Christmas Day 2011

I never heard the reindeer!  Again.

We woke up early on Christmas morning this year, and we were pleasantly surprised that Santa had, yet again, managed to find time to drop by the Elkins' household.  He even figured out that Frank and Mary Jane would be dropping by after church for breakfast and left packages for them as well.

So we got busy and prepared our special big breakfast of eggs, bacon, home fries, blueberry/banana pancakes, freshly squeezed orange juice and famous Lavazza cappuccinos, timed just right for Frank and Mary Jane's arrival around 10 am.  While we were preparing this, we Skyped with the Snikles in AB to share in their morning opening of presents. It was almost like being there. Gotta love Skype.

Night Watchman Smoking

After breakfast we opened all the gifts under the tree and had a wonderful time.  Peter surprised me with a new Christmas decoration that he had been able to get his hands on while in Vancouver visiting with his long-time friend Andy.  It is a genuine Steinbach Night Watchman Smoker and here is a picture. I hope you can see the smoke coming out of his mouth.  This is just one of the many hand-crafted collectibles made by the Steinbach family in northern Germany.

Later in the day, Frank and Mary Jane came back to our place to share in Christmas dinner.  Instead of roasting a complete turkey this year, we decided to have a turkey roll. We made the roll with a boneless breast, a boneless leg and pork sausage sandwiched in the middle of the two.  I have to say it is much easier to prepare, carve, serve and clean up than a fully formed turkey.  Also, we were able to only cook a quantity that suited the four of us better.  I would happily do that again sometime.  Our Christmas dinner ended with Frank sharing the Christmas pudding (and hard sauce) that Santa had brought to him this Christmas.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and holiday time this year.

Christmas dinner 2011