And so this is Christmas...

Somewhere along the way, one of our old sacred Christmas traditions got waylaid. We always have roast beef for Christmas dinner (or is it beef stew?), but somehow, the decision was made that we would have roast duck this year instead. Naturally, upon hearing this, the image from that now classic movie "A Christmas Story" was conjured of the family going to a Chinese restaurant and being served a whole duck, and when the family gets a tad discombobulated over this, the waiter comes and whacks the head off with a large chopping knife. I didn't think, or at least I hoped, that this would not be the case at our table. I rather hoped that we'd have something that more resembled a turkey or chicken, not something that looked.....well......strange. Fortunately, the finished product, aside from a slice of orange in its......uh......orifice, didn't look at all like I feared it would. It looked rather like a small turkey, so that soothed my nerves somewhat, since this particular Christmas dinner was going to be a bit of a radical departure from the norm. Aside from the roast duck, we also had baked yams, Brussel sprouts cooked in that morning's bacon and maple syrup from breakfast, and I made a salad from baby spinach and raspberries that I bought when we went up to Cleveland's West Side Market earlier in the week. My older sister made a bread pudding for dessert, another unfamiliar dish that sounded a little unsettling at first until I tried it and found it to be right tasty! I admit, I am a super picky eater, even now in my middle aged years, but I am trying to venture away from my comfort zone and branch out to try new foods. I actually tried the Brussel sprouts and found them, aside from a little uncomfortable texture, to be actually edible and quite good. I've had yam before and like it, so that wasn't a big issue. The duck I decided to avoid since it tends toward being a rather fatty meat and my cholesterol is already elevated to where my doctor is going to do his level best to put me on a statin drug (NO THANK YOU!). So all in all, even though we had a Christmas dinner that was a break from the norm, and thus caused me to feel vaguely stressed over the whole idea, it turned out not to be as I feared and I actually found myself quite full by dinner's end. My mom never had to lift a finger. We siblings did all the preparations of the food, which for her was, I am sure, a welcome Christmas present along with the other goodies she got. Maybe this is the start of a new tradition!