Bacon Extravaganza (i.e. Christmas)

We really had a great day, with lots of fun presents and good food. My only regret is that I really didn’t get the chance to talk to as many friends and family as I would have liked! A few quick hellos, but not enough phone calls or visitin’, or even texts!

The holiday kicked off at David and Lauren’s, with a delicious turkey and all the trimmings.

Off to candlelight service at our church. Maybe I should have turned down that last glass of wine with desert. Mike thought I was going to light the pew on fire by falling asleep while holding my candle.

An early morning Thursday with a quick jog to start the day. Good thing I got that exercise in, because the brunch was not exactly figure-friendly. Let's start with 3 pounds of bacon (yes, I did just say 3 pounds of bacon, for a brunch with 6 people), scrambled eggs, potato pancakes made with some of the left-over trimmings from the night before, bacon and cheese scones courtesy of Lauren, ham (again courtesy of Lauren), and some fruit thrown in for good measure. Washed down with mimosas and SoCo and cranberry juice.

Here's me cooking, possibly explaining that I realize 3 pounds of bacon is a lot, but if we have the ham left over from Tuesday, what's wrong with more pork?

Here's the boys, anxiously awaiting said pork:

A quick clean up before we could FINALLY open some presents! It was, like, NOON before we opened presents! On CHRISTMAS!!!

Notice how the pile grew?

The dogs were hysterical during the present opening. They didn't know which way was up, they were so excited. Sadie loves to tear apart paper, so she kept shredding everything to pieces.

This is Joe trying to get the dogs to open their own presents. Sadie got the trick quick, but poor Goldie was just confused.

I made out like a bandit, as always! Jogging gear, jewelry, candles, jewelry, sweaters, and, if you can believe it... bacon.

David and Lauren gave Mike and I a subscription to a "Bacon of the Month" club.

Seriously. Haha!

After presents, some more snacks (including pastry-wrapped Brie that I made, which was, OMG, so good), a round of Taboo, and then time to prep dinner.

I made Barb's traditional Christmas meal, fillet and lobster tails. Here's Joe pulling the tails out of the shell:

I also put to use some of the reserved bacon from breakfast (I told you it was a bacon extravaganza), topping the twice-baked potatoes and the steakhouse salad (ice burg lettuce wedges with bacon, tomatoes, shredded cheddar and ranch dressing.)

Also used the bacon grease (do you know how much grease 3 pounds of bacon produces?) to saute the asparagus in (teeheehee). No photos of those two items, or of the set table - I must have been getting tired, or drunk, or both.

Dinner was great, paired with a Newton Puzzle and Franciscan Magnificant. Cookies and port for desert.

All in all, a great day. More cooking today, but you'll have to wait for another post for that.