Your input on difficult child daughter coming home

[Nomad]

Cedar:Sadly, my Italian grandmother died young (49) and my mother died young, also at 49. So, between that and my father being Greek and demanding a lot of Greek food, we didn't have strong Italian customs. BUT, I did love my mom's Italian cooking and she always made something Italian and well liked for xmas...usually lasagna. I made chicken cacciatore and stuffed shells. My family is small, so most of the guests were from my DILs family and they are Midwesterners and eat very traditionally and what I made was pretty "wild" in their world. But they seem to like it and it brings a gentle peace to my heart to remember my mom in this little way....to cook Italian food for Christmas. ETA...I vaguely recall my mom mentioning that her father made fish for Xmas!

 

[Scent of Cedar *]

But they seem to like it and it brings a gentle peace to my heart to remember my mom in this little way...

This is a beautiful tribute to your mother, Nomad.

Cedar

 

[DammitJanet]

I love lasagna! Also love stuffed shells. I might decide to change up the Xmas dinner to Italian from now on. I swear I could feed us for a week on what we spend on the Thanksgiving and Xmas meals!

This year we were scrambling at the last minute for food for dinner. We didnt get back into my town from the visit to Jamie's until about 6 or so. Everyone was beginning to close and food was pretty much running out. My walmart had no regular sweet potatoes so we had to go with this bag of tiny ones. It was okay because we only had 4 of us here however for the rest of the week its just me, Billy and Monkey here and I really doubt we will eat up all the ham. I am going to cut it up and freeze it.

My house is a disaster because Cory and Mandy let Mouse run wild. Today I really need to get started in the kitchen and family room. When Tony gets home on Monday he can take down the tree.

One good thing is that today is pretty out so I can take Monkey's scooter outside and plug it in out there when it runs down on power. She loves the thing and I am glad she is able to ride it well. Makes me wish I could have gotten the gas powered one. It would run longer. Oh well, next year we know what to get her! We never got the boys quads but I think we will for Monkey because she is much more careful than they ever were.