Wolfe Christmas 2016

Growing up we had many traditions.  One of my favorites was heading over to my Granddad Wolfe and Nanny's house on Christmas afternoon to have a feast and open up gifts with our cousins.  The part we all remember the most is how looooooooong it took my Granddad to eat his meal.  He ate slow, and enjoyed every bite and sometimes, I think just to teach us patience, would have seconds.  As I have gotten older and have lost family members and Nanny has since moved twice, now in an assisted living home, I am married with kids and my brothers live away, I have also moved away but now back, we are creating new traditions for new generations.  I love the memories that I have,  but I certainly miss the good 'ol days.

Our new traditon is to host Nanny at our house along with my Dad and stepmom Janice.  This year I put on Nanny's lace tablecloth, her plaid table runner, and even braved crawling up to the attic to pull out her China from England she gave us.  Peanut had such a fun time helping me clean, set the table and used her talents with her calligraphy pen to make name cards.  Jellybean helped keep Little Man occupied for all this, which is no easy task.

Sadly the top 2 pictures are with my phone and it takes horrible pictures.  The bottom 2 are with my camera and after dessert- so no one would sit still so they are blurry.  JellyBean also  used her talent in the last picture, can you tell?

I highly recommend No Peek Beef Tips with mashed potatoes, I got rave reviews from everyone and I doubled the recipe to have leftovers. Sadly,  I made sure to clean up but skimmed over the kitchen and did not see them sitting on the stove to be put away, so they had to be thrown out.  

Here is a link to the recipe:  https://cookpad.com/us/recipes/359206-no-peek-beef-tips

{I used water instead of ginger ale}