Christmas Eve and Crock Pots

David and I hosted the Brady family dinner at our home and Christmas Eve this year…and I was a nervous wreck.
Not that I was nervous for the family time. They’re great and there’s no stress with that. Nope, I was nervous for the dinner. You see, I come from a long line of women who cook (and cook well). My ancestors have been providing meals as a form of love for a long time. I’ve participated in these meals for as long as I can remember…but never been charge. In my mind, there was a lot of pressure. Grandma and Mom left some big shoes to fill.
Adding to this pressure, we wanted to go to church at 5pm and eat when we returned home…meaning that, unless we wanted to eat at midnight, I had to figure something out.
Enter the three crock-pot plan. (We’re newlyweds; we have a lot of crock-pots. I actually received several more but these are the ones we kept.)
I borrowed my friend Stacy’s slow cooker cookbook and planned.
Mashed potatoes in a crock-pot….YES!
Corny cheesy casserole in a crock-pot…YOU BET!
Dressing in a crock-pot…OH MAN!!
I cooked the turkey in the morning, took it off the carcass (which, to everyone’s dismay, I saved…I love TURKEY CARCASS SOUP!) and then popped it back in the oven when we left for church.

All that, combined with the salad and rice dish (by Danna), pies (by Debra), beer bread (made the day before by me) and wine (a gift from God) led to a pretty great meal.
Then, it was present time…thank god for babies. Seriously, is there anything better than watching a toddler open presents?
And, honestly, It's even more fun to watch David open anything with a tiger on it.
For Christmas, David and I tried to start a new tradition. We got brand spanking new pajamas and wore them Christmas night. I was pretty excited about them……and David was a good sport. He secretly loved them!

We had a light spattering of snow on Christmas day…
but it was nothing compared to what my family got back in Kansas. Apparently, there was nearly a foot of snow and drifts up to four feet in places. David and I were planning on going to Kansas on Christmas Day; however, the Interstate we would use was closed. Scary! Since we were leaving for vacation (more on that soon!) from St. Louis on Tuesday, we were scared to go to KS later and risk getting stuck there. So, we stayed home.
We ended up seeing Avatar (ugh, overly political) and renting the first two seasons of Mad Men. AND, we spent a whole day babysitting the little guy, Liam. David and I stayed in our Christmas pj’s until we left for vacation…except when we saw the movie and when I went on runs.

Classy!