Honey Baked Christmas

Well, it looks like we'll actually be cooking for Christmas and New Year's after all. We were going to cheat and go out since MeLissa was feeling a little "bah humbuggy" after the whole "can't go home for Christmas" thing. She's snapped herself out of it now and so we're scheduled to have some pretty tasty vittles during the holiday week.

We ordered a trio of treats from the Honey Baked Ham Company to be the stars of our feasts - ham (of course!), turkey breast (which will probably be post holiday fare) and even some prime rib which will grace our plates on New Year's day. As for the second most important part of any holiday feast (dessert!) we'll be having a strawberry pie a la Mark (if you want the recipe, sign up for the recipe group!). MeLissa also is going to try to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (an Allen family favorite) and gumdrop cookies (one of MeLissa's favorite!) without eggs. This will be the first non-brownie eggless cookie attempt - wish us well! It should be a pretty sweet Christmas!

In other non-Christmas related news, Mark is enjoying his time off from school (especially since he isn't yet recovering from surgery - that's this coming Wednesday!). He's been busy studying ahead for his next quarter to make his life easier when it arrives. MeLissa has also been studying. She's making good progress on her wedding planning course. She expects to finish it in the middle of January (or sooner, if possible!) and will then get started on her event planning studies. She's still very excited about her new opportunity and can't wait until she can actually start helping people achieve their "party dreams"!