Holiday Begins

The first of my many Holiday Parties started tonight. Since Carter and Claire are here for their first holiday together I had my Cousins, Aunt and my mother over for a family dinner to meet Claire.

As we are also hosting Thanksgiving dinner I wanted to make an easy dinner that was far from Thanksgiving type food. Sarah had volunteered to bring a salad, which meant her husband Mark would do it. Leigh brought homemade desserts (more on those later), and drinks.

So I only had to make a dinner. I had something in mind, but when I went to Costco I wheeled by these very good looking frozen stir fry vegetables. I changed my menu on the spot and opted to make chicken stir fry for the meat eaters and veggie stir fry for the vegetarian. This was without a doubt the easiest meal I have ever made. I baked rice in the oven as I stir fried the food.

Leigh made the most beautiful homemade vanilla cupcakes that were more delicious than they were beautiful and she made a flourless chocolate torte with homemade raspberry sauce. At that point no one cared what I made for dinner because dessert was so spectacular.

Claire got the full experience of the outlaws when Russ, Peter and Mark took her aside to tell her what it was like to be married to a Carter. Claire was mostly interested in learning what Mark’s life as a judge was like.

The kids were all doing great, although we missed seeing Sam. My Aunt Janie who lives at Carol Woods was in great spirits as was my Mother who was just happy to come for dinner and see Carter and Claire.

It was an excellent start to the holiday party season. Especially since Mark and Peter cleared the plates and loaded the dishwasher, Russ took my mother home and Carter and Claire finished cleaning the kitchen.

I got off easy by making a dinner for 13 that took me all of 30 minutes to make. Tomorrow the real cooking starts.