Christmas Day 2011: Souffles, Snuggies and A Surprise

Christmas Day arrived at the bleary-eyed strike of O-No You Didn't-Thirty courtesy of two overexcited kids named Sierra and Tanner. Once I'd realized it wasn't a dream and they were indeed standing there informing us it was time to open the first gift, I crawled out of bed and down to Kim and Dave's living room to see the first flurry of activity. Later in the day, we recounted the time of Sierra and Tanner's early-morning arrival to their grandparents as 5:55 am at which point Sierra would quickly correct: "It was NOT 5:55 am....it was 5:57 am." I stood corrected.

The rest of the morning was lost in a flurry of flying wrapping paper, sips of steaming coffee and the blur of two super-elated kids running wild. We began the day with some early appetizers of a cold-cut display and an old favorite: bacon-wrapped breadsticks. We lifted this from Paula Deen's sons on a TV holiday special they filmed: breadsticks wrapped in bacon and baked in the oven for a few minutes and then topped with a generous amount of Parmesan cheese. We couldn't find the breadsticks in our holiday haste and instead used pretzel sticks which worked perfectly and in some folk's opinions, improved the dish.

Soon, it would be time for dinner and we found ourselves raving over deep-fried turkey once again; truly the most flavorful and moist method going, as far as we are concerned. The bird was accompanied by broccoli salad and Madison's salad and we were gratified over every bite. The coup de grace arrived as Dave's first-ever souffles. He'd made a couple of previous attempts that he found unsatisfactory, but these were amazing...vanilla-blueberry souffles that were light and flavorful and really delicious. Kim wondered what was left for Dave to try cooking after the souffles...he has mastered quite a bit at this point. I can't wait to try making them ourselves...I'm thinking chocolate (shocker!). The rest of the afternoon was lost in the cacophony of chaos that was the kids and their Christmas bounty. Fijits and snuggies and beyblades, oh my!

We were off to the Winge family Christmas shindig but first stopped off to bear witness to the 2012 Official Christmas Miracle for this family, which was young Morgan's return from being stationed in Turkey with the military. Her parents Rhonda and Brett and sister Shelby knew she was coming home for Christmas and intended her return as a surprise for everyone else but as it with family, the cat had clawed its way out of the bag before we arrived to see her. No matter...it was thrilling to see Morgan in person on Christmas Day. The family was clearly glowing and it made all of our holidays to have Morgan home.

The day finished off in expected fashion at the taxi garage called The Shop which has been serving as the setting for the Winge family Christmas party the last few years. We noshed on savory country ham and hearty vegetable soup sitting under the chassis of that sparkling, restored '58 Corvette that Ken worked so hard on. We finally headed home to kick back and watch a movie. During the course of the day, Sierra could barely part with the Mizzou snuggie we got her.

We left the following morning after an excellent breakfast of strawberry French toast prepared by our favorite budding chef Sierra. Looks like Santa was good to us once again. Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.

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