Four Feasts

One of our favorite parts of Christmas each year is spending time with our families and friends. And we normally take a couple of weeks to "hit all the houses"...but not this year. We packed five rounds of festivities into six days. Crazy? Yes.
Fun? Most definitely!!!

It started last Saturday with our annual "Eastaboga Christmas Potluck". That's our Christmas get-together with all of my mom's side of the family from Eastaboga, but this year we had it at my sister's house in Childersburg.

The kids (all seven of them...under the age of six, mind you!) had a fantastic time, and they looked like little streaks running in and out of every room of the house. We stopped them just long enough to grab a quick shot with their great-grandmother, Meme.

The next stop on the Christmas Express was to my sister-in-law's house in Helena. Angie and Joey hosted a dinner for Josh's side of the family on Christmas Eve. Half of the crew drove here from Georgia, and Aunt Sarah and Uncle David buzzed over from Mississippi.

To say that they cooked a feast would be a serious understatement! As a matter of fact, Joey prepared a prime rib roast that almost made me turn from my vegetarian ways! I'm pretty sure I drooled on it a little as I saw it come out of the oven. :-)
Speaking of being a vegetarian, do any of you know about the tradition of the Peppermint Pig? It began over 120 years ago in Saratoga, NY, and we've been doing it for years in Josh's family. I won't tell the whole legend, but it involves putting a candy pig (I learned her name is "Noel") into a velvet pouch and rubbing it for good luck.

That's nice...except it isn't true.

You're supposed to put Noel into a velvet pouch and kiss it while making a wish.

Not true either.

So what is the tradition of the Peppermint Pig?
I'll let you take a guess. Here's a picture of Noel straight out of the box:

Did you miss it? Take another look:

That's right, folks. We put Noel the Pig into a little velvet pouch, and we whack at her with a metal hammer until she breaks into a bazillion pieces. Then to top it off, we eat the broken shards.

Nice, huh?

In reality, it's a fun tradition that's full of laughter. GrandPam (Josh's mom) always reads the story:

Then we pass the pig around and pop it (maybe that sounds nicer than "whack at it") when we hear the words "THE PEPPERMINT PIG". And when the story is finished, we enjoy a little piece of peppermint pig as an after-dinner treat.

The rest of the Christmas fun took place on Christmas Day, so I'll be back with more later. But for now, there are new books to be read, new toys to be played with, and three sweet children to be cuddled!