Christmas Eve Yummies

When growing up, we always had Christmas Eve at Mawma and Pawpa's house.  There were lots and lots of presents.  We opened gifts from Mawma and Pawpa, Aunt Dee, Greatma and Greatpa, and sometimes Aunt Glenda, Uncle Gary, and our cousins Kelly and Keven were there.  When all the gifts were opened, you could not see the floor from all the wrapping paper and bows.  We also had stocking hung over her fireplace (after the "great" remodel...there were other remodels but this one included a fireplace....more to come on that in a future blog, I am sure).




There was never a quiet moment, all of us kids competing for attention from our favorite grown-ups.  One of the gifts was usually a video game (Mawma even got her very own Nintendo one year and became OBSESSED with it) or some musical instrument (drums and electronic keyboards come to mind) so this would bring lots of holiday noise, as well.  Sometimes, there were fights as Mawma and Daddy were never wrong about anything.  But mostly the "noise" was good.

Oh....and there was FOOD.  An over abundance of FOOD.  The thing about Christmas Eve is there was never any menu or theme planned.  I think this is when Mawma and the other adult women cleaned out their Fridgidaires and brought everything to Mamaw's table in Tupperware, festive holiday tins, platters, and Pyrex.  Anything and everything might show up on the Christmas Eve buffet.  Tuna salad, chicken salad (all kind of mayo laced salads), sliced salami, all kinds of cheese, brisket, cheese balls, run balls, whatever we had to make a ball out of....fudge, pecan pralines, chips and dips....DIPS GALORE....crab and other varieties of "log", shrimp cocktail, shrimp kabob, everything to make a sandwich out of....and I am pretty sure this is when the Jello Goop made it's first appearance.

Since Mawma and Pawpa are no longer with us, we have moved the party to Aunt Dee's house.  We still have lots of food, just less people to eat it.  Were were going to bring tamales to the feast but heard that A.J. (my brother) has planned the same, so now I am trying to decide on another dish.  We never have much in the leftover dept, esp junk food that would be fitting for this kind of spread.  With Kimkins and Weight Watchers (for David) planning most of our meals, our food might not be seen as "fun".  I am looking on the web for some new ideas, maybe I will class up the table this year?

I will share a few of the recipes I find in separate blogs.

Tiffany