Christmas Eve

I was pretty bummed that we wouldn't have our tree with us for Quentin's first Christmas so I talked Albert into getting a wreath that was on sale for $2.50 at Wal-Mart.  I decorated it with lights and ornaments from Family Dollar which is walk-able distance from our apartment.  Quentin received some packages from his aunts and uncles and grandparents which made it a lot more fun since we were only able to get him a couple of toys. Albert's coworkers in DC gave him a stocking that I filled with little gifts.

I made a special dinner for Christmas Eve since we were going to be eating at the Pavilion for dinner on Christmas Day and they didn't serve dinner on Christmas Eve.  I decided to have Italian food since that's my specialty.  

I wanted to make lasagna, but couldn't find gluten free lasagna pasta.  Albert said that he would rather have polenta anyway so I improvised and made polenta lasagna layering polenta, a homemade ragu sauce (cooked for over three hours), bechemel sauce, and mozzarella.  It turned out really well.  I had purchased a gluten free Chebe foccacia  mix while we were in Florida and I made a green bean and red pepper mix for the vegetable.  I wanted to make something special for dessert so I made one of Albert's favorites molten lava cake in the cockpot with Jule's Gluten Free Flour and paired it with Blue Bell's peppermint ice cream.  Good thing it all turned out because I would have felt bad spending the whole day cooking and not having a nice meal.

After dinner we had Quentin open one of his gifts.  It was the first time he ever opened a present so it was momentous, at least it was for us.  He was mostly interested in the wrapping paper and we had to sort of prod him a long. He's a cutie!