The stockings aren't hung (no chimney) and no children are nestled snug in their beds. . .even the cat is out in the drizzling rain doing his kitty cat thing. . .if he is asleep in the barn he is dreaming of mice stirring in a big pot of kitty chow.

We are still cooking here. . .I got a very late start on the lasagna. . .so it is in the oven at 12:30 in the AM on Christmas morning. . .and I am way past ready for sleep! However late the start was, it was a true joy to have my new Kitchen Aid mixer and attachments! I made about 250 mini meatballs for the meatball lasagna. The mixer mixed all 6 pounds of meat up with the bread crumbs, spices and eggs in just a jiffy! I mixed up the four pounds of ricotta and filling ingredients in a snap and used the attachments to shred cheese, knead the pasta dough and will use it again in the morning to put together the ingredients for the cheesecake.

Our presents were opened as they were received (the joy of being an adult! no one tells you to wait until Christmas) especially when I got to go along with Joe to outfit the kitchen with a new Crockpot, coffee pot with coffee grinder, silicone spatulas and hot pads, as well as a new set of dishes and a French bread pan that won't fit in our tiny oven (sad sad moment there, but we have lots of them over that oven!) After seventeen years together nearly everything we both brought to the relationship was dead or dying, so it was a fantastic, wonderful thing for Joe to devote his teaching $$ to re-outfitting the kitchen and making cooking and eating together a pleasure again!

The present that was going to go on Joe's breakfast plate didn't even get wrapped since he was going to go buy it himself while we were finishing up our shopping Saturday morning . . . for the last four Fridays when he got off work, he had a present in his Christmas stocking . . .(Santa was very confused by the weird weather in Nebraska, you see) . . .but none of the presents were the DVD of the Cream reunion that he had asked me to get him . . .and last Friday there was an Eric Clapton DVD in the stocking leading to his mild disappointment which spurred the desire to purchase the DVD . . .so I had to confess that I had planned it that way. . .so much for me trying to be sneaky! ha ha ha

May everyone in the Dish have as wonderful a Christmas as we are having this year and enjoy each other's company, fantastic food and enough good cheer to last throughout the year!