DAY 358 -- Our traditional Christmas foods.

It's Christmas Eve.  All the stockings are hung by the chimney (with care, of course!).  The first Christmas time after I stopped eating sweets, it was difficult to know what to put in my stocking.  I put my family's favorite candy and chocolates in theirs, but for my stocking I resorted to my favorite nuts (almonds) and some fruit leather made of 100% fruit, and told "Santa" to fill it with lots of little gifts since I had been such a good girl!  :)

Thankfully, Christmas meals for our family traditions are somewhat healthy.

On Christmas Eve we have what we call our Nazareth Supper.  We eat a simple meal and reflect on how Mary and Joseph might have lived before leaving Nazareth to travel to Bethlehem.  We eat by candlelight and use wooden bowls.  (This year, at World Market, I found the cutest little wooden bowls for the grandkids!!) The meal consists of smoked salmon, dried beef, cheese, a loaf of bread (that we tear with our hands), fruit, olives, and sometimes nuts. We drink 100% grape juice (I need mine watered down).  After our Nazareth supper, our family used to act out the nativity, and I look forward to grandkids reaching an age to start the tradition again.

My husband usually prepares Christmas breakfast and the menu changes according to what we feel like having.  This year, since our daughter, son-in-law, and little ones are spending the night with us, we plan to make (multigrain) Mickey Mouse pancakes for the grandkids.

On Christmas Day our supper consists of "Roast Beast." I will rub the roast (hormone free, grass fed from a local farm) with horseradish, salt and pepper, and cook it with organic vegetables: carrots, small red potatoes, and pearl onions.  We usually have green beans cooked with slivered almonds, and sometimes fruit gelatin salad made with Knox unflavored gelatin, and sweetened with fruit juice.  This year I plan to prepare some whipped cream topping for the gelatin, using a small amount of pure maple syrup to sweeten the cream (thanks for the suggestion Lynn!).

Merry Christmas!