Buncha munchkins, aren’t they?!
We have a huge farmhouse table in our kitchen, a wonderful bonus that came with our house here in Sicily. I love to fill it up with guests as often as seems feasible; the table is just so empty (and such a good collector of odds and ends!) when there are just three of us eating at it all the time.
For Christmas Eve, we invited our dear friends the Arthurs and a family we don’t know as well to come over for brunch. All of us contributed family traditions to the Christmas meal: Monte Cristo bake from Jaime, sausage and egg casserole from Becca, and these cinnamon rolls from me. With fruit skewers, fresh bacon, juices, hot wassail, and big cups of coffee, we feasted!
All the kids clearly loved being together from that first cup of juice to the last minute of The Muppet Christmas Carol (which they are waiting for in the photo above). Meanwhile we adults spent hours around the table, nibbling on just one more delicious bite and exchanging life stories, travel wisdom, and how to acquire Polish pottery for the best price (Jaime and I are great lovers of this pottery!).
The truth is that if we were living back in the States, all of us would probably have spent Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day at our parents’ homes. This long and leisurely brunch make “home” seem not so far away, which I think is always true whenever you make someone your favorite dish, join hands with them in prayer, and linger long at their table.
Were you away from family this Christmas? What did you do to make it memorable? With one more Christmas ahead of us here in Sicily away from family, I’m eager to hear suggestions!
