We have a fun tradition in my family of having a Progressive Dinner each year before Christmas. We are on the "every other year" rotation for Christmas Eve and Day, but this in one tradition we can have every year. We are blessed that my parents and 3 of my sisters live right here within a 5 mile radius of us. It makes it quick to drive from house to house. The down fall to this tradition is that the 5th sister doesn't live here, we have to have this tradition without her family. We miss Jamie's cute family not being here. Each year we rotate our responsibilities for the night, this year our house was the Main Course. It was a busy day in preparing, but well worth it in the end. Josh's mom came over at about 4:00 to help us get organized. Her and Josh did most of the prep'ing, with directions to how I wanted it done. I already had the tables set and ready to go. We left at 4:50 and the rest was in her hands. We were to return at about 6:45.
We drove over to Todd and Nicole's for appetizers. She had had a long day without Todd around, but she did a great job and had yummy food. Our family gift at the end was a "Family Recipe Book". Yahoo
We left her house and went to Jenn and Dwain's for Salads. So cute, her counter looked like this, 
and most of us chopped our salads up to be regular green salads and easy to eat salads. But apparently they were supposed to look like this. OOPS!!
Our family gift from them was a cooking dish with our "Hough" name etched into the bottom of it. Super cute.
We then headed over to my mom and dads house for a "digestive" break. My mom always comes up with the cutest things. They kids all sat around the tree 
and we had a "discussion" (sorry can't talk about it) and then each family was given a tub with this on the top.
Inside were "12 days of Christmas" presents wrapped and labeled to open each day until Christmas morning. Each day was her own version of the song with a rhyme. Nice job mom!! Super cute idea.
We left a few minutes before everyone to get back to our house. Marty was still there and everything was ready in the oven and perfect for eating. She left fast and a few minutes later everyone was here. Here is how my house was able to seat 20 people for a formal dinner with our wedding china.
We had Chicken Cordon Bleu, Fresh Green Beans and cubed Red Potatoes for dinner. It tasted SOOO good. It was all perfectly cooked and hot, and ready to eat. Thank you Marty for helping us tonight. Our gift to everyone was Water Pumps for their barrels. Jennifer got the wrench. They all loved their gifts.We got everything cleared and a bit organized and then headed over to Bryn and Austin's for dessert. Her table was decorated so cute also and she had a few different yummy desserts to eat. 
Everyone was so full, but we just couldn't help ourselves. We gained some serious poundages tonight. Well maybe I should only speak for myself. But everything was so yummy. Bryn and Jennifer were thinking much alike as we got another pan from Bryn with our name sketched in it as well. Thank you too. It was a late night after a silly reindeer game that my niece and nephew were good sports about,
and then the kids all had a gift exchange. 
We had a wonderful time and can't wait for next year.
2 comments:
It was a lot of fun. It ran way long again even with an earlier start time, and that hurt us with an 8am church time. I'm not sure we could start at 3pm and be done any earlier though. The kids (and adults too) just have too much fun spending time together and we just continue to socialize. By the way, dinner was fantastic!
I love this tradition of yours! I remember reading about it last year and thinking we should do something like it! I think your water pump idea for a gift is awesome! Did you buy them locally or online? I'm in the market...where'd you get them?
Merry Christmas!
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