Merry Christmas!

This evening, we enjoyed our traditional beef tenderloin Christmas Eve dinner.  In years past, my parents would get out the fondue pots and skewer the meat and fry it in oil, and we would then dunk the meat into either chili sauce or a mustard horseradish sauce.  Meanwhile another pot contained unhealthy quantities of cheese and wine which we dipped bread into and virtually inhaled.  We do not have fondue pots anymore...we had some, but we pitched them in the last move from lack of use...so we opted instead to make sesame beef. Given that it didn't have sesame seeds in it, so I suppose it was Asian-style beef tenderloin.  It had soy sauce, ginger powder, mustard powder, garlic, and honey.  And the beef, of course.  Cooked for about an hour at 325, then I realized I should have had the oven at 350 for 45 minutes instead.  It was delicious (although I would have liked it cooked just a little more...I'll fry up a couple pieces for lunch tomorrow)!  As you can see, we also had salad, red potatoes, and just out of camera shot, sourdough bread.

Tomorrow night we'll do the full-on turkey thing, although probably not with as many side dishes as the usual Thanksgiving fare, but at least with green beans, cranberries, and rolls...and probably more potatoes.

In the past few days I have been trying to organize corners of the house that have needed attention for some time, and trying to get the kids involved, hoping to instill in them the urge to stop messing the house up in the first place.  The younger two, in particular, have a habit of picking something up--be it a toy or a tool or something they find remotely interesting--and carry it around for a few minutes and drop it unceremoniously somewhere else.  A belt will be dropped at the top of the stairs; a candy wrapper on the TV cabinet; a die or a game piece left on the countertop....there's no rhyme or reason for the placement of these things.  Tomorrow we'll be going through some more areas that have been long ignored--those flat surfaces that tend to collect things, like papers or scraps of fabric.  We've pitched so many things in recent days.  I'm already anxiously awaiting Saturday for the garbage & recycling pick up as they are both already overflowing.

Saturday we'll have rellies coming to visit, including my bro & his wife and offspring!  I finished putting the binding on Mal's quilt this morning--I just need to wrap it up for him.