Christmas Eve at Grandma’s is one of my favorite days of the year. Every year I head to her house first thing in the morning to help her get ready. My main job is to make the fritti, little fried balls of dough dipped in honey. It is a long process that starts early in the morning with boiling potatoes and ends in the afternoon with dipping the fritti in honey.
This year I made a mess more than I helped. First of all, we couldn’t find the fryer so I tried to make them on the stove. The oil was much too hot and never cooled off enough so they browned too fast and came out doughy instead of crispy on the outside. Then, I started to heat an inch of honey in a pot. Too busy chatting with my aunt to pay attention, the honey boiled over. All we could do was turn off the burner and watch it form a 1/2 inch black cake on the burner. It took an hour to get all the black scraped off her glass top stove. Failed mission. Still edible but not my best work.
While I was in the kitchen managing the disaster recovery effort, Todd was out running secret errands. I wondered what he could be up to at the very last minute. When he got back I found out he had taken my car to get it detailed! It looked so pretty! What a guy!
Usually we have a crowd of 20 or so but this year with just my dad and Gayle, Aunt Jeannie and Sue, my sister’s family, Todd and I, and Grandma, we were only 11. But the rest went as always. Dinner starts with Zoupe a la Zonde, a meatball soup in a clear broth with cheese and croutons. A pasta dish of some kind, spagetti, gnocchi, ravioli, etc. This year Aunt Jeannie made lasagna with home made noodles. Mmm. My sister Kim made the Christmas salad with spinach, avocado, nuts, and cranberries.
Just after dinner, Grandma’s friends and neighbors for more than fifty years, The Palmers, come to the door and sing Christmas carols. Mrs. Palmer and her husband had twelve children who all married and had children of their own. So there is usually quite a crowd. They come in and gather around the living room for coffee and cookies and sing a few carols before heading home. And finally we open just a few presents to get us all in the mood. Sigh… So many memories of Christmas Eve at Grandma’s house.![_DSC4897 _DSC4897](http://blog.changemyselfchangetheworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/DSC4897_thumb.jpg)
Missed you, Mom!