Merry Christmas, Everybody!!! (yawn)

We've been enjoying a rather quiet Christmas, just the four of us...Spencer the Cat, TMO, my husband D, and I. We're still kind of working on establishing our own little traditions.

Yesterday, I made two of the traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve dishes...kutya, which is boiled wheat mixed with poppy seeds, and sauerkraut and dried peas. The second dish is primarily for me...one of those 'acquired tastes'. Last weekend, D made the pierogi.
Traditionally, these should be eaten on 6 January, as we did when we were younger, and my paternal grandmother would make the dinner. It consists of twelve meatless dishes...kutya, borscht, several kinds of pierogi, mushroom sauce, baked fish, cabbage rolls, sauerkraut and peas, bread, stewed dried fruit, and prune pierogi. If you want to read more, click here.

When my Grandma got older (she's 101 now), my Mom took over. And, instead of doing the meal on Ukrainian Christmas eve, we did it on 24 December.

Now, we're going to be having our big dinner today...with the kutya, sauerkraut and peas, cabbage rolls, and pierogi. We're kind of changing the day, but we're introducing a bit of both of our families' culture to our daughter.

Last night, we opened our presents. Then, it was a struggle to get TMO to bed. We had to put our cookies for Santa, and then she ran to the pantry and got a little box of raisins, just in case he needed something more. We saw Santa circle the Space Needle on the news, and finally, finally at 11:00, she drifted off to sleep.

A good time had by all...