Christmas Dinner

'And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”' Luke 2:9-14

We watched A Charlie Brown Christmas last weekend where Linus reads this verse off at the end of their little Christmas performance. I had never seen it before and I absolutely fell in love with this cartoon. Every time I read this scripture I hear this boy reading it aloud in his cute little high pitched voice. What a simple beautiful cartoon Charlie Brown was. And how simple and beautiful does Christmas become when we make it about one person: Jesus.
Christmas here was wonderful with family, my boyfriend Ryan and dear old friends the Griffiths. We actually mixed up Christmas traditions this year and attended church on Christmas day, I sang at church with my mom who played the piano, it was such a joy. Missing from church was my dad who was at home with an eye patch. He hurt his eye on Friday, no one has any idea how, but it's red, puffy and swollen and driving him crazy. He's been wearing all these funny homemade eye patches and using all these wierd accents, pretending he's Captain Jack Sparrow and such. It really has added a whole new laugh to our Christmas holiday.
Now, of course like Thanksgiving, we served meat on our dinner table, this time prime rib and ham. We had the traditional mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, stuffing and then we had asparagus, salad and a dish that I prepared! I was so excited to make this, I had seen it done on a Tastepotting post and loved the looks of it.

Recipe
1 small red onion
2 summer squash
3 zucchini
4 cloves of garlic,
8 sage leaves
10 basil leaves
half a lemon, freshly squeezed
drizzle grapeseed oil
1/2 C or so vegetable broth
Slice eggplant, zuchinni, summer squash, and red onion 1/4'' thick. The onion may be difficult to keep together but do what you can cause the dish looks extra pretty with the red onion! Mix the garlic, finely chop the basil and sage, juice the lemon, drizzle the oil, and combine in a large mixing bowl. Mix well, tossing the vegetables in the herbs and flavors. I used my new pink spatula from Christmas!
Carefully, layer the vegetable vertically in the dish. I used a 2-1/2 quart corning ware dish. It's a little difficult to do in the beginning, use the left hand to hold them while you add more and more from the bowl with your right hand. No particular order is necessary, I just did it completely randomly.Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour the vegetable broth over the vegetables and sprinkle freshly ground black pepper. Cover the dish with the glass lid and bake for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are soft when pierced with a knife.
Serve over grains like quinoa or as a side dish. These were well liked tonight. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas,
<3 Dani