I love Christmas. I always have! this year is extra special as We are hosting our first ever family Christmas event. it is going to be a dinner and I have gone a little crazy planning. Even though I am not a PM anymore I still get a crazy thrill out of planning events. the menu is all worked out and now I just need to work out my schedule for preparation (so that it is not all done at the last minute) some dishes can be made up to a week in advance so I will be distributing everyrhing reasonably evenly. I also need to put in orders from the butcher and Poulterer for the meats. this is so I can get what I want but not have to pick it up until the last minute. They can store it. the parfaits, cheesecake and pavlova are going to take up enough.

are you drooling yet? here is the menu.

Muscat Glazed Ham
Bacon, Spinach and Brie turkey buff with a cranberry and orange glaze.
Peach relish
Asparagus with Tomato relish
Pasta Salad
Potato Salad with Honey Vinagrette
Leafy green salad with walnut dressing

Ok, that is just Dinner! Check out dessert…

Maple Syrup and Pecan Cheesecake
Tropical Fruit Pavlova Tower
White Chocolate and pistachio Parfait with Berry Coulis
Mini truffle puddings and traditional cookies.

I thiink that will be enough for 11/12 people… My family has a long history of overcatering.

mmmm

Some of these things are dependant on my testing them out early but I have fall back postiions. The pavlova tower is particularly complicated as it is shaped like a tree and involves complicated things with merangues. I will be setting up decorations and everything I want it to be beautiful and traditional and very classy. I cant wait! of course I still have the usual catering with mom.

My grand plan of shopping for everyone online has taken a bit of a dive. *sigh* it just isn’t as fun as holding the perfect gift and having the bags of conquests. packages at the door are good but it is harder to choose online. it was a good plan though.

my week off from painting and drawing has not been a good idea either. I am glad I have done some marketing and some site management and I am glad to be getting Christmas in order but I really miss painting. I iwll hop back on it next week as I have my next folio due on the 9th of January and it will be hard to find time between cooking, shopping and decorating.