Twas the Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas
and outside my door
was the biggest blizzard,
like ne'er seen before.

The dinner was cooked,
most low carb to boot,
but the roads were unpassable
regardless of route.

One guest dared to venture,
but got stranded afar,
Triple A to the rescue
had to dig out his car.

So the family alone
shared the great Christmas feast.
Thanks to the blizzard,
there was a seat for our beast.

Yes, that about sums up our Christmas Eve. Odd one for us. I am so glad we went to a church service on Wednesday evening. Knowing the storm was approaching, I think everyone had the same idea. It was packed. Beautiful service though, and a great reminder that Christmas is not about the presents and the food. The gift of Jesus is what we should be thinking of.

Not knowing what the weather was going to really do, I continued all my plans for our Christmas Eve candlelight dinner. All day, instead of getting snow, we kept getting plummeted strong winds and tiny ice pellets. Little drummer boys busy on the windows all day long. About 4 p.m. it turned to a beautiful snow. Beautiful except that I was worried about my loved ones driving in blizzard level winds. My boys were told to leave work early, so my mama's heart didn't have to fret about their safety. My hubby made it home despite our bald front tires. But our guests were not so fortunate. My mom, who lives in a hilly area, didn't try. Our family friend, who happens to be a former demolition derby racer, got run off the road by a stupid driver. We don't get too much snow here, and we all tend to be either too confident or too scared. Dangerous combination. Poor John, he had to wait for a tow truck.

So we set the table without the leaves, and made a more intimate dinner. I had made a turkey breast, squash casserole, spinach strawberry salad, steamed veggies in ginger butter, and cranberry sauce. We toasted with diet gingerale, complete with a frozen strawberry. Beautiful, and a great sub for wine or champagne. Those were the low carb dinner items. I also added some rolls and gravy. For dessert, we had lots of choices. I made chocolate pots de creme in dessert shots, and chocolate dipped strawberries. For the carby guests, I made an ice cream pie and a brownie truffle. The truffle was low sugar...I knew my hubby would insist on having some of that too. I made it with sugarfree pudding and a sugarfree cream cheese sauce. The brownies, however were from a box, so I can't really claim that it is low carb by any means, just better than it could have been. I really thought the chocolate pots de creme were wonderful, and all I needed. Several recipes are on Linda's site. I used this one, and used a blend of sweeteners to avoid the bitterness problems. If you like dark chocolate this is good. It tastes like truffles in a glass. Sorry no photo, I got busy.

The dinner was more intimate, but still nice. My family appreciated my efforts. Since we had an empty seat, a funny thing happened. Our pitty, Tinker, decided that he really needed to partake of the festivities. At first, he just begged from the floor. See the paw on Dad's chair?


Couldn't put him out in a blizzard, now could I? He went on to stare at the food from the empty area. Before we knew it, he was climbing into the seat. He is well behaved, so we just let him stay. So cute. He probably did get a few bites here and there, but so did the girl dogs on the floor. He didn't get enough to suit him, however. By the end of the meal, he just laid his big old head on the plate and pouted. That will be a funny memory for us all.




Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!