Happy Aloha Friday

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(and Merry Christmas Eve)!

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From Kailani at An Island Life:
In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So on Fridays let’s take it easy on posting, too. Ask a simple question…nothing that requires a lengthy response. It’s a great way to make new blogging friends!

Merry Christmas Eve!  I’m sure you are all scrambling with last minute stuff for tomorrow (at least please tell me I’m not alone!) so I’ll get right to my question for this week:

What’s on the menu for Christmas Dinner?

I used to cook a turkey both for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas, because that’s what my mom always did. Then my hubby pointed out that since both holidays are less than a month apart, maybe I should think about cooking something else for our Holiday Feast at Christmas. Obviously he’s not as big of a fan of turkey leftovers for days like I am.

Both he and Princess Nagger love ham, but I’ve never been very fond of it. Sure, I tend to be a ham, but eat it? Not so much. Especially when we’ve had it at other people’s houses or eating out and it’s either been too salty or too dried out for my liking.

Over the years I’ve experimented with different types of ham and many different recipes. Finally, a couple of years ago I finally found the combination that worked so well, even I love this ham, and Princess Nagger will eat it until the cows come home – or in this case, the piggies.

So this year, once again, it’ll be a yummy ham cooked in my ginormous slow cooker – makes it easier to play with new toys and enjoy the day rather than slaving away in the kitchen.  Though I do love to cook, so spending time in the kitchen for me is actually therapeutic.  Mostly.  Of course I’ll do the ‘usual’ side dishes of sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, apple stuffing and cranberry sauce with some sort of pie for dessert (haven’t decided on apple cranberry or pumpkin yet…might have to make both).

Growing up we always had our Christmas Feast on Christmas Eve – a Swedish Tradition.  Since it varies on whether or not December 24th is a work day (formerly for me, currently for hubby), I’ve changed the tradition and make the feast on Christmas Day instead.

If you celebrate Christmas, what kind of feast do you enjoy?  And if you celebrate other holidays this time of year, what kinds of traditional foods do you get to toss your diet out the window for?

Have a Very Merry Christmas!  Don’t forget to leave cookies and milk for Santa tonight, and don’t forget about leaving out Reindeer Food for the reindeer – they get hungry, too!

In case you want to see the easy Ham recipe, you can click on the image for the PDF printable version, or click here to see the recipe to decide if you want to download it:

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Follow Friday 40 and Over

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There are a lot of fabulous bloggers who are 40, so I’m participating in Follow Friday 40 and Over – please be sure to leave a link to your blog so I can come check out your site and follow you, too!

Fun Follow Friday

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I’m also playing along with Fun Follow Friday hosted by Simply Stacie and My Wee View. The goal of this hop is to get new Google Friend Connect Followers for your blog and be introduced to new blogs to follow. Be sure to leave a link when you follow so I can follow you back! Have a great weekend!


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16 Comments

  1. Merry Christmas!!on Christmas eve we usually have lasagna and then on Christmas day we Usually we have ham, although this year we WERE going to try to have lamb chops, but now because of a scheduling conflict with my sister’s custody we are having chicken and gnocchi soup on Christmas eve and lasagna Christmas day.

  2. My sister is making a ham, I will be bringing cheesy potatoes!
    Thanks for stopping by, my family has some Norweigan traditions at Christmas time. I have heard of the opening presents the night of Christmas eve, not sure if my grandparents did that, I know my dad, didn’t, his dad was a NYC fireman so it was open presents when dad was there which could be morning, night…

  3. My family grew tired of the traditional dinner years ago… On Christmas Eve everyone picks a dish they want and I cook it. This year we’re having Mexican food. We usually go to a restaurant for Christmas dinner.

  4. Hi, I am visiting from Java’s Hop! We are having an International Dinner tonight. I have Germany, the other countries are Spain, Greece, South Africa, Italy and Thailand. I have the Sauerbraten cooked and now need to make the cabbage and an Apple Cake!
    Merry Christmas!!

    Shawn

  5. We’re going to a friend’s house for dinner where they are planning to make a simple roast and some potatoes, veggies, etc. We’re bringing a sweet potato casserole and a rum cake!

  6. Merry Christmas Eve my friend. I only have a few minutes still wrapping. Ham mmmmmmmmmmm what time is dinner save me a chair! Nummers. Merry Christmas from our home to yours. Did you get my card? Hmmm no one seems to be getting my cards 🙁

  7. I think the dinners should be real simple like ordering subway sandwiches or pizza and let everyone enjoy the day instead of worrying about cooking but my idea doesn’t fly so we have a feast.

  8. I agree with lisleman but everyone in our whole family has vetoed me. We have tons of people so we have tons of different foods……both ham and turkey plus all the other stuff!

  9. We have always had a cold buffet on Christmas Eve. Fancy deli meats and cheeses. Lots of different types of crackers. Fancy mustards, pickles, etc. Then on Christmas day we have our big meal. Usually ham.

    Have a merry Christmas!

  10. Merry Christmas! I only have a few minutes, we are going to be unwrapping gifts soon. But I want to stop by and thank you for stopping by my blog!
    Thanksgiving we have turkey. I’m not to fond of ham, my hubby loves ham. So for Christmas we have both turkey and ham along with mash potatoes, sweet potatoe casserole, cranberry sauce, stuffing, noodles, broccoli, baked corn, and for dessert cherry pie, apple pie, cherry cobbler, jello pumpkin pie.
    Christmas Blessing!

  11. Have you ever had Scorpa? It is a swedish cookie like biscotti? I love it and just put up a recipe of it last Monday. So good. My grandpa came over from Sweden so I have lots of Swede in me too!

    Our dinner was ham, cheesy scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole and rolls…was suppose to have a salad but it went bad in the fridge…yuk!

  12. Thank you for the recipe – it sounds yummy!

    I hope you had a Merry Christmas. We eat a variety of things for Christmas. Usually there is ham and turkey and tons of appetizers and goodies to munch on. One of my favorite appetizers are green (spring) onions wrapped in cream cheese, garlic, and beef lunch meat. I also LOVE peanut brittle.

    My mom also made sloppy joes this year. So we had ham, turkey and sloppy joes to choose from! SO MUCH FOOD!

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