My first Christmas dinner party

Last night I hosted my first ever family Christmas dinner. My mother recently got me a book called "The One Armed Cook" and its great! It describes, in detail, a timeline for creating a delicious Holiday feast. Most of the menu is cooked and frozen ahead of time, defrosted the day before, and reheated in the oven just in time for guests. Since the author's menu was for 12, and we had 6, I only made a few of the things on her menu. I chose to do an Asian theme: Orange-Glazed Carrots, Curry Chicken w/ Coconut, Asian Noodle Rice, and a soup appetizer of Curried Squash Soup. The food was great and I thought it livened things up a bit to serve a non-traditional menu.

While this wasn't my first time having people over for fun and serving dinner, it was my first experience with "entertaining" in the formal sense. Not that it was all that formal, but I did break out the nice china, and set the table in a traditional style - complete with a centerpiece! I also received some beautiful warming/baking dishes from my brother for Christmas that match my china so I used those to display the food.

The evening went very well and I learned something important about myself. I never thought I would be good at party hosting, or even cooking for that matter! But since becoming a homemaker, I've been trying different things around the house and learning what tastes good in which dishes and I think I've actually gotten somewhat decent at it! Hurray for me!