The scent of my mother-in-law’s Italian Cream Cake recipe wafting from the oven for the big dinner tomorrow, I prepare our annual Christmas Eve dinner.  It was something we did years ago with kids – snacks and Christmas goodies in front of the fire. There would be plenty of food tomorrow. When I was young you could bet I was cooking for Christmas, probably still wrapping, and the frig was full with items for the family dinner tomorrow. So we had snacks for Christmas Eve.  No one ever complained. And years later we still do it.

As a busy working mom, I always looked for ways to do as much as possible in as little time as imaginable.  A week before, we baked cookies.  The kids oversaw wrapping – that way if the present looked like a kid wrapped it, they did!  I found boxes and placed each present in one, taped them securely (I hoped) with a name on top, and then sat them in the middle of the floor with the paper and bows.  All the while, I made cookie dough.  The kids helped make cookies too, mostly by eating them.  We always had Christmas music playing if we had no Christmas special on TV and things got accomplished without a lot of gnashing of teeth.

These days the kids are grown.  One has agreed to have dinner at his house tomorrow and I have things to cook again.  The husband, dog, and I will have Christmas goodies for supper – maybe open a bottle of wine in front of the fire.  I’m slicing cheese and summer sausage, putting out olives, fruit and crackers, and we might have to get into the white chocolate covered cranberries I made this afternoon.  There will still be plenty for tomorrow.

I hope you have all the food and love you need for Christmas.  Have a Merry Christmas with your family and friends.  Eat too much, laugh too much, and remember the reason for the season.  Merry Christmas!