Xmas at my House

Dear Turkey,

I'm back! Did you miss me? I thought about just putting all of this in one big mega-post, but then I thought, hey, I'm on vacation, and my baby is sleeping and my husband is finishing his book by Carl Sagan, and it's going to snow 16 inches tonight so I'll probably have lots of time to catch up on chores later, so why not just live a little and write two posts in a row?

So, Xmas. I am calling it Xmas because it's kind of like Christmas, except with  fake Jews and no Jesus. I would like to explain our new gift-giving regimen here, because I am proud of it, even though it has nothing to do with anything and you already know all about it:

A few years ago, I got really sick of Xmas being all about stuff and presents and consumerism and I wanted the day to be about just being together and hanging out. So I became the Official Xmas Scrooge/Dictator and made a decree that everyone is going to give everyone else one (1) gift costing no more than twenty (20) dollars ($). Then we are going to match our gift spending with a charitable donation (we take turns picking the charity; this year my dad picked Southern Poverty Law Center). We've also done this and this and a few others. This way, we help people, we don't spend all day opening presents (we also use lots of re-usable bags and stuff for wrapping), and I don't have to have an OCD attack when I get home with tons of stuff to put away.
Exceptions for my mom to get all her gift-giving out of her system: stockings and Hanukkah. Phew. I'm not complaining.

Here is another important part of the holidays at my house:

running to work up an appetite

even when it looks like this outside

For Christmas we had delicious bagels with toppings for brunch. For dinner we had stuffed mushrooms:

before baking

after baking

on beautiful glass plates

Then we had an old standby of my mom's, Moroccan Shrimp (man, I love it when I can find the recipe online and I don't have to type it all up; Real Simple has a lot of good recipes, I am not ashamed to say):

served on holiday plates

And, this is the best part, for dessert my mom made an ice cream cake with mint chip ice cream, oreo cookie crust, hot fudge, and maraschino cherries. Oh, you don't want any? I'll have yours.

I moss you,
Tofu