While most people tend to celebrate the holidays on either
Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, for the past 10 years I've been celebrating
Boxing Day on December 26th.
There are many reasons for doing so, the biggest
one, I suppose, is that it's very convenient to get everyone together on the
day after Christmas, rather than try to work around so many families and
schedules in order to have a gathering on the 24th or 25th. The Boxing Day
celebration has become a tradition in my house, everyone is happy to be beyond the stress
of the holidays, they've gotten their gifts, they've relaxed, and now they can
get together for conviviality and a great meal.
I've been mixing things up a lot this year, doing things differently, in order
to make new traditions in what will be Chapter 3 of my life. In the past
I've always had a Boxing Day dinner. This year I decided to have a Boxing Day
brunch. Prior to her passing, my mother had always been the queen of the
Christmas brunch. She served brunch on Christmas morning every year of my life.
When she passed away, it left a tremendous void. I wasn't sure that I'd be able
to fill her shoes, but have been told by all of the attendees, that I did it in
spades. The tree candle holders here are very special. My dad made them, and my mother painted them. She used them for years, and now I am honored to have them as my own.
I tried to pay homage to both my mother and husband, by serving some of their
dishes. I honored Jim, who hailed from New Jersey, with a New Jersey Coffee Cake; I served my mother's Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake as well. The
other recipes were all new. A lot of people, I'm told, would in no way feel
comfortable serving a meal of all new recipes to a crowd, but I'm fearless, so
I dove right in.
I knew it was a success when the children in the group went back
for seconds on green beans. Have you ever heard of children getting seconds on
the vegetable? Huge success! I also developed a new potato casserole
that got thumbs up all around, based on the ubiquitous party potatoes, but so
much better.
This post is to give you a look at the two
tables that I set for the brunch; in the upcoming week, I'll be providing you
with the recipes.
Stay tuned, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or sign up to get email notifications of my blog. You are not going to want to miss any of these
delicious recipes.
Happy New Year!
(As a side note, I'd like to mention that the little rocking chair by the tree was my dad's when he was a little boy. He used it, I used it, and now my granddaughter gets to use it. The Santa pillow is one that I stitched, and my mother sewed together. Lots of family memories here.)
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