Today's task:

Clear off the dining room table.

Before:


After:

(Those are just my library books).

This is where we will feast on our tourtiere, cream corn and salad after our Christmas Eve service. Our church has two, one at 6 and one at 8. The Protestants know you want to get the kids to sleep earlier so Santa can come--not like the Catholics who have a Mass and everything at the magical hour of midnight and could care less about Santa's schedule.

My husband grew up Catholic in Montreal--English, it must be admitted, but he still absorbed some of the ways and customs of his confreres. One of them is the meal after midnight mass. It is called Reveillon. One of the dishes (and the only dish, really, I'm familiar with at this meal) is Tourtiere--just a fancy French way of saying meat pie. Here's a recipe which is close to what I use, only mine is called "Deep Dish Tourtiere." I add 4 more cups of mushrooms, 3 more cloves of garlic, +1 1/4 cups Chicken Stock, +1 tsp thyme, + 1/2 tsp savoury.

It makes excellent leftovers!