ho ho ho

And now our final Christmas post for 2012!  

When I asked M. and E. what their favourite part of the day was E. replied;  "Uncle R. and Auntie R." and M. said "Jasper!" (their dog)  I'm really glad that they feel like family was the highlight and not just all the awesome presents they got.

Though speaking of presents, I think their favourite part of the gifts was the candy cane reindeer that was taped to a gift box. 

T. took our boys out to the school yard for the morning to burn off some steam after another waffle breakfast so I could prepare scallop potatoes and roast carrots for later.  For our big dinner, we decided to skip the usual turkey and go for lamb.  We purchased two leg of lamb roasts and T. and I couldn't agree on how to prepare them.  So we had a lamb off!  We both did our own research, consulted with friends, and carefully chose our recipes.  And the results are in:  they tasted THE SAME and no one would commit to saying one was better than the other.  Oh well...and now I've got a lamb curry simmering on the stove with the leftovers so we can finish it off.

It was lovely to have my Nonna here too as we don't get out to see her too often lately.  I'm grateful she still know who we all are, despite her Alzheimer's.  Auntie R. and Uncle R. and Grandpa were here too and we enjoyed a traditional Italian panettone as a nod to my Italian roots after dinner along with my apple cranberry sharlotka.  

We even were lucky to get a knock on the door from our neighbours with warm shortbread cookies and a new rawhide for Cowboy.  The next day M. asked me for a cookie and when I passed him my tin of homemade goodies to choose from he refused and requested the neighbour's shortbread.  Ouch!  They were awesome cookies though.

Next year, their will be one more little one at our table and I'm so excited to be an Auntie in 2013!