A new Christmas Tradition?

This week the kids and I were talking about Christmas Day, and the subject turned to what we should have for our Christmas dinner.  After cooking a traditional meal for Thanksgiving, and enjoying other similar meals with our church and 4-H group in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we are ready for a little something different. But what?

I thought it might be fun to let the kids help choose the dishes. They were all for this idea, and quickly started offering suggestions. Their suggestion all sounded delicious, but let's just say they were a little heavy on the main dishes and desserts. So we decided to write down some food categories on small pieces of paper. We threw the papers into a hat and everyone drew out a category to choose a dish from. We started with the youngest.

Vivian drew "dessert" out of the hat. Her choice; cookies.

Nolan drew "appetizer." After explaining to him what that meant and giving a dozen or so examples, he finally settled on shrimp.

Lydia picked out "side dish." It only took her a second to decide on mashed potatoes. 

Kellen got the other "side dish." His choice; pepper jam with cream cheese and crackers. I felt this really was an appetizer, but could not convince him, so a side dish it will be. 

Tim drew the coveted "main dish" category. We will be having grilled chicken breasts wrapped in bacon. Unless of course a deer is taken, then it will be bacon wrapped fillets. 

That left me with the beverage choice. It will be sparkling fruit juice for the kids and wine for the parents.  I may try to make egg-less eggnog also. 

It may not be the most nutritionally balanced meal, but it will be delicious. We had a lot of fun coming up with our menu. I think this may be a new tradition in the Appleton household.