Hello, friends!

Just wanted to check in after taking a few days off from blogging to celebrate Christmas, spend some time with the fam and catch up on rest after being sick last week.

K and I both had to work on Christmas Eve and decided to celebrate our Christmas together that evening before my family arrived the following day. We ate Chinese food for dinner and exchanged gifts with each other.  

I got a portable bluetooth speaker, which is something I’ve wanted for a reallllly long time. Now I can jam to my tunes wherever I am! It has already made its way to every room in the apartment.

I hosted Christmas this year and it was the first time I’ve ever hosted a family holiday meal or cooked for a large group of people in my tiny apartment kitchen. I was so grateful everyone in my family was willing to come to us because I was on call so I couldn’t travel. 

Everything turned out really well and we had a great day!

I really, really, reallllly love food and I love it when my family gets to enjoy a beautiful meal together, so I wanted to make an especially special meal for everyone. I went back and forth over the menu and I had some special requests from the fam:

• no turkey because everyone was tired of it from Thanksgiving
• use only potatoes in the mashed potatoes (I’ve been known to sneak some cauliflower in there…. lower in carbohydrates, people!!)
• don’t try to make everything healthy.  Now why would I do that?

Here’s what I finally settled on: prime rib roast, mashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts, rolls and fresh fruit. My mom said she would bring wine and dessert.

Sooooooo I had never made a prime rib roast and I’m not sure what possessed me to make one for the first time on Christmas with my whole family there. The idea of it was lovely, but the reality of it was kind of terrifying  

I ordered the roast from my favorite butcher in Mooresville and decided to use this Bobbie Flay recipe. I had a mini panic attack at midnight the night before because I realized the recipe called for bone-in prime rib and I had purchased boneless. I had no idea how this would affect things but after spending 45 minutes unsuccessfully looking for a boneless recipe, I hoped it wouldn’t matter and prayed for the best.

I got up early on Christmas morning and got everything going in the kitchen. Prepping the roast was the most tedious task because the recipe called for cutting slits in the meat and stuffing them with 8 cloves with of sliced garlic.

Not sure if you knew this but 8 cloves of garlic sliced = approximately 1,000 pieces of garlic.

Everyone started to arrive at our place around 12:30. We munched on raspberry almond brie with crackers and opened gifts.

We ate later in the afternoon and I am happy to report that the roast was amazing! I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out great. It was definitely the highlight of the meal.

As we have all gotten older, I find myself caring less and less about gifts and more just wanting to be able to enjoy time together. I loved hosting Christmas this year… it was definitely very memorable My only regret is that we forgot to take a group picture!

This weekend was spent catching up on sleep and recouping. Turns out cooking a meal for 8 people is a lot of work Now it’s time to get ready to ring in the New Year!

If you celebrated, how was your Christmas? Did you do anything fun or go anywhere cool?