The Lee-Young Christmas

It was so fun to finally have the space to host Christmas dinner this year for my family. It was a smaller gathering since it's too far for my brother and sister to come home for the holidays with young kids in tow. We'll have another 'Christmas in June' when traveling is easier then. For now we had a great time with my parents, my Auntie Phylis and Joanne's family. Maddy always loves it when her older cousins Frances and Pippa come. It's so great to see them together and I love how the girls really take good care of Maddy. Maddy sure does look up to them.

To make things easier, everyone brought different parts for dinner. Since we already did a turkey this year. I tried a ham recipe. It was super tasty and really easy to do. The nice thing about ham is that it's already cooked, so cooking time is really short (and the added benefit of not having to worry so much about food poisoning!) After some yummy cheese and crackers, we sat around the tree to open presents. It's always so fun to see the kids open their gifts. Then it was on to the main event. Since our dining table is small, we decided to have a 'kids' table this year. I almost got a little teary eyed seeing Maddy all 'grown up' sitting with her cousins and not in her high chair. For dessert, Auntie Phylis made her famous flan and I'll tell you, Maddy is hooked. She gobbled hers quickly and then went to Papa to get some of his!


The dishes are done, the linens washed, even the ham and split pea soup is in the freezer. It's a lot of work to host dinner, but I loved every minute of it. I'm definitely feeling all grown up myself!

Here are some pictures for now. I will get some more uploaded as soon as we have time to get them off the camera.

We hope all of you are enjoying your holiday dinners with friends and family. We'll have the Blommestein Christmas blog entry in the new year. Merry Christmas everyone and all the best in the new year.

Here are those pictures as promised: