Christmas is ALMOST here and we have some light snow to prove it!!

The snow is coming down at a slow but steady pace. Very peaceful and pretty looking. I can enjoy it today knowing it will be over soon with it melting away:) just the way it always should!!! Not a fan of large amounts of snow at all--the older I get the more and more I dream of decorating those palm trees down South!!!

Today I plan on getting my baking done (perfect day for that). All my gifts are wrapped....so it's just prep work for the Christmas Eve company today!

Being Italian we ALWAYS have fish on Christmas Eve and never miss the crabs with the red gravy (aka-sauce) however, this is the one year we skipping that long, long tradition! Hope we don't regret this!! The ONLY fish we'll be having is my cocktail... I take jumbo shrimp, boil them in FISH stock, then I season them with spice that is amazing on shrimp, ice and serve w/a good cocktail sauce. YUM! I will make a spiral ham, some Madison Potato Salad, stuffed mushrooms, have cupcakes, white chocolate peppermint bark, rolls, chocolate covered pretzels (gourmet size/style--bought of course;), cheese, pepperoni and salami platter, fruit with dark chocolate fondue, Low fat Mock a Mole (telling you NOBODY knew there were peas in this!!!!) mock-a-mole RECIPE here, assorted olives and crackers, cosmos (with a spin....white cranberry juice with strawberry flavor), punch bowl of sangria with frozen fruit to keep it chilled and sweet, then just odds and ends of foods....all light flare, no heavy, sit down meal for us this year!! The fun is in picking at all the food and being with the family, laughing and doing our 2nd annual Yankee Swap Exchange. We had a BLAST last year and decided this should be new tradition, $25 and have to spend the entire amount. Neat to see what people come up beside the gift cards!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS & BLESSED BE