Merry Chrismas and Happy (belated) Hanukkah to all of you! I wish you all the happiest of holidays and hope everyone has good times with family, great food, and safe travels.
Christmas is always bittersweet for my family, as most of you know about the loss of our 18 year old son almost 12 years ago, and this year with my dad passing away just over 2 weeks ago. I say this to remind everyone to cherish the ones you love as you gather, and if there is someone you have had a rift with and are not talking to, please take the high road and reach out. You never know when it's going to be too late.
Now that the sappy shit is out of the way, what are you cooking or where are you going? What's your quirky family traditions?
We are making prime rib roast with au jus and horseradish sauce, twice baked potatoes, Asparagus, green beans, and apple fritters.
Once again, wishing all in this crazy community all the best during the holiday season!
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A picture is worth 1,000 words, so ...
Merry Christmas all.
Nothing much going on. Work has been horrifically busy. Just finished up and taking the rest of the day and Christmas off. Mass this evening so we can sleep in late. Next week a short 3 day/2 night trip to Longwood Gardens for the Christmas lights and winter gardens followed by Turkey Hill Experience for ice cream making. I'll probably be back at work by the 31st.
Edit: Oh, and making the Indian-spiced meatballs with naan and basmati rice that my daughter likes so much and that I always make for her birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Though making them tonight for Christmas Eve dinner.
We are finally straying home (after traveling every Christmas since our 6-year-old has been with us). Neither one of us wanted to cook anything extravagant again this year, so we are doing the 'Christmas Story' Chinese take-out dinner, complete with a full Peking duck (may or may not have a head - I'll update on that later) , soup dumplings (dumplings with soup IN them - game changer), and some other traditional Chinese sides. Sadly no Chinese A cappella group singing for us since we're taking it home to enjoy.
My wife did a 'Christmas Around the World' dinner with the Girl Scout troop. Included Kentucky Fried Chicken as the tradition from Japan. We both thought of that for the menu independently.
So this is our "stay at home" Xmas year so it was a quick 1 day trip to my parent with a 1 year old who guess who gets car sick. But now back at home for tomorrow morning before we go to the in-laws for dinner (30m drive is worth it to not cook)
Then we have a few days of rest before a plane flight with a 1 year old to see my daughters' grand mother.
So staying at home is a mess for us.
"Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra, ra-ra-ra-ra". Merry Christmas to all of TKP! May Santa bring us all:
5 Four star linemen
4 Top D line transfers
3 Sure handed WRs
2 Lock down corners
And. . .
1 CFP appearance
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays to you all. No big plans or anything, but excited to see our baby play with wrapping paper instead of toys. Turns 10 months old tomorrow, so we knew we didn't have to do anything extravagant this year.
"Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal!"
Seriously, happy holidays to all of you and your loved ones.
I hope everyone has a wonderful time with Family and Friends while we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
Here's to all of us who have dysfunctional families, having the most functional time possible.
Merry Christmas 🎄🎁
Really, really feeling this one.
Merry Christmas, TKP. And happy New Year
Headed to see mine Friday!
On a happier note, I get to see two of my best friends that live on the west coast this weekend since we are all home for Xmas for the first time in 15+ years
Merry Christmas and to all a good night!
Champagne (cheap) and Krusteze orange cranberry muffins and bacon for breakfast. Filet mignon, dry brining as I type, with red wine mushroom cream sauce, simple salad and baked potato for our Christmas meal. EZ PZ, but there's just the two of us for a big change. No company, no traveling, just Chex Mix, egg nog and the filet dinner.
Best to all!
Oh my gosh. So my wife brings us the Christmas card for our daughter for me to sign. She says she found a new one for her. Well, it turns out that the card she got for us to give our daughter is the same one I got for my wife! Will be funny when they open them.
EDIT: I am not making this up. My daughter got the same card for me. So to recap:
(1) My wife got a card from us for our daughter.
(2) I got the same card for my wife.
(3) My daughter got the same card for me.
I guess we all love Snoopy Christmas cards.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree I suppose
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful time with friends and/or family.
God rest ye merry, gentlemen (and ladies)!
Monkey bread to start the day tomorrow.
For dinner, we went to the butcher to get a standing rib roast we will accompany with broccoli casserole (with crispy onions like green bean casserole), mashed potatoes, pineapple-y stuff (a bread pudding) sister Shubert's rolls, and some red wine.
Finishing with an orange-creamcheese custard pie topped with cranberry sauce (pictured)
My wife approves and wants the recipie for the pie. She already has a go to pineapple bread recipie that is the bomb.
Edit: Notes: this came out a little too tart for my taste. In future I am going to run the cranberry sauce through a mesh strainer to remove the skins and maybe add a little more brown sugar. I also might increase the cream cheese because the underneath layer was a little thin.
Cranberry-Orange Pie
This comes from the Book on Pie, seriously the best cookbook I own
Ingredients
Cranberry Filling
Orange Cream Cheese Filling
Instructions
To make the cranberry filling:- In a medium pot, mix the cranberries (and any juices from thawing), orange juice, granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt to combine.
- Cook over medium heat until the cranberries begin to soften or break down, 12 to 15 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture has thickened, 6 to 8 minutes; some of the berries will break down and become jammy, some will be whole or in chunky pieces.
- Stir in the vanilla.
- Cool completely.
- In a medium bowl, using a silicone spatula, stir the cream cheese until smooth.
- Add the orange zest and mix well, then add the powdered sugar and mix until fully incorporated.
- Add the egg, extract, and salt. Mix to combine.
- Place the cooled pie crust on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Pour in the cream cheese filling and spread into an even layer. Freeze the pie for 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F with a rack in the lower third.
- Spoon the cooled cranberry filling on top of the chilled cream cheese filling and spread into an even layer. Transfer the pie to the oven and bake until the crust is deeply golden brown (the filling will have sort of a matte appearance), 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely before slicing and serving.
- Share and enjoy!
To prepare the cream cheese filling:
Thanks!
Christmas eve gift from my wife!
It's beautiful
Where do we buy that!
https://share.google/LgjuS2NS7F45YFobZ
Customizable for any teams you wish.
Note: the ornament does not look as sharp as the first photo on the website. It's really a flat printed piece of acrylic.
The one in my hand is the medium size.
Made Miami the helmet under foot and Pitt the toilet paper because Eat S Pitt
just finished off a shrimp/chicken/sausage gumbo with our daughter
she's baking homemade cinnamon rolls for brunch tomorrow and a lasagna with homemade pasta for tomorrow afternoon.
happy and safe holidays to all!
Merry Christmas all!
I only put up about half of our ornaments this year with 2 curious little ones running around, but Frank is festive as ever.
Merry Christmas everyone.
It is going to be a low-key Christmas for us. We've been empty nesters for a while, but our son has often been over for early morning Christmas activities. This year he had other plans.
My Mom passed away on the 10th of December, 11 days shy of her 102nd birthday. My youngest sister and I had gone down to visit with her in Charleston, SC, and we had left to drive home. In the morning before we left, the three of us had gone Christmas shopping and then we had dropped our Mom off at a luncheon with some friends of hers from church. We had gotten into North Carolina, when we had gotten a call from the sister that lives in Charleston that we needed to get back. I was able to be with her as she very peacefully passed.
We've had the memorial service for my Mom and I have been working on my checklist as the executive of her estate.
While all of that was going on, my wife's mother was in a rehab unit recovering from a broken hip and needing placement in a Medicaid facility due to her dementia. My wife had to deal with all of that pretty much on her own but I got back in enough time to help her move her mom.
Looking forward to a remembering the reason we celebrate Christmas. I wish the blessing of this season and peace to all my HOKIE family.
A challenging time, we have been going through something similar. Glad that you were able to be there with your mom, and may you find plenty of good times to come with your mom-in-law.
Merry Christmas to all Hokie Fans!
We're spending this holiday with our daughter's husband's Clemson family in Charleston. Busy, fun week! Weather has been fabulous!
Drinks at the Blind Tiger Christmas bar was fun last nite!
Fun bar...spent many a night there in my past....
Merry Christmas to all.
Merry CHRISTmas to all of you!
Merry Christmas TKP!!!
Happy Christmas you filthy animals. I love this place so much.
Merry Christmas, all!
Merry Christmas FAM
Just me the wife and the 2 year old today, we've opened presents (got a hockey hoodie jersey for the Rail Yard Dawgs😤) and had our simple breakfast: maple cured bacon, biscuits, cheesy scrambled eggs and fruit. Now we're going to watch Christmas movies all day, play with the toys, take a nap and put together a swing. Dinner tonight is ribeye steak, simple sear with salt and pepper in the cast iron, rest with a garlic butter compound on top, with mashed potatoes, mac n cheese and cookies and hot chocolate for dessert.
May you all be blessed this holiday season and every day in the coming year!
FAM! Merry Christmas! Also, we have some good content dropping next week.
I know it's already Boxing Day, but this is where we spent Christmas.
Merry Christmas from my family to all of my TKP family. 😉
Wife and daughter heading down new years day for a week of universal/ Disney.
Last day of work was Tuesday the 22nd; off til Mon Jan 5. Merriest of Christmas and a happy new year in 2026!
Happy Hokidays came a couple days after Christmas.