Christmas Day, Southern style

What is Christmas Day without lots of food and gifts and wrapping paper??  It is no different over here.

The Cross Plains crew (Margot, Jeff, CA, Tyller, Vara and Craig) started off their Christmas gift giving on Christmas Eve when they got home after the Chinese Dinner.  The Springfield crew, Ivy, Judy, Jane, Rhyanna and Candice had a fairly quiet start to Christmas Day, girding our loins for the onslaught to come when we went out to Jeff and Margot's house.

And so this is Christmas, and what have we done, another year older, a new one just begun!!

Judy spent the morning preparing the vegetables for the lunch while we watched her.  Rhyanna and Candice watched a movie.

Judy picked up Ivy (Gram) and we headed out to Cross Plains at about 12.30pm. Started off by distributing presents all round, then taking turns in opening them. Some great gifts were exchanged.  Craig got a "Weather Channel" cap to make his addiction complete - a great hit. Jane got a gorgeous mug - Hand painted stars and strips to remind her of the US.  Vara got home made Apple butter.  There were Tennessee Titan caps, Tennessee Christmas Decorations, Springfield Court House hanging decoration, Jack Daniels, gorgeous smelling candles, scented soaps and a squillion other things.  The Tennesseans seemed to like our Australian gifts which included sportingl shirts for the boys - Broncos, Lions, Swans and an Australian Cricket shirt.  CA will now be able to give his friend who shares an ampartment with him in Atlanta heaps.  He is of Indian origin and likes the cricket.  There were Tasmanian wooden picture frames, Australian mineral jewellery, flowering gum coffe mug and other Austrlian themed stuff.

Twelve sat down to our Christmas meal which started off with a tigershrimp cocktail, followed by;  Turkey with dressing (stuffing), honey baked ham, mashed potatoes - creamed with butter, sweet potato casserole - with butter, sugar, pecans and marshmallow topping, home grown sweet, sweet corn kernels - with butter, broccoli with cheese sauce, beets, gravy, cranberry sauce and corn bread rolls and of course butter.   There was also a plate of devilled eggs and a plate of relishes, such as olives, pickles, pickled onions, cheese stuffed celery etc.

After this mammoth meal, Jake went to his house to have Christmas with Jackson and Savannah who had spent most of Christmas Day with their Mom.

Margot put up, on the big TV, the photos we have taken so far.  Some are really great, some are funny and some are, well - memorable!!  She also showed us some from their trip to Italy - stayed in a luxurious villa with 22 others and also of a WW2 Memorial dedication in Springfield.  All very interesting.

We had dessert for dinner - Ivy's mincemeat tart, Pecan Pie and Jane's caramel slice.  All delicious!!

Let me tell you, southern cooking is not lean cuisine.  Most of the southern recipes start off with 2 sticks of butter and a cup of brown sugar.  One stick of butter is 4oz (125g).  Jane was given a southern cakes cookbook - look out for some taste temptations!!, eg Louisiana Syrup Cake, Red Velvet Cake (chocolate) etc.

CA, Tyler, Rhyanna and Candice went off at about 8pm or so to Nashville to see a newly released movie.  Judy drove Ivy and Jane back in to Springfield.  Craig and Vara followed to pick up the girls' PJs etc as they were going to stay out at Cross Plains for the night.

What a wonderful, wonderful day we all had.

Suppose most of you back home will be picking over the leftovers and the boys will be watching the Boxing Day test and have seen off the Sydney to Hobart fleet.

Unfortunately, Judy has to work on Boxing Day but hopefully will be able to come home early.  No real plans for Boxing Day, other than to recover.