Merry Christmas Eve!!!

I hope you have something spectacular planned for Christmas! I think Christmas Eve has become by favorite holiday. I know it sounds silly, because really it should be Christmas, and it used to be. I mean the hub-bub, and waking up early cuz Santa came!Santa came! And the jumping on the bed to wake everyone in the house up at 6AM and my parent stumbling to make coffee just to stick toothpicks in their eyes while my sister and I hustle and bustled to tear everything open faster than my parents could stir cream into their coffee.... that part will always hold a special place in my heart.

Me and my sister dancing circa 1983ish

BUT....

Christmas Eve.

Now that is holiday that I am loving.

And here is why.

Bad Picture we took while everyone was eating and mid conversation

Friends and family gather at our house for the Feast of the Seven Fishes. This is my 17th year enjoying this tradition. We've added some new recipes and made it our own, but the Itailian Feast of the Seven Fishes is so much fun to prepare. We always set the menu earlier in the month, and John and I prep and cook and plan this amazing meal to share with our friends and family.

There's no stress, no hustle and bustle. Just a meal, some prayer, some wine (there's always wine), fun conversations over new recipes and old.

And then at midnight we go to church, sing, and then at the end, wish each other a Merry Christmas. And go to bed remembering what The Holidays are all about.



I think it's the tradition of it all, something I can pass down to Gabriel, and something he can carry on to his family.



And I love it!

If you are curious as to what the Seven Fishes is all about here goes:

The long tradition of eating seafood on Christmas Eve dates from the medieval Roman Catholic tradition of abstinence—in this case, refraining from the consumption of meat or milk products—on Fridays and specific holy days. As no meat or butter could be used, observant Catholics would instead eat fish, typically fried in oil.





There are many hypotheses for what the number "7" relates to, one being the number of Sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. Another theory is that seven is a number representing perfection: the traditional Biblical number for divinity is three, and for Earth is four, and the combination of these numbers, seven, represents God on Earth, or Jesus Christ.



Or the Seven Deadly Sins, the seven days of the week... or just cuz someone long ago thought 7 was a good round number.



Either way-



Merry Christmas!