the Rutebaga Casserole from years past!) It’s a fun experiment every year, and one that we’ve all grown to anticipate nearly as much as Christmas Day itself.

Since dinner is a surprise, the blog post all about this year’s culinary experiments will have to wait until tomorrow – but everyone be sure to go sleep early! Santa won’t come if you’re awake!!

Happy Holidays, everyone. Peace and joy and love!

*Portions of this were reprinted from an earlier entry!