Are You Excited?

Can you believe it’s almost Christmas!?! I say this every year, but it’s so true, where has the time gone? Crazy how fast a year goes by!

I finished my Christmas shopping a few weeks ago with the exception of stocking stuffers. Yesterday hubby and I went out to get some groceries and the stocking stuffers and ended up picking up one more gift for our youngest. Now we need to get one more for our oldest to keep it even. We spent like 3 or 4 hours searching for something for him and ended up with nothing! I can’t believe how hard boys are to buy for once they hit a certain age. I can think of all sorts of things for a 14 year old girl, but for a 14 year old boy the options seem so limited. I’ve searched for ideas online and all suggestions are electronics(what he doesn’t already have we have already bought for him), books(already bought), sports stuff(not overly into sports) or gift cards/cash(for my own kid I really don’t want to resort to that for Christmas). I thought about something to do with cooking because he likes to cook, but there’s really not much to choose from for him that I don’t already have in my kitchen for him to use and the couple of things that I could think of I couldn’t find anywhere.

Shopping for  him in about 3 years will be easier because he will be getting old enough that we can start helping him make sure he starts building up the things he will need when he moves out on his own(don’t even want to think of that yet!). I need to figure something out by tomorrow and I still have no clue what to get him. So, if you have any ideas for a 14 year old boy that are not what I already mentioned above please tell me! I need to spend around $25 to keep it even. It’s looking like it might end up having to be more books or a board game or something(which they have TONS of board games too).

What do you have planned for your Christmas menu? We are going to do Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve this year. My brother in law always comes over on Saturday nights for dinner, so we figured we would do Christmas Dinner then so we can have it with him. He’ll be having Christmas with his ex and his 5 kids on Christmas Day(who we’re not allowed to see…his ex is one of the most psycho people I’ve ever met). My inlaws won’t be here for Christmas(they’re trying to sell their house in Mexico), so at least this way we get to celebrate it with someone from his family.

My Christmas meal plan is:

Turkey of course! I can’t do Christmas without Turkey. I’ve been using Uncle Bill's Method for Cooking Turkey for a few years now and it results in an absolutely perfect moist turkey every time without fail! I highly recommend it!

Mashed Potatoes of course! Another thing that I can’t do a Christmas meal without! I don’t follow a recipe but I whip my potatoes with a hand mixer and add butter, milk, cream cheese, salt, pepper, onion powder and parsley flakes……absolutely delicious potatoes I tell ya!

Gravy, I don’t normally do gravy for potatoes, except when I make a full turkey meal. I make  Kittencals Easy No Fail Make Anytime Turkey Gravy, heavy on the pepper and it’s a quick and easy absolutely fantastic gravy!

Stuffing. I don’t stuff the turkey, but I do make stuffing on the side. I haven’t found or come up with a stuffing recipe that I absolutely love yet. My Mom makes a really good stuffing so I should really get her recipe one of these days. I did make this Crock Pot Stuffing recipe for Thanksgiving and it was really good, even my husband who doesn’t like stuffing enjoyed it. I skipped the apple and celery in the recipe and used French bread, this time I’m going to use Sourdough bread.

Corn. Simple, hubby doesn’t eat much veggies so I have to put out what he will eat.

Broccoli Salad. My sister usually makes a Broccoli Salad when we have family meals, and I LOVE it! I’ve never made one myself but I couldn’t get enough of it last weekend during our Christmas dinner and I need more! There are so many recipes for Broccoli Salad, all just very slightly different. I’ll probably use parts from several recipes.

Watergate Salad. I first made this about 5 or 6 years ago. My youngest was born on St. Patrick’s Day and I made everything green for his Birthday. He fell in love with it and since we don’t do parties for him anymore I make it for occasions like Christmas and Thanksgiving. It’s more like a dessert but is considered a salad. It’s awesome, just awesome! I think most recipes for this are pretty much the same, I use the Kraft recipe, Watergate Salad. I skip the nuts and double the recipe.

Buns, homemade dinner buns. The recipe I use for so many types of buns is Bread Maker Hamburger Buns. It’s a great base recipe that you can use for dinner rolls, hamburger buns, hot dog buns, I even use it to make cheese buns and cinnamon rolls.

Carrot Cake. For dessert I’ll be making the Carrot Cake recipe that I posted the other day. It’s so good we just have to have it again!

I might make another salad or veggie dish of some sort, sort of craving Brussel Sprouts lately, might have to satisfy that craving. I like to make a lot because we then get so many yummy leftovers for the next couple of days and I don’t have to cook .

How’s your Christmas planning coming? Done shopping, or going to be out there Saturday finishing up? What’s your Christmas meal like? For us a Christmas meal is about the same as Thanksgiving and Easter….and every once in a while I’ll make it just because it’s such a big delicious meal.

 

Jolene