Christmas dinner at my house!

I was finally able to feel like my apartment was broken in as a real, live, adult home when I hosted a small Christmas dinner this year.

My sister and I decided on the menu together and did almost all the cooking together (I was on my own for the early morning parts).  

Tall Dark and Nerdy spent the day with us, as did my friend J.  The boys raved about the food and cleaned up the kitchen for us before we all sunk into the couches to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and open presents.  Overall, it was a wonderful way to celebrate my favorite holiday with a few of my favorite people, even though we were missing our Midwest family.

Being the hyper-organized person that I am, I was becoming annoyed with the mass of post-it notes holding pieces of our recipes (since many were given to us over the phone by our mother), so I put together all the recipes we needed for dinner on one sheet of paper.  And then I put them in a sheet protector.  My sister made fun of me endlessly for this, but it was a lifesaver!  I was also able to make notes about what time I needed to start each dish to make sure it was finished at the right time for dinner.

Our meal:
Fresh veggies and lentil chips with kale dip
Pot roast
Dumplings
Green bean casserole
Pecan pie cheesecake
Cinnamon rolls (for the next morning)
Christmas roll-out cookies

We also planned to make grilled cheese in chard leaves, but realized we already had WAY too much food for 4 people, so it would have to wait.