As usual Christmas at my parents' house was a constant feast. We ate and drank and ate and drank for a week. Mom always starts prepping for Christmas a few months in advance with plans and menus and games. She must start cooking and freezing food about 3 weeks in advance b/c there's so much and it's all so easy to prepare when we are all together. And on top of the roast beef, shrimp, fish, pork roast, tamales, omlettes, sausages, meatballs, homemade pasta there are tons of pizzelles, cookies and chocolate! And with 25 to 30 relatives around for a week it's no small task to feed them all every day.
I always get put in charge of the cookies. Not only do I love making them but I am the only one that drives (vs. flys) to Mom and Dad's and therefore can take a giant crate full of cookies. I started Thanksgiving weekend baking a few batches a week and freezing them. It's amazing how many cookies 30 people eat in a week - LOTS and LOTS!
One day we gave Mom a break and went over to The Monastery. It's a bar and grill where you order burgers, and you go outside and grill them yourself. We also played sand volleyball, pool, and pingpong while we were there. Great place.
The best was some competition Bro put Mom up to. One day he challenged her to a pasta making competiton. Doesn't he know that he can't compete with Mom's homemade pasta! Anyway, Mom was slaving half the day kneeding the dough and cranking the pasta machine. She did get some help from some of the kids. She must have made 5 pounds of fettuccine! All day we waited for Bro to start making his pasta. It never happened. Was it a set up to get Mom to make homemade pasta?!
