Wasn’t your typical Christmas – Andrea, Rachel and I gave finals on Christmas day, after finals Rachel went into town for a root canal, Penny and I went Christmas shopping for an MP3 and then to the bank that of course was open.
Us 4 Americans decided to have an Almost American Christmas dinner. We say almost because most of the food was ALMOST like a typical Christmas dinner. Andrea made a green bean casserole without the French onions or milk. I made mashed potatoes with packaged mashed potato mix (I know it is cheating, but all that was possible). Rachel bought a whole small chicken that could fit into our tiny toaster oven. The only way you can buy a whole chicken here is with the head still attached. So she steeled herself into cutting the head off but when she got it home and out of the package she found that she also had to cut off the feet and completely gut the chicken. There were no convenient bags of edible innards stuffed inside the cavity. We are so spoiled in the US. Rachel also made a broccoli casserole made with Velvetta (it came in a greatly appreciated “Kris & Jim Christmas care package”) instead of cheddar cheese which has been impossible to get here lately. Extra “Kudos”! go to Rachel for tackling the chicken dissection!
Side Note – It was strange that the package with the Velvetta got thru Chinese customs because Beth’s package that had Cheez- ets listed got stopped (no cheese allowed) and she had to go to the customs place to pick it up – go figure - a big block of processed cheese got thru and cheese dust crackers didn’t. I just hope “my slow boat from China” box of clothes and stuff that I mailed 2 weeks ago will get to me in Georgia – Honest there was no cheese or cheese dust at all…….
After dinner we played 6 rounds of Scattagories. (I didn’t win but I did ok considering my age)
