it's the most wonderful time of the year

christmas eve carbonara and champagne

christmas morning pancakes of 'rudolph reindeer'

batter for the sponge cake

meringue mushroom caps ready for their stems

my buche de noel 

i really love these little mushrooms!

lollipop chicken wing appetizers

the table full of family and friends

a close up on the end of the table, with gigi and elle feeding each other. they were so sweet all day!

large amounts of silliness while we ooh and ahhh over my fancy cake

hosting christmas was wonderful, even if i did end up making two batches of mushrooms (turns out my oven runs 25 degrees warmer than the thermometer shows so the mushrooms turned brown the first time) and two batches of sponge cake and filling (the first filling was really runny and the first cake cracked). i learned a lot and will be a pro for next year. 

the lollipop chicken wings were very good and really easy. the hardest part is frenching the wings to begin with. 

and i did manage to bake the bread, make the kale, and the sauce for the ham, i just didn't get a chance to photograph all of it. we all ate quite well that day!

all of the cooking aside, which there was a lot, this was one of my most favorite christmases! 

details:

the winning buche de noel recipe (no runny filling or cracking cake)

the lollipop chicken wing recipe