December, 2010

I am finally getting my Christmas recap post done! It has been quite busy in our household! We hit a few snags (between our two illnesses) but we were so glad to spend the holiday at home! Thankfully the snow held off long enough on Christmas day for my parents to arrive so we didn’t have to spend Christmas alone (which we were afraid of!).

Christmas Eve was spent getting ready for company as well as Santa! Abby and I made gluten-free cookies for Santa (just in case he has Celiac too!) before heading to our Christmas Eve service at church!

After the service, we had our traditional Mexican dinner (this year I made gluten-free Mexican pizza and it was delicious!). Abby opened up her new pair of Christmas PJs before we snuggled up to watch A Christmas Story before bed!

When morning came, Abby pitter-pattered into our room at 8am so we got ready to check out what Santa had left! When we went into the living room, Abby knew just what to do! She ran straight for her pile of presents and dove in! She took her time and wanted to fully check out and play with each one before moving onto the next! Her favorites were her cook set to go with her kitchen, her tool set, and her ball pit (created from a clearance baby pool and a bag of balls from Walmart)!

And best of all, we got a white Christmas! It was the first white Christmas this part of NC has seen in over 60 years! How crazy is that?! It started snowing shortly after lunch and it continued into the next day. We ended up with around 5 inches which was just enough to make things beautiful and play in!

I hope your holiday has been just as amazing as ours!

This year was my first year hosting Christmas at our house and I was so nervous! Especially with making a turkey. I tried cooking a whole chicken several years ago and it did not turn out pretty at all (think National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation) and haven’t tried anything similar since. So seriously, the whole 4 hours the turkey was in the oven, I was stressed. Thankfully it turned out perfect!

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, I spent hours pouring over recipes trying to decide what to fix that would be yummy AND gluten-free while being something my whole family would enjoy at the same time. I had a bad recipe experience around Thanksgiving so I was a little hesitant but still wanted to stay gluten-free. Since cross-contamination can happen so easily, I didn’t want to risk it.

I am happy to announce that it turned out better than I could have imagined! Everyone (except poor Hubs who was having sugar problems – he’s a spoonie too – type 1 diabetic) thought dinner was perfect! Score 1 for me!

My turkey recipe came from Living Without’s Holiday Guide (click here to download the e-book). The sides included Oreda Steam & Mash Potatoes, gluten-free and cheese, green beans, and gluten-free apple pie. I did cheat and have a gluten-filled Mrs. Smith’s pumpkin pie for family but since it required nothing but being taken out of the box, I didn’t worry about it contaminating my kitchen.

image from bettycroker.com

Anyone else have gluten-free holiday recipes that they used this holiday?